Writing The City: Nurturing Singapore’s Written Voice
As more and more writers are getting inspired, an online platform is helping to shape Singapore’s literary journey.
“Think of salmon swimming up stream against the current, heading towards home. This is you, the individual existing within the crowd. This is you: the writer. Swim, swim and swim again. Or, to put it another way, write, write and write again. Even if the world ignores you or obstructs you ... even if no one cares whether you can write or not, just write because you want to. There is no better reason.”
These words are spoken by Singapore author Suchen Christine Lim in “The Individual and the City,” one of six short, episodic films produced for Writing the City.
Life
Alec Tok: A Shining Light for Singapore?
The filmmaker turned politician reveals how he would like to see Singapore change.
Based in New York and Shanghai -- and now extending his reach to Singapore --
45-year-old director and filmmaker Alec Tok surprised everyone when he was announced as a candidate for the opposition’s Reform Party earlier this year ... Here, he discusses how politics impacts his artistic work and the difference between a home and a country.
[Note: Alec Tok has since joined the Singapore Democratic Party]
10 Acts to Catch at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival
Dance, theater, installations, photography and this time even a smell workshop, will make their appearance at this year's M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. Known for showing smaller and more focused works, this Festival, into its seventh year, curated by long-standing theater company The Necessary Stage, will be presenting us with its strongest Asian line-up ever, with acts from China, Japan, Singapore, India and South Korea.
Night Cyclists: Exploring Singapore When the Sun Goes Down
"We set off at 9:20 p.m., and headed into the trail. Ride leaders were GasBag and G-Man... With lights at high-intensity, we got through the many humps and ruts with ease, riding uphill until we came to the obstacle. Once over, we crossed a shallow stream. "Halfway down, Froggie raised his fist to signal us to stop. We heard radio chatter, and decided to go into stealth mode. All phones and lights were switched off, and we were cloaked in a velvety blackness.
Real Men Pole Dance
At Bobbi’s Pole Studio in Singapore, any notion you had that pole dancing is only for female strippers and/or wusses is quickly abandoned.
When you think of pole dancing, you think of hot women in high heels and tight clothes, leg and arms akimbo performing eyebrow-raising moves. But at Bobbi’s Pole Studio you also get fit guys in shorts executing gravity-defying acrobatics that require an admirable amount of upper body and core strength, and a whole load of guts.
Singapore's Best Small Museums
If the thought of traipsing round dusty galleries for hours makes you swoon, head for these small Singapore museums -- history, culture and fun.
SAM at 8Q: Since its opening in 2008, this extension of the Singapore Art Museum has been making a name for itself through its continual roll out of experimental, multi-disciplinary exhibitions in the form of painting, sculpture, installation, photography, performance, and mixed-media forms.
Finding Her Voice
Veteran Singaporean songstress Kit Chan has done it: she’s flown the nest of a big record company, struck out on her own — and is having an amazing time.
Back in the mid-1990s, when Singapore’s music industry was still very much operating within its shores, a young singer surprised everyone when she broke into the well-established and seriously competitive Mandoand Cantopop markets of Taiwan and Hong Kong. This was Kit Chan ...
R Cheran: Beyond Borders
As Tamils have migrated from their southern Asian homelands, they've birthed a new wave of writing that's taken the world by storm. Prolific author R Cheran tells Elaine Ee about developments in the diaspora's literature.
