My Sister's op ed on Yale-NUS, in Chinese!

From Lianhe Zaobao:

黄艺青：耶鲁教员会思考吗？
（2012-04-12）

黄艺青

　　《国大学生报》（Kent Ridge Common）上个月刊登了一篇好文章。作者许春晖说：“不仅是学生显示了鲁莽和以偏概全的刻板印象，就连耶鲁大学教员也是如此——这似乎违反了学术研究的严肃精神。”这让她感到很困惑。然后，她一针见血地问：“有鉴于大学一些拥有终身职位的最杰出教员所提出论点的素质”，我们是不是应该重新考虑同耶鲁的合作？

　　我相信耶鲁人有思考能力，但我可以了解为什么新加坡人可能有不同的看法。关键问题是耶鲁人和新加坡人对政治文化有基本上的不同假定。

　　美国人对一些新加坡法律很反感。新加坡人并不遵守它们——多数时候也不会面对什么后果。同性性交在新加坡是违法的，就像未满法定年龄在耶鲁喝酒一样。我的作家和行动主义分子弟弟黄毅圣并不隐瞒自己是同性恋者，尽管他有一些公开打扮成异性的哗众取宠行为，并出版了有真实名字和脸孔的“出柜”畅销书，警察却从来不找他麻烦。

　　至于审查制度，在Wired杂志被禁后，我在高中课堂上读到它把新加坡形容为“有死刑的迪斯尼乐园”。后来，我还把这课题给自己的学生当作业。在新加坡，有一些做法是肯定会给你惹上麻烦的——至少在你不受耶鲁—新加坡国大学院学术自由保护的情况下。然而，一般上，在言论和性自由课题上，白纸黑字的法律，与法律的实际执法是很不同的事。这在观念上有点复杂，但如果我们搞得清楚，你也应该能够弄得明白。

　　耶鲁大学教员星期四（4月5日）通过在新加坡提倡美国式政治自由的议决，用意是好的。但我不得不告诉你——我们的价值观同耶鲁人并不太一样。要新加坡人想象要求持有枪械的权利是很难的，因为这意味着彻夜派对狂欢后，必须担心能否安全回家。

　　新加坡人嘲笑执政党自我保护的审查制度，但当政府1991年尝试放宽电影审查时，公众的强烈反弹却迫使它收回措施。焚烧可兰经在新加坡是违法的，我们欢迎这样的做法。我们对价值观的先后排序有所不同，而不同并不表示不对。至少这是我从耶鲁的博雅教育所学到的。

　　然而，虽然在耶鲁已经9年，我真的仍然无法理解，对耶鲁—新加坡国大学院与星期四议决同时表示支持的教授，他们善意背后的逻辑。对一个新加坡人来说，议决看来等于是要求被踢出这个国家。我可以看到一些采取圆滑手腕的努力，但这在文化上是难以明白的。在建立信任的关键阶段批评伙伴的做法，是在放弃合作前最后采取的谈判策略。

　　议决也让一般新加坡人感到不满。他们本来已经觉得耶鲁得到很好的合作条件——免费校园、免费职员、可以自由地对任何课程进行教学实验，以及甚至不用把耶鲁大学的名字放在文凭上。

和耶鲁大学校长莱文（Richard Levin）教授及其他行政人员不同，我不认为耶鲁人要帮助新加坡改变是一种傲慢的行为。但考虑到政治和文化上的局限，耶鲁要促成改变的最好方法不是强调分歧，而是向新加坡人显示我们所拥有的共同点。

　　新加坡同性恋组织“Pink Dot”选择性地采用了美国的同性恋婚姻和同性恋收养儿童辩论中的一些观点。它强调家庭关系和接受差异——两者都是新加坡人身份认同的核心价值——去年的集会因此吸引了超过1万人。

　　若足够的选民要求改变，政府就会作出反应。去年的大选凸显了部长薪金是“99％”的人非常不满的课题后，政府马上修改了薪金制。美国观察家可能觉得奇怪，但尽管已经掌权超过50年，我们的执政党并没有对公众的情绪视若无睹。

　　你可以不喜欢新加坡运作的方式，我也不想轻视反对党人士，如被执政党告到破产的惹耶勒南的奋斗。但不喜欢它并不能改变我们的政治文化，要改变它，我们就得先面对现实。

　　新加坡不是个孤立或停滞不前的社会。它非常容易受到外来影响——只要它们被认为是我们自己的选择，而不是起哄者所要求的。耶鲁教员议决的目的，可以通过耶鲁在新加坡的存在来实现。不是使用说教而是示范的方式——坚定但谦逊地显示耶鲁值得自豪的地方。

　　编者按：部分耶鲁大学教员反对耶鲁—新加坡国大学院的合作计划，可是反对的理由却是基于对新加坡道听途说式的认识。新加坡籍耶鲁学生黄艺青投稿耶鲁大学生校报《耶鲁每日新闻》，从新加坡人的观点分享了对事件的看法。

英文原题：Can Yale faculty think?

