Issues

#21 "Endless Farewell, Hello Again" March 2022

#20 "Bicentennial 2019 Biennale" September 2021

#19 "Growing Up in Post-1965 Singapore" August 2019

#18 "Exploring Disability Studies" November 2018

Special Highlight "Interview with Mr Yeng Pway Ngon" November 2018

#17 "History and Critical Pedagogy" September 2018

#16 "Being Young in the 1950s" January 2018

#15 "bookshops" January 2017

Commentary No. 1 "Some Men and a Red Box; A Woman and Her Handbag" November 2015

#14 "Yang Tersirat" July 2015

#13.2 "Objectum - an exhibition" March 2014

#13.1 "after|thought - an exhibition" August 2013

#12 "Sex Spaces in Singapore: Encounters, Inhabitants, and Identities" May 2013

#11 "The pOp cUltURe Is-U" October 2012

#10 "so what?" September 2011

#9 "the arts II" June 2011

#8 "intellectuals" December 2010

#7 "men in white" August 2010

#6 "the arts I" March 2010

#5 "detention" October 2009

#4 "if" July 2009

#3 "commemoration" June 2009

#2.2 "archives & memory II" February 2008

#2.1 "archives & memory I" January 2008

#1 "inauguration" April 2007

Issue #21
Endless Farewell, Hello Again

March 2022


Editorial
CT Lim

Who Exactly is Chris Ho/X’Ho??
Joseph Tham

‘No Mean Task’: The Subversive Lightness of Chris Ho’s ‘Pop Life’
Yeow Kai Chai

Let’s hear it for these boys
Chris Ho

Review: Chris Ho’s Adventures in YinYao EP
Joseph Tham


Image: Zircon Lounge at the Padang. Image courtesy of Chris Ho.


Song-Ming Ang, Our Songs, 2019, Watercolour on paper (series of 4), 74 x 104cm each. Installation view at the Singapore Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2019. Photograph by s/pores.

Issue #20
Bicentennial 2019 Biennale

September 2021


Editorial

Preview of Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History
Eds. Alfian Sa’at, Faris Joraimi, and Sai Siew Min (Ethos Books, 2021)

Updating the Narrative: A Dialogue Between the Former Coloniser and Colonised
Sai Siew Min

Redoing and Undoing the Colonial Pageant: Dialogues with the Raffles Statues
Faris Joraimi

Are You One of Them? – Music for Everyone: Variations on a Theme
Joseph Tham

Looking at Song-Ming Ang at the National Museum, Singapore
Cecily Cheo


Image: Song-Ming Ang, Our Songs, 2019, Watercolour on paper (series of 4), 74 x 104cm each. Installation view at the Singapore Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2019. Photograph by s/pores.


Photograph of Fang Hoe Fang on His Motorbike, courtesy Fang

Issue #19
Growing Up in Post-1965 Singapore

August 2019


Editorial

A fierce Cantonese woman – growing up in Singapore in the 60s
Chan Wai Han

Going to Where the Silence Is
Fong Hoe Fang

Standing Up and Being Counted: Lessons from my Childhood
Kevin YL Tan


Image: Photograph of Fong Hoe Fang on His Motorbike, courtesy Fong Hoe Fang


The image has a table, where 5 men are seated. The background has a large sign saying Disabled Peoples’ International First World Congress 30 November – 4 Dec 1981, Singapore. Ron Chandran-Dudley, the Singaporean founder chairperson, sits on the extreme left.

Issue #18
Exploring Disability Studies

November 2018


Editorial: Exploring Disability Studies in Singapore: Reflections on Methodology
Kuansong Zhuang, Victor

Looking at ‘d’ art: Fab or fad?
Alvan Yap

Cripping the Church: A Personal Reflection on Disability and Religion
Jacqueline Woo

Universal Design: Beyond the exclusive “Barrier-Free” labels
Fiona Tan

Being d/Deaf in Singapore: A Personal Reflection of Deaf Culture and Identity
Phoebe Tay

My experiences and perspectives on the lack of empathy in psychiatry
Nurul Fadiah Johari


Image: Still taken from the video, Some Sit on Earth, which tells of Disabled Peoples’ International Founding in 1981.


Mr Yeng in Grassroots Book Room. Image Courtesy of Tan Waln Ching

s/pores Special Highlight

November 2018


Interview with Mr Yeng Pway Ngon
s/pores


Image: Mr Yeng in Grassroots Book Room. Image Courtesy of Tan Waln Ching


Illustration from The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2015) by Sonny Liew

Issue #17
History and Critical Pedagogy

September 2018


Editorial

Commentary: Critical Pedagogy
Chua Beng Huat

The Hunt for Mas Selamat
Sonny Liew

Beauty World
Sonny Liew

Writing Emergency: Teaching Singapore Literature in an Historical Frame
Philip Holden

History Education, Graphic Novels & Historical Thinking
Joseph Tham

Teaching The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye
Angelia Poon


Image: Illustration from The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2015) by Sonny Liew


Illustration from book cover of Constructing Nanyang Children: Studies of Chinese Children’s Publications in Post-War Singapore and Malaya (建构南洋儿童:战后新马华语儿童刊物及文化研究).

