This book brings Anglophone Singapore literature to a global audience for the first time, embedding it within literary developments worldwide. Drawing on postcolonial studies, Singapore studies, and critical discussions in transnationalism and globalization, essays introduce neglected writers, cast new light on established writers, and examine texts in relation to their local-historical contexts while engaging with contemporary issues in Singapore society. It sets new directions for further scholarship on a body of writing that has much to say to those interested in issues of nationalism, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, neoliberalism, immigration, urban space, and literary form and content.

Since the nation-state sprang into being in 1965, Singapore literature in English has blossomed energetically, and yet there have been few books focusing on contextualizing and analyzing Singapore literature despite the increasing international attention garnered by Singaporean writers. This volume brings Anglophone Singapore literature to a wider global audience for the first time, embedding it more closely within literary developments worldwide. Drawing upon postcolonial studies, Singapore studies, and critical discussions in transnationalism and globalization, essays unearth and introduce neglected writers, cast new light on established writers, and examine texts in relation to their specific Singaporean local-historical contexts while also engaging with contemporary issues in Singapore society. Singaporean writers are producing work informed by debates and trends in queer studies, feminism, multiculturalism and social justice -- work which urgently calls for scholarly engagement. This groundbreaking collection of essays aims to set new directions for further scholarship in this exciting and various body of writing from a place that, despite being just a small ‘red dot’ on the global map, has much to say to scholars and students worldwide interested in issues of nationalism, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, neoliberalism, immigration, urban space, as well as literary form and content. This book brings Singapore literature and literary criticism into greater global legibility and charts pathways for future developments.

Explore the contemporary culture and traditional customs of Singapore and Malaysia in a volume that belongs on shelves in every high school and public library. Culture and Customs of Singapore and Malaysia examines all aspects of contemporary life in these two geographically close and historically and culturally connected nations, starting with the people fighting to maintain a balance between the new and the traditional. The book shows how religion has evolved through time in the two nations and examines how literature and traditional crafts thrive today. It highlights the performing arts and entertainment, noting how Western culture has influenced and shaped new customs. Housing and architecture, both modern and traditional, are discussed, along with cuisine and fashion. Students can use the book to analyze gender roles and family life. They can also read about the ways in which festivals are celebrated and can compare and contrast leisure activities of Singapore and Malaysia with their own. The volume concludes with a look to the future of these two evolving countries, both moving toward modernity, but still holding on to the traditions of the past.

A comprehensive historical anthology of English-language literary works from Singapore. It attempts to place the texts that have imagined the territory and the people who are now recognizably Singaporean in a historical narrative, to be read, studied, critiqued and treasured.

Chang provides a comprehensive history of late 20th century Taiwanese literature by placing the vibrant local tradition within the contexts of a modernising economy, & a postcolonial, post-Cold War world order.

Editors: Ann Ang, Daryl Lim Wei Jie and Tse Hao Guang Food Republic is a generous serving of Singapore’s food culture: from the making and eating of food, to the sale and hawking of it, our love and hate of it, and the effects of its consumption and deprivation. Food has always been our safe space, our comfort zone: a place where we could freely engage in heated arguments about the best nasi lemak, the most fragrant cendol and whether the standard of the stall has dropped or not. Yet this anthology, featuring more than one hundred literary explorations of our food and food culture, also shows that when people write about food, they often aren’t just talking about food but usually about something else, closer to the heart. Or the bone. Curated from previously published work and selections from an open call, the poems, fiction and non-fiction in Food Republic range from the passionately realised to tantalisingly surreal. Think of it as a buffet, a banquet, an omakase, a smorgasbord, a nasi padang spread, a thali or a rijsttafel – we hope we’ve assembled one to your taste. Come. Eat.

A semantic, pragmatic and cultural interpretation of Singapore English, offering a fascinating glimpse of Singaporean life.

During the 1920s, China's intellectuals called for a new literature, a new system of thought and new orientation towards modern life. Commonly known as the May Fourth Movement or the New Culture Movement, this intellectual momentum spilled beyond China into the overseas Chinese communities. This work analyzes the New Culture Movement from a diaspora perspective, namely that of the overseas Chinese in Singapore. Because they were members of a diaspora, the Chinese in Singapore first had to imagine themselves as part of the Chinese nation before they could fully participate in the movement. Also, Singapore's new culture advocates adopted then amended the movement's basic ideas to fit their situation. This work furthers our understanding of transnationalism and reminds us that in our rush to deconstruct the nation we should remember the discursive power of nationalism as it both enhances and restricts the authority of its advocates.

This is the first book to present in English a history of post-colonial and diasporic Chinese literatures in Singapore and Malaysia. The 12 essays collected in it provide an in-depth study of the emergence of the new Chinese literatures by looking at the origins, the themes, the major authors and their works, and how the creativity is closely connected with the experience of immigration and colonialization and the challenge of the post-colonial world. In examining a wide range of post-colonial texts and their relation to the cultures of diasporic Chinese and post-colonial society, the author shows that each of the new literatures has its own traditions which reflect local social, political and cultural history. The essays also show that the literature of Singapore or Malaysia has a tradition of its own, and writers of world class. Besides the Chinese literary tradition, a native literary tradition has been created successfully.