Bonny Hicks
Encyclopedia
Bonny Hicks was a Singapore
Eurasian
model
who gained her greatest notoriety for her contributions to Singaporean post-colonial literature
and the anthropic philosophy conveyed in her works. Her first book, Excuse Me, are you a Model?, is recognized as a significant milestone in the literary
and cultural history of Singapore
. She followed it with Discuss Disgust and many shorter pieces in press outlets, including a short-lived opinion column that was pulled amidst public criticism. She died at age twenty-nine on 19 December 1997 when SilkAir Flight 185
crashed into the Musi River
on the Indonesian island of Sumatra
, killing all one-hundred-and-four aboard. After her death numerous publications, including the book Heaven Can Wait: Conversations with Bonny Hicks by Tal Ben-Shahar, featured her life and thought. Although she was widely deemed controversial during her lifetime for her willingness to openly discuss human sexuality
, her legacy is understood as important for particularly Singaporean society during its period of broad-scale societal changes under forces of globalization.
, Malaysia, to a British father, Ron Hicks, and a Cantonese
-speaking Singaporean-Chinese
mother, Betty Soh. Hicks' parents separated soon after her birth and Soh relocated to Singapore in 1969 with her infant daughter. There, Hicks' formative social environment
was multi-ethnic and multi-lingual, and included Malays
, Indians and Chinese of various dialect groups. Though multiracial
, she considered herself Chinese, speaking Cantonese at home and growing up watching Chinese-language television. When she was twelve, her mother accepted a job as a caretaker of a bungalow in Sentosa
, Singapore, and they relocated to the island away from a Singaporean Housing and Development Board flat in Toa Payoh
. Throughout her teens, Hicks lived with her mother on Sentosa Island, and intermittently with her porpor (grandmother), with whom she enjoyed a particularly close relationship. At one point, aged sixteen, Hicks successfully traced her father through the British High Commission, with whom he was stationed on Singapore during Hicks' conception. Now married with children and likely keeping his past muffled from his new family, he returned word to Hicks that he wanted nothing to do with her and the two never once met. Despite her joking whenever publicly questioned about it, her father's rejection remained painful to Hicks throughout life.
, Hicks was "discovered" at age nineteen by Patricia Chan Li-Yin ("Pat Chan"), a nationally decorated female swimmer who retired to later become a magazine editor and talent agent. Hicks and Chan enjoyed an especially close relationship that was certainly multi-leveled, a complicated mix of the professional and personal, the sisterly and motherly, and as some thought, perhaps more. Stemming from ambiguous statements Hicks later made in her first book (e.g., "I was in love with Pat Chan"), Singaporeans widely speculated over whether the two were sexually involved. While Hicks' statements in her book could be interpreted as stemming from only an intimate mentoring relationship with Chan, whom Hicks clearly idealized with high admiration, Hicks continued to be ambiguous on the matter whenever questioned, if only to fuel ongoing buzz, publicity, and a sense of mystery about herself.
, Indonesia. At that time, Hicks clearly stated what she had only hinted at before: that she never wanted to be a model in the first place. Instead, her dream since age thirteen was to be a writer. It was at that age that she began keeping a diary of her feelings and experiences, probably initially as a school assignment, a practice she frequented throughout life.
, whose feelings of rejection from Hicks would later crop up as a shocking factor in the airline crash that took her life. She left her husband for Richard "Randy" Dalrymple, an American architect
, by whose side she died.
Hicks' published her first work, Excuse Me, Are You a Model?, in Singapore in 1990. The book is Hicks' autobiographical exposé of the modeling and fashion world and contains frequent candid discussion from Hicks about her sexuality
, a subject not traditionally broached in Singaporean society. The work stirred significant controversy among Singaporeans who held traditional literary and moral standards, who considered it a "kiss and tell" book and "too much too soon" from a quintessential independent woman barely into her twenties. Singaporean youth, on the other hand, had a starkly different view. In just three days they bought up twelve thousand copies, and after two weeks, twenty thousand copies, prompting the book's publisher to boast Hicks' work as "the biggest book sensation in the annals of Singapore publishing". During the years leading up to Hicks' death, Singaporean English literature scholars had begun to recognize more than just a simple generational divide in the reactions to Hicks' book, and were describing it as "an important work" in the confessional
mode of the genre of post-colonial literature
, and "a significant milestone in Singapore’s literary and cultural history". By then, Singaporean young people had already established a localized literary movement, following Hicks' lead. Local markets proliferated with the autobiographies of youth, many not yet in their twenties.