原载《耶鲁每日新闻》（Yale Daily News），作者是在耶鲁研读语言学博士学位的新加坡学生。叶琦保译。

By the way, there's an interview with me on Writing the City.

I share my top five writing tips!

http://civiclife.sg/writingthecity/index.php/my-five-ng-yi-sheng

I wrote a poem about football.

It was printed in today's Today newspaper. The graphic is really super-cheesy (they printed our poems in curly fonts on scrolls for crying out loud, way to alienate the non-poetry reading crowd). But there's some decent stuff.

Commissioned by Mayo Martin, but I take credit for suggesting Pooja Nansi and Leong Liew Geok. Click here.

What the...?

It seems that at the end of last year, someone at the National Library created an Infopedia article about me.

http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1619_2009-12-21.html

Infopedia's an online database on Singapore topics. There's even a blog, called Infopedia Talk, where every new update of Infopedia is noted. The latest writer to be included is the horror and transsexual fantasy writer Joash Moo.

SDP's Let's Talk

At the Ubud Writers' Festival, at a forum on Internet connectivity and freedom of speech, I polled the audience on whether I should agree to a web interview with SDP. (That's Singapore Democratic Party, an opposition party in Singapore, for those of you from abroad.)

Surprisingly, given that it's a human rights event, half the audience members said yes and the others said no. (Those who said no said they were scared I'd never get a government grant again.)

Anyway, I'd kind of made the decision already: the only good reason to say no would be that I was afraid. And the only way to change society is to live without fear.

But I'm talking out of my arse a little. The truth is, I hate listening to myself on recordings so much that I can't watch this clip. So I don't know what bits of the interview got selected.

Ooh, fun fact: the interview itself took place on my birthday last year, 25 November. The interviewer and the director, Chan Tee Lick and Seelan Palay, are both born on the same day. What're the odds?

Verse City

I should also mention that I did a column about the state of Singapore literature for Quill, a Kuala Lumpur-based literary magazine funded by MPH. It's online here at the official site, and also at editor Eric Forbes' site, where it has more comments.

There's going to be regular coverage on Singapore lit by Singapore residents/citizens. Amazingly, the magazine accepted my name for the column: "The Noise Downstairs". :)

Interview for South China Morning Post

I got this done during last year's Ubud Writers' and Readers' Festival. Click to read!

The Jakarta Post owes me an itsy-bisty apology...

Alerted by Gwee Li Sui's Facebook notes! The Jakarta Post covered Singapore Writers Festival in this article, which included the following paragraph:

"There were almost 70 Singaporean literary luminaries directly participating in events, including established writers like Catherine Lim (The Bondmaid, 1995), a self-described “incorrigible, unstoppable storyteller”, and de-facto poet laureate Edwin Thumboo (Ulysses by the Merlion, 1979) to emerging talents like Wena Poon, who won the Singapore Literature Prize for her debut novel Lions in Winter."

Well, as most of you know:

1. "Lions in Winter" is a collection of short stories, not a novel.

2. Wena's debut novel was actually the self-published sci-fi thriller "Biophilia".

3. She didn't win the SLP. She was shortlisted the same year that, ahem, I won. (She was my favourite to win, though.)

Wena's pretty pissed at them too. They referred to her latest book, "The Proper Care of Foxes", as a romance.

Speaking of literary gossip, there's been an intriguing spate happening between NUS English student Nicholas Liu and Gilbert Koh, a banker who also goes by the nom de blog of Mr Wang.

Basically, Nicholas did a QLRS review of Gilbert's first collection of poems, "Two Baby Hands". It's a very, very cutting review, but I have to say I agree with the points made - I've got a certain style and approach to poetry, after all.

Gilbert, however, hasn't handled the criticism well. And it's quite natural to be upset - I'm always upset when I read bad or even mediocre reviews of my theatre work. But he got really - well - snarky and ad hominemly defensive in his responses: see here, here and here.

I dormed with Gilbert at the Pulau Ubin writers' retreat, so I can say he's a pretty nice guy in person. His poetry's a hell of a lot more accessible than mine, too.

But he's gotta learn something: almost all coverage is good coverage. More people are going to check out his book because of the review, and a lot of them are going to like the book. And the controversy caused by this is making more people think about our work in new ways.

Now if only Jakarta Post would write something, good or bad, about me...

Poet X Poet X Photos!

