new directions in singapore studies
Posted in 7 men in white on Aug 7th, 2010
Chua Beng Huat
The Forum on Men in Black or White: History as Media Event in Singapore was held at the National Library of Singapore on 16 January 2010, and was jointly organised by the Asia Research Institute and National Library Singapore. It attracted a full house audience of members of the public and the academe, [...]
Posted in 7 men in white on Aug 7th, 2010
Philip Holden
I thought I’d approach Men in White and the question of gender from two perspectives, both of which take advantage of my failings as a historian. In the first, I want to approach it as a general reader—as someone who came to Singapore in 1994 and so, like many younger Singaporeans, has no memory [...]
Posted in 7 men in white on Aug 7th, 2010
Tan Tarn How
It was an opportunity that Singapore Press Holdings was unlikely to let pass without its own journalistic and corporate public relations and other machinery revving into full gear. After all it had invested seven years of three of its best journalists into producing the tome. But how should one put this launch in [...]
Posted in 7 men in white on Aug 7th, 2010
Hong Lysa
The Pattern
Men in White was, as could be expected, marketed as being different from any other product of its kind. However few in Singapore would have anything remotely comparable to the publicity machinery of SPH, nor indeed the kind of resources that was poured into the book’s production.
Like a Hollywood blockbuster, the sheer [...]
Posted in 7 men in white on Aug 7th, 2010
Liew Kai Khiun
Loh Kah Seng. Making and Unmaking the Asylum: Leprosy and Modernity in Singapore and Malaya. Malaysia: Strategic Information, Research and Development Centre, 2009. 152 pages.
The impression of a leprosy asylum is one of isolation of seemingly contagious patients with repulsive skin lesions away from main population centres. Practically cast away from society, [...]
Posted in 5 detention on Oct 21st, 2009
Sai Siew Min
Sometime in June this year, a friend alerted me to Alex Au’s commentary on a book launch he had attended in Malaysia. The book in question was a poetry collection, Our Thoughts Are Free
Posted in 3 commemoration on Feb 26th, 2009
Hong Lysa
Heroic celebrations, 2008
‘This year, we celebrate the heroes of Singapore’, declared the Singapore HeritageFest which had its anchor exhibition at Suntec City entitled, ‘Who’s Your Hero?’ (12-27 Jul 2008). The activities were not only confined to the popular shopping mall, but also fanned out to sites such as the popular disco, Zouk for [...]
Posted in 3 commemoration on Feb 26th, 2009
Mark Ravinder Frost
Ordinarily research scholars seem to ignore the fact that the past is of interest to us only in so far as it was living and that unless they discover it for us in such a way as to make us feel its life, we may admire them for their patience and industry but [...]
Posted in 2 archives & memory on Jan 10th, 2008
PJ Thum
2007 marks the 30th anniversary of Prof. Mary Turnbull’s A History of Singapore, a landmark work which has defined the field of Singapore historiography since its publication. On Saturday, 9 June 2007, a conference was held at St Antony’s College, Oxford, sponsored by the Asian Studies Centre, St. Antony’s College, in order to both [...]
Posted in 1 inauguration on Apr 10th, 2007
Sai Siew Min
To write the history of the Communist Underground or the Left-wing movement in post-war Singapore demands more than simply filling in the blanks of the existing dominant narrative with authentic voices of erstwhile participants hitherto denied their right of articulation by the hegemonic Singapore state. It also demands resisting the temptation to flip [...]
Posted in 1 inauguration on Apr 10th, 2007
Introduced and translated by Kwee Hui Kian
Born and raised in Singapore, Huang Kaide is an award-winning poet and prose writer. He has published Tiao si wei zhi 跳死为止 (1995), Xiu ding ban 修订版 (1996), Dai zhi 代志 (2004). In recent years, he has also explored writing short stories, and most pertinently from the perspective of [...]
Posted in 1 inauguration on Apr 10th, 2007
Hong Lysa
Ever since its inception, The Singapore Story has attempted to saturate the content and meanings of Singapore history for Singaporeans. It is the narrative by PAP leaders of their sacrifices, hardships, courage, endurance, and achievements, and of how their successors have continued with their good work.
