DOCSLIB.ORG

Phd Thesis: Creative Singapore, Paradoxes and Possibilities

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Phd Thesis: Creative Singapore, Paradoxes and Possibilities PhD Thesis: Creative Singapore, Paradoxes and Possibilities The Geographies of Cultural Activism in an Authoritarian City-State Jason Luger King’s College London/National University of Singapore Departments of Geography Submitted for Degree of: PhD, Geography (Arts) 1 Abstract Singapore faces a crossroads. Decades of top-down arts policies have given rise to a robust grassroots arts community, yet this cultural shift has also exposed tensions and contradictions. Indeed, Singapore’s ‘cultural turn’ has unleashed forces and tensions that may be uncontrollable, and may be shifting the City-State in new and uncharted directions. In the context of growing activism around the world, Singaporean ‘artivists’ seek alternative forms of place-making and creative expression, sometimes reifying, at other times challenging, the State and the status quo. Yet this artistic-activist community is far from being a united front. The State, likewise, is not a single, coherent entity, but is fluid and shifting, sometimes allied with, at other times opposed to, art- led activism. Space is a crucial lens in which to explore these tensions and contradictions. The findings of this thesis are summarised through a three-pronged taxonomy of cultural-activist spaces: indoor space, subdivided into theatres, galleries, cafés, and the spaces of the university; outdoor spaces, which range from State-designated spaces of activism to ‘pop up’ spaces of arts-led activism; and, finally, digital space, which spans social networks and the Singaporean ‘blogosphere’. Each spatial scale contains distinct possibilities and limitations on the effectiveness of, and the ability for, such activism to be transformative and influence policy shifts. These spaces are, of course, also often blurred. This thesis adds to the emerging conceptualisation about ‘cultural activism’, particularly in the context of the non-Western world, and thus broadens the ‘worlding’ of urban theory. Questions are raised about assumptions around concepts such as authoritarianism and the arts, which, in Singapore, are revealed to be complex and highly fluid. This thesis can also inform policy-makers in terms of practical application, as the decades of arts and culture policy in Singapore can now be understood to have produced a multitude of tangible, measureable results (some of which were intended, while others were not.) 2 Acknowledgments I am grateful to King’s College London Graduate School for providing me with funding for this project and for the unique institutional agreement between King’s and the National University of Singapore that gave birth to this study. This thesis would not have been possible without the support of Professor Loretta Lees, my first supervisor at King’s College London (though she is now at the University of Leicester), who first recognised the paradoxes and possibilities of this project, provided support and creativity, and, at times, a swift kick in the behind. Singapore-based supervisors and mentors, Professors Pow Choon-Piew and T.C. Chang, were vital to the completion of this project, both on the ground and as gateways to field research in the City-State. Thanks also to Dr. Alex Loftus, my second supervisor at King’s College London, who cheerfully provided another set of eyes and ears and moral support. There are too many contacts and friends in Singapore to thank individually, but needless to say it took a village to support my research – to lend me precious time to answer my questions, provoke me, allow me to provoke, and invite me into the hidden spaces of their beautiful tropical island. Their help has been invaluable, and I retain lasting friendships and connections with several of those I came to know during my research. There are certain people in Singapore that may not grace the pages of this thesis but will always remain with me as remarkable features of my time there, who helped to graciously welcome me: Sebri, at the ‘Backstage Bar’; the servers at my favourite Hawker Centres; and the taxi drivers, who took me home on humid evenings and shared their thoughts and opinions, often unsolicited. Thank you. Thanks also to the Geography Department at the National University of Singapore, in particular to Professors Lily Kong, Tim Bunnell, Jamie Gillen, and Elaine Ho, for providing unsolicited (and solicited) feedback, insights, and suggestions. The Social and Cultural Geographies (SCG) reading group was a wonderful forum to discuss my, and others’, work. Thanks to fellow geographer Dr. Jenny Lloyd for accompanying me on some occasions to my field-research sites, and on (hot) walks in the forest. Warm thanks to my PhD-student colleagues at King’s College London 3 and NUS who have been there to provide intellectual support, friendly critique, and sometimes just a pint down the pub, as well as the crucial opportunity to discuss things beyond academia. Finally, (not least), thank you to my friends, loved ones (Dan), and family (mom and dad) for supporting me at those dead-ends and helping to break down any blocks I encountered, real or imagined. Your patience and love have largely propelled this work and you have provided inspiration. And lastly, thank you to those who fight every day, small and often frustrating battles for just causes, who work thanklessly and tirelessly for the advancement of creative freedom, free expression, and social and spatial justice in Singapore and anywhere such battles take place. 4 Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................... 