, arguably more sophisticated but never as popular as her first book, portrays the world as seen through the eyes of a child whose mother is a prostitute. Adding fuel to the controversy surrounding Hicks, a widely read local traditionalist columnist
dubbed it "another one of those commercial publications which pack sleaze and sin into its hundred-oddpages." While public understanding was greater than was let on, scant few at the time heeded the novella for what it actually was: Hicks' semi-autobiographical account of her own troubled childhood years, and a somewhat veiled yet immediately unsuccessful cry for the public to reinterpret her early adult years through that lens.
, "The Bonny Hicks Diary", in which she often discussed her childhood on Sentosa Island, further incited traditionalists over feelings that Hicks was an improper role model for young, impressionable girls. Yielding to public pressure, the Times pulled her column after not even a year, even as the paper's widely popular editor, Lim Richard, voiced regret over what had clearly been a political decision. Pushing back as far as practicable, Lim began to run frequent "special" columns by Hicks. Having taken an especial interest in Hicks' development as a writer ever since her first publication, Lim was uniquely situated to note the progressive deepening in Hick's writings as she matured.
that she had been working on a third book, one that centered on a series of correspondence between her and a female housemate, whom she left unnamed. Hicks wrote of her social observations of the United States during a two-month visit, from which her housemate springboarded into social commentary about Singapore. While the book idea further reveals Hicks' preference to write with a certain person in mind, it never ultimately materialized.
—changes that, by then, were simply too far advanced and powerful to turn back by the traditionally successful means of shaming and ostracizing. For the most part, traditionalists
simply reacted from gut-level fear
against Hicks, or a simplified characterization of her, whom they perceived as a "notorious" moral threat willing to degrade Singaporean society for personal gain. In spite of the problematic nature of these criticisms, their accumulation had long been taking a toll upon Hicks' perseverance, chipping away at even her senses of identity, purpose, and wholeness. While she continued to milk opportunities for self-promotion, it was clear that Hicks had for some time been deep within a season of introspection, and had been laying plans for a significant life and career transition. While she was perhaps conceding something of a victory to her traditionalist critics in the transition, it was certainly much more an outgrowth of her maturing from the years and seemingly unrestrained values of her youth.
of life that featured loving, caring and sharing was not only refreshing but important, perhaps more than even Hicks herself foresaw. A growing voice appeared to emerge clearly in Hicks' writings, and it attracted many Singaporeans and others, including some scholars. Pivotally influential among the scholars was Tal Ben-Shahar, a positive psychologist
and popular professor of psychology at the time at Harvard University
. Hicks reached out to Ben-Shahar after being exposed to his writings, and the two corresponded about philosophical and spiritual matters for approximately one year, on up until Hicks' 1997 death. The correspondence later became basis for a 1998 book by Ben-Shahar, in which he cataloged Hicks' profound growth during the year.
, and she was particularly attracted to the thought of another Harvard professor, Tu Wei-Ming
, a New Confucian philosopher. Hicks attended Tu's seminars and the two corresponded over some months. With Tu's influence added to that of Ben-Shahar's, Hicks began to exhibit an increased New Confucian influence upon her thinking, and soon turned in her occasional columns to criticizing Singaporean society from the theme. In one piece, she expressed dismay about the "lack of understanding of Confucianism as it was intended to be and the political version of the ideology to which we [as Singaporeans] are exposed today". Just prior Hicks' death she had submitted what Lim Richard recognized as her most mature column ever to The Straits Times
. The daily posthumously published "I think and feel, therefore I am", on 28 December 1997. In it Hicks argued
Tu asserts that Hicks' use of the Chinese character Si was "code language," readily understood by her Chinese-speaking English readers, to convey New Confucian thought. The piece, Hicks' last, reflects the maturing and deepening engagement in philosophy and spirituality that she had clearly been enveloped in under tutelage of her mentors during her last year of life.
would take upon her psyche over time. In many ways, her move to Indonesia, which coincided with her plea for greater public understanding as released in her second book, was an attempt to escape the intense controversy she had experienced in Singapore over her first book. Whether it was something of a victory for traditionalists or a mere admission to herself of her limited constitution to withstand their disapprobation, her hope was to find a place away from the heat where she could deepen and further redefine herself before, perhaps, a larger relaunching of herself in Singapore and, hopefully, internationally.
, a fact traditionalist critics had barbed against her and her writings with no small frequency. During the year leading up to her 1997 death, Hicks applied to numerous universities in England and the United States, including Harvard. Certainly, her Harvard mentors exerted influence on her behalf during this process, which no doubt helped overcome any affects remaining from Hicks' unremarkable academic record during her youth. By this time, Hicks could present herself as a fascinating and exceptional if not ideal candidate to any school she wished to attend: a young woman who overcame a difficult upbringing to become a nationally known model-turned-author, and whose mind, spirit, and insights had authentically impressed the high-level academicians who had become her mentors. Hicks soon reported that she had received one university acceptance, refusing to say where, and was awaiting other possible acceptances before ultimately deciding where to attend.
of some prominence because of his unique structures in Singapore and Jakarta, once featured in Architectural Digest
. It was to celebrate Christmas with Dalrymple's family that Hicks and Dalrymple boarded SilkAir Flight 185
in Jakarta en route to the United States, probably their first visit as an engaged couple. Less than thirty minutes into the flight, from 35,000 feet, the plane began a sudden high-speed nosedive at an almost direct incline toward the Musi River
. The plane reached such high velocity that it broke into pieces before scattering across the surface. Local fisherman immediately scoured the crash site for survivors but did so in vain. Both Hicks and Dalrymple perished, along with all others aboard. Not a single body, not even so much as one complete limb, was found intact.