Issue #16
Being Young in the 1950s

January 2018


Editorial
Edgar Liao

Introduction to Constructing Nanyang Childhood
Edgar Liao

Civics for Young Malayans: Colonial Educator E H G Dobby in Singapore
Edgar Liao

Interview with Mr Arthur Yap – an English-educated youth in 1950s Singapore
Edgar Liao

In His Own Words: Writings of the young S. Rajaratnam
Ho Jin Yee


Image: Illustration from book cover of Constructing Nanyang Children: Studies of Chinese Children’s Publications in Post-War Singapore and Malaya (建构南洋儿童:战后新马华语儿童刊物及文化研究).


Interior of Xinhua Cultural Enterprises

Issue #15
bookshops

January 2017


Editorial: Our 15th Issue – “bookshops” – Celebrating 10 years of s/pores

Wardah
Faris Joraimi

The Intellectual Legacy of Kampung Glam
Fadli Fawzi and Faris Joraimi

Interview with Mr Yeo San Chai (Yeo Oi Sang) of Xinhua Cultural Enterprises (S) Pte Ltd (English Translation and Mandarin Original)
s/pores

City Book Room (English Translation and Mandarin Original)
Tan Waln Ching


Image: Interior of Xinhua Cultural Enterprises


Mr Lee Kuan Yew's Red box, The Straits Times, 31 March 2015

s/pores Commentary No. 1

November 2015


Some Men and a Red Box; A Woman and Her Handbag
Sai Siew Min


Image: Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s Red box, The Straits Times, 31 March 2015


Still from Bujang Lapok (1957) dir. P. Ramlee

Issue #14
Yang Tersirat

July 2015


Editorial
Fadli Fawzi and Khairulanwar Zaini

The Absent Mother: Malay Cinema, Cultural Memory and Mediated Spectatorship
Alfian Sa’at

Reading Resistance in the Malay Heritage Centre
Khairulanwar Zaini

Remembering the Malay Left
Fadli Fawzi

API, AWAS, GERAM: Shamsiah Fakeh’s struggle for Malaya’s independence
Nurhaizatul Jamil

Ideology and Utopia in Al Imam
Fairoz Ahmad

“Living the lives of Hanyut”: The Construction of Malay Youth Delinquency in Singapore
Siti Hazirah Binte Mohamad

Sebutan Baku and the need to redefine the limits of culture
Annaliza Bakri


Image: Still from Bujang Lapok (1957) dir. P. Ramlee


Photograph of toilet paper roll by Ken Cheong for Objectum

Issue #13.2
Objectum – an exhibition

March 2014


Editorial

Objectum: An Exhibition on the Shifting Meanings of Daily-Life Museum Objects
Wong Lee Min


Image: Photograph of toilet paper roll by Ken Cheong for Objectum


Exhibition view of after|thought from Curating Lab: Phase 03

Issue #13.1
after|thought – an exhibition

August 2013


Editorial

1. Introduction

2. On Representation

3. Art and Space

4. after|thought at Oxford

Review of LUCIFUGOUS (X’HO + ARCN TEMPL)
Senile Dementia


Image: Exhibition view of after|thought from Curating Lab: Phase 03


Geylang Road (source: Terence Chong)

Issue #12
Sex Spaces in Singapore: Encounters, Inhabitants, and Identities

May 2013


Editorial
Terence Chong

Public Morality in Sex Spaces
Vanessa Ho

Is Joo Chiat’s ‘Little Vietnam of pho and sex’ a thing of the past? – Essay and Photo Essay
Nicolas Lainez

Social Visits and Special Passes: Carceral Spaces of Migrant Sexual Labour in Singapore
Sallie Yea

Ethnographic Sex Work Research in Singapore: Who gets to speak?
Lu Huiyi

Imaginary Frontiers and Deferred Masculinity: Singapore Working Class Men in Batam
Terence Chong


Image: Geylang Road (source: Terence Chong)


Extract from Love You by Eric Khoo

Issue #11
The pOp cUltURe Is-U

October 2012


Editorial
Lim Cheng Tju

Introduction: Pop Culture in Singapore
Chua Beng Huat

An Interview with Sonny Liew
Lim Cheng Tju

“Model student” TV: The Inter-school Debates and the Politics of Education
Clarissa Oon

Review of Catacombs
X’Ho

Review of Sun Worshipper
Joseph Tham

A Stone’s Throw Away
Leslie Low

The Early Comics of Eric Khoo
Lim Cheng Tju

ART: An Interview with Cheo Chai Hiang
Yvonne Low

Shaun’s Home Parties: A Photo Essay
Introduction by Lim Cheng Tju

Review of Monsters, Miracles & Mayonnaise
Choy Kam Leong Larry

The Making of Ten Sticks and One Rice
Oh Yong Hwee and Koh Hong Teng


Image: Extract from Love You by Eric Khoo


Solidarity for Migrant Workers Rally 2009 jointly organised by HOME, TWC2 and Migrant Voices (http://www.home.org.sg/events/gallery/SolidarityRally/index.html)

Issue #10
so what?

September 2011


Editorial
Kwee Hui Kian and Teng Siao See

Interview with Alvin Tan
Teng Siao See and Kwee Hui Kian

Interview with John Gee
Kwee Hui Kian

Interview with Corinna Lim
Kwee Hui Kian and Teng Siao See

Routes not Roots
Philip Holden


Image: Solidarity for Migrant Workers Rally 2009 jointly organised by HOME, TWC2 and Migrant Voices (http://www.home.org.sg/events/gallery/SolidarityRally/index.html)


Teo Soh Lung, Lizard scratching its ear. It is kind of funny to see this lizard using its hind leg to scratch its ear! It was the first time in my life seeing this and I was very amused!

Issue #9
the arts II

June 2011


Editorial

Sketches from Prison
Teo Soh Lung

The Seventies: Transition from Cultural Desert to Global City
Robert Yeo

Reclaiming Literature for Singapore
Alvin Pang

Eulogy for Fang Xiu
Chng Seok Tin

Theatre and its Publics, and Everything Else
Richard Chua

of love, and sweets
John Low

Meaning/Making A Circuit Of Cheo Chai-Hiang’s The Story of Money
Isabel Ching

Learning to Adapt: Dave Chua and Koh Hong Teng’s Gone Case
Gwee Li Sui

Review: Singapura Uber Alles
Joseph Tham

In memoriam: Tan Jing Quee (1939-2011)
s/pores

Merger and Malaysia (1961)
Tan Jing Quee


Image: Teo Soh Lung, Lizard scratching its ear


Still from Sandcastle (2010) dir. Boo Junfeng

Issue #8
intellectuals

December 2010


Editorial
Francis Lim

The Shifting Sands of Time: Boo Junfeng’s Sandcastle as Filmic History
Lim Cheng Tju and Hong Lysa

Portrait of a Modernist Poet: Lin Fang
Chiu Weili

Reading Kuo Pao Kun’s Early Leftist Plays
Clarissa Oon

Situating The Tangent: Chinese-educated intellectuals in Singapore’s socio-political history
Kelvin Chia

Suspending/escaping Race: A Civil Society Experience
Constance Singam

The Trouble with ‘Idealism’: Reflections on Intellectual Vocation and Moral Reasoning
Kwok Kian Woon

Review: Realism in Asia
Lim Cheng Tju

Review: Beyond the Blue Gate
Philip Holden


Image: Still from Sandcastle (2010) dir. Boo Junfeng


Photograph from the book cover of Men in White: The Untold Story of Singapore's Ruling Political Party by Sonny Yap, Richard Lim and Leong Weng Kam

Issue #7
men in white

August 2010


Editorial

Forum on Men in Black or White: History as Media Event in Singapore
Chua Beng Huat

From People’s Action Party to Men in White
Philip Holden

What a Book! What a Launch! What a Story!
Tan Tarn How

Men in White and the forever missing handshake
Hong Lysa

Review: Making and Unmaking the Asylum: Leprosy and Modernity in Singapore and Malaya
Liew Kai Khiun


Image: Photograph from the book cover of Men in White: The Untold Story of Singapore’s Ruling Political Party by Sonny Yap, Richard Lim, and Leong Weng Kam


Issue #6
the arts I

March 2010


Editorial
Tan Tarn How

Culture and the Arts ‘After’ Kuo Pao Kun
C. J. W.-L. Wee

For wolfnotes
Lee Tzu Pheng

Third Stage
Wong Souk Yee

“But there is nothing here to shoot…”
Tay Kay Chin

Raising the Subject
Jason Wee

Censure and Censor
Loretta Chen

National Songs Revisited: From Propaganda to Pop to Anti-cool Kitsch
Tan Shzr Ee

First-World Economy, Third-World Culture
Michelle Loh

Review: +65 Indie Underground
Joseph Tham


Image: Susie Wong, ephemera, 2009, presented at the exhibition, wolfnotes. From My Paper, October 6, 2009.


