The Jade Pendant
Catherine Lim
The Jade Pendant had gathered around it
a number of myths, some of which were quite absurd, such as the one that it was
worth half-a-million dollars, but the reality was astonishing enough to raise gasps
of admiration and envy. The jewel, as big as the palm of a child’s hand,
consisted of a thick circular piece of intricately carved jade of the most
brilliant and lucid green, surrounded by the innumerable diamonds arranged in
floral designs. It was worn on a chain round the neck, but the sheer weight of
the jewel, not to mention the extreme folly of risking loss or theft, had
caused it to be little disturbed in its place in the bank vaults. Mrs. Khoo had
worn it only twice-once at a banquet given by the sultan-the jewel had been
specially flown, under strict security, to the royal town where it made quite a
stir, even at a function that glittered with fabulous jewels-and again, at the
wedding of her nephew. Since then, it had lain safely in the bank vaults, for
the myriad weddings and other functions that Mrs. Khoo had subsequently
attended were considered too insignificant to justify the presence of this
jewel, the like of which nobody had ever seen. But its absence on the broad
perfumed bosom of Mrs. Khoo was as likely to provoke comments as its
presence:’Ah, you’re not wearing the Jade Pendant! That’s a disappointment to
me, for I had hoped to see it. I’ve heard so much about it.’
To
make up for the loss of pleasure that would have been afforded by the sight of
the Jade Pendant, Mrs. Khoo would talk about its history-how it had come down
to her from her mother who had got it from her own mother, and if its origin
was traced far enough, it could be ascertained that the first possessor was a
concubine of a Vietnamese emperor of the seventeenth century. Its continuing
connections with royalty must be something predestined, for, confided Mrs.
Khoo, her mother had once told her that the wife of a sultan who had seen it
had actually wanted to buy it, no matter how great the cost; she had actually
sent emissaries to begin the task of negotiation and purchase. It was an
extremely difficult thing to do, but the persistent royal lady was at last
turned down.
The
engrossing question had been: to whom would Mrs. Khoo leave the jewel when she
died-her daughter-in-law or her daughter? Mrs. Khoo had actually long settled
the matter in favour of her daughter. There was nothing she would not do for
Lian Kim, her favourite child. Moreover, she would not wait for her death to
hand over the jewel-when Lian Kim got married, the gift would be made. The
bride would wear the Jade Pendant at the wedding dinner, for every one of the
guests to see.
When
Lian Kim was home for the holidays with her fiance, she had insisted insisted
her mother on taking the jewel out of the bank for him to see. He was an Art
student whom she had met in London, and the wonder on his face and the long
whistle od admiration and incredulity as he looked at the Jade Pendant that
Lian Kim had laughingly placed on his artist’s begrimed sweater, was a small
but definite step towards the mollification of his future mother-in-law whose
chagrin, when her daughter wrote to her of being engaged to a foreigner, was
great indeed. How vexing, she had thought to herself and later said to her
husband, although she would not have dared to say the same to her daughter. How
vexing to have a daughter married to a foreigner, and a poor one at that. But
there was nothing to be done, once the young people of today made up their
minds. Her vexation was increased that day by a very humiliating incident. She
had just shown the jade Pendant to Lian Kim and Ron and was getting ready to
put it back in its case of red velvet, when she heard Ah Soh sweeping outside
the room. Upon impulse, she called Ah Soh into the room to view the jewel,
thinking afterwards, in the generosity of her heart, that even a humbled
widowed relative who made cakes and puddings for sale in the streets, could be
given the pleasure of looking at the jewel. Ah Soh was all gratitude. She left
the broom outside, tiptoed in with a great show of respect and awe, and raised
her hands in shrill wonderment even before the box was opened to reveal its
treasure. She exclaimed, she praised, she was breathless with the effort of
pleasing a rich relative who allowed her and her daughter to live in a room at
the back of the great house, to eat the food left on the great table, to
benefit by the sale of old clothes, beer-bottles and newspapers.
Unfortunately,
Ah Soh’s daughter, a simple-minded girl of Lian Kims’s age, had ambled in then,
looking for her mother, and on seeing the jewel had crowed with childish
delight, and actually snatched it up and pranced round the room, shrilly
parading it on her chest. The terror of her mother who had quickly glanced up
to see the look of violent disgust and displeasure on the face of Mrs. Khoo,
was itself terrifying to behold. She shrieked at the girl, snatched the jewel
back, laid it reverently back in its case and began scolding her erring
daughter as vehemently as she could. The insulted pride of the lady whose
countenance had taken on a look of extreme hauteur, was to be mollified by no
less than a severe thrashing anger against her rich relative lending great
strength to her thin scrawny arms. The girl, who looked no more than a child
though she was over twenty, whimpered, and would have been thrashed sick had
not Mrs. Khoo intervened by saying stiffly, ‘That will do, Ah Soh. Do you want
to kill the child?’