As the crash investigations continued, investigators discovered that Hicks' ex-husband was a Republic of Singapore Air Force
friend of Tsu Way Ming, the Singaporean captain of SilkAir Flight 185. Tsu was said to loathe Hicks for deserting his colleague, and according to the flight recorder
, had walked into the plane's cabin shortly before the crash. There he was thought to have disabled the plane's flight recorder, and while there, it would have been hard for him to miss Hicks and her new fiancé seated together in first-class
. Investigators additionally discovered that Tsu had not only longstanding personal problems and a string of troubling incidents as a pilot, but leading up to the time of the crash, had been experiencing serious family and financial problems, in part due to gambling
debt
s. Indicative of full premeditation
over the deathly act Hicks' ex-husband had planned over at least month, he had taken out a large life insurance
policy on himself that went into effect just hours before the crash.
Tu Wei-Ming
characterized Hicks' life and philosophy as providing a "sharp contrast to Hobbes' cynic[al] view of human existence", and stated that Hicks was "the paradigmatic example of an autonomous, free-choosing individual who decided early on to construct a lifestyle congenial to her idiosyncratic sense of self-expression." More than anything, Tu said, "She was primarily a seeker of meaningful existence, a learner."
Singaporean post-colonial author Grace Chia interpreted Hicks' life with a poem, "Mermaid Princess", that parodies
the traditional Scottish folk song, "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
". An excerpt of the poem characterizes Hicks as one who
Lim Richard, the editor of the The Straits Times, interpreted Hicks in a eulogy by recalling her life and contributions to the paper, and by publishing an excerpt of the famous essay "Whistling Of Birds" by D. H. Lawrence
. Lim began his piece with a line from the famous folk/rock song Fire and Rain
by James Taylor
. "Sweet dreams and flying machines, and pieces on the ground" seemed to perfectly encapsulate much of the retrospective public feeling about Hicks' life and sudden death.
On the first anniversary of Hicks' death, in December 1998, Tal Ben-Shahar published Heaven Can Wait: Conversations with Bonny Hicks, in which he weaved together his and Hicks' year-long correspondence with his own philosophical musings. The book is described as an extended postmodern "conversation" between two seekers intensely journeying together in a quest for meaning and purpose, and takes its title from an article Hicks submitted to The Straits Times just days before her death, which ever after took on a hauntingly prophetic air. In it she wrote, "The brevity of life on earth cannot be overemphasized. I cannot take for granted that time is on my side—because it is not ... Heaven can wait, but I cannot". In an earlier Strait Times piece that memorialized her grandmother, Hicks confessed that she believed in life after death
.
al force in their final report, they ruled the crash a suicide/homicide by deliberate action of the captain.
As a side-effect of Indonesia's findings, the life insurance policy of Tsu Way Ming, Hicks' ex-husband, was paid in full to his survivors—to his second wife and their children. If Indonesia had ruled the crash according to U.S. findings, the suicide clause of the policy would have made it null.
, Hicks is also recognized today as a person who learned to cross cultural boundaries, who found a comfortable niche in the betwixt-and-between of contesting cultural traditions, and who lived as one who was race-blind
to see people for who they really were.
, including Hicks, stands beside the Musi River crash site in Indonesia. Another is at Choa Chu Kang Cemetery
, Singapore.
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
Eurasian
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
who gained her greatest notoriety for her contributions to Singaporean post-colonial literature
Post-colonial literature
Postcolonial literature , is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization. Post-colonial literature often involves writings that deal with issues of de-colonization or the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to colonial rule...
and the anthropic philosophy conveyed in her works. Her first book, Excuse Me, are you a Model?, is recognized as a significant milestone in the literary
Literature of Singapore
The literature of Singapore comprises a collection of literary works by Singaporeans in any of the country's four main languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil....
and cultural history of Singapore
Culture of Singapore
Singapore was a part of British Malaya for many centuries. It was ruled by the Sultanate of Johor. In 1819, the British came to the Island and set up a port and colony. During British rule, the port of Singapore flourished and attracted many migrants...
