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Postcards From Chinatown

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Postcards From Chinatown
In “Postcards from Chinatown” by Terence Heng, Chinatown is being presented as a place that has been renovated to become a tourist attraction. The author’s tone in this poem is sacarstic as he seems criticizing towards the modernization that has taken place in Chinatown. In the first stanza, it is mentioned “Rack of clothes along racks of clocks, as/ if ticking away the fashion eras”. From this sentence, we can imply that as time goes by, the racks of items change and the fashion that trends in the past is no longer popular in the present. The author also mentioned “Fortune telling weight machine, I’ve never stepped on one before.” From this sentence, we can see the author’s sarcastic tone imply the fortune telling weight machine was probably rarely seen now in the present. Thus from here, we can see that there are many modern items taking the place of older items from the past. The things from the past are slowly disappearing from our sights. There is also a contrast being shown as the poem mentions of “bicycle under no bicycle sign” and “rusty trishaw” and also “old dental surgery somewhere next to an older barber” and “HDB”. The bicycles are a common form of transport we use in the present, while rusty trishaws are forms of transport that were used by people in the past. The “old dental surgery” and “old barber” is also being compared to the “HDB”. From this, we can see the distinct difference between the old and the new, and also of traces of the past that lurk in the shadows of the present even as modernization is taking place. Also, the first stanza mentions of “three joss sticks burnt out sometime ago”. From here, we can imply that as the joss sticks are burning out, time is ticking away and the life and spirit of the place is slowly disappearing as well. Next, in the second stanza, there was a repetition of the word “background” being used. The author mentions of things mentioned in the first stanza being in the
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