‘Better
for her to be killed than to insult you in this way!’ sobbed Ah Soh.
Mrs.
Khoo who found the incident too disgusting to be mentioned to her husband or
daughter, soon forgot it. She spent the three weeks of her daughter’s vacation
at home in pleasing the young couple as much as she could. She got the servants
to cook all kinds of delicacies, and Ah Soh, anxious to pacify her further,
helped as much as she could, endlessly. Whenever she could spare the time from
her mah-jong, Mrs. Khoo entertained them, not sparing any expense. Mr. Khoo who
doted on his youngest daughter was even willing to take time off from his
gambling and his race-horses to take the couple round and introuduce them
proudly to his wide circle of friends. Lian Kimand Ron were to be married by
the end of the year. ’A sad occasion for the mother, ha!ha! do you know why?’
Mr. Khoo would laugh heartily, his round florid face wreathed in smiles.
‘Because the Jade Pendant will be made over from mother to daughter. Ah, these
women and their jewel! But I tell you, that locket’s worth at least-‘ he would
then whisper conspiratorially into the ears of his friend, revelling in the
look of amazement on the face of the listener.
It
would never have occurred to any of their friends to ask Mr. and Mrs. Khoo
whether they were thinking of selling the Jade Pendant-it would have been an
insult too great to be borne. Yet the possibility had occurred to Mrs. Khoo,
and the realisation, after some time, that it would have to be sold brought a
spasm of terror to the lady as she paced about in her room, thinking what a sad
state of affair the family was in financially. The money and property that had
come down to them from their parents and grandparents-almost all dissipated!
Mr. Khoo and his gambling and his horses and entertaining, the expensive
education of her two sons and her daughter abroad-they were forever writing
home for more money.
The
immediate worry was the expense of Lian Kim’s wedding. It could not, must not,
be on a scale less than the wedding of her elder brother two years ago, or the
wedding of the nephew, for that would be a severe loss of family face. Mrs.
Khoo made a quick calculation of the cost of the wedding dress and trousseau,
specially ordered from the French house of fashion, the furnishings for the new
flat in London to be rented by the couple after their marriage, the wedding
dinner for at least five hundred people in the Imperial Hotel-where was she to
get the money from? She uttered little cries of agitation and wrung her hands
in vexation, as she walked about in her room. She had on one occasion
represented her difficulties to her husband, but he had only laughed, pinched
her cheek and said, ‘Now, now, you are always worrying. We are okay, okay, and
youi can go and get whatever you like, old girl.’ She had not dared to speak of
her difficulties to Lian Kim-she could not bear to spoil the happiness of her
beloved child.
Once
she was tempted to approach Ah Soh to borrow some money-she had heard whispers
of the immense sum of money that Ah Soh had slowly accumulated over forty
years, money she had saved from her sale of cakes and puddings, and from
extreme frugality: Ah Soh made her own cigarettes by rolling the tobacco
salvaged from thrown away cigarette ends, in little square pieces of paper, and
her simple –minded daughter wore only the cast-off clothes of Lian Kim and
other relatives. But she had quickly rejected the idea. What, degrade herself
by seeking help from a relative who was no better than a servant? Mrs. Khoo’s
inherent dislike of Ah Soh was increased by her suspicion that behind all that
effusive humility and deference was a shrewdness and alertness that saw
everything that was going on, and she even fancied that the little
frightened-looking eyes in the thin pallid face sometimes laughed at her. After
Lian Kim’s wedding, I shall no longer tolerate her in the house, thought Mrs.
Khoo resentfully. She and that imbecile daughter she dotes on so much can pack
up and leave.
The thought of the wedding, which should have given so much
pleasure to her fond mother’s distressed heart her, for again and again she
wondered where the money was to come from. Their two houses were already
mortgaged; the shares would fetch but little. No matter how hard she tried to
avoid it, the conclusion she inevitably reached was: the Jade Pendant had to
go. The impact of so awesome a decision caused Mrs. Khoo to have a violent
headache. The only consolation she could find in so dismal a situation was the
thought that nobody need know that the Jade Pendant had been sold, as she could
always give some explanation or other for it not being worn at the wedding,
whereas if the wedding celebration were to be scaled down, how dreadful a loss
of face that would be!