. She followed it with Discuss Disgust and many shorter pieces in press outlets, including a short-lived opinion column that was pulled amidst public criticism. She died at age twenty-nine on 19 December 1997 when SilkAir Flight 185
SilkAir Flight 185
SilkAir Flight 185, a Boeing 737-36N, registration 9V-TRF, was a scheduled passenger flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Singapore, which crashed on 19 December 1997 into the Musi River after abruptly plunging from its 35,000-foot cruise altitude, killing all 97 passengers and 7 crew on board.The...
crashed into the Musi River
Musi River (Indonesia)
The Musi River is located in southern Sumatra, Indonesia.It is about 750 kilometers long, and drains most of South Sumatra province. After flowing through Palembang, the provincial capital, it joins with the several other rivers, including the Banyuasin River, to form a delta near the city of...
on the Indonesian island of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, killing all one-hundred-and-four aboard. After her death numerous publications, including the book Heaven Can Wait: Conversations with Bonny Hicks by Tal Ben-Shahar, featured her life and thought. Although she was widely deemed controversial during her lifetime for her willingness to openly discuss human sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
, her legacy is understood as important for particularly Singaporean society during its period of broad-scale societal changes under forces of globalization.
Early life
Hicks was born in in 1968 in Kuala LumpurKuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Malaysia, to a British father, Ron Hicks, and a Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
-speaking Singaporean-Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
mother, Betty Soh. Hicks' parents separated soon after her birth and Soh relocated to Singapore in 1969 with her infant daughter. There, Hicks' formative social environment
Social environment
The social environment of an individual, also called social context or milieu, is the culture that s/he was educated or lives in, and the people and institutions with whom the person interacts....
was multi-ethnic and multi-lingual, and included Malays
Malays in Singapore
Malays in Singapore are defined by the Singaporean government using the broader and antiquated "Malay race" concept, rather than modern-day Malay ethnic group. Although Malays have inhabited the area that is now Singapore since the 17th century, most of the Malays in Singapore today are immigrants...
, Indians and Chinese of various dialect groups. Though multiracial
Multiracial
The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from multiple races. Unlike the term biracial, which often is only used to refer to having parents or grandparents of two different races, the term multiracial may encompass biracial people but can also include people with...
, she considered herself Chinese, speaking Cantonese at home and growing up watching Chinese-language television. When she was twelve, her mother accepted a job as a caretaker of a bungalow in Sentosa
Sentosa
Sentosa, which translates to peace and tranquility in Malay , is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year...
, Singapore, and they relocated to the island away from a Singaporean Housing and Development Board flat in Toa Payoh
Toa Payoh
Toa Payoh is a district located in the Central Region of Singapore. It commonly refers to the Housing and Development Board housing estate of Toa Payoh New Town, one of the earliest satellite public housing estates in Singapore....
. Throughout her teens, Hicks lived with her mother on Sentosa Island, and intermittently with her porpor (grandmother), with whom she enjoyed a particularly close relationship. At one point, aged sixteen, Hicks successfully traced her father through the British High Commission, with whom he was stationed on Singapore during Hicks' conception. Now married with children and likely keeping his past muffled from his new family, he returned word to Hicks that he wanted nothing to do with her and the two never once met. Despite her joking whenever publicly questioned about it, her father's rejection remained painful to Hicks throughout life.
Discovery and a mentor
After completing her A levels through the Hwa Chong Junior CollegeHwa Chong Junior College
Hwa Chong Junior College was a junior college in Singapore offering pre-university education. The college was founded in 1974 and merged with The Chinese High School on 1 January 2005 to form Hwa Chong Institution.-Founding:...
, Hicks was "discovered" at age nineteen by Patricia Chan Li-Yin ("Pat Chan"), a nationally decorated female swimmer who retired to later become a magazine editor and talent agent. Hicks and Chan enjoyed an especially close relationship that was certainly multi-leveled, a complicated mix of the professional and personal, the sisterly and motherly, and as some thought, perhaps more. Stemming from ambiguous statements Hicks later made in her first book (e.g., "I was in love with Pat Chan"), Singaporeans widely speculated over whether the two were sexually involved. While Hicks' statements in her book could be interpreted as stemming from only an intimate mentoring relationship with Chan, whom Hicks clearly idealized with high admiration, Hicks continued to be ambiguous on the matter whenever questioned, if only to fuel ongoing buzz, publicity, and a sense of mystery about herself.
