Claire Maurice G.

Juanero

1. Give at least 5 issues depicted in the story. Justify each.

Poverty – Poverty is a known and prevalent problem in many countries. In the story, the
taxi man driver comes from a lower-class family. The taxi man works hard everyday
driving people around Singapore to make ends meet and provide for his family but
there’s only so much a taxi driver’s salary can do. If the circumstances were different and
they had a more stable income, maybe Lay Choo would have not go as far as becoming a
social escort in able to earn money.
Family Planning – The taxi man driver had a very large family. Being the bread winner
of the family can be hard especially if you are providing for eight children. Many people
don’t think about the difficulties of raising a child until they’re hit with the realization
first hand. Conversations about proper family planning should be more open in order to
help couples understand their options. In Asian countries, talking about sex and
contraception can be considered taboo and are avoided at all costs, but family planning
can help families protect themselves from a life time of consequences.
Child Abuse – After finding out Lay Choo was a part of the social escorts who entertain
European men in the streets, her father beat her intensely that she was not even able to go
to school for three days. Violence is never the answer, especially not when it comes to
disciplining your loved ones.
The contradiction of the taximan’s beliefs and actions – In the story, the taximan
seems to have great disdain towards the new generation and their “wild” ways. He
rambles about seeing teenagers becoming social escorts and expressing his intense
disapproval of it and yet he becomes an enabler of their behavior anyway. He told his
passenger that he beat his daughter because he was mad that she was also a social escort
but then proceeds to scurry off and fetch the teenagers he was so opposed to a few
minutes ago.
Trust – The father and the daughter never had an open conversation about the matter.
The father didn’t trust Lay Choo to talk to her first and give him an explanation on why
she did what she did. Lay Choo didn’t have any trust to confide in her father and tell her
about her situation which helped in escalating the situation. It is important to be open to
your family so you can share each other’s problems and find solutions together, in turn
you can avoid any conflicts.

2. Was the father righteous enough to have done that to his daughter? Why or why not?
No. I believe that there is nothing that can justify violence towards your loved ones no matter
the circumstances. The story was only told in a one-sided perspective. We, the readers, didn’t
know what compelled Lay Choo to become a social escort, as well as her father as told by him,
they never had civil conversation about it. Lay Choo’s father was quick to judge her and resort to
physical abuse. I think the situation could have been handled better by sitting down and having
an open conversation where they can talk about the issue and find ways to make the situation
better. Yes, what Lay Choo did was wrong but I believe there was a reason she did what she did.
She’s also a teenager who makes mistakes and is still trying to makes sense of the world. Her
father beating her and may have escalated the situation more. Physical punishment can also
cause trauma to a child and can affect their lives forever and put a strain in their relationship to
their parents.

3. If you were Lay Choo, what could you have done? Why?
Realistically speaking, if I were Lay Choo and I was locked in my bedroom for three days
because I was brutally beaten by my father, I would seriously consider packing my bags and
running away, but, because I am who I am, I would not go through with it. Although I know I
was also in the wrong, I still had a right to be upset by my father’s reaction. I would probably not
talk to him for a few days and wait for my and my father’s feelings to calm down before we have
an open conversation about the matter. I would apologize for my behavior and promise to never
engage in those kinds of activities ever again. Hopefully, he will to and then we will eventually
reconcile since no matter how heavy the issue was, family is still family, and there is no one else
in the world that will give you unconditional love but your family.

4. What realizations did you get after reading the story? Have you experienced any of the issues
you answered in number 1? If so, what?
Truthfully, I had mixed feelings after I read the story. Although I understood a parent’s
disappointment on seeing your daughter engage in such delinquent activities, I strongly
disapprove of his mindset and the way he handled the situation. It was hard to read the paragraph
of him talking about beating her own child as if it was nothing. The Taximan’s Story is a good
reflection of most Asian societies and culture. The father, belonging in the older generation has a
narrow and outdated worldview and continuously criticizes the younger generation. His
parenting style is common to many Asian households as something you call as “tough love”. If
you ask five children if they’ve ever received physical punishment, most probably four out of
five would say yes. Violence in households has become customary that whenever I encounter
someone who has never been chased by their parents with a broomstick, I would genuinely be
surprised. My family was big on “tough love” and in return it had affected me psychologically. A
person’s childhood experience will really have a big impact on one’s life and will shape them on
who they are as they grow old. Hitting a defenseless child who doesn’t know any better will not
help in anyway. What a child needs is to be nurtured and guided with the workings of the world
and trust that when they grow up they would know what’s right and wrong.
 The TAXI MAN’S STORY
One afternoon in Singapore, a taxi man was driving his passenger, a teacher on the way to the National University of Singapore…

I was so angry I beat her. I

locked her up in her bedroom
for three days and told her
teacher she was sick.