Parents Camp Outside NAFA Overnight Just To Book Classes For Their Children

Asian parents being Asian parents, you know how they are.

To them, after you grow up, you are either a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or a failure.

After all, we’re A-sians, not B-sians.

But what will drive up their blood pressure even more than getting an F?

Telling them you want to pursue the arts as a career.

As unfortunate as it is, it’s the truth. I’m sure many of you can relate to it. They’d tell you to keep it as a hobby and get a “proper job”.

While I get their concerns, I can also go into a 10,000-word essay countering the Asian parent stance on this.

But as we move forward, being the year 2019 now, not all Asian parents like this anymore.

In fact, some are very supportive of the arts schools now.

Parents Camp Overnight To Book Classes at NAFA

We’ve heard of people camping overnight to buy concert tickets, event passes, McDonald’s Hello Kitty products… but to book classes?

Well, leave it to Singaporeans to push the limits of kiasu.

Wanting to ensure their child a spot (and good timings) in an art enrichment class in one of the most prestigious art schools in Singapore, these parents will do anything.

According to Shin Min, one parent started queuing as early as 2:35am, and she wasn’t even the first. She was the ninth in queue.

She also said that “getting that timing was important for me as I had to coordinate my son’s timetable, between his other enrichment classes and family time”.

And by 6am, the queue had accumulated over 100 parents.

And by the opening of registration at 9am, there were over 300 parents in line.

Crazy.

And after the registration ended at 1pm, it still took roughly 2 hours for the crowd to finally disperse.

Undoubtedly there were some parents who couldn’t grab a slot or a desired timing.

According to one of the teachers there, she claims that is an extremely normal occurrence and that there would be a queue of 200-300 parents every year.

Accepting The Arts

Do you think this means that Singaporean parents are finally starting to accept the arts?

Is this just a thing they send their children to when they’re young before forcing them to be a doctor/lawyer/engineer as an adult?

Or are they sincere about nurturing the arts in their children as possible career option in the future?

And for parents who think that the Singapore arts scene is too underdeveloped to enter – that’s exactly the mindset that causes it to be underdeveloped. C

It’s a chicken and egg issue.

Food for thought.

Okay, gotta stop myself. No 10,000-word essay.