Modeling
Hicks' modeling career began with the September 1987 cover of a popular Singaporean fashion monthly, GO. She followed it with scores of other covers, upwards of thousands of print advertisements, and routine catwalk appearances in designer clothes. Just a year into her modeling career, Hicks began writing about her life experiences and ideas surrounding her modeling, and by age twenty-one, had completed her first book, Excuse Me, are you a Model? She continued to model for five years until aged twenty-four when, coinciding with the 1992 release of her second book, Discuss Disgust, she abruptly left modeling to take a job as a department lead and copywriter in JakartaJakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Indonesia. At that time, Hicks clearly stated what she had only hinted at before: that she never wanted to be a model in the first place. Instead, her dream since age thirteen was to be a writer. It was at that age that she began keeping a diary of her feelings and experiences, probably initially as a school assignment, a practice she frequented throughout life.
Brief marriage
Before her move to Indonesia, Hicks was briefly married to a former member of the Republic of Singapore Air ForceRepublic of Singapore Air Force
The Republic of Singapore Air Force is the air arm of the Singapore Armed Forces. It was first established in 1968 as the Singapore Air Defence Command...
, whose feelings of rejection from Hicks would later crop up as a shocking factor in the airline crash that took her life. She left her husband for Richard "Randy" Dalrymple, an American architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, by whose side she died.
Excuse Me, Are You a Model?
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
, a subject not traditionally broached in Singaporean society. The work stirred significant controversy among Singaporeans who held traditional literary and moral standards, who considered it a "kiss and tell" book and "too much too soon" from a quintessential independent woman barely into her twenties. Singaporean youth, on the other hand, had a starkly different view. In just three days they bought up twelve thousand copies, and after two weeks, twenty thousand copies, prompting the book's publisher to boast Hicks' work as "the biggest book sensation in the annals of Singapore publishing". During the years leading up to Hicks' death, Singaporean English literature scholars had begun to recognize more than just a simple generational divide in the reactions to Hicks' book, and were describing it as "an important work" in the confessional
Confessional writing
In literature, confessional writing is a first-person style that is often presented as an ongoing diary or letters, distinguished by revelations of a person's heart and darker motivations....
mode of the genre of post-colonial literature
Post-colonial literature
Postcolonial literature , is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization. Post-colonial literature often involves writings that deal with issues of de-colonization or the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to colonial rule...
, and "a significant milestone in Singapore’s literary and cultural history". By then, Singaporean young people had already established a localized literary movement, following Hicks' lead. Local markets proliferated with the autobiographies of youth, many not yet in their twenties.
Discuss Disgust
In 1992, two years after Hicks' controversial entry into Singapore's literary scene, she published her second and last book, Discuss Disgust, wherein she continued to broach issues not traditionally spoken of openly in Singapore. The novellaNovella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
, arguably more sophisticated but never as popular as her first book, portrays the world as seen through the eyes of a child whose mother is a prostitute. Adding fuel to the controversy surrounding Hicks, a widely read local traditionalist columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
dubbed it "another one of those commercial publications which pack sleaze and sin into its hundred-oddpages." While public understanding was greater than was let on, scant few at the time heeded the novella for what it actually was: Hicks' semi-autobiographical account of her own troubled childhood years, and a somewhat veiled yet immediately unsuccessful cry for the public to reinterpret her early adult years through that lens.
The Bonny Hicks Diary
Hicks was also a frequent contributor to Singaporean and regional press outlets. Her frankly-written bi-monthly column in The Straits TimesThe Straits Times
The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings . It is the country's highest-selling paper, with a current daily circulation of nearly 400,000...
, "The Bonny Hicks Diary", in which she often discussed her childhood on Sentosa Island, further incited traditionalists over feelings that Hicks was an improper role model for young, impressionable girls. Yielding to public pressure, the Times pulled her column after not even a year, even as the paper's widely popular editor, Lim Richard, voiced regret over what had clearly been a political decision. Pushing back as far as practicable, Lim began to run frequent "special" columns by Hicks. Having taken an especial interest in Hicks' development as a writer ever since her first publication, Lim was uniquely situated to note the progressive deepening in Hick's writings as she matured.
Third Book?
At the time of Discuss Disgusts release, Hicks reported to the New Straits TimesNew Straits Times
The New Straits Times is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print , having been founded as The Straits Times in 1845, and was reestablished as the "New Straits Times" in 1965. The paper served as Malaysia's only broadsheet format English...
that she had been working on a third book, one that centered on a series of correspondence between her and a female housemate, whom she left unnamed. Hicks wrote of her social observations of the United States during a two-month visit, from which her housemate springboarded into social commentary about Singapore. While the book idea further reveals Hicks' preference to write with a certain person in mind, it never ultimately materialized.
