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Fiction
The Sole Purveyor of Madame Bovary in Beijing Circa 1989 | Granta The Sexual Potential of the Gallery | e-flux: art-agenda Last Night I Dreamt That Harry Was In Love With Me | Berfrois Why Do Chinese People Have Slanted Eyes? | Asymptote The Ballad of Arlene & Nelly | Asia Literary Review Translation The Last Ten Entries of Ren Hang's Depression Diary | Guernica Ren Hang's Depression Diary in "Ai Wei Wei Reflects on the Sadness of Ren Hang's Photographs" | TIME Magazine Chapter 2 of Su Qing's "Ten Years of Marriage" | Asymptote Chapter 1 of Su Qing's "Ten Years of Marriage" | PEN America Translation Series Amanda reading the original text of "Ten Years of Marriage" Chapter 2 in uncharacteristically demure Mandarin: Non-fiction If This Is Home, Truly, It Should Look Like Home | Sunday Times Stayin' Alive (in the face of hostile architecture) | The Straits Times On the 50th Anniversary of Singapore’s Independence | Guernica To Singapore, With Love: 'If you care too much about Singapore first it breaks your spirit, then it breaks your heart' | Manifesta #18 |
Personal Essays
NOT GONNA GET US | The Paris Review Daily ARISE: a cacophony of lockdown thoughts | Vogue Marlene Dietrich, My Teenage Role Model | Lit Hub Branded Content Why I Write | in partnership with Tiffany & Co | ELLE TWG Tea for Two | in partnership with TWG | Vogue CHANEL Short Stories | in partnership with CHANEL | Harper's Bazaar Events Transition & Change: conversation with Min Jin Lee, Nuril Basri, Claudia Kaiser, Frankfurt Book Fair, Oct 2018 "Dreaming of deterritorialization whilst shopping at Urban Outfitters", Asian American Cultural Center, Yale, Apr 2018 PEN America World Voices Festival, Apr 2018 Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, Sept 2017 "Resisting speechlessness - on feminism and sexuality in times of shrinking spaces", Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin, Sept 2017 "Revolt, she said", Internationaler Literaturpreis, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Jul 2017 Fondation Jan Michalski, Geneva, Jun 2017 Georgetown Literary Festival, Penang, Nov 2016 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Bali, Oct 2016 "Five Absolutely Ravishing Women of Assorted Extraction Lost in the Shifting Sands of the Global South", World Literature Symposium, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Jan 2016 |
I Am Ardently In Love With The Girl
[i made a song about two lovers making a pact under a pink frangipani tree for an audio-installation commissioned via the National Gallery Singapore's Light to Night Festival, in response to the histories of Esplanade Park.
in my research i came upon a 5 june 1952 The Straits Times article, about a pair of lovers, a 21-year-old indian electrician (Maniam) and a 23-year-old chinese girl (Ah Eng), who were tried in court after they tried to commit suicide by jumping into the sea from esplanade park (they were rescued from the sea by a malay seaman). when asked by the magistrate why they did so, Maniam said: "I am ardently in love with the girl, but I know it is a hopeless affair."
💔 💔 💔
fiction fails when history was so cruel. these two lovers did no wrong, and i didn't want to write a story or a dialogue, so i wrote lyrics incorporating statements from the court hearing. sixty years on, one hopes things have gotten better for any sort of relationship that falls out of the bounds of societal norms (be it race / class / religion / age / gender), but the going is always gonna be tougher than it should have to be. if you're in a relationship with someone your parents / peers / workplace / strangers don't accept / acknowledge / approve of, this one's for you <3 <3 <3]
performed by Shak feat. ALK
composed by Victor Low
arranged by Evan Tan
lyrics by ALK
[i made a song about two lovers making a pact under a pink frangipani tree for an audio-installation commissioned via the National Gallery Singapore's Light to Night Festival, in response to the histories of Esplanade Park.
in my research i came upon a 5 june 1952 The Straits Times article, about a pair of lovers, a 21-year-old indian electrician (Maniam) and a 23-year-old chinese girl (Ah Eng), who were tried in court after they tried to commit suicide by jumping into the sea from esplanade park (they were rescued from the sea by a malay seaman). when asked by the magistrate why they did so, Maniam said: "I am ardently in love with the girl, but I know it is a hopeless affair."
💔 💔 💔
fiction fails when history was so cruel. these two lovers did no wrong, and i didn't want to write a story or a dialogue, so i wrote lyrics incorporating statements from the court hearing. sixty years on, one hopes things have gotten better for any sort of relationship that falls out of the bounds of societal norms (be it race / class / religion / age / gender), but the going is always gonna be tougher than it should have to be. if you're in a relationship with someone your parents / peers / workplace / strangers don't accept / acknowledge / approve of, this one's for you <3 <3 <3]
performed by Shak feat. ALK
composed by Victor Low
arranged by Evan Tan
lyrics by ALK
