From The Straits Times    |

 

Not many people remember the Van Kleef Aquarium, which shuttered in 1991. But for former journalist Clara Chow, who is in her 40s, it figured prominently in her childhood. For more than four decades, families – including hers – flocked to the building at Fort Canning Park on weekends. It might not exist any longer, but it remains her favourite building in Singapore.

That sense of loss relating to the aquarium was compounded by what she saw around her, as Singapore continued its relentless march towards becoming bigger and better. It gave her a deep sense of impotence.

“I felt like I had no control over my surroundings, and that it was a very Singaporean condition – because buildings change, or just disappear,” Clara explains. Fiction was her way of dealing with this sense of powerlessness. “Even if my home was taken away from me, at least my book is something that is mine, and that will always be out there.”

 

 

Her debut work, Dream Storeys – a reimagining of iconic Singapore spaces – is like stepping into a world that’s at once strange and familiar. In one tale, the usual Build-to-Order (BTO) system is replaced by a Print-to-Order (PTO), where couples specify what they want in a flat and get it 3-D printed. In another, the Singapore Flyer becomes a political prison.

Writing speculative fiction about Singapore is more important than ever, says Clara. “Now that we are more secure in our identity, it’s no longer enough to portray reality as we know it. We’re too used to taking Singapore’s safety and prosperity for granted.” She hopes to question what progress actually means, and through the dystopian tales in Dream Storeys, allow room for speculation about what life in a less-comfortable Singapore would be like.

Clara, who now writes full-time, says fiction is her calling. “When I put a realistic situation in a different realm – sometimes, the truth is easier to see.”

 

The Essential Singlit Reading List

Is Catherine Lim the only Singapore author you know? We asked Philip Holden, author of short-story collection Heaven Has Eyes, who’s also a professor of English language and literature at the National University of Singapore, for his list of SingLit must-reads. For the month of August, we’ll be introducing them every Friday.  

 

Suchen Christine Lim, Fistful of Colours (2003)

Image: Straits Times Press

A woman artist’s struggle to understand her own past, against the backdrop of Singapore in the 1980s.

 

This story is the third of a four part SingLit series for August and was originally published in the July’17 issue of Her World.