Welcome to the season finale of The Mynah Podcast! Our editor Ruby is joined by Chong Ja Ian, Kirsten Han, and Lim Jialiang to discuss the 2025 General Election. The day after Polling Day, we tried to make sense of the results – Lawrence Wong's strong mandate, the WP holding onto its wards in what was otherwise an opposition wipeout, etc – and discussed the idiosyncrasies of Singapore’s information-poor political environment, MPs' many hats, whether Kenneth Jeyaretnam was right, and how the work continues beyond the ballot box.
Chong Ja Ian is a political scientist from Singapore. He examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. His research covers the intersection of international and domestic politics, with a focus on the externalities of major power competition, nationalism, regional order, security, democratization, contentious politics, and state formation.
Kirsten Han runs We, The Citizens, a newsletter focused on democracy, human rights and social justice in Singapore. During the GE, the portion of her brain not taken up by election-related matters was about the size of the PPP’s Tampines vote share, so she was very glad to be able to vent on Mynah’s podcast.
Lim Jialiang is the founder of the beer distribution company Watering Hole. Before that, he managed a hawker stall in Chinatown for four years. He was the guest on The Mynah Podcast’s first-ever episode, Political Economy Rice.
For full context on this episode, read our newsletter. Some show notes:
Alia Mattar on a proposed national anti-scam insurance scheme.
PAP candidates Elysa Chen and Jasmin Lau both gave interviews , with the former describing how she was “kicked into politics” and the latter comparing being voted in to a civil service posting where “we don’t go there because we chose to.”
Jeremy Tan’s rally speech for Mountbatten SMC and his website that lists his policy proposals, many based on Bitcoin use.
Monday of Palestine Solidarity is an informal collective for citizens to engage MPs on Singapore’s position on Palestine.
Josephine Teo recounts 'ambush' incidents at Meet-The-People Sessions.
In 2022, volunteers from the Transformative Justice Collective attended cabinet ministers’ Meet-The-People Sessions about the petition calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. More information, including how to sign it, here.
Chan Chun Sing’s views on how “MPs who have to juggle multiple responsibilities are in a better position to empathise with Singaporeans who are similarly doing so”.
The story about Ng Chee Meng meeting convicted money launderer Su Haijin – whom we refer to incorrectly as Su Haiyan in this episode – has developed since our recording and now involves a number of politicians.
One example of how governments can require transparency from politicians is Australia’s Register of Members' Interests. MPs must declare interests like directorships, property, sources of other income (including their spouse’s), and gifts.
In a 1999 interview, Lee Kuan Yew suggested that Singapore would start a Speakers’ Corner, bringing up Dr Chee Soon Juan who had been arrested for trying to make a speech. Speakers’ Corner was established a year later.
Kirsten mentions research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist, showing that 3.5% of a population participating in protests in nonviolent campaigns results in successful serious change.
Blackbox Research released the results of their final-week polling after we recorded the episode. According the Parliamentary Elections Act, publication of election survey results is prohibited between the writ of election and election day.
Mynah Magazine started as a print magazine for untold Singaporean stories in 2016. Our fifth issue will be out in 2025.
Find out more about Mynah on our website, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram.
The music for The Mynah Podcast was written and recorded by Daniel Seah. Special thanks to Nicholas Yeo for recording this episode.
Welcome to episode 6 of the Mynah Podcast, brought to you by Mynah Magazine! Editors Ruby and Darren are joined by Jeremy Tiang to discuss his translation of Hai Fan’s Delicious Hunger, the offcuts of Singaporean history, multilingualism, and the Marