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This conversation made me want to think about an audience I haven’t written for in a few years: young, ambitious, disconnected Singaporean youngsters. Might do an essay later, might as well do a thread in the meantime https://t.co/VjPzbMev3m
43. Killiney with @jurvistan & Niklaus: being a creative, self-directed person in Singapore, being simultaneously undersocialized and oversocialized, schooling vs education, developing taste, making friends, disagreement judo, oral histories, growing up online, slingshot theory https://t.co/OMpXZOU32J
A memory I’ve been sharing with several friends lately: I can’t stop thinking abt one of my schoolteachers’ daughters - SG Chinese girl born & raised in the US, incredibly articulate + expressive at a very young age. Made me feel like most Singaporeans are “undersocialized”
I like to remind people that LKY was an extremely opinionated and articulate man. He was a naughty boy who was late to school, copied homework, smoked cigarettes, drank whiskey, rode a motorcycle, married in secret and started a political party that opposed the government
Every city has a vibe. Singapore has a vibe too, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anybody describe in a way that’s true to my experience of it. Maybe it’s been done in a local novel that I haven’t read. With tenderness & hope: Singaporeans are still recovering from postwar trauma
This is the simple truth - I first heard it from @mengwong - and it explains so much about us. Singapore is that guy that was severely beaten up and pissed on, & with tears in his eyes decided that he was going to steel his heart & be a Tough Motherfucker In This Cruel World https://t.co/eMhed9KVzg
When outsiders talk about the drug laws and mandatory conscription and how creepy-clean everything is, they never seem to *get it*. They don’t get the pain. Imagine if 3-5% of Americans were murdered by invading forces. For context, 9/11 killed ~0.000092% of Americans https://t.co/XNPj3IBGaZ
I have a lot of feelings ok. We are the grandchildren. We are the legacy of pain and suffering. Asian parents don’t tell you they love you, they show you by feeding you. And they don’t tell you they’re scared, they show you by controlling your life. This is our inheritance
But we can be more. We will be more. We can transmute the unspoken pain of our parents. We can learn to see the misguided love in their traumatized policies. Already in the ashes I can see, I have seen- there is life. We will find and support each other https://t.co/mKmiRoFeNt
BRB going to blast some heavy metal and lift weights so I can serve my country. Majulah Singapura https://t.co/DKkjKHNyzY
@visakanv “I don’t know where the answer is, but somehow i feel it ties in with Singaporeans being unable to come to terms with our own identities.” https://t.co/dzOGyM6lLc