That's me squirming while Prof Lee read my early adolescent juvenilia. I eventually retaliated by performing "Prospect of a Drowning" in Singlish.

Ooh, did I mention we had an audience?


They stuck around for two hours - some of them standing! - while we gabbed about each other's poetry (with brief anecdotal excursions about our personal lives, and those of others, for which I sincerely apologise). Very good response, according to Kenny: someone said it was the best Singapore lit event s/he'd been to in a long time.


This was thanks in no small part to our moderator, Gwee Li Sui. (Edwin Thumboo also interjected a fair number of times. He's being hidden by the stack of plastic cups.)

And really, it was a gorgeous place to have the event:


Photos courtesy of Alvin Pang.

While we're at it, why not some photos from the Life! Theatre Awards? Here's Wong Chee Wai/Ng Tze Wei getting his Best Set Design for "The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles".



And here's the crowd: (from left to right: Brian Gothong Tan, members of ZingO Drum Group, Fran Borgia, Elizabeth Tan, K Rajagopal):


And our (unnervingly precocious) entertainment:


Now that they've scaled it back to a nominees-only ceremony, it's unlikely that I'll be invited back next year. Ah well, I've decided to concentrate on books rather than drama this year, and there's a price for every venture. (More on that in a later post.)

Now to file my taxes.

I didn't win anything...

But I got to pick up the trophy for Ka Fai who got Best Multimedia for Reservoir.


He's in the UK filming stuff for Diaspora (TheatreWorks people never attend the thing anywayz), so I went up, talked about what a great guy he is to work with and that he should be recognised as a director as well as as a multimediator, and then exhorted everyone to watch his upcoming Revolution Per Minute (23 to 25 April).

Ng Tze Wei got Best Set Design for "The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles"! And he deserves it. Seriously, that man can spin straw into gold.

I'm on p93 of Men's Folio, March '09!

It's weird to be in a magazine where every single other person is sexier than you.

Interview on The Online Citizen

I've been interviewed by Singapore's only real investigative newspaper. Read it here.

Also, the reading at Booksactually tonight/last night was really good. Quick pace, and the addition of my invited readers Tan Chee Lay, Pooja Nansi and Bani Haykal really had some effect on the chemistry of the night. Hopefully they'll get asked to more English language readings from now on. They deserve it. :)

Article from the Associated Press

About the Singapore theatre scene in general, but it's got a quote from me. And it's been printed in IHT and

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/24/asia/AS-Singapore-Easing-Censorship.php

This version has a weird photo of me. Sigh. Must get haircut.

And to continue my streak of overexposure to the media...

I'm gonna be on Razor TV tomorrow at 2pm, talking about Raffles and my play.

UPDATE: Here they are, God love 'em. I stammer way too much.

Mediawhore re-redux

Not only was I in the papers yesterday (to publicise the Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles), as well as in the papers today (as part of Life!'s 30 Under 30 series); I'll be in the papers tomorrow for with my National Day poem.

Chrise.

This is how much I rule.

First off, I've actually completed one of those DIY wooden dinosaur skeleton models you can buy for $6 from the Science Centre. They always used to elude me when I was a kid, and I'd break the pieces. Now, I have matured:



Beaut, innit? This one's a dragon and a phoenix battling over the sun. Way cooler than a stegosaurus, huh?

And just as importantly, I've published my first novel, "Eating Air". It's already selling at Kinokuniya.



As noted before, it's actually a novelisation of the movie by Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng, which I lerrrrved when it came out in 1999. Last year I was commissioned to write it by National Library Board, and it's finally out, together with Dr Yeo Wei Wei's novelisation of Royston Tan's "4:30" and James Toh's rendition of Eric Khoo's "12 Storeys".

And damn, we had a pretty posh launch. It was held in The Pod @ the National Library (i.e. that weird bubble on the 17th floor). There was an absurdly theoretical moderator:



And an absurdly solipsistic question from the floor:



And, as you can see, hordes of library officials who had no idea what they were doing there.

Strangely enough, Royston, James and Eric failed to appear at this launch. Only the "Eating Air" folks came out in force: Kelvin, Jasmine and I more or less dominated the panel. Following which, we went over to VivoCity's Sushi Tei to get stoned on sake, soba and salmon sashimi. Sedap.

Here's me, Kelvin and Jasmine.



Here's (from left to right) publisher Enoch Ng, fellow writer Dr Yeo Wei Wei, a grinning Kelvin and a derisive Jasmine. Almost in the picture is Kat, Kelvin's assistant director at Boku films.



