by Felix Cheong It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when the stork arrives, it never comes with an instruction booklet. Yes, there are self-help books, the doomscroll of YouTube videos, and hand-me-down war stories—unsolicited, of course—from relatives and friends. But nothing quite prepares you for that cute, squalling Mini-me that is now your responsibility, your center of gravity, your life. And naturally, you want to document every fleeting thing before it starts slip-slidin’ away. Looking at my stash of sepia-bitten photos of my son from thirty years ago, I can certainly identify with the sentiment. That impulse gave rise to… Read More
A Mild Case of Mass Hysteria
by Laboni Das Some illnesses begin with a virus. Others begin with a rumour. Felix Cheong’s A Mild Case of Mass Hysteria, illustrated by Ritwick Roy and Riddhi Trivedi, opens with an event that sounds too strange to be true. Set in Singapore in October 1967, the graphic novel revisits one of the country’s most unusual episodes of collective fear: suo yang, when hundreds of people believed their genitals were retracting into their bodies and that death would soon follow. For many readers outside Southeast Asia, this episode will be entirely unfamiliar. Yet Cheong wisely refuses to treat it as… Read More
To Tame a Tiger – The Singapore Story – Updated Edition
awaiting review
The Pandemic Cookbook
By Kevin Wolf The Pandemic Cookbook: Some Voices and Dishes in the Years of a Novel Coronavirus provides a lesson of how one country, Singapore, tried to minimize the occurrences of and deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. According to the authors The PANDEMIC COOKBOOK was “Compiled and Jumbled Up by” Sonny Liew (award-winning[i] cartoonist) & physician Hsu Li Yang[ii]. About a dozen representative people interviewed and additional research by the authors along with the public health expertise of Dr. Yang informs this work. We also learn some Singapore history and customs through various meals provided and recipes created… Read More