Life transition
Introspection
During Hicks' heyday, few had begun to adequately situate her life and works within the larger societal changes going on within Singapore at the time under rapid forces of globalizationGlobalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
—changes that, by then, were simply too far advanced and powerful to turn back by the traditionally successful means of shaming and ostracizing. For the most part, traditionalists
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
simply reacted from gut-level fear
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...
against Hicks, or a simplified characterization of her, whom they perceived as a "notorious" moral threat willing to degrade Singaporean society for personal gain. In spite of the problematic nature of these criticisms, their accumulation had long been taking a toll upon Hicks' perseverance, chipping away at even her senses of identity, purpose, and wholeness. While she continued to milk opportunities for self-promotion, it was clear that Hicks had for some time been deep within a season of introspection, and had been laying plans for a significant life and career transition. While she was perhaps conceding something of a victory to her traditionalist critics in the transition, it was certainly much more an outgrowth of her maturing from the years and seemingly unrestrained values of her youth.
New mentors
Yet all along, Hicks had her supporters—those who appreciated her on a level deeper than the mere fandom she had so often sought to instigate toward herself, and who saw in Hicks a young lady not trying to offend but to initiate conversations about life and change within a culture that was often far too resistant. To them, Hicks' anthropical philosophyPhilosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
of life that featured loving, caring and sharing was not only refreshing but important, perhaps more than even Hicks herself foresaw. A growing voice appeared to emerge clearly in Hicks' writings, and it attracted many Singaporeans and others, including some scholars. Pivotally influential among the scholars was Tal Ben-Shahar, a positive psychologist
Positive psychology
Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in...
and popular professor of psychology at the time at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Hicks reached out to Ben-Shahar after being exposed to his writings, and the two corresponded about philosophical and spiritual matters for approximately one year, on up until Hicks' 1997 death. The correspondence later became basis for a 1998 book by Ben-Shahar, in which he cataloged Hicks' profound growth during the year.
Philosophy and growth
Hicks had also became a student of Confucian humanismConfucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, and she was particularly attracted to the thought of another Harvard professor, Tu Wei-Ming
Tu Wei-ming
Tu Weiming , b.1940, is an ethicist and a New Confucian. He is Lifetime Professor of Philosophy and founding Dean of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University...
, a New Confucian philosopher. Hicks attended Tu's seminars and the two corresponded over some months. With Tu's influence added to that of Ben-Shahar's, Hicks began to exhibit an increased New Confucian influence upon her thinking, and soon turned in her occasional columns to criticizing Singaporean society from the theme. In one piece, she expressed dismay about the "lack of understanding of Confucianism as it was intended to be and the political version of the ideology to which we [as Singaporeans] are exposed today". Just prior Hicks' death she had submitted what Lim Richard recognized as her most mature column ever to The Straits Times
The Straits Times
The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings . It is the country's highest-selling paper, with a current daily circulation of nearly 400,000...
. The daily posthumously published "I think and feel, therefore I am", on 28 December 1997. In it Hicks argued
Tu asserts that Hicks' use of the Chinese character Si was "code language," readily understood by her Chinese-speaking English readers, to convey New Confucian thought. The piece, Hicks' last, reflects the maturing and deepening engagement in philosophy and spirituality that she had clearly been enveloped in under tutelage of her mentors during her last year of life.
Move to Indonesia
When Hicks initially set out, she had wanted to write a book to which people would react. Whether those reactions were positive or negative was not her young mind's first concern. Only public indifference, the antithesis of public reaction, would impede her achievement of fame and popularity, she believed, a message Pat Chan had certainly stressed to her from the start. And to be sure, scant few found themselves able to respond to Hicks with a mere shrug. Yet Hicks' limited life experience could not have led her to anticipate the intensity of the negative reactions, could not have allowed her to surmise the toll that the negative words and societal shunningShunning
Shunning can be the act of social rejection, or mental rejection. Social rejection is when a person or group deliberately avoids association with, and habitually keeps away from an individual or group. This can be a formal decision by a group, or a less formal group action which will spread to all...
would take upon her psyche over time. In many ways, her move to Indonesia, which coincided with her plea for greater public understanding as released in her second book, was an attempt to escape the intense controversy she had experienced in Singapore over her first book. Whether it was something of a victory for traditionalists or a mere admission to herself of her limited constitution to withstand their disapprobation, her hope was to find a place away from the heat where she could deepen and further redefine herself before, perhaps, a larger relaunching of herself in Singapore and, hopefully, internationally.
Heading to university
Part of Hicks plan was to attend university. She frequently expressed regret that she had not studied past her A-levelsGCE Advanced Level
The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, commonly referred to as an A-level, is a qualification offered by education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Cameroon, and the Cayman Islands...
, a fact traditionalist critics had barbed against her and her writings with no small frequency. During the year leading up to her 1997 death, Hicks applied to numerous universities in England and the United States, including Harvard. Certainly, her Harvard mentors exerted influence on her behalf during this process, which no doubt helped overcome any affects remaining from Hicks' unremarkable academic record during her youth. By this time, Hicks could present herself as a fascinating and exceptional if not ideal candidate to any school she wished to attend: a young woman who overcame a difficult upbringing to become a nationally known model-turned-author, and whose mind, spirit, and insights had authentically impressed the high-level academicians who had become her mentors. Hicks soon reported that she had received one university acceptance, refusing to say where, and was awaiting other possible acceptances before ultimately deciding where to attend.
