In 1950 a Singapore Chinese publisher Phua Chye Long (潘醒农） compiled a set of Teochew oral account relating to the settlement of a group of Teochew gambier planters in Singapore, before the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. Through... more
In 1950 a Singapore Chinese publisher Phua Chye Long (潘醒农） compiled a set of Teochew oral account relating to the settlement of a group of Teochew gambier planters in Singapore, before the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. Through a broad base of evidences, this research confirms the factuality and accuracy of this previously little-known oral account.
作者：李玮（南京师范大学文学院教授）,刊于《百家评论》31期，2017年6月。 Mirrors of Qing- On Chineseness in poems of Singapore Poet CHOW Teck Seng, by LI Wei... more
作者：李玮（南京师范大学文学院教授）,刊于《百家评论》31期，2017年6月。 Mirrors of Qing- On Chineseness in poems of Singapore Poet CHOW Teck Seng, by LI Wei 以“中国中心主义”观看新加坡的诗作时，我们往往关注其中非中国的成分，许多有关新加坡文学的评论都强调其中的“异域性”，而较少注意到其中的“中国性”，或者说“中华性”。事实上，新加坡文学，对新加坡的想象，均伴随或者说对照着对“中国”的想象，并在这种想象中伴随对时间、空间，对历史、对审美传统等关系的别样的理解和建构。周德成的诗代表着近些年新加坡诗歌。仅仅将“中华性”理解为对中国资源的援引，或某种传承脉络是不够的。这些“中国元素”，是周德成诗作主体的重要组成部分，与其诗作整体的时空建构和本体诉求密切相关。多重镜像形成互为指认和相生相成的关系，构成周德成诗作主体的特色。在诗里，“我”与“中国”、“西方”、新加坡”，“历史”和“现在”，并没有“中心”，他们之间相互沟通、联系、对照、相生，于是，“我”本身也并非一个参照“他者”存在的“主体”，而是相生相成的“多重主体”。新加坡的谱系在这几面镜像中呈现，由这几者关系中定位的新加坡并不是一个国族，更是一个文化地域，与此同时，新加坡的镜像也反射着“中国”，这里的“中国” 淡化了主权国家的意味，而成为一个文化集合体，在多重文化的相互对照中表现出相似相异性。周德成的诗，也恰恰很好地体现了“遗民”的特点。这里的“遗民”与朝代更替、政权旁落无关，这个概念在这里指代文化心理或文化时间的错位。“中国”，在周德成的诗作中，并不是一个“移民”的本源国（属于过去），或是一个今非昔比的政治国家（属于当下），而是如“旧梦”、“回忆” 般存在于当下的“过去”，渗透进现实的“梦境”。旧和新、过去和现在、记忆与现实，旧梦和世事，在周德成的诗中，并立出现，具有平等和对照的地位。时间在周德成的诗作里不再具有进化的意义，而是呈现徘徊、流连、重复的状态。在国族历史框架之外，周德成的诗生成另一种“连续性”。它超越国族的边界，它忽略中国人民共和国、新加坡、唐朝或是元朝的差别，也无意进步或落后，文明或是野蛮的分野，这种“连续性”不再附属于时间，而是依赖于时间的重叠，不指向任何的方向，相反，它反顾自身，但它不纠缠理性的反思，更不做任何得失的考量，而只是思量超越一切文明话语束缚某种文化的本心。在周的诗中，以及特别是在中国边缘的诗作中，在遗留和徘徊的时间里，在被遗弃的梦境里，我们才能找到那个沟通的、连续的、熟悉的“中国”。这个“中国”会为被“放逐” 的中国“哭泣”，而被放逐的“中国”也会回望长安，因“长安不见使人愁”。只是这样的“中国” 我们仍然不能冠以“中国”的名字，而只能称之为“中华性”。
Inspired by Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's last book before his suicide The World of Yesterday, this short story seeks to explore the dark consciousness of suicide and death by creating an imaginary dialogue between Zweig and the... more
Inspired by Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's last book before his suicide The World of Yesterday, this short story seeks to explore the dark consciousness of suicide and death by creating an imaginary dialogue between Zweig and the narrator at the former's suicide scene. In the fictive conversation, the narrator explores notions of nostalgia, memory and death by creatively quoting Zweig from his book and combining it with his own. Not only does the text draw many parallel between the postbellums and the current time, it also ventures to form a cross-cultural conversation sustained through the transversal modes and nodes of contact along the planes of history and fiction.
