Bonny Hicks

Bonny Hicks from the back cover of her 1990 book, Excuse me, are you a model?

Bonny Hicks (1968–1997) was a Singaporean catwalk model who later gained notoriety for her contributions to Singaporean post-colonial literature and the philosophy conveyed in her works. She was killed on December 19, 1997, when Silkair Flight 185 crashed into the Musi River on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing all 104 on board. Her first book, Excuse Me, are you a Model?, is considered a significant milestone in the literary and cultural history of Singapore.

Background

Hicks was born in 1968 and described herself as a Singaporean of "mixed" parentage, with her father being British and her mother Chinese. She grew up in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual environment that included Malays, Indians and Chinese of various dialect groups. For 7 years of her childhood, she resided on Singapore's Sentosa Island with her mother, who was caretaker of a bungalow on the island resort. She later managed to enter the world of modeling while still in her teen-years, and soon took up writing to describe her experiences and ideas. Besides residing in Singapore, Hicks spent much of her time in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Literary contributions

Re-print edition of Excuse me, are you a model?

Book cover of Hicks's Discuss Disgust, whose cover suggests her continued emergence as an important post-colonial author willing to broach societal taboos in Singapore.

Hicks's initial work, Excuse Me, are you a Model?, was published in Singapore in 1990. All 12,000 first print-run copies sold out in 3 days, prompting its publisher to declare her work "the biggest book sensation in the annals of Singapore publishing". The book is Hicks's autobiographical expose of the modeling and fashion world that contains frequent candid musings from Hicks about her sexuality. It has been described by English literature scholars as an important work in the "confessional mode" of the genre of post-colonial literature, and as a significant milestone in Singapore’s literary and cultural history.

After Hicks's much publicized 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 in Singaporean society. Deemed by most scholars to be a semi-autobiographical account of Hick's childhood, the novella portrays the world as seen through the eyes of a child whose mother is a prostitute.

Hicks was also a frequent contributor to the Singaporean press.

Philosophy

Hicks's anthropical philosophy of life based upon loving, caring and sharing, emerged clearly in her writings, and attracted the attention of Singaporeans and others worldwide, including scholars.

Prior her 1997 death, Hicks carried on an approximately year-long correspondence about philosophical and spiritual matters with Tal Ben-Shahar, a positive psychologist and popular Harvard University professor. The correspondence later became basis for a 1998 book by Ben-Shahar.

Hicks had also became a serious student of Confucianism prior her death. She was particularly attracted to the thought of another Harvard professor, Tu Wei-Ming, a New Confucian philosopher, who was in turn attracted to Hicks's own philosophy as exhibited in her books. Hicks attended Wei-Ming's seminars and the two corresponded. Added to the influence of Ben-Shahar, Hicks began to exhibit increased New Confucian influence upon her thinking, and soon expressed dismay in the Singaporean press about "the lack of understanding of Confucianism as it was intended to be and the political version of the ideology to which we are exposed today". Just prior Hicks's death she submitted a piece to Singapore's The Straits Times, "I think and feel, therefore I am", which it published post-humorously on December 28, 1997. In it Hicks stated:

Thinking is more than just conceiving ideas and drawing inferences; thinking is also reflection and contemplation. When we take embodied thinking rather than abstract reasoning as a goal for our mind, then we understand that thinking is a transformative act. The mind will not only deduce, speculate, and comprehend, but it will also awaken, will, enlighten and inspire. Si, is how I have thought, and always will think.

Wei-Ming asserts that the piece, Hicks's last, reflected her maturing and deepening engagement in philosophy and spirituality, and that her use of the character Si might have had special meaning to her Chinese-speaking readers.

Aftermath of death

“	Heaven can wait, but I cannot. I cannot take for granted that time is on my side.	”
—40px, 50px

Hicks's death at age 29 shocked Singaporeans and others worldwide, and prompted a swirl of activity as people sought to interpret the meaning of a life that seemed cut short.

Ben-Shahar published Heaven Can Wait: Conversations with Bonny Hicks, in which he weaved together Hicks's year's worth of letters to him with his return letters and interspersed them with philosophical musings. The book is described as an extended postmodern "conversation" between two seekers intensely journeying together in a quest for meaning and purpose. It takes its title from a seeming prophetic statement by Hicks about her impending death, "Heaven can wait, but I cannot. I cannot take for granted that time is on my side."

Wei-Ming characterized Hick's life and philosophy as providing a "sharp contrast to Hobbes' cynic 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."

Singaporean post-colonial author Grace Chia eulogized Hicks's life in 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:

spoke too soon
too loud
too much out of turn
too brutally honest
too empowered by your sense/x/uality
too much of I, I, I, I --
I think
I know
I understand
I love
I, I, I, I.

In addition, literary scholars both in Singapore and worldwide examined Hicks's works either anew or for the first time.

Legacy

Much more than in her role as a model, Hicks is recognized for her contributions to Singaporean post-colonial literature that spoke out on subjects not normally broached, and the philosophy contained in her writings. Describing the consensus of Singaporean literary scholars in 1995, two years prior Hicks's 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".

Amidst a backdrop of racialism in Singapore, Hicks is also recognized has someone who learned to cross cultural boundaries, and who found a comfortable niche in the betwixt and between of dominant cultural traditions. Shortly after Hicks's death, The Bonny Hicks Education & Training Centre of Singapore was named in her honor.