SINGATHOLOGY

Li Sui Dr Gwee

Description

Singathology: 50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers is a stunning collection of original Singapore literature. The first of its kind, this two-volume anthology comprises 50 specially commissioned new works from past winners of the prestigious Cultural Medallion or Young Artist Award. Conceived as a celebration of Singapore literature to launch on the year of the nation's jubilee, this anthology illustrates the richness and diversity of the island nation's creative spirit. Traversing generations and genres, readers will encounter poetry, prose, comics and plays. Pieces written in mother tongue languages of Chinese, Tamil and Malay will be included in their original form, but will be accompanied by their English translations. These translations will ensure that, uniquely, many important literary voices will be heard in English for the first time. Edited by the literary expert, Dr Gwee Li Sui, Singathology is one of the most wide-ranging and important collections of Singapore literature ever published.

Sujets

• Singapore
• Singapour

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International
• Date de parution: 20 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814721936
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

SINGATHOLOGY
50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers
VOLUME ONE: LIFE
VOLUME TWO: ART


CO-PUBLISHED BY

SINGATHOLOGY
SINGATHOLOGY
50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers
VOLUME ONE
LIFE
Edited by
GWEE LI SUI
with
TAN CHEE LAY SA EDA BTE BUANG AZHAGIYA PANDIYAN
CO-PUBLISHED BY
2015 National Arts Council and Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd
Co-published by National Arts Council and Marshall Cavendish Editions Marshall Cavendish Editions is an imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publishers, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited (1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196. Tel: [phone]. E-mail: [e-mail] .
The publishers make no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this book, and specifically disclaim any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and shall in no events be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:
Singathology : Fifty New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers. Volume One, Life. - Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2015 pages cm eISBN : 978 981 4721 93 6
1. Singaporean literature (English). 2. Singaporean literature (Chinese). 3. Singaporean literature (Malay). 4. Singaporean literature (Tamil). I. Gwee, Li Sui, 1970- editor.
PR6010 808.8995957 - dc23 OCN919188968
Printed in Singapore by Craft Print Pte Ltd
To journalise life
In exotic fragrance
Is an exulting poetic gift.
K. T. M. IQBAL
Contents
Introduction: The Age of a Number
Notes on Singaporean Literature
Literature in English by Gwee Li Sui
Literature in Chinese by Tan Chee Lay
Literature in Malay by Sa eda bte Buang
Literature in Tamil by Azhagiya Pandiyan
About this Volume: Life

1
王润华, 淡马锡变形记
Wong Yoon Wah, Metamorphosis : Temasek
2
谢裕民, 琐记 1915
Chia Joo Ming, 1915: A Miscellany
3
Alfian Sa at, Hotel: An Excerpt
4
புதுமைதாசன், அதே நீதி
Puthumaithasan, The Same Justice
5
Edwin Thumboo, 1st April 45, 42 Monk s Hill Terrace, Newton
6
尤今, 人生的分水岭
You Jin, The Watershed of Life
7
Toh Hsien Min, MCMLXV
8
Philip Jeyaretnam, Moonshine in Singapore
9
Alvin Pang, Riot
10
Mohamed Latiff Mohamed, Di Bawah Bayangmu
Mohamed Latiff Mohamed, Beneath Your Shadow
11
陈志锐, 南大之大
Tan Chee Lay, The Greatness of Nantah
12
Lee Tzu Pheng, A House Tells Its Story
13
Boey Kim Cheng, Rented Rooms
14
O Thiam Chin, Surfacing
15
淡莹, 家居琐事
Dan Ying, Household Trivialities
16
இராம. கண்ணபிரான், பேதங்கள்
Rama Kannabiran, Prejudices
17
Aidli Mosbit, Mama Lekas Pulang
Aidli Mosbit, Mama Come Home Quick
18
Felix Cheong, The Model Family
19
Zizi Azah, How Did the Cat Get So Fat?
20
黄孟文, 蛋糕
Wong Meng Voon, Cake
21
Simon Tay, Ash and Mud
22
Isa Kamari, Anggerik
Isa Kamari, The Orchid
23
希尼尔, 浮岛六记
Xi Ni Er, Six Stories from the Floating Island
24
Ovidia Yu, Salvation Solution
25
க.து.மு.இக்பால், ஊதுவத்தி
K. T. M. Iqbal, Incense Stick
About the Authors
About the Editors
Introduction: The Age of a Number
BY GWEE LI SUI
What is it that makes the number fifty magical in the lives of individuals and formations? What is it about putting five before zero - the middle single-digit number next to nothing - that can generate much anxiety and soul-searching? How is this number after forty-nine, after seven cycles of seven, able to disturb and even confuse us? As if our minds are wired to reflect in line with the mystery and beauty of numbers, the number fifty haunts us like a dream of ourselves we cannot decipher.
A country at fifty stands at a symbolic threshold it wishes that it understands in view of some fated awakening. At fifty, a key part of a nation s self-image tends to fall away. Or is it coincidental that, when America celebrated its golden jubilee in 1826, its former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died within hours of each other? How about in 1997 when India observed fifty years of independence from centuries-long European colonialism and its uniting spiritual figure Mother Teresa passed on? Inching towards its own jubilee, Singapore encountered its grave loss too when its most beloved Founding Father departed.
Something perishes, and what survives awakes to the truths of its radical aloneness and its obligation to carry on. The age of fifty is marked by pure closure: the gate to some charmed garden shuts forever and will not open again. As Gabriel Wu Yeow Chong puts it in his poem post-middle age in this anthology,

