This beggar was a novelty. Chinese woman in her late-50s presenting the plastic cup across the table. A few silver coins sat in the bottom. Bending herself to table level, her broad, clean face loomed close. A large gap showed between ground front teeth, though there seemed to be none missing. Wordless before the ang moh, but not a mute, as her thanks demonstrated afterward. There would have been no English in her command, her social class was evident. The smile she offered conveyed more than any language. Lord how she radiated. The fondest, most doting aunt of the old style could not have out-done this woman. A treasure. A smile like hers was learned in a large, fortunate family and passed down. There was none of mere pleading in this smile. Half a century there had not been anything of the kind in that oldest of continents back home; only on the streets of Fitzroy on the faces of the oldest inhabitants. Or among our own people in our suburban quarter back then.
Opportune on this morning of the re-election of the Kuomintang government in Taiwan, aided in no small part it seems by the leader Ma's wife, described as the "aunt next door" type for her humility, warmth and grace. In these communities on the Equator everyone instantly knows the example, there was no mystery or oddity.
Opposite Geylang Serai on Changi Road mid-morning in the run-up to CNY.
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