She
then went into urgent and secret family consultation in which her husband
finally assented to the sale, stressing that they should get as good a price
for such a jewel as they possibly could. It was not so easy to win her daughter
round-Lian Kim fritted excessively about the loss of something she had been
promised, and it was only after a great deal of sulking that she would consent
to the sale. The prospect of a modest wedding celebration as even more
appalling than that of having to do without the Jade Pendant, and of the
numerous excuses thought up to a account for its absence, she at last settled
on this one: that the large old-fashioned jewel would not go nicely with her
Dior gown.
The secrecy with which the sale of the
Jade Pendant was to be affected became a matter of first importance. Following
the very discreet inquiries about potential buyers, an offer came and with
conditions that could not but please Mrs. Khoo-the interested party was a very
wealthy lady who made her home in another country, she wanted absolute secrecy
in the entire proceeding, she would send the round a third person to collect
the item. Her offer moreover was generous. Insist on cash, said Mr. Khoo. You
never know about theses so-called rich foreigners. Cash it was, and the Jade
Pendant left its place in the bank vaults forever.
With
the matter settled, Mrs. Khoo was happy again, and bustled about with the
wedding preparations. ‘My daughter has decided not to wear the Jade Pendant,’
she told her friends. ‘Oh these young people nowadays, they do not appreciate
the beautiful things left them by their ancestors, and they are so intolerant
of our old ways!’ Mrs. Khoo, caught up happily in the whirl of invitations and
other preparations, did not, however, forget to tell Ah Soh, but in a kindly
voice,’ There will be so many guests all dressed grandly and with their jewels,
that it is better for you to dress well too. I hope you have bought new clothes
for the occasion?’ Ah Soh humbly and gratefully assured her that she had.
The
wedding dinner and celebration was on a scale as to merit talk for at least the
next three days. At least Minister and
three Members of Parliament, together with numerous business tycoons were
present. Mrs. Khoo moved briskly among the guests, and even in the flutters of
maternal anxiety and happiness, had the time to hope that Ah Soh’s
simple-minded daughter would not do anything to mar the splendour of the
occasion. She has wanted, tactfully, to tell Ah Soh not to bring her along, but
had decided to be generous and charitable for such and occasion as this-the
wedding of her youngest and favourite child.
Her
gaze swept briefly over the heads in that large resplendent, chandeliered room,
and rested on a spot in the far corner, where she could easily pick out Ah Soh,
decently dressed for once, sitting with her daughter and some relatives. Mrs.
Khoo wondered why the gaze, not only of those at that imbecile child-people
were positively staring at her, and not only staring, but whispering loudly,
urgently, among themselves. The whispering and the staring spread outwards in
widening ripples of mounting excitement and tension. Mrs. Khoo made her way
towards this focus of tremulous attention, and she too stared –not at the idiot
child-like face but at the jewel that rested awkwardly on the flat, child-like
chest. The Jade Pendant! The idiot girl crowed with pleasure, and her mother,
who sat very near her holding her hand affectionately, was nodding to the faces
crowding in upon them, the frightened look gone forever from her eyes.
Oh,
where is Mr. Khoo? Please do something! Shrieked Mrs. Khoo, moving about
distractedly, wringing her hands. Oh, what shall I do? How shall I bear it?
Lian Kim, she musn’t know, it will kill her to know! And I will kill her for
having done this to me! How could she do such a thing to me!
Glossary:
- Sultan – A ruler of a Muslim country. In Singapore’s
context in the early 1800s, Singapore was a fishing village with a small
population of Malays.
- Ah Soh – Middle-aged ladies usually from the middle
class which most people address as ‘aunties’.
Write up
This story satires
a negative trait that some Singaporeans have, namely, social snobbery. From the story, we learn about Singapore's
social snobbery and attraction to foreign influence.
In today's modern
society, many Singaporeans take great care to groom themselves. You may ask,
what's wrong with creating a good image of yourself? Well, there is nothing wrong
in doing so. Dressing up well helps give a good impression of your character
and also a sense of identity. However, personal appearances should not be
linked to social status and be used to flaunt one's personal wealth or
possessions.
Unfortunately,
just like Mrs. Khoo and her associates, many Singaporeans enjoy extravagance
and look down on others who cannot afford to live as comfortably as they do.
Take for example Mrs. Khoo from the story. She refuses to publicly acknowledge
her relative, Ah Soh because she is very poor and earns a living by selling
cakes.
However,
there is also an increasing number of Singaporeans who value good morals and
character rather than wealth and fame. Besides those Singaporeans who enjoy extravagance
and vanity, there are also those who may be wealthy and privileged, but they are
humble people who choose to lead simple lives.