nevermore will the sky rain down colourful roses when our desires grow larger. 1
We are, in a real sense, cast out on an adventure of our own choosing, with nothing but the form we have made of ourselves to rely on. The implements that once secured our footing are no longer enough. Like fermenting wine, we aim more than ever for a soul to grow into.
The word jubilee originated from the Jewish Torah and has been attached to nationhood from the start. Its first use involved not just a celebration but also a commitment to social renewal that could address and transform the burden of the past. Thus, on a jubilee year, every Jewish household was to recover its own lost members and land be returned to its former owners. Slaves and prisoners were to be freed and all debts remitted. The effect of these procedures went beyond being merely conciliatory. They yearned for a social maturing that could honour divine nature and reach into the best of how humans treated one another.
Chinese philosophy, too, sees significance in the number fifty for a life s otherwise aimless passing of years. Confucius famously spoke of how he might have been less self-possessed before, but, at fifty, he finally understood Heaven s Mandate . 2 These words set down the fullness of age as not something sudden or random but what is bound to conscious self-cultivation. All doubts and mistakes can be excused from this point in one s life when one at last recognises a single destiny. Perhaps George Orwell - who himself never reached fifty - had the same thought when he remarked: At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves. 3
Yet, an individual at fifty is not the same as a nation at fifty, and we may be better off in understanding not to mix the two together. While neither a person nor a people can be sure about how much more fate still has in store, everyone knows human mortality, the absolute fact that each of us has a definite span of years on earth. In Moonshine in Singapore , Philip Jeyaretnam s freed detainee - imprisoned for fifty years - therefore asks his beloved: What time is left to us? 4 At fifty, one has decidedly passed the midpoint of one s life, and, while the best experiences for some have yet to happen, all have already begun to die. A life that still does not know where its centre is at this age is way behind on its own clock.
A nation, by contrast, follows a different, more open timeline. It can - if it is not damaged by external politics - go on indefinitely for many more cycles of human lives, for as long as destiny allows. A nation at fifty may have achieved the better part of a human s mortal experiences, but it has not yet grasped a central, seldom discussed truth: a country is, in essence, not human. This realisation will come to a people when its own history passes the limit of standard human life - say ninety or a hundred - and, increasingly from then on, every citizen will acknowledge and behold in awe the monstrosity to which he or she belongs.
A people at its centenary will realise that it is, and has always been, an impersonal collection of fates, of small lives and their choices, rationalised across space and time. A people is an administration of such parts set alongside each other as well as one on top of another. Some parts seem doomed to pursue cycles of errors while others are, in rather limited ways, lifted by the labour of a preceding generation. Thankfully, a centennial nation can no longer grow tired in the way an aged creature grows tired. Recognising that it cannot die on its own, it in fact transcends the idea of age and feeds off age to appear timeless like an oak. A nation tills its citizens like a farmer tills the field, and its harvest is what we call civilisation.
At a hundred, wherever a citizen walks, he or she knows that each of his or her footprints carries the choices of hundreds of thousands who had walked the same path before. This knowledge is a resource, and it grows confidence in habitual outliers such as artists and writers who find that it can bring them mystic solidarity. An artist s or a writer s decisions become, in some senses, less neurotic because they now come layered with the comfort of ghosts who know why these are made and have to be made. A nation at a hundred, unlike at fifty, understands just how art feeds the generations.
After all, how does a people s mind grow old if it is, in essence, unlike our own minds, the disintegration of which, as Aidli Mosbit s play Mama Come Home Quick notes, fills us with fear and robs us of our dignity ? 5 The deathless nation is less anxious about the possession and validation of dignity, having grown larger than any one person, group, concept, structure, and legacy. It is also less anxious in a way because it has become less conscious: the old nation has already begun to somnambulate. The old people is both awake and asleep: it sleeps to a past it cannot remember clearly or a