9 1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 12 1.1 Happy Birthday, Singapore; Farewell Mr. Lee ........................................ 12 1.2 Hazy Activism; Opaque State ................................................................. 15 1.3 Exposing the Geographies of Cultural Activism in Singapore: Thesis Aims, Approach, and Structure .................................................................................... 17 1.4 Thesis Structure and Outline .................................................................. 19 2. Theorising Cultural Singapore .................................................................. 21 2.1 Singapore in a ‘World of Cities’: To What Do We Compare? ....................... 21 2.1.1 Framing ‘The Asian City’ ........................................................................ 23 2.2 Theorising ‘the State:’ Relationality, Scale, and Governmentality ............... 30 2.2.1 The Strategic-Relational State ............................................................... 32 2.2.2 Governmentality / Governable Space ................................................... 33 2.2.3 Framing the ‘Authoritarian City / State’, with Regard to Singapore ..... 34 2.3 Theorising – and Rethinking – Urban Space ................................................. 39 2.3.1 The Production of Space........................................................................ 39 2.3.2 ‘Space’ vs’ ‘Place’: The Immaterial vs Material City .............................. 42 2.3.3 Reconceptualising Public Space: The Material City Square vs The Digital Agora .............................................................................................................. 45 2.4 Theorising Urban Activism and Resistance ................................................... 50 2.4.1 The Literature on Traditional Urban Activism: Still Valid? .................... 50 2.4.2 The New(?) Geographies of Resistance and Activism ........................... 53 2.4.3 Theorising Digital Activism .................................................................... 59 2.5 Making – and Critiquing – the Cultural City ................................................. 64 2.5.1 The ‘Cultural City’ Becomes a Global Policy .......................................... 64 2.5.2 Making Cultural Cities in Asia: The Arts within Authoritarian Confines 71 2.6. Art-Led Activism / Cultural Activism / ‘Artivism’ ......................................... 76 2.6.1 Art, Activism, and Authoritarianism ...................................................... 78 2.6.2 Art, Activism, and the Asian City ........................................................... 80 2.7 Summary: Key Contributions to Theory and Overall Thesis Research Questions ............................................................................................................ 85 2.7.1 Main Research Questions ...................................................................... 86 5 3. Doing Research in an Authoritarian City State: Ethical Considerations, Positionality, and Reflexivity .......................................................................... 88 3.1 Reflexivity and Positionality ................................................................... 88 3.1.1 Being an ‘Insider’/‘Outsider’.................................................................. 88 3.1.2 Who Am I? Where Do I Come From? How Do I View the World? .......... 89 3.2 The Ethical Challenges - and Considerations - Of Doing Research in Authoritarian Singapore ..................................................................................... 92 3.2.1 Approaching ‘Authoritarianism’ ............................................................ 92 3.2.2 Protecting Informants and Participants ................................................ 95 4. Thesis Research Methods ........................................................................ 99 4.1 Overview ................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Gay Singapore Guide: the Essential Guide to Gay Travel in Singapore 2018
    Enter your search Gay Singapore Guide: The Essential Guide To Gay Travel In Singapore 2018 From a legal standpoint, it is easy to write off Gay Singapore as another homophobic Asian country – after all same-sex activity is technically illegal here, just like India, the Maldives, Brunei, Burma, Malaysia and parts of Indonesia. And yet, Singapore continues one of the most popular gay destinations in the region, and after dark, the famous Neil Street in Chinatown comes to life as gay bars, clubs, spas, and saunas open their doors to tourists and foreigners alike. Like many things in life, LGBT rights in Singapore are complicated. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal under British era sodomy laws – through the law has not been enforced since 1999 – and openly gay men in Singapore are still required to attend National Service, but are restricted dates. No anti-discrimination legislation protects LGBT Singaporeans, and yet if you are walking down the street holding your partner’s hand, or checking in to a hotel together – no one would say anything at all. In many ways, Gay Singapore reflects the traditional Asian approach to LGBT citizens where the family is the basic building block of society, and if you ‘choose’ to be gay it is best kept discrete and from your family. Things are changing, however, as the population pyramid changes and a younger, more progressive generation wrestles control – Just look at the 28,000 mostly young people who attend Singapore’s annual gay rights rally – Pink Dot SG. Singapore has a robust legal system, and hopefully all it takes if for someone to challenge this unfair law and for society to change overnight.
