By Yap Ying Ting, Megan
Diploma in Creative Writing for TV and New Media
Singapore Polytechnic
One would expect to feel happy after winning a prestigious award. However, Danielle Lim had mixed feelings instead. Her debut novel, The Sound of SCH, was the co-winner of the Singapore Literature Prize in 2016. It is the account of her uncle’s struggle with schizophrenia and her mother’s 30-year role as his caregiver. While Danielle was happy with the recognition of her work, the telling of such a deeply personal story brought back to mind her family’s painful journey of dealing with mental illness.
Danielle Lim’s books are her way of searching for beauty and truth in life. (Photo credit: Yap Ying Ting, Megan)
The Story That’s Within
The story’s unusual title started taking shape only after Danielle was many drafts into her manuscript.
“I realised that there was this sound that just kind of weaved through many of the themes that I had, so that was how it came about,” she says.
The sound appeared when her uncle wore his brown rubber slippers. “Sch, Sch,” went the slippers each time they come into contact with the floor. It also appeared when he was working as a sweeper at the Police Academy. “Sch, Sch,” went the bristles of his broom.
This was a story that found her, not one she had gone looking for. Danielle, who had a career in banking, never thought she would become a writer when she was young. The feeling grew as she moved on in life and at certain point in time she just “felt that [she] wanted to write”.
“This story,” she says, “has actually been with me since I was a little girl. So, when I felt that I wanted to write, naturally, this was something I came back to, to search for the beauty and meaning in my uncle’s life and in my mum’s life.”
The 44-year-old hopes that her book can play a part in breaking the silence around mental health issues and highlighting the role of caregivers, who are often underappreciated.
Her Inspiration
Danielle, who lectures at Nanyang and Republic polytechnics, says she does not have much time on her hands now to write. However, she proved herself wrong when she published her second book Trafalgar Sunrise in 2018.
It’s a novel about the search for truth and redemption during the SARS epidemic in Singapore.
Danielle emphasises the need to embrace life courageously in order to be able to write.
“You can’t write about life unless you experience it,” she states. “Of course, there is a place for imagination, but [there] has to be a balance. You can’t imagine what pain is like if you have never experienced pain.”
By Kerrick Peh Qihao
Diploma in Creative Writing for Television and New Media
Singapore Polytechnic
Growing up, Cyril Wong never had the chance to watch television.
His family was poor and lived in a crowded flat. The others in the house would dominate the television, watching Cantonese dramas that lasted hundreds of episodes.
The only fun Cyril and his friends had was reading books.
“We didn’t read good books,” Cyril, now 41, admitted, “We had comics, game books, horror novels, and romance novels that we were really too young to be reading.”
However, this set the foundation in kindling his love for reading, and later, writing.
Cyril Wong - popularly known as Singapore’s “first truly confessional poet” – found his love for reading through comics and mature novels. (Photo Credit: Kerrick Peh)
Into the spotlight
While studying in university during the 1990s, Cyril was writing his first book, Squatting Quietly, a collection of poems about his struggles with his sexuality.
When Cyril approached friends for feedback, the responses shocked him. They told him that his manuscript was too personal, that queer themes were unacceptable.
Overcoming this intense disapproval took him many years.
“I went in thinking that no one would care, because it’s just poetry,” he recalled. “So, why are people suddenly giving me such a hard time?”
Cyril was expecting a small audience, since poetry was so niche.
But when Squatting Quietly was released in 2000, it was a hit. Readers were moved by Cyril’s collection.
Singapore’s “confessional poet”
His subsequent writings dealt with the meaning of life and beauty in relationships, not just sexuality, earning him the admiration of Singapore’s LGBT and literary communities.
One of the few two-time winners of the Singapore Literature Prize, Cyril is regarded as ‘Singapore’s first truly confessional poet’.
However, he is conflicted over this title. He says it’s easy being the first in Singapore. At the same time, he is happy that he has been able to make a difference and chart the way for younger writers.
Cyril also laments that despite painstaking efforts to write about feelings, the meaning of life or the beauty of relationships, many choose to label him as merely a ‘gay poet’.
Slowing down
The works have slowed down over the last few years, though.
Cyril was among the boycotters of the National Library Board (NLB) when it removed children’s books containing homosexual themes in 2014. Cyril proclaimed that he would stop writing altogether.
Today, his tone has softened. His intention is “to not publish as often as I used to.” He says he expects his next work to arrive in a decade.
Giving hope to the vulnerable
Cyril feels that the local literary scene has little impact on Singaporean society. However, he hopes that his popular titles will pave the way for more young writers to arise. If he could do it, he believes, then so can others.
And while many of his writer friends have migrated, Cyril has no intention of leaving Singapore.
As a published writer, he realises he is reaching out to very vulnerable readers, some who remind him of himself.
“Here, I feel like I’m making a difference,” Cyril explains. “Or at the very least, I’m making someone else like me feel less alone.”
By Ip Oi Kei
Diploma in Creative Writing for TV and New Media
Singapore Polytechnic
Colin Cheong, who teaches at the School of the Arts (SOTA), says writing should be for fun and not for the money. (Photo Credit: Ip Oi Kei)
Colin Cheong, 53, is an award-winning author and a Literature teacher but surprisingly, he feels that learning Literature should not be made compulsory in school. Nor should it be an examinable subject, he says.
“Literature is an art form. It’s no different from music; it’s no different from film, no different from theatre. It requires special skills to sit down and read it, and of course, you have to like it!”
A Natural Born Writer
His own love for the written word began when he was just 7.
“Writing was always something fun to do,” Colin recalls, “It was a hobby.”
It was during his Secondary 4 days when he first started writing the pages of what would later be his first novel, The Stolen Child, which was published in 1989. He continued writing novels that would later win him the Singapore Literature Prize and establish him as one of Singapore’s prominent writers.
However, the path to becoming a Literature teacher wasn’t as conventional as one would expect from someone whose parents were English teachers. Colin decided to be an educator after being turned down for the position of a Fire Rescue Officer at the SCDF due to an old injury he sustained from National Service.
Despite his passion for the craft, being a full-time writer was something that just didn’t sit well with him. After writing for corporations and freelancing, he came to realise that doing it professionally was a mistake. He disliked writing what people told him to. When he regained the freedom over his content, he says, writing became fun again.
Support for Young Writers
As an author and Literature teacher, Colin has been keeping tabs on the local literary scene and feels that it is thriving.
“Everybody has been really working very hard to advance the writing community and it’s just great. It has really grown a lot, thanks to all the work that’s been put in.”
And with the level of support given by the National Arts Council, Colin believes that now is a really good time for young writers to showcase their potential.
“It’s a better time than any other time in history” he says.