Marriage plans and plane crash
Hicks had also thought to mature her image by marrying, settling down, and hopefully having children. Shortly before her death, Hicks became engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Richard "Randy" Dalrymple, an American architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of some prominence because of his unique structures in Singapore and Jakarta, once featured in Architectural Digest
Architectural Digest
Architectural Digest is an American monthly magazine. Its principal subject is interior design, not — as the name of the magazine might suggest — architecture more generally. The magazine is published by Condé Nast Publications and was founded in 1920, by the Knapp family, who sold it in 1993...
. It was to celebrate Christmas with Dalrymple's family that Hicks and Dalrymple boarded SilkAir Flight 185
SilkAir Flight 185
SilkAir Flight 185, a Boeing 737-36N, registration 9V-TRF, was a scheduled passenger flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Singapore, which crashed on 19 December 1997 into the Musi River after abruptly plunging from its 35,000-foot cruise altitude, killing all 97 passengers and 7 crew on board.The...
in Jakarta en route to the United States, probably their first visit as an engaged couple. Less than thirty minutes into the flight, from 35,000 feet, the plane began a sudden high-speed nosedive at an almost direct incline toward the Musi River
Musi River (Indonesia)
The Musi River is located in southern Sumatra, Indonesia.It is about 750 kilometers long, and drains most of South Sumatra province. After flowing through Palembang, the provincial capital, it joins with the several other rivers, including the Banyuasin River, to form a delta near the city of...
. The plane reached such high velocity that it broke into pieces before scattering across the surface. Local fisherman immediately scoured the crash site for survivors but did so in vain. Both Hicks and Dalrymple perished, along with all others aboard. Not a single body, not even so much as one complete limb, was found intact.
Aftermath of death
Hicks' death at age twenty-nine shocked Singaporeans and others, and prompted a swirl of activity as people sought to interpret the meaning of a life that had been suddenly cut short. Meanwhile, investigators probed the crash of SilkAir Flight 185.Crash investigations
No part of Hicks' body was ever found, only her wallet and credit cards. The crash had occurred with such tremendous force that only six of the one-hundred-and-four victims could be identified from partial remains.As the crash investigations continued, investigators discovered that Hicks' ex-husband was a Republic of Singapore Air Force
Republic of Singapore Air Force
The Republic of Singapore Air Force is the air arm of the Singapore Armed Forces. It was first established in 1968 as the Singapore Air Defence Command...
friend of Tsu Way Ming, the Singaporean captain of SilkAir Flight 185. Tsu was said to loathe Hicks for deserting his colleague, and according to the flight recorder
Flight recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of an aircraft accident or incident. For this reason, flight recorders are required to be capable of surviving the conditions likely to be encountered in a severe aircraft...
, had walked into the plane's cabin shortly before the crash. There he was thought to have disabled the plane's flight recorder, and while there, it would have been hard for him to miss Hicks and her new fiancé seated together in first-class
First class (aviation)
First class is a luxury travel class on some airliners that exceeds business class, premium economy, and economy class. On a passenger jetliner, first class refers to a limited number of seats or cabins located in the front of the aircraft which are notable for their comfort, service, and privacy...
. Investigators additionally discovered that Tsu had not only longstanding personal problems and a string of troubling incidents as a pilot, but leading up to the time of the crash, had been experiencing serious family and financial problems, in part due to gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
s. Indicative of full premeditation
Premeditated murder
Premeditated murder is the crime of wrongfully causing the death of another human being after rationally considering the timing or method of doing so, in order to either increase the likelihood of success, or to evade detection or apprehension.State laws in the United States vary as to definitions...
over the deathly act Hicks' ex-husband had planned over at least month, he had taken out a large life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
policy on himself that went into effect just hours before the crash.
Interpreting a life cut short
As answers and unanswered questions continued to trickle out from the flight investigations, literary scholars both in Singapore and elsewhere had already begun examining Hicks' works anew, some for the first time.Tu Wei-Ming
Tu Wei-ming
Tu Weiming , b.1940, is an ethicist and a New Confucian. He is Lifetime Professor of Philosophy and founding Dean of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University...
characterized Hicks' life and philosophy as providing a "sharp contrast to Hobbes' cynic[al] view of human existence", and stated that Hicks was "the paradigmatic example of an autonomous, free-choosing individual who decided early on to construct a lifestyle congenial to her idiosyncratic sense of self-expression." More than anything, Tu said, "She was primarily a seeker of meaningful existence, a learner."