    [Show full text]
  • Singapore Shorts: "Whatever Happened to the Class of 2002?"
    Singapore Shorts: "Whatever happened to The Class Of 2002?" Ben Slater reviews a compilation of Singapore short films, and comments on the past and current crop of short-film makers in Singapore Rewind It was April 2002. The Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) was raging on like a small war against mediocrity. Fresh from England, feeling self-conscious in sandals, I managed to secure a press pass, and attended jury screenings at the SIFF. After each session, everyone would pile into a people-mover vehicle to head for the obligatory nasi padang - Malay food - at the Rendez-Vous Hotel, whose manager is a film fan who supports the festival every year with this culinary kindness. Philip Cheah, the festival director, would offer me a place in the van, but I would decline. Not totally out of shyness, but I was busy, rehearsing a play in Little India, and couldn't dally with cinephiles, much as I wanted to. One morning, we were at the Alliance Francaise for the local shorts competition screening. What were my expectations? Not high, I suppose. Cheah had told me that in previous years, juries had been so underwhelmed by the quality of the films that they refused to give out all the prizes. My only previous experience of short films from Singapore had been a fairly disastrous screening of student work at the Substation (a local arts centre); the documentaries were passable tertiary fare, but any attempt at fiction clunked hard. The Alliance was a fairly large hall, with a few hundred seats. The jury sat on the back row.
    [Show full text]
  • Lim Proof Copy Final (27 Nov)
    Alvin Eng Hui Lim National University of Singapore Theology and Belief in Digital Speech Acts and Online Protests A Singapore Case Study Abstract This article examines the relationship between theology, belief and speech acts. Translated onto or directly performed on digital platforms, speech acts influence the spatial arrangement of protest, especially when such protest concerns theology and belief. Digital platforms such as Facebook and online blogs provide protestors the medium to disseminate and proliferate their ideology, on both the right and the left of the political spectrum. Drawing from the theoretical perspectives of Giorgio Agamben and Shoshana Felman, this study discusses how a network of Christian churches or church affiliated groups and individuals use the internet to counter-perform and protest against the LGBTQ community in Singapore. When such groups theatricalise their objections to any mass assembly of the LGBTQ community and their supporters, the uneasy relationship between theology, state governance, and society plays out in contested ways through offline and online assemblies. Observing the recent 2016 US presidential election and the dissemination of conservative ideology online, the Singapore case study shows a connection between the Christian theology underpinning US politics and the spread of these ideas across the Pacific Ocean through online gestures, tweets, web articles, and digital videos. Performance, Religion and Spirituality vol 1 no 1, pp. 25-42 http://prs-journal.org 26 | Performance, Religion and Spirituality vol. 1 no. 1 Introduction This article looks at the function of digital platforms in relationship to the social-spatial arrangement of protest, especially when such protest concerns theology and belief.
    [Show full text]
  • Hybridity in Singaporean Cinema: Othering the Self Through Diaspora and Language Policies in Ilo Ilo and Letters from the South
    FM4204: Time, Space and the Visceral in South East Asian Cinema Hybridity in Singaporean Cinema: Othering the Self through Diaspora and Language Policies in Ilo Ilo and Letters from the South Student Name: Amanda Curdt-Christiansen Matriculation Number: 140008304 Module Tutor: Dr Philippa Lovatt Date: 21/05/18 Word Count: 3849 FM4204 140008304 爸妈不在家/Ilo Ilo is a Singaporean film directed by Anthony Chen and released in 2013. It recounts the unanticipated development of a relationship between a Filipina woman, Teresa, and a Chinese-Singaporean boy, Jiale, whom she is employed to look after. The story unfurls against the backdrop of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, showcasing the struggle of a very young country in maintaining its core values, its independence, and its dignity in the face of economic disaster. 南方来信/Letters from the South is comprised of six short films from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Myanmar, released in 2013. Of these, I will be focusing on Sun Koh’s film, Singapore Panda, which examines tensions between national and cultural identity in the Chinese diaspora in Singapore. This essay will aim to explicate how diasporic communities maintain (or fail to maintain) their cultural identity in Singaporean cinema. Using Ilo Ilo and Singapore Panda as a starting point, I will unpack how divergent cultural backgrounds colour the style of popular Singaporean films, particularly in their treatment of space. I will begin by providing a contextualisation of the films in terms of the Singaporean political climate: language policy, post-colonial policy, and how these contribute to conflict between the nation and the self.
