Tuesday, March 23, 2021

REVIEW: THREE LIVES, THREE WORLDS, TEN MILES OF PEACH BLOSSOMS (A.K.A. ETERNAL LOVE)




TMPB is a romantic fantasy costume drama based on Chinese mythology, a genre more aptly described by the term ‘xianxia’ (仙侠).

It tells the love story between Ye Hua and Bai Qian, a man and woman relationship which spanned across three lifetimes.  Of course, Ye Hua and Bai Qian are not humans, but non-human beings who have incredibly long life spans so to be practically immortal.  Such celestial beings also have abilities beyond that of humans and the laws of physics which humans are subject to, do not apply to them.  But despite their super human abilities, those celestial beings love, hate, mourn, yearn - and otherwise feel all the same emotions as (we) mortals do.     

At the time I started watching TMPB, Singapore was amid a stern lockdown and I was bored like hell.  Fortunately, my husband came to my rescue.  Albeit non-Chinese speaking, he had through friends’ recommendation, gotten hooked onto TMPB earlier on and in a spate of late nights he devoured the serial to the end in a frightening binge.  Unlike me, hubby used to watch ‘xianxia’ and ‘wuxia’ (武俠) TV serials when he was growing up and he loved those stories. wuxia (武俠) refers to a the genre of stories which feature ancient martial heroes who have extraordinary fighting skills.

Now hearing my pitiful cry for help and seeing how I was not coping well with having to be homebound, he recommended I watch TMPB. He even gallantly offered to sit with me to watch it all over again, adding that the serial was that good he didn’t mind.  Habouring grave doubts about how good any C-drama could be, but then battling cabin fever, I took up his kind offer to sit with me to watch TMPB.

Though TMPB was my second foray into the world of C-drama, it was my maiden voyage in the world of ‘xianxia’. I came to TMPB utterly devoid of any knowledge about the rules and premises of a "xianxia" universe.  So, I was hopelessly lost in the woods for the first 20 or so episodes, or perhaps I should say lost in space - as in the space between the Heavenly Realm and Mortal Realm, to and from which the characters would do much travelling, the purposes for which I was not getting. 

Several times, I would jump up and declared to hubby that I was giving up as I didn’t understand where the plot was going, what the characters wanted or were trying to do.  But every time I thought of bailing out, hubby would encourage me to keep going.  So I would sit down again (in preference to crawling up the wall – and also because hubby is warm and cuddly).

And then, in Episode 29 of 58 - the Story Exploded.  In a flash, all the plotlines and premises from the earlier episodes assembled together in my mind's eye.  So that is what the Story is About!  The epiphany was an amazing moment for me.  I finally saw the epic canvas on which the love story was being drawn.  I finally understood what the main characters wanted for themselves and I was so wanting them to succeed.  From that point forward, I was absolutely riveted.  That set me to furiously chase down all the remaining episodes of the serial to its beautiful finale. 

I loved the story so much.  Of course, after I had finished the serial, I went back to re-watch the earlier episodes, now with new eyes and newfound understanding.   

C-drama tells fantasy and romantic stories very differently from how such stories are told by English cinema.  It would be a mistake to apply the lenses used to watch English language fantasy drama to watch C-drama fantasy.  Because I threw away my usual lenses and put on different set of lenses, I was able to enjoy an incredibly beautiful, out-of-this-world love story.  It took me quite a while to find my bearings, but the payoff has been handsome.

All said, I must thank hubby for handholding me into the realm of ‘xianxia’. Thus initiated, hubby and I have, since TMPB, sat together and watched many other ‘xianxia’ and ‘wuxia’ C-dramas to date.  The dreary long hours of lockdown have become a time of fascination and excitement, as hubby and I roam and explore different worlds from the huddle of our stationery home.  Who knew that the romantic vibes from a ‘xianxia’ love story set in an immortal realm would be able to transcend into the realm of my living room.

TMPB 三生三世十里桃花 is also known as ‘ETERNAL LOVE’ and is currently available on Netflix with English subtitles. Well-known actors, Yang Mi 杨幂 and Mark Chao 趙又廷 are the main leads. 

Mark Chao is also the main lead in the 2020 movie, ‘The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity’ 阴阳师: 晴雅集, also currently available on Netflix with English subtitles.

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About the Author:

Born and bred in Singapore, Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss left school achieving the distinction of being practicably unable to read, write or speak Mandarin despite 10 years of studying the language. Her mono-lingual world ended when she stumbled into the land of Chinese drama during lockdown. To date, she has binge watched quite a number of C-drama serials already, all thanks to English subtitles, without which she would not have come this far.

