Men’s Oppression in Suwen’s Family
authority, made up from immigrants of Malays, Chinese, and Indians. In Pagoda lane, everything that was built in that place was man‟s made
Pagoda lane belonged to the Chinese male. Life in Pagoda lane, pre war Singapore was harsh brutal and short. And the colonial police made up
mainly of Indians and Malays, were fearful for their own lives and limbs. Lim, 2003: 36
Also, after s eeing the values of the Chinese family‟s fortune which was
attached in the surname, the writer took the theory of Global and Postcolonial feminist‟ point of view in the field of sexual reproduction to understand the notion
of surname in the household, man was the only one who could bear the surname.As emphasized by Bell Hooks, this kind of system required Ong Ah
Buck to be the agent of the oppression. Patriarchy requires maledominance by any means necessary, henceit
supports, promotes, and condones sexistviolence.Hooks, 2004: 2 The survival of a son in the family was paramount importance, the
surname that contained the honour and the fortune of the family‟s future must be passed down to the next generation of male.
Based on the Chinese tradition, men should carry the honor of family. They have the family name that will decide the fortune of the family life.
The continuity of the surname must be passed down to son and not daughter Lim, 2003: 44-46
Within Suwen‟s family, Mistresses were forced to give a birth of son rather than daughter and if they failed, their husband would take another wife who
could give him a birth of a son therefore those mistresses had had no private authority toward the concern of their own body. Assuming the patriachy system,
Bell Hooks emphasized that Ong‟s mistresses always became the victim and
considered women to be weak within the political system of patriarchy within the household.
The pat riarchal practice that happened in Suwen‟s family was commonly
found in the on-going business of Ong family. Suwen‟s step great grandfather,
TowkayOng had created the business to ensure the stablelity of life in his own family, following the old tradition of Chinese where men must continue the reign
of its predecessor in the family, TowkayOng adopted Ong Ah Buck since none of his mistresses bore him a single son to continue the family line. The business ran
well under the reign of Ong Ah Buck until British colonialization was forced to leave the Singapore by Japanese imperial army in the World War II, the Japanese
had impressed with outgrowing business of Ong Family. They urged the Suwen‟s
family company to support the material for the war cause and for the return the Japanese imperial army would provide the Ong family with full resources of
livestock, rice and pork. The relationship between Ongcompany and Japanese imperial army was emphasized by Global and Postcolonial feminists, there was a
relationship between the colonizer and the colonized country in the term of social economy and politic. The Japanese colonized and took the nature and human
resources in Singapore to expand their own economy by invading and occupying weaker nation.
The authority of the family passed down to Suwen‟s step father OngTay
Luck, however the business was going to drain because of Ong‟s lack of leadership. He lost the concentration of focus in the business and chose to leave
the matters to the sons he fathered all across the Southeast Asia.
Ong May Lan, sister of OngTay Luck tought that the contribution of Ongproperity company to the Japanese imperial army had driven the jealously of
the public and to be considered as the act of betrayal to the peasant of Singapore and agent of the capitalist. Therefore the relationship was only viewed to be the
economic matters rather than ideologies. But to his sisters, ong may lan, the act of eating “Japanese-contaminated
rice” was tantamount to an act of betrayal. She would be betraying the lives of thousands of Chinese and non Chinese who had fought and died to
defend their motherland and this island. Lim, 2003: 234
The patriarchal practice inFistful of Coloursthat happened in the Ong business was men institution for rulling the matters of family among the diversity
of ethnic in Singapore. The business was defined as the symbol of Ong‟s authority where the mistresses held less concern to it, using the Freudian interpretation on
the sexual motivation that was rejected by another psychologists, the writer identified Ong Patriarch as the male who became the emblem of social power in
the household. The notion of penis envy need not to be taken as simply concerning the
male physical organ itself whatever might have been Freud‟s interpretation, but as concerning that organ as an emblem of social power
and the advantages which go with it. Barry, 2002: 131
As emphasized by Freud and Lacan, the Ong patriarch showed the condition of sexuality had took a great role in the development of social
government, the term of sexuality that was developed proved it to be natural construct and resulted the Ong‟s mistresses behaviour in the resistance toward the
others, natural construct in the term of sexuality was also emphasized by the confucian beliefs that attached within the chinese family culture heritage.
The argument in favour of Lacan and of Freud, is, again, that it shows sexual identity to be a „cultural construct‟, gives a detailed series of
„insider‟ accounts of how the construction takes place, and shows examples of this conditioning being resisted. Barry, 2002: 132
The writer used Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar‟s psychological criticism to identify the effect of patriarchy itself, it caused the lack of power in the side of
the oppressed or mistresses or daughters to the contribution of social development in the society, their roles were pressed down in the shade of Ong patriarch, this
kind of condition in the patriarchal practices of Ong family was called social castration.
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar use the idea of „social castration‟, which
amounts to the same thing, for this term signifies women‟s lack of social power, this lack being represented, by means of the word „castration‟, as
male possession, though not a in any sense a male attribute. Barry, 2002: 131
Due to the patriarchal practices that occured in the background, Suwen lost self
– identity within her own family and the society. Therefore, this kind of situation led Suwen to live with the uncertainty of her identity within Ong
household. Owing to these patriachal practices, chinese women suffered loss of
identity within their family as well as within the comunity. They were referred to as the mother of ther son, or the wife of a man. They live the
life of an outsider or virtual slave and this essentially is due to cultural and religious beliefs. Warren, 1993:2