    [Show full text]
  • LGBTQ POLICY JOURNAL LGBTQ POLICY JOURNAL at the Harvard Kennedy School
    LGBTQ POLICY JOURNAL POLICY LGBTQ LGBTQ POLICY JOURNAL at the Harvard Kennedy School Volume VI, 2015–2016 Trans* Rights: The Time Is Now Featured Articles Trans* Rights: The Time Is Now Rights: The Time Trans* U.S. Department of Justice Agency Facilitates Improved Transgender Community-Police Relations Reclaiming the Gender Framework: Contextualizing Jurisprudence on Gender Identity in UN Human Rights Mechanisms The Forced Sterilization of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People in Singapore A Paradigm Shift for Trans Funding: Reducing Disparities and Centering Human Rights Principles VOLUME VI, 2015–2016 Our Mission To inspire thoughtful debate, challenge commonly held beliefs, and move the conversation forward on LGBTQ rights and equality. A Harvard Kennedy School Student Publication | www.hkslgbtq.com LGBTQ POLICY JOURNAL AT THE HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL VOLUME VI Trans* Rights: The Time Is Now 2015 - 2016 WWW.HKSLGBTQ.COM All views expressed in the LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School are those of the authors or interviewees only and do not represent the views of Harvard University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the staff of the LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School, the advisory board, or any associates of the journal. © 2016 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise specified, no article or portion herein is to be reproduced or adapted to other works without the expressed written consent of the editors of the LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School. ISSN# 2160-2980 STAFF Editors-in-Chief Stephen Leonelli Alex Rothman Managing Editors Charles Fletcher Jonathan Lane Editors Danny Ballon Katie Blaisdell Wes Brown Alice Heath Shane Hebel Chaz Kelsh Priscilla Lee Scott Valentine Jenny Weissbourd ADVISORY BOARD Masen Davis Global Action for Trans* Equality Jeff Krehely Louis Lopez US Office of Special Counsel Timothy McCarthy John F.
    [Show full text]
  • Jan – Feb 20 What We Left Unfinished (2019) Image Courtesy of Wide House 2 January to February 3 Schedule
    ASIAN Issue No 04 FILM ARCHIVE Oldham , Theatre Jan – Feb 20 What We Left Unfinished (2019) Image courtesy of Wide House 2 January to February 3 Schedule * The January–February schedule and programme line-up is correct at the time of print. MARK YOUR CALENDAR Any changes to the above will be updated and reflected on asianfilmarchive.org 2020 • ANIMATING THE ARCHIVE January • ACCESSING THE ARCHIVE DATE TIME FILM RUNTIME VENUE PAGE 10, FRI 8PM • MEMORIES OF MY BODY 106 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 11 11, SAT 8PM • A MOON FOR MY FATHER 75 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 12 12, SUN 6PM • AROUND THE WORLD WHEN YOU WERE MY AGE 110 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 13 15, WED 8PM • WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED 71 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 14 1 7, F R I 8PM • THAT CLOUD NEVER LEFT 65 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 15 18, SAT 8PM • SOMEWHERE 4 SOME TIME 89 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 16 19, S U N 6PM • THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING + INVISIBLE CITY 72 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 18 22, WED 8PM • THE THREE DISAPPEARANCES OF SOAD HOSNI 70 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 22 2 9, W E D 8PM • CINEMA OF THE PALESTINIAN REVOLUTION 92 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 20 31, FRI 8PM • FIFTH CINEMA 56 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 23 2020 • ANIMATING THE ARCHIVE February • ACCESSING THE ARCHIVE DATE TIME FILM RUNTIME VENUE PAGE 01, SAT 8PM • THE PEOPLE WE REVISIT 86 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 28 02, SUN 6PM • THE THREE DISAPPEARANCES OF SOAD HOSNI 70 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 22 05, WED 8PM • AROUND THE WORLD WHEN YOU WERE MY AGE 106 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 13 0 7, F R I 8PM • BATCH '81 110 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 38 08, SAT 4PM • CLASS PICTURE + ANAK ARAW 67 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 24 8PM • THE FILMS WE REMAKE 88 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 30 0 9, S U N 2PM • NOW SHOWING 280 MIN OLDHAM THEATRE 26 4 January to February 5 Schedule * The January–February schedule and programme line-up is correct at the time of print.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Resource Centre 2. Film Fest Weekend 3. En Bloc, Or Buildings
