A CYNIC’S HOPE

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.”