Singaporean post-colonial author Grace Chia interpreted Hicks' life with a poem, "Mermaid Princess", that parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
the traditional Scottish folk song, "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
"My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" is a traditional Scottish folk songwhich remains popular in Western culture.-History:The origin of the song is unknown, though it is often suggested that the subject of the song may be...
". An excerpt of the poem characterizes Hicks as one who
Lim Richard, the editor of the The Straits Times, interpreted Hicks in a eulogy by recalling her life and contributions to the paper, and by publishing an excerpt of the famous essay "Whistling Of Birds" by D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
. Lim began his piece with a line from the famous folk/rock song Fire and Rain
Fire and Rain
"Fire and Rain" is a folk/rock song written and performed by James Taylor. As a song on his second album, Sweet Baby James, the song engendered widespread attention for him. The album was released in February 1970, with the song being released as a single that month. "Fire and Rain" quickly rose to...
by James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
. "Sweet dreams and flying machines, and pieces on the ground" seemed to perfectly encapsulate much of the retrospective public feeling about Hicks' life and sudden death.
On the first anniversary of Hicks' death, in December 1998, Tal Ben-Shahar published Heaven Can Wait: Conversations with Bonny Hicks, in which he weaved together his and Hicks' year-long correspondence with his own philosophical musings. The book is described as an extended postmodern "conversation" between two seekers intensely journeying together in a quest for meaning and purpose, and takes its title from an article Hicks submitted to The Straits Times just days before her death, which ever after took on a hauntingly prophetic air. In it she wrote, "The brevity of life on earth cannot be overemphasized. I cannot take for granted that time is on my side—because it is not ... Heaven can wait, but I cannot". In an earlier Strait Times piece that memorialized her grandmother, Hicks confessed that she believed in life after death
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
.
Crash conclusions
By this time, the crash investigations were complete. Indonesian authorities concluded that the crash had occurred for unknown reasons, resulting in near-global criticisms that they had politicized their report so as to not strike fear into potential passengers of its fledgling national airline industry. U.S. authorities, whose research had largely become the basis of the criticisms against Indonesia's findings, took a confidently different view. Employing rare brushes of rhetoricRhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
al force in their final report, they ruled the crash a suicide/homicide by deliberate action of the captain.
As a side-effect of Indonesia's findings, the life insurance policy of Tsu Way Ming, Hicks' ex-husband, was paid in full to his survivors—to his second wife and their children. If Indonesia had ruled the crash according to U.S. findings, the suicide clause of the policy would have made it null.
Post-modern author
Hicks' status as a writer came to eclipse her status as a model. Today she is most recognized for her contributions to Singaporean post-colonial literature that spoke out on subjects not normally broached, and the anthropic philosophy contained in her writings. Describing the consensus of Singaporean literary scholars in 1995, two years before Hicks' death, Ismail S. Talib in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature stated of Excuse me, are you a Model?, "We have come to realize in retrospect that Hicks’s autobiographical account of her life as a model was a significant milestone in Singapore’s literary and cultural history". This recognition preceded Hicks' death, and especially in light of the controversy and even societal shunning she early faced for her writings, surely took her and many of those around her by some surprise and helped fuel the life transition she underwent prior her death.Non-racialism
Especially among Singaporean youth, who have become increasingly uncomfortable with their country's traditional backdrops of racialismRacialism
Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations. Currently, racialism entails a belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, but not necessarily that any absolute hierarchy between the races has been demonstrated by a rigorous and comprehensive scientific process...
, Hicks is also recognized today as a person who learned to cross cultural boundaries, who found a comfortable niche in the betwixt-and-between of contesting cultural traditions, and who lived as one who was race-blind
Race-blind
Color blindness is a sociological term referring to the disregard of racial characteristics when selecting which individuals will participate in some activity or receive some service....
to see people for who they really were.
Memorials
A memorial in honor of the victims of SilkAir Flight 185SilkAir Flight 185
SilkAir Flight 185, a Boeing 737-36N, registration 9V-TRF, was a scheduled passenger flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Singapore, which crashed on 19 December 1997 into the Musi River after abruptly plunging from its 35,000-foot cruise altitude, killing all 97 passengers and 7 crew on board.The...
, including Hicks, stands beside the Musi River crash site in Indonesia. Another is at Choa Chu Kang Cemetery
Choa Chu Kang Cemetery
Chua Chu Kang Cemetery Complex is the biggest cemetery in Singapore. Located in the west of the island in close proximity to the Tengah Air Base and at the confluence of the Old Choa Chu Kang Road, Lim Chu Kang Road and Jalan Bahar...
, Singapore.
External links
- Bonny Hicks Education & Training Centre. The centre was opened in Hicks' honor in 2000 by the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations. Photos available.