Ah Bengs - Singapore Style
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Next time you are in Singapore, if you are suitably young and want to disappear into the local youth scene, you can dress as an Ah Beng (or Ah Lian, if you're a girl). An Ah Beng is a colourful character type, usually a teenager. If you're not sure what to wear or say, in order to blend in, do not despair. We've got the low-down for you.
The Attire
The shoes - The current fashion trend is for heavy-looking leather-topped shoes with huge sponge soles. An alternative to these would be coloured sneakers, preferably coloured maroon, or select streamline neons. Match these with high woollen scrunchy-looking socks if you want to achieve the Ah Lian look.
The jeans - Must be over-over-sized jeans, with the crotch-lining somewhere in the region of your knees. The waist should fit your own skinny one, snugly, and should not be bunched up around the belt.
The tops - These should be skin-tight and black. OK, so this isn't a very innovative or wild option, but fashion goes through phases. One fashion surprise, though, is the wearing of raincoat material tops, especially in 32°C Singapore, but the discomfort this causes is a small price to pay for peer approval.
The hair - If you're not blonde, it's not a problem. It's quite all right to dye it! On a scale of one to ten for wild-hair grading, 10 being your average British spiky, coloured mop, the Ah Beng would probably score about six.
The handphone - The oh-so-vital accessory of today. Even more so than the Vitalis-soaked1 comb. The smaller it is, the flashier it is, and if the phone has diode blinking lights, then all the better.
The Language
The language of choice for the Ah Beng is the Chinese dialect Hokkien. Even its native speakers acknowledge that its not as elegant a tongue as, say, Cantonese, which is a smooth dialect suitable for times when the conversation turns to love. However, Hokkien is suitable for that bonding, intimate, talk so necessary in the young.
By dressing and talking as described above, one would blend right in with this local fringe youth group. Just don't try and go into any up-market joints.
