The World At Home?

Posted by noelbynature under Reflections
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Where is home? What is heritage? What is (Singaporean) Identity. I’m going to open up some discussion space here with a few thoughts that have been percolating in my mind for a couple of weeks (maybe a couple of years, even) and I’ll start with a post I found on novelist Romesh Gunesekera’s talk he gave at the Asian Civilisations Museum.

“I don’t know where my home is,” said Romesh Gunesekera, answering a question on being an immigrant writer. “I think writers are one of the worst people to ask this question,” he added.

The well-known Sri Lanka-born novelist and poet, now living in London, was speaking at a gathering at the Asian Civilizations Museum’s auditorium yesterday evening. Captain Elmo Jayawardena, novelist, philanthropist, and a pilot with the Singapore Airlines, moderated the open discussion.

…

Though Romesh lives in London with his English wife and two daughters, he travels widely for festivals, workshops and tours. In recent years he has held writing residencies in Hong Kong, Singapore and Denmark. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004.

Taking the discussion on passport identity further, he remarked on a lighter note, “These days, when I get out of a plane anywhere in the world, I feel relieved that I have been able to make the journey.”

But different countries did touch him somewhere deep down. “I actually find different landscapes do make my heart go a little faster,” he said.

While most of the post talks about Romesh’s writing, what struck me the most about his total living experience is the negotiation between shuttling many countries and his being a product of many cultural influences.

Which brings me back to this discussion point. If you’re a Singaporean, you’re mostly likely to have other, “ethnic” cultural defining markers as well - Chinese? Malay? Indian? - and even that is an oversimplification - try: Hokkien? Teochew? Hakka? (etc.) Bugis? Javanese? Boyanese? (etc.) Tamil? Gujerat? Malayalee? (etc?) Portuguese? Dutch? English?

Where is home? What makes up your heritage? What makes up a Singaporean Identity? (Comments please!)

Tags: singapore heritage, singapore identity, singapore, romesh gunesekera, asian civilisations museum

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