    1. Resource Centre 4. Singapore Girl, or Heritage Deployed 7. Handjob 2. Film Fest Weekend 5. The Vanishing 8. FaceLift 3. En Bloc, or Buildings Must Die 6. SAD 9. Competitions Cities change. People die. Everything you know goes away. ‘But my heart would not bleed poetry. Not a single drop to stain the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow’—poet Boey Kim Cheng asks us, what price for a city that ‘erases the flaws… they plan, they build… they have it all.' Your av- erage life expectancy is 80 years. Look around you—how many buildings will you outlive? You can’t keep the library, the playgrounds, the nameless spaces that you and your friends made your own. Even the old spaces of lore—Bukit Brown, Bidadari, MacRitchie—suddenly loom large. Your mem- ories have no anchors. This landscape doesn’t add up. You can’t believe in the old narrative of progress and constant redevelopment. Not anymore. Resources> MAR NOSTALGIA THE VANISHING, OR TIME GOES AWAY 16 MAR—7 APR After years of neglect, suddenly Everything You Know Goes we worry about our hawker Away Interactive playground designed by Joshua heritage. The question isn’t Comaroff about what we want to save, it’s Accompanied by a series of free storytelling sessions and ticketed workshops for chil- about why. Before the present dren aged 2 to 12 has slipped away, we already A Bout of Nostalgia anticipate loss. Everything is Artist installation by Mary Bernadette Lee becoming a future past. Why 23 MAR do we want to save? What Partners in Grime: Nostalgia and Conservation anxiety and nostalgia drives Panel discussion moderated by Lo Mun Hou these desires? Is nostalgia a form of critique, resistance, or 30 MAR Days of Future Past capitulation in the land of SG50? Film screening of Tan Pin Pin’s In Time to Come with readings curated by Lo Mun Hou and Jason Erik Lundberg Don’t go away> 29 & 30 MAR SAD: The Last Meal Futuristic dining experience conceptualised by Debbie Ding and Ming Tan.
    [Show full text]
  • A. INTRODUCTION 1 Section 377A of the Penal Code of Singapore Is the Key Legislation Which Criminalises Sexual Behaviour Between
    A. INTRODUCTION 1 Section 377A of the Penal Code of Singapore is the key legislation which criminalises sexual behaviour between consenting adult males, even in private. It states that: “Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 yearsi.” 2 Although Section 377A has not often been enforced, its existence is used by a range of government agencies to deny or uphold a wider range of discriminatory policies that effectively strip LGBT Singaporeans of many of the prerogatives and protections of citizenship. The existence of Section 377A also makes it difficult for ministries and government agencies to implement policies to safeguard the well-being of the citizen in Singapore. This joint submission by Oogachaga and Pink Dot SG sketches 377A’s recent legal history, and goes on to explore in some depth the areas of social life that continue to be adversely impacted by it. The report also proposes ways in which these adverse effects can be mitigated. Constitutional Challenge of Section 377A of the Penal Code 3 In 2014, two appealsii challenged the constitutionality of Section 377A and received a hearing in the Singapore Court of Appeal. In the joint judgement for the constitutional challenges, the Singapore Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of Section 377A on a narrow interpretation that the Constitution only prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, descent or place of birth and not sexual orientation and gender identity.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Director of Singapore Gaga 4 Week Sell-Out Run in Singapore
    From The Director of Singapore GaGa 4 Week Sell-Out Run In Singapore Prix International de la SCAM, Cinema du Reel A Documentary By Tan Pin Pin 60 minutes, Video, In Mandarin, Japanese & English English & Chinese subtitles FURTHER INFORMATION Tan Pin Pin, Point Pictures [email protected] tel +65-98515227 http://invisiblecity.sg “Tender and thoughtful” - Reuters “Brimming with humanity” Ong Sor Fen, The Straits Times ABOUT INVISIBLE CITY Invisible City is a documentary about documenteurs. The director interviews photographers, journalists, archaeologists, people propelled by curiosity to find a City for themselves. The documentary conveys how deeply personal their search is and how fragile histories are, hanging on only through their memories and artefacts. Interwoven with the interviews is never seen before footage and photos of Singapore culled from their personal archives. In Invisible City, you witness the atrophy of memory, you see a City that could have been. Invisible City opened in Singapore for a theatrical run on 22 July 2007 where it had a four week sold out run. DIRECTOR’S NOTE I decided to seek out people who, like me, choose Singapore as the topic of their work. I don’t mean where Singapore is the setting for their work, but where Singapore is the main subject. I was curious about whether I was the only person who found this country so interesting, enough to spend most of my professional life making films about its blind spots. I also wanted to thank and show my appreciation to those whose work on Singapore I admired and have benefited from.
