I reproduce here a letter in today's Forum:
Lifestyle article cast aspersions on IJ Girls
I am the chairperson of the Infant Jesus Board of Management of 11 CHIJ Schools in Singapore and an old girl of one of these CHIJ Schools.
I refer to the article published on pages L4 - L6 of Lifestyle of The Sunday Times ('Alternative Singapore: The Encyclopedia'; Sept 17) where the authors indicated their desire to present 'overseas visitors' with an 'Insiders' Guide to help them get the most out of their stay'. They have therefore 'come up with (their) own counter-culture compendium of nuggets' which will 'initiate you to the local hybrid lingo'. I note that the article was written 'tongue-in-cheek'.
I am concerned and dismayed that the authors have elected to include in their 'compendium of nuggets' their definition of 'IJ Girls', together with other commonly used words within the local Singapore community.
My concern lies in two areas:
>Was there a need to tarnish the image of thousands of students, past, present and future, including girls as young as six-plus years old in Primary One, with an image that they are 'allegedly easy when it comes to the opposite sex'?
>Was there any need to associate your improper definition with an inappropriate caricature and a picture of IJ students in uniform, taken out of context?
There are currently about 16,000 pupils in our CHIJ Schools aged six to 16 years of age. The first CHIJ School was founded 152 years ago, which means that thousands of young women would have been educated in an IJ School. The wholly inappropriate description has swept through a large swathe of innocent pupils and ex-pupils.
The recent coverage of Mrs Elizabeth Choy was very tasteful. Your readers may wish to know that Mrs Choy was an 'IJ Girl', having schooled at a CHIJ school from 1929-1933.
Other IJ Girls include Singapore's Ambassador to the United States, Prof Chan Heng Chee; Members of Parliament Mrs Cynthia Phua, Ms Ellen Lee, Dr Fatimah Lateef, Ms Sylvia Lim, Ms Jessica Tan; Executive Director (Unifem) Ms Noeleen Heyzer, IJ Sister Cecilia Chew, IJ Sister Daniel Ee, IJ Sister Christina Joy and IJ Sister Maria Lau, just to name a few. I wonder if these women would appreciate being described as 'allegedly easy on the opposite sex'?
The authorship and publication of such an article cannot, by any measure, be accepted as a 'tongue-in-cheek' article. It was an ill-conceived idea and done in bad taste. It has caused much distress, pain and embarrassment to women, of all ages, that hail from our CHIJ Schools. We do not condone your publication and take strong objection to the aspersions cast upon IJ Girls.
Donne Marie Aeria
Chairperson, Infant Jesus Board of Management, CHIJ Schools
I did read that bit in the Lifestyle article and I did feel it was uncalled for. Yes, the article pointed out that all the entries were tongue-in-cheek and this particular one about IJ girls was a 'generalisation' (ya, so why perpetuate generalisations?). However, tongue-in-cheek need not be at the expense of other people.
I do concede that there may be some girls, now and in the past, who have in some way contributed to this kind of 'reputation'. However, I also know that we have a reputation for many other (certainly more positive) qualities and I do wish that people would harp on these other areas more instead.
Simple in virtue, steadfast in duty.
Go, IJ!
Lifestyle article cast aspersions on IJ Girls
I am the chairperson of the Infant Jesus Board of Management of 11 CHIJ Schools in Singapore and an old girl of one of these CHIJ Schools.
I refer to the article published on pages L4 - L6 of Lifestyle of The Sunday Times ('Alternative Singapore: The Encyclopedia'; Sept 17) where the authors indicated their desire to present 'overseas visitors' with an 'Insiders' Guide to help them get the most out of their stay'. They have therefore 'come up with (their) own counter-culture compendium of nuggets' which will 'initiate you to the local hybrid lingo'. I note that the article was written 'tongue-in-cheek'.
I am concerned and dismayed that the authors have elected to include in their 'compendium of nuggets' their definition of 'IJ Girls', together with other commonly used words within the local Singapore community.
My concern lies in two areas:
>Was there a need to tarnish the image of thousands of students, past, present and future, including girls as young as six-plus years old in Primary One, with an image that they are 'allegedly easy when it comes to the opposite sex'?
>Was there any need to associate your improper definition with an inappropriate caricature and a picture of IJ students in uniform, taken out of context?
There are currently about 16,000 pupils in our CHIJ Schools aged six to 16 years of age. The first CHIJ School was founded 152 years ago, which means that thousands of young women would have been educated in an IJ School. The wholly inappropriate description has swept through a large swathe of innocent pupils and ex-pupils.
The recent coverage of Mrs Elizabeth Choy was very tasteful. Your readers may wish to know that Mrs Choy was an 'IJ Girl', having schooled at a CHIJ school from 1929-1933.
Other IJ Girls include Singapore's Ambassador to the United States, Prof Chan Heng Chee; Members of Parliament Mrs Cynthia Phua, Ms Ellen Lee, Dr Fatimah Lateef, Ms Sylvia Lim, Ms Jessica Tan; Executive Director (Unifem) Ms Noeleen Heyzer, IJ Sister Cecilia Chew, IJ Sister Daniel Ee, IJ Sister Christina Joy and IJ Sister Maria Lau, just to name a few. I wonder if these women would appreciate being described as 'allegedly easy on the opposite sex'?
The authorship and publication of such an article cannot, by any measure, be accepted as a 'tongue-in-cheek' article. It was an ill-conceived idea and done in bad taste. It has caused much distress, pain and embarrassment to women, of all ages, that hail from our CHIJ Schools. We do not condone your publication and take strong objection to the aspersions cast upon IJ Girls.
Donne Marie Aeria
Chairperson, Infant Jesus Board of Management, CHIJ Schools
I did read that bit in the Lifestyle article and I did feel it was uncalled for. Yes, the article pointed out that all the entries were tongue-in-cheek and this particular one about IJ girls was a 'generalisation' (ya, so why perpetuate generalisations?). However, tongue-in-cheek need not be at the expense of other people.
I do concede that there may be some girls, now and in the past, who have in some way contributed to this kind of 'reputation'. However, I also know that we have a reputation for many other (certainly more positive) qualities and I do wish that people would harp on these other areas more instead.
Simple in virtue, steadfast in duty.
Go, IJ!
Comments
I am simply appalled - I wore the blue uniform with pride for 10 years and during those days, people never associate such traits(easy with guys, smoking in uniform)with IJ girls. On the contrary we were incalcated with strong moral values. the primary school i attended was known as Holy Innocents Chinese girls school ( in ponggol, now defunct) and I remembered vividly the principal giving weekly 'zhouxun' (moral lesson) and implementing strict rules such as forbidding girls to wear uniform shorter than knee length, keeping hair and nails neat and clean etc. the image of girls from IJ convents was really positive and untainted. my principal even warned us thatwhen you wear the blue uniform outside, always be mindful of your conduct as you represent the school. we really respected that. i hope girls now and in future will continue to preserve those intrinsive values.
x-Tongfang cum X-convent girl
I was thinking of you as one of the ex-IJ girls from a different convent...
Yeah, in my school too we were always reminded to wear our uniform with pride and to carry ourselves well. Hemming up your pinafore (mentioned in Sunday Times) would have gotten you into trouble.
It's always comforting to know that there are so many people from IJ, rooting for IJ.