Following The Wrong God Home by Catherine Lim

On the surface, Following the Wrong God Home is the love story of a beautiful, bright
young Singaporean woman named Yin Ling Fong and a radical American professor named Ben
Gallagher. Emotional tension is provided by Yin Ling’s engagement to Vincent Chee, the
ambitious scion of a wealthy Singaporean family who has his sights set on political position and
power. Lonely and unhappy, Yin Ling is caught between her feelings for Ben, her desire to
escape the social and financial position of her family, her sense of responsibility to care for her
family’s elderly retired servant Ah Heng Cheh, and her need of freedom to explore and expand
who she is. She is described as lonely, depressed and unhappy. Yin Ling’s marriage to Vincent
Chee is a classic movie scenario: a wealthy, socially prominent and politically connected young
man meets a bright, beautiful young woman he sees as the ideal trophy wife. He sets out to win
her, doing so by treating her with respect, lavishing gifts on her, and promising to provide care
for her family’s aged servant Ah Heng Cheh, for whom Yin Ling feels responsible. He
introduces her to his mother (who does not approve) and shows her off to his friends, and
explains to her what she will do and how he expects her to behave as his wife. Always his
language is that of power and control. He makes one thing very clear: she is never to do anything
that might humiliate him. If any marriage was set up to fail, it is this one, even without her
melancholy, her desire for freedom and the fly in the ointment professor Ben Gallagher turns out
to be. But first there is a son to bear. Vincent tells her early on that their firstborn will be a son;
fortunately for the child and its mother, it is. Her second pregnancy ends in a miscarriage;
Vincent assures her not to worry, as they will try again. His compassion is skin deep, and it is
obvious: he is far more concerned about image than he is about her emotional needs. They must
get on with playing their roles so that he can get where he wants to be in Singapore’s power
structure, and bearing children is part of that.

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 Identity theory would be employed to investigate the identity dilemma of Yin Ling, the
heroine, in an attempt to present the Singaporeans’ identity anxiety under the background of
globalization and to further the understanding of Singapore society today. This novel attempts to
present Yin Ling’s search for sense of belonging through revolving around Yin Ling’s love and
marriage between two men: her Singaporean fiancé Vincent and the American professor Ben.
Being born in a family of hybrid culture, Yin Ling has moments of tension with her mother, a
devout Christian while maintaining intimacy with the old servant, an advocate of traditional
culture. On one hand, Yin Ling has been absorbed in the old servant’s reminiscences of old
stories about China, Chinese gods, and superstitious activities. On the other hand, she has been
accepting English higher education. Her growth adventure based upon inter-cultural background
is an epitome of Singapore. Yin Ling’s emotional experience together with the homeless god’s
way home becomes the track to the whole story. Yin Ling’s identity issue involves three aspects:
cultural identity, ethnic group identity and gender role identity. Her identity anxiety is actually
conveyed through three binary oppositions in her marriage life: the East and the West, the self
and the other, female and male. These mutually opposing but closely independent factors are the
exact representation of her identity dilemma. The three pairs of oppositions don’t exist in
isolation, they are mutually interrelated.

Yin Ling traded much for her Western lover. She fitted into the picture of a typical Asian
lady forced into submission by an unhappy marriage; she traded her life for Gallagher, an
American professor, the moment he stepped into her life. Gallagher was often portrayed as
playing the role of a savior, chastising the locals for having been ‘too weak to follow the truth of
their hearts’. The desire of the West to control the East could be seen from Gallagher’s constant
challenge against local authority, his forceful implantation of the western mode of political
consciousness into local societal context. Yin Ling’s love for Gallagher reflected her subtle
admiration for Western notions of individual rights and justice which stood out starkly against
her subtle condemnation of Asian collectivism and self-denial.

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 It is doubtless that Yin Ling came across as a typically subservient (Asian) wife of
enigmatic beauty, always ready to deny herself. She was, however, unhappy with the current
state of things. The cause of her discontentment was a self-serving, domineering husband who
saw material providence an end to marital love. Then came the all-knowing Westerner with the
courage to defy, the charisma to charm and the readiness to liberate Yin Ling from the throes of
oppression. Only a defiant hero from the West possesses the power to liberate, and only his love
can liberate the hapless, passive heroine from the mantles of an unhappy union. When Yin Ling
finally eloped with Gallagher and left her family upset and humiliated, an unconscious display of
power relations in its crudest form has been depicted: a silent concession to Western superiority,
and the reaffirmation of an oriental’s inability to defend for his/her rights and his predilection for
despondency.

Paradoxically, Yin Ling was not exactly a woman without strength. When prone to
sudden outbursts of rage and indignation, she can challenge men in public for their
discriminatory remarks against women. Yet she remained weak and suppliant in front of her
husband, Vincent, before she walked out from him. More often than not, Yin Ling was seen to
have wavered between supplication and independence; she experienced the fervent need to
uphold time-honored values, but wanted to reassert her rights at the same time. Much as she
loved and admired Gallagher, she did not submit to him immediately and easily. She was in
constant struggle to protect the name of the family and her desire for individuality.

Asian Mysticism also colors Lim’s works as she seeks to reclaim her culture and give
voices to the subalterns. In addition, Yin Ling’s long time servant, Ah Heng Cheh, and her fatal
obsession to place her god-like figurine back to a downtrodden temple in rural China came as a
fierce yet helpless longing for cultural reclamation. Ghosts, Chinese legends in the novels
became as elusive as it could get. These narrations further enhance the sense of ambivalence and
futility of one’s attempt to retrieve what have been long lost and gone. Irascible, stubborn,
cunning and occasionally gullible, Ah Heng Cheh once spent her life savings on a worthless
piece of property somewhere on Singapore Island. Long a bone of contention within the family,

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it becomes the centre of a national emergency when it is discovered to be right in the middle of
where an international petrochemical corporation wants to build a refinery. Ah Heng Cheh
suddenly has riches beyond her wildest dreams. The center of everyone’s attentions, she
remembers the injustices and indignities visited upon her by Yin Ling’s brother Kwan and
Vincent Chee’s mother. Able to turn the tables on people who have been her tormentors, she
does, rewarding them with stacks of fake banknotes. Worse, her battered little god decides that
her property will be his final resting place, and Ah Heng Cheh will not budge from the little
shrine she has erected there. Everyone is stymied.

The idea of hybridization can be further explored from a feminist perspective. It is well
regarded that man plays a preceding role over that of a woman in major cultures and
civilizations. . Nevertheless, Western feminist movements play important roles in liberating
women from their dependent and subservient positions. This has created positive impacts on how
Singaporean women see themselves. In addition, the government’s need for human resources
coerces the young nation to open up its labor force to both men and women. Economic need and
Western cultural influences transform the performing roles of women in Singapore, and afforded
them the opportunity to fight for equality within the society.

To me one of the most interesting stories within the novel is that of the young suicidal
student, Justin, whom Yin Ling tutors. He is picked on, alienated, angry and gay. It is Yin Ling’s
intelligence, calm and compassion that eventually break through, creating a bond. Sadly, his life
ends in suicide when his drug-addicted lover leaves him and returns to England. Overall, I am
left ambivalent about the novel. There is plenty of emotional tension here. After all, The love
affair between Yin Ling and Ben Gallagher is too dreamlike, too unreal.