Sequel to Josephine Chia’s 2014 Singapore Literature prize-winning book, Kampong Spirit - Gotong Royong: Life in Potong Pasir, 1955 to 1965. Kampong life in Singapore did not end in 1965 with her independence. In Josephine Chia’s new collection of non-fiction stories, the phasing out of attap-thatched villages, the largest mass movement in Singapore, is set against the backdrop of significant national events. Weaving personal tribulations—her teenage angst—and the experiences of villagers from her kampong, Josephine skilfully parallels the hopes and challenges of a toddling nation going through the throes of industrialisation and rapid changes from 1966 to 1975. These delightful, real-life stories, sprinkled with snippets of her Peranakan culture, reveal the joie-de-vivre of gotong royong or community spirit, despite impoverished conditions, in the last days of kampong life.

This book is based on the true story of the author, of how her own mother struggled for her right to educate her daughters despite her own parochial experience in a small kampong. This highly nostalgic and evocative book pays tribute to her mother's courageous journey from the bloom of youth to her affliction with Alzheimer's disease in old age.

In 1996 I took a long lease, with option, on a 2-storey building in Johor Baru, just across the Causeway from Singapore. I then spent most of my remaining money on fixing it up as the Restorant Eurasia, in anticipation of my Eurasian wife’s return from America. She had gone there on a ridiculously cheap ticket, courtesy of a nephew who worked for Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately she had no insurance cover. One day while walking down a street in Florida, she suffered a stroke, and subsequent complete coma, at the age of 38. I tried to run the restaurant as well as I could, but she was the one with restaurant experience, having managed a successful Thai restaurant in Singapore, with her magic touch. When the Gods frown, they do so in earnest. After a couple of months, the owner of the building, having seen what I’d done with it, and heard about my wife, decided he wanted it back. Being a proper Malaysian gentleman, and a Haji (done his trip to Mecca) to boot, he didn’t come and discuss it with me. Instead, he went to see his friends at Immigration, who then started making problems for me, over my lack of a work permit to run the restaurant. I argued – with the help of my friend at Immigration – that, as the Managing Director of the owning company, I was entitled to direct the management of the restaurant. Eventually my Immigration friend was suddenly posted out, and I was informed that my current visa would not be renewed. Fortunately, at the time of taking the lease on the building, I had also pre-paid a two-year lease on a charming brand new 3-bedroom, 2 bathroom terrace house in Taman Johor Jaya. I had to give up the restaurant, then rent out my house, and flee to Thailand on the last day of my visa. This is the story of my subsequent 9 months living in a cheap village house in a Malay kampong not too far from the Thai border.

This book addresses the increasingly important subject of ecomedia by critically examining the interconnections between environment, ecology, media forms, and popular culture in the Southeast Asian region, exploring methods such as textual analysis, thematic analysis, content analysis, participatory ethnography, auto ethnography, and semi-structured interviewing. It is divided into four sections: I. Activism, Environment, and Indigeneity; II. Political, Ecologies and Urban Spaces; III. Narratives, Discourses, and Aesthetics; and IV. Imperialism, Nationalism, and Islands, covering topics such as broadcast media (radio and TV) and the environment; green cinema and ecodocumentaries, ecodigital art, digital environmental literature. It is of great interest to researchers, students, practitioners and scholars working in the area of humanities, media, communications, cultural studies, environmental humanities, environmental studies, and sustainability.

This encyclopaedia will be an indispensable resource and recourse for all who are thinking about cities and the urban, and the relation of cities to literature, and to ways of writing about cities. Covering a vast terrain, this work will include entries on theorists, individual writers, individual cities, countries, cities in relation to the arts, film and music, urban space, pre/early and modern cities, concepts and movements and definitions amongst others. Written by an international team of contributors, this will be the first resource of its kind to pull together such a comprehensive overview of the field.

Mummy, why do you always have to leave for 17A… 17A Keong Saik Road recounts Charmaine Leung’s growing-up years on Keong Saik Road in the 1970s when it was a prominent red-light precinct in Chinatown in Singapore. An interweaving of past and present narratives, 17A Keong Saik Road tells of her mother’s journey as a young child put up for sale to becoming the madame of a brothel in Keong Saik. Unfolding her story as the daughter of a brothel operator and witnessing these changes to her family, Charmaine traces the transformation of the Keong Saik area from the 1930s to the present, and through writing, finds reconciliation. A beautiful dedication to the past, to memory, and to the people who have gone before us, 17A Keong Saik Road tells the rich stories of the Ma Je, the Pei Pa Zai, and the Dai Gu Liong—marginalised, forgotten women of the past, who despite their difficulties, persevered in working towards the hope of a better future.

"In this book, Peranakan author Josephine Chia brings us into the world of her childhood in a kampong. Though deprived of modern comforts like electricity or running water, her multi-racial neighbours lived harmoniously with each other in their attap homes, and had a wonderful zest for life and a strong sense of community. This vibrant kampong spirit, or gotong royong, was a significant aspect of living in a kampong. The period 1955 to 1965 was also a dramatic era for Singapore. As the country struggled towards nationhood, the social and political events of this time and their effects are seen through the eyes of the common folk."--Back cover.