Image from book cover of That We May Dream Again, ed. Fong Hoe Fang

Issue #5
detention

October 2009


Editorial

A Public Oral History of the Singapore Left in 2006
Michael Fernandez and Tan Jing Quee

Hide-and-Seek History
Teng Qian Xi

Ex-Political Detainee Forum at Singapore in 2006
Kevin Blackburn

Forgetting Detention
Sai Siew Min

Review: Dark Folke by The Observatory
Ang Song Ming


Image: Illustration from the book cover of That We May Dream Again, edited by Fong Hoe Fang


Advertisement for the Ministry of Education Teaching Scholarship, The Straits Times, 6 March 2009

Issue #4
if

July 2009


Editorial
Tan Pin Pin

Once Bonded
Yu-Mei Balasingamchow

Reminiscences on a HDB Point Block
Ho Weng Hin

学语以外: Beyond Language Learning
李慧玲 Lee Huay Leng


Image: Advertisement for the Ministry of Education Teaching Scholarship, The Straits Times, 6 March 2009


"Aggression in Asia," the cover article of the May 1954 issue of Fajar

Issue #3
commemoration

June 2009


Editorial

Aggression in Asia
M.K. Rajakumar and Poh Soo Kai

Speech at the Memorial Gathering for Dr. M.K. Rajakumar
Poh Soo Kai

M.K. Rajakumar: A Life Well Lived
Tan Jing Quee

That He Shall Not Die a Second Death
Edgar Liao

The Enigma of A. Samad Ismail
Tan Jing Quee

Hankering for National Heroes
Hong Lysa

The Making of the Singapore History Gallery: Some Personal Reflections
Mark Ravinder Frost

David Marshall: A Bittersweet Remembrance
Daniel PS Goh

Review: 100 Greatest: Singapore 60s – The Definitive Collection
Joseph Tham

Singapore in Mid-twentieth Century: The Deep Divide
CN Chen


Image: “Aggression in Asia,” the cover article of the May 1954 issue of Fajar


University of Malaya, Bukit Timah Campus, Singapore circa 1950s

Issue #2.2
archives & memory II

February 2008


Editorial

An Interview with Wang Gungwu (in the mid-1980s)
Robert Yeo

New University, Three Generations: China, Malaya, Singapore, 1949-2007
Wang Gungwu

Review: Memories & Reflections: The Singapore Experience: Documenting a Nation’s History Through Oral History
Loh Kah Seng


Image: University of Malaya, Bukit Timah Campus, Singapore circa 1950s


Still from Invisible City (2007) dir. Tan Pin Pin

Issue #2.1
archives & memory I

January 2008


Editorial

Introduction to Learning Me Your Language
Philip Holden

Learning Me Your Language
Wang Gungwu

Trial and Error in Malayan Poetry
Wang Gungwu

Three Faces of Night
Wang Gungwu

Moon Thoughts
Wang Gungwu

Archive Fever … in Singapore: An Interview with CC Chin
Sai Siew Min

Approaching Life and Death: History and Memory in Interviews With Individuals Formerly Suffering from Leprosy in Singapore
Loh Kah Seng

Once Upon a Time, a Mendicant Professor in Singapore: Remembering the Enright Affair (November 1960)
Edgar Liao

Usman Awang in Singapore
Tan Jing Quee

Whose invisible city? Articulating Singapore’s pasts in Invisible City
Hong Lysa

Narrating the Nation: Thirty Years of A History of Singapore Conference Report
PJ Thum


Image: Still from Invisible City (2007) dir. Tan Pin Pin


Photograph of Fang Zhuang Bi (方壮壁/Fong Chok Pik) from the book cover of 马共全权代表:方壮壁回忆录.

Issue #1
inauguration

April 2007


Editorial

“A Subaltern Perspective on History” (人下人的历史观): Reading Fang Zhuang Bi’s (方壮壁) Memoir
Sai Siew Min

A Personal Journey In Search Of Fajar
Lim Cheng Tju

Huang Kaide’s Our Memories
Kwee Hui Kian

Interpreting National Language Class
Daniel PS Goh

The Continuing Saga of Singapore’s Story
Hong Lysa

In Memory of Linda Chen (1928-2002)
Tan Jing Quee

Ho Piao: A Personal Recollection and Appreciation
Tan Jing Quee

Education at Large: An Exhibition on Student Activities and Activism In Singapore, 1945-1965
Francis Lim Khek Gee


Image: Photograph of Fang Zhuang Bi (方壮壁/Fong Chong Pik) from the book cover of 马共全权代表:方壮壁回忆录.