If you are a C-drama fan from the English-speaking, do hit "Like" at this Page https://www.facebook.com/EngSubsPls to connect and chat with me.

 

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

How many clemencies from hanging has Singapore granted?


 

When all legal avenues have been exhausted, the last resort for a criminal sentenced to death, is to apply for Presidential clemency. 

When Singapore gained independence in 1965, the avenue of clemency was embedded into the Singapore Constitution[1].  

Although clemency is usually discussed in the context of capital cases, it is in fact available to any offender for any offence.  The Singapore Constitution provides that any offender convicted of any offence in Singapore can apply to the President for a pardon, reprieve or respite, of the execution of any sentence pronounced on such offender. The President may “on the advice of the Cabinet” grant clemency in deserving cases. “On the advice of the Cabinet” means that the President has no personal discretion.  The power of clemency is exercised only if the Cabinet advises it. 

The grant of Presidential clemency from the death sentence is the focus of this article. 

For criminals sentenced to death, the Singapore Constitution additionally provides that the President must, once the Court of Appeal has confirmed the death sentence, call for reports on the conviction to be submitted to the Cabinet to consider the possibility of commuting the death sentence.[2]   So, whether the condemned prisoner asks for clemency or not, the Cabinet will consider clemency for such prisoner.

Since Singapore's independence, only six clemencies against death sentences have been granted.[3]  In each of those six cases, the condemned prisoners had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

I have tabulated the details relating to the six Presidential clemencies from death sentences which have been granted in Singapore, and the table is shown below. 

What do we see when the number of clemencies granted is compared with the number of state executions? 

Of the six clemencies granted, three were granted prior to 1991 and three after 1991.  

On the number of criminals hanged since 1965 to 1991, there are no official data.  According to Amnesty International, a total of 21 judicial executions took place in Singapore from 1981 to 1990 [4], which data a scholar has said “may well under-estimate the true number of executions during this period since the statistics are usually compiled from media reports." [5]

As for the number of criminals hanged since 1991 to 2019, I have tallied 491 judicial executions took place based on official sources.[6]  As against that toll, two clemencies against death sentences were granted in 1992 by President Wee Kim Wee and one in 1998 by President Ong Teng Cheong.

No clemency from a death sentence was granted by President S R Nathan during his 12-year term nor by President Tony Tan, and nor by President Halimah Yacob at the time of writing this article.  In any case, the President has no personal discretion when it comes to granting clemencies.  His role is ceremonial.

Incidentally, in 2018, President Halimah Yacob granted clemency to a convicted murderer who was sentenced to "detention at the President’s pleasure".[7]  Detained at the President’s pleasure means to be imprisoned indefinitely until the offender is deemed to be suitable for release.  The man was 15 years old when he committed and was convicted of murder in 2001.  Because of his age when he committed the murder, his identity was sealed.  Being below 18 at the time of conviction, he was spared the death penalty and was instead sentenced to be detained at the President’s pleasure in accordance with Singapore’s criminal laws then. 

As for clemencies from the death sentence, since 1998 to now, there have been none.

One scholar has opined: “Based on data from 1991 to 2016, excepting jurisdictions where ‘clemency procedures are either absent or exist only on paper’ (such as China and Japan), Singapore may well possess one of the world’s lowest clemency rates among retentionist nations, at less than 1 per cent of finalized cases.” [8]

Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss is a practising lawyer in Singapore of more than 30 years’ standing.

24 February 2021



[1] Article 22P of the Singapore Constitution

[2] Article 22P(2) of the Singapore Constitution

[4] Johnson, D. T. (2013), ‘The jolly hangman, the jailed journalist, and the decline of Singapore’s death penalty’, Asian Journal of Criminology, 8:54.

[5] Chan Wing Cheong (2016), 'The Death Penalty in Singapore: In Decline but Still Too Soon for Optimism', Asian Journal of Criminology, 11: 181, Footnote 10

[6] How many has Singapore hanged from the gallows?’, Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss (22 Feb 2021) at https://jeannettechongaruldoss.medium.com/

[7] ‘Teen who killed Anthony Ler's wife gets clemency after 17 years in jail,’ The Straits Times, 13 December 2018

[8] ‘Last Chance for Life: Clemency in Southeast Asian Death Penalty Cases’, Daniel Pascoe 2019, at p. 96.