Editorial

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The inaugural issue is largely centered on pre-1965 Singapore. This did not happen by design, but it is no accident either that this period of ‘open politics’ before the consolidation of PAP rule is the starting point of inquiry, when home scholars attempt to explore if there were alternative logics to that of the Singapore Story which it has silenced.

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

Sai Siew Min

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To write the history of the Communist Underground or the Left-wing movement in post-war Singapore demands more than simply filling in the blanks of the existing dominant narrative with authentic voices of erstwhile participants hitherto denied their right of articulation by the hegemonic Singapore state. It also demands resisting the temptation to flip the dominant story around, championing the cause of the so-called “losers” and turning them into heroes who have arrived decades too late on the historiographical scene in contemporary Singapore.

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A Personal Journey In Search Of Fajar

Lim Cheng Tju

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Let me begin with my personal journey. I was teaching Singapore history at a junior college a few years back. It was a source-based paper, using primary and secondary materials to teach the history of Singapore from 1945 to 1965 – from the end of the Japanese Occupation to independence.

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Huang Kaide’s ‘Our Memories’

Introduced and translated by Kwee Hui Kian

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Born and raised in Singapore, Huang Kaide is an award-winning poet and prose writer. He has published Tiao si wei zhi 跳死为止 (1995), Xiu ding ban 修订版 (1996), Dai zhi 代志 (2004). In recent years, he has also explored writing short stories, and most pertinently from the perspective of this e-journal, these narratives are based on various historical events in Singapore in the period from 1950s to 1980s.[1] In four instalments, Kaide explored the themes of sexuality, memory and history in each decade, mostly seen through the eyes of a little boy.

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Interpreting National Language Class

Daniel PS Goh

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Nowadays, being forty-one years of age marks the middle of one’s life. It can be a time for reflection on what we have achieved and what we want to do in the remaining future. It can also be a time for denial, when the past is consumed as mere nostalgia and the present momentum of life is adhered to with the gritting of teeth. This was the dilemma of the nation in August 2006.

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The Continuing Saga of Singapore’s Story

Hong Lysa

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Ever since its inception, The Singapore Story has attempted to saturate the content and meanings of Singapore history for Singaporeans. It is the narrative by PAP leaders of their sacrifices, hardships, courage, endurance, and achievements, and of how their successors have continued with their good work.

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In Memory of Linda Chen (1928-2002)

Tan Jing Quee
with a poem by Usman Awang and extracts from Said Zahari‘s memoirs

Photograph of Linda Chen, December 1996, courtesy of Loh Miaw Ping

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Linda Chen passed away peacefully on 29^th December 2002, four days after she suffered a stroke at her home at Hua Guan Avenue on Christmas Day. She was cremated at Mount Vernon on New Year’s Day. A large crowd of friends and relatives attended the simple ceremony in which her husband Professor Dr Tan Seng Huat and their three children spoke with emotion on Linda the idealist, mother and friend.

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Ho Piao: A Personal Recollection and Appreciation

Tan Jing Quee

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Ho Piao’s life can be neatly segmented into three phases, all interconnected and evolving. He was born in 1937, the year the Pacific War began, with the Japanese incursion into North-east China, which eventually led to the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December 1941. Britain resumed its colonial control over Malaya following Japanese surrender in 1945, and a brief period of peace prevailed, until this was interrupted by the onset of the Malayan Emergency from June 1948.

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

Event announcement by Francis Lim Khek Gee
Organised by The Tangent
Nov-Dec 2007, Singapore Management University

Exhibition blog archive

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In a recent roundtable on ‘Rethinking Singapore History’, a junior college student posed a poignant question that might be regarded as both an indictment and a rallying cry: why is it that, for such a long time, there has been a paucity of historical work that move beyond, or challenge, the dominant state narrative of the ‘Singapore Story’?

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