Employing the imagery of the fly as a point of departure, this essay seeks to unravel the underlying existential issues depicted and delineated by the two central figures in Yeng Pway Ngon's fiction Art Studio. Firstly, I posit to see the... more
Employing the imagery of the fly as a point of departure, this essay seeks to unravel the underlying existential issues depicted and delineated by the two central figures in Yeng Pway Ngon's fiction Art Studio. Firstly, I posit to see the fly as the embodiment of an outcast's humble existence. Incoporating Sartrean existentialism for the analysis of the aforementioned figures, I intend to utilise an array of existential concepts such as the Self, the Other, shame, choice and subjectivity for the analysis. By briefly introducing the literary tradition of using the fly as a trope and an imagery, I argue that the ostensible incomprehensibility and bizarreness pertaining to the "fly" are in fact the corollary of our predisposition to pass negative moral judgement on it. However, the "fly" in Art Studio is devoid of such prejudice. The "fly" does not only shed lights on the choices problematised by bad faith, it also represents the persistence and vulnerability of life and existence. Lastly, I steer away from the fiction's philosophical enquiries by situating my last point in the manifestation of sentiments by Ji Zong and Ah Gui. On this note, the "fly" perhaps could also be perceived as a result of Ji Zong's emotional reification towards Ah Gui.
擅長在小說中納入歷史話語的新加坡華文作家謝裕民(1959-) 在二十一世紀初生產了數部值得關注的小說。出生於戰後的他寫下許多膾炙人口的作品，引起許多讀者高度關注。其中，《重構南洋圖像》 (2005)、《甲申說明書:崇禎皇帝和他身邊的人》(2012)、《放逐與追逐》(2015)，與《建國》(2018)四部小說在寫作主題上都 以歷史思維出發。然而，四部書卻呈現出風格迥異的歷史多元性書寫，... more
With the rise of the Sinophone academia, there is no doubt that Bernards’s book further adds a new vista to the field, especially with his reinterpretation of “Nanyang” or “South Seas” narrative (or literary trope that the author prefers... more
With the rise of the Sinophone academia, there is no doubt that Bernards’s book further adds a new vista to the field, especially with his reinterpretation of “Nanyang” or “South Seas” narrative (or literary trope that the author prefers to use) in understanding Chinese literatures in modern Southeast Asia. In addi- tion, his emphasis of the concept of creolization (inspired by his own knowledge of Francophone literature), an important literary quality in this archipelagic re- gion, in place of the commonly-used “hybridity”, helps us reimagine this body of literature, past and present, which definitions have been frequently challenged. ..To me, the greatest takeaway from his book is that his con- cept of Nanyang and Nanyangness is circulatory, open and non-static: it can be reshaped given different geopolitical and historical contextualisation, by an observer taking different spatial and temporal position.
地方不仅是人居住生活的空间,也是情感与记忆牵系的所在。在新加坡华文文学的文学场域中,丁云(1952—)的创作中多有对环境氛围高度不稳定的叙述,反映了生存尽处焦虑忧心的状态。丁云一系列的小说作品皆对乡村与都市进行反思,尤以新加坡与吉隆坡最为显著。本文拟对他的三部小说《围乡》《赤道惊蛰》与《最后的义顺村》做出文本分析,观察小说中对都市的叙述张力,论点从"距离""逃离"与"逝去"开展,以这三个论点分别带出对都市嬗变的观察、逆向逃离与回忆搜索三种姿态,用以阅读小说中的不同都市叙事。文... more
就新加坡女性地位的发展而言，一九八〇年代是特殊时期，女性受教育的比例与男性逐渐接近。普遍认为以男性垄断的领域，诸如政治、经济、科技等，女性也频繁在各领域崭露头角出现。尤其是知识的提升让女性对主体意识有所醒觉，也了解到掌握自我权利的重要性，男女社会地位平等成为不争的事实。本文首先梳理一九八〇年代新加坡女性地位的发展概况，从外缘进入女性文学内部的讨论，进而理解女性作家在此时期对女性议题的反映与思考，接着具体分析孙爱玲(1949–)的小说，从女性的身份、移动等观念出发，探讨她们笔下... more
柳北岸(蔡文玄，1906-1995)在新華文壇中是一位多才多藝的文人。他在古詩、新詩、繪畫、書法，甚至在教育與電影編劇都有突出的表現。本文會以柳 北岸其人生經歷與創作主題，以跨界、世界主義及多元文化等關鍵詞著手，論述上以離散、行旅、跨域等理論框架進行解析，意圖找尋柳北岸在作品中的生命經驗與文學理念，並探討其作多重閱讀的可能。文中整體從三個面向來開展討論: 首先，以柳北岸的具體作品閱讀其人生的經歷，從家園、傳統、情誼等面向解讀... more