    [Show full text]
  • What Does the COVID-19 Pandemic Mean for Pinkdot Singapore? Lynn Ng Yu Ling, 21 April 2020
    Interface: a journal for and about social movements Sharing stories of struggles: 23 April 2020 Ng Yu Ling, PinkDot Singapore What does the COVID-19 pandemic mean for PinkDot Singapore? Lynn Ng Yu Ling, 21 April 2020 As Singapore’s loudest LGBTQ social movement, PinkDot Singapore has grown exponentially over the years. At the inaugural 2009 event, 2500 participants showed up. In 2011 this had multiplied to cross the 10 000 mark. By 2014 a turnout of 26 000 had overflowed the confines of Hong Lim Park, also the state- sanctioned Speakers’ Corner. Since 2015 turnouts have hovered at around 28 000. In 2019 PinkDot 11 released a video to mark the movement’s tenth anniversary. The video charted PinkDot’s humble beginnings and the persistent efforts of local activists in garnering wider support from community members, making international headlines and inspiring secondary movements in other cities worldwide. As COVID-19 takes away the sheer power of a (now) 28 000- strong crowd, PinkDot has no choice but to devote our attention inward to inter- relational work at the community level. PinkDot SG 2009. 1 Interface: a journal for and about social movements Sharing stories of struggles: 23 April 2020 Ng Yu Ling, PinkDot Singapore PinkDot SG 2011. A sense of solidarity beyond nationalized identitarian politics In recent years PinkDot has faced obstacles in expanding movement inclusivity with the 2016 amendments to the Public Order Act. “It is with profound regret for us, the organisers of PinkDot 2017, to announce that as per recent changes to the Public Order Act rules on general assembly, only Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents are permitted to assemble at the Speakers’ Corner.” (PinkDot SG, 2017).
    [Show full text]
  • “We Aren't Really That Different”
    “We aren’t really that diferent” Globe-hopping discourse and queer rights in Singapore Robert Phillips Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada Singapore is one of a few nations in Asia that has yet to decriminalize homo- sexuality yet has a queer scene that rivals other more liberal cosmopolitan centers. Since the introduction of the Internet into Singapore in 1994, queer Singaporeans have been exposed to a variety of regional and transnational dis- courses of sexual subjectivity and rights. In this article, I examine the ways that individuals and activists in Singapore reject the “globalization” of sexuality and instead create unique ways of speaking about queer rights. In the process, they are creating a rights movement that is beginning to fnd limited success. Keywords: discourse, queer rights, transnational sexualities, Singapore, coming out, returning home, tongzhi 1. Introduction One rainy evening in July of 2006, I sat at a large wooden table in a recently reno- vated shop house in the Little India section of Singapore. Te table was at the center of a large, almost empty, well-lit set of rooms that served as the writing space for Walter, a prominent queer1 Singaporean blogger, activist, and cultural critic. I had been reading Walter’s blog, which contained his outspoken views on the Singaporean government and its policies for the past few years and was ea- ger to interview him about the complicated relationships between queer activism and the Singaporean nation, relationships that were at the heart of my disserta- tion research. Before I had a chance to turn on my digital recorder, Walter asked me a question that I had heard many times since arriving in the city-state, “Why Singapore?” He was referring, of course, to the fact that I had chosen Singapore as the site of my research but more specifcally to the commonly held misconception Journal of Language and Sexuality 2:1 (2013), 122–144.
    [Show full text]
  • King's Research Portal
    King’s Research Portal Document Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication record in King's Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Mano, P. (2021). Disarming as a tactic of resistance in Pink Dot. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 10(2), 129- 156. https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jls.20008.man Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on King's Research Portal is the Author Accepted Manuscript or Post-Print version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Research Portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognize and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. •Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the Research Portal for the purpose of private study or research. •You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain •You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the Research Portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
    [Show full text]