Content Warning: Death, Violence, Implied Homophobia/Transmisogyny What do a country and the army have in common? Both are held together by stories. When someone says that they feel like part of a larger body - say, the shared experience of National Service or a sense of Singaporeanness - their sense of insidership is produced through … Continue reading “Have You Ever Wondered?” Stories, Belief and Identity in “23:59” (2011)
Traumatic Ruptures: “Demons” by Daniel Hui (2018)
Content Warning: Sexual Violence, Trauma Something unspeakable lurks beneath the surface of Demons. Vicki (Vicki Yang), an aspiring actress, can't find the words to express herself during a recruitment interview with theatre director Daniel (Glen Goei). In the absence of speech, the camera focuses - in almost obscenely close detail - on the tremor in … Continue reading Traumatic Ruptures: “Demons” by Daniel Hui (2018)
On Cultural Identity
[C]ultural identity is not a fixed essence at all, lying unchanged outside history and culture. It is not some universal and transcendental spirit inside us on which history has made no fundamental mark. It is not once-and-for-all. It is not a fixed origin to which we can make some final and absolute Return. Of course, … Continue reading On Cultural Identity
Kopimotion 