And I plunge back into obscurity. Just watch me. :)

UPDATE: Ooh ooh ooh! Channel News Asia has an article about the book! (But not, sadly, about my mad woodcraft skillz.)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/355416/1/.html

Front

I was on Front, our weekly embarrassingly-contrived-wannabe-hip arts TV show tonight - 9:30pm, Tuesday, Arts Central. Missed it 'cos I was at a poetry slam at Velvet Underground.

The topic of the story was "Is rap the new poetry?" I'm not sure if they recorded the bit where I say what a retarded question that is.

Anyhow, it oughta be rerunning on TVMobile all of this week. Stay tuned.

I Am a Face to Watch

We've all had a good laugh about this article - it describes me as "a writer with a finger in every pie", and god knows that's the truth - and they haven't even documented my theatre review work, my performance poetry, my experimental poetry and my multimedia collaborations with VISTA Lab. (Coincidentally, Torrance Goh, our VISTA set designer, got named as a face to watch in this week's design and fashion segment. Woot, but by the time the papers recognise it, it's already old news.)


It's very good company to be in - choreographer/dancer/artist/interdisciplinarian/JC teacher Daniel K, curators Low Sze Wee, Matthew Ngui and Joselina Cruz, and actress Mindee Ong of 881 - who, incidentally, is described at being best at playing "women who are down but not out". Giggle giggle.

ContraDePiction

I've stolen some photos of ContraDiction III from the IndigNation website - probably taken by Alex Au himself. Looking back, I'm gladder than ever about how it went (it may be the first time that I've been put in charge of curating a literary reading too, which makes me feel all grown-up, teehee).

That's Qian Xi and me, opening the evening with our poems (we were sacrificial lambs lah)


Chan Sze-Wei had a brief play-reading by SRT Young Company and read two poems (she said it's her virgin reading some more!)

Next up were Zhuang Yisa and Yak Aik Wee (who did a combination of music and text).

This is a shot from the back of the stage (where the sexually suggestive snacks table was) so you can get an idea of the setup.

Jonathan Lim and Jasmine Seah made an astonishingly good pair - they alternated their pieces, and Jonathan read all these sultry, sexual poems whereas Jasmine read poems of detached sensation and restraint. Camp men and stone women on love - very nice how the gender parity of the evening worked out too.

Could I just show off my rainbow dhoti again? Along with Indu's amazing cheongsam? Indu read from her blog (very powerful rendition; the piece we picked was nice and rhythmic). Maia Lee and Lee Gwo Yinn also did blog entry readings (see below).


And Amannda Teee (I'm misspelling her name to reduce googlabilty, since she's still in JC) was a really good performer - guitarist and songwriter. Hope she doesn't give up music; she wowed the crowd.



And can I just boast that thanks to Stephanie Yap, we were the only IndigNation event to get press coverage without getting banned first? She couldn't mention it was queer, though. It must be tough being a mainstream arts reporter in a Renaissance city - all the artists are queer except Raphael.

Let's talk about love

The third ContraDiction event will focus on lesser-known poets and musicians.

Ftw! Stephanie Yap actually managed to get ContraDiction 3 advertised in the Sunday Times! 12 August 2007, L25. Sappy headline, but that's ST branding apparently. :P

Love will take centrestage at poetry and music event ContraDiction – including its myriad joys and heartbreaks.

Now in its third year, the annual event celebrating gender and sexuality will be held at arts venue 72-13 this Sunday.

Curating the event this year is poet and playwright Ng Yi-sheng, whose recently staged works include the musical Georgette and the play 251.

Ng, 27, who participated as a reader in previous years, says that this year's event differs from past ones due to its even gender distribution.

While five women and five men will be performing on Sunday, including STOMP star blogger Maia Lee, Ng says the event was testosterone-driven in previous years.

"There are more published writers and poets who are male than female, so I'm glad we've got more women readers this time," says Ng, himself a published writer who will read from his debut poetry collection, Last Boy.

Another change this year is the absence of established writers like Cyril Wong and Alfiaan Sa'at, who both participated in previous readings.

Says Ng: "I want the focus to be on lesser-known artists, as well as people not traditionally considered writers."

Thus, he has rounded up budding poets like Foyle Young Poet Teng Qianxi, musicians like singer-songwriter Iris Judotter, and even bloggers like Maia Lee and Lee Gwo Yinn.

Another participant is civil servant Chan Sze Wei, who works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Chan, 27, will be reading "two little love poems" – one about falling
in love and the other about breaking up.

An extract from a play she wrote last year with the Singapore Repertory Theatre Young Company, about teenage depression, will also be performed.

She hopes the audience will be touched by the stories they hear: "I hope that for each audience member, there will be something in the stories and ideas that will resonate with them, something that they'll take away with them as a new gift."

ContraDiction is on this Sunday at 7:30pm at TheatreWorks, 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road. Admission is free. Rated R-18.

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