2008 Woodie Awards
Daniel Liu
Talks Hard Living: From the Barracks to Dupre
By: Olivia Provan, Spotlight
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: Spotlight
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MW:Tell us a little about your background and where you're from.
DL:I grew up in Singapore. My dad is Singaporean and Chinese, but my mom is from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. She met my dad when she was studying abroad there in college and then moved there to be with him. I have an American passport, but I guess I'm still international. I went home over Christmas, but it's pretty expensive.
How did you decide to come to Macalester?
I went to an American high school in Singapore, and we had an admissions guy from Macalester come to talk to us. Since my mom is from Minnesota, I figured I should look at it. It's mandatory for every male to enter the Singapore army upon graduating from high school, so I came to Mac after I had completed my service.
Can you tell us a little bit about your time in army?
It was okay. I don't like the army. I had a desk job, so it was pretty boring. I was a human resource manager, and it was my job to look after about 60 civilian employees. I was pretty low-ranked, so I got yelled at a lot. Everyone in Singapore is given a ranking, regardless of whether or not they are active in the army. So you try to do your best, but you still get yelled at. I mean, here I was this 18 year old kid trying to tell some guy who is 30 years older than me what to do. My job didn't come with a lot of power.
Did you live at home or in the army barracks?
I lived in the barracks and at home. Singapore is pretty small, so I could go back and forth pretty easily. There were some pretty long days and a lot of events like revelries that you had to go to. But when I got to Macalester it was a pretty nice change. Dupre was nice compared to the barracks. There were 13 guys to a dorm and four dorms to a section. Then there were four sections to a company. I shared a bathroom with 54 other men, so they were pretty gross to say the least.
What was life like in the army?
Everything was pretty unexpected. Singapore schools graduate at the end of the year, and I enlisted in the summer after I graduated from the American schools. So when I started it was with a lot of school dropouts and ex-cons. One guy was covered from his neck to his arms in tattoos; they were over his entire body. I met a lot of crazy people I never would have interacted with otherwise. Like people from the other side of society, or the bottom of the ladder. It was a good experience - the army made everyone equal.
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