There is, however, some official support for the other literatures. From the outset, the new nation-state instituted four official languages - English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil - designating English as the communication bridge between the different races and ethnicities, and between Singapore and the wider world.Īfter five decades of nation-wide schooling in English, Anglophone literature in Singapore is flourishing, at the regrettable expense of literatures in the other languages.

It is still being shaped by more recent migrations from China, India, Malaysia, and the West. It is a literary culture shaped by a complex indigenous and Malay inheritance and by early Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Jewish, Armenian, and Persian migrations.

Some of the most interesting contemporary writers of Singapore draw on that rich tradition. Nationalistic observers may date the birth of Singapore literature to the birth of the country, but the literary tradition has far deeper Malayan roots. Separated by a narrow strait, Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia were governed together as Malaya by the British, but after achieving independence from colonial domination, both Southeast Asian countries split acrimoniously in 1965 over ideological and personality conflicts, and Singapore was on its own. Any complacency on that score was shaken when the State Department made a faux pas by implying that Singapore is part of Malaysia. Singaporeans joked that after the Trump-Kim summit, Americans finally knew that Singapore is not part of China. Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work.

Corridor by Alfian Sa'at