Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Union: 15 Years of Drunken Boat, 50 Years of Writing from Singapore edited by Alvin Pang and Ravi Shankar

by
March 2016, no. 379

Union: 15 Years of Drunken Boat, 50 Years of Writing from Singapore edited by Alvin Pang and Ravi Shankar

Ethos Books and Drunken Boat, US$19.90 pb, 640 pp, 9789810964894

Union: 15 Years of Drunken Boat, 50 Years of Writing from Singapore edited by Alvin Pang and Ravi Shankar

by
March 2016, no. 379

In 2015 it was virtually impossible to set foot in Singapore without being exposed to the government-led 'SG50' campaign commemorating the island nation's fiftieth year of independence. All over the country the 'little red dot' logo appeared on everything from double-decker buses and A380s to festive Chinese moon cakes and special-edition Tiger Beer bottles. In reality, of course, Singaporean identity is far more complex than is communicable through any multi-million-dollar patriotic branding exercise – which is why Union was such a refreshing inclusion in the abundance of golden-jubilee-related products that surfaced last year.

A dual anthology of Singaporean writing from the past fifty years and of works from Drunken Boat (the New York-based electronic arts journal), Union was conceived at a panel discussion during the 2013 American Writers Festival in Singapore. During the talk, Drunken Boat founding editor Ravi Shankar and Singaporean poet–editor Alvin Pang were prompted to draw parallels between Singapore and the USA. The conversation eventually made it out of the festival and into the pages of Drunken Boat 's twenty-first issue in April 2015; later in the year, they released Union, a 640-page anthology on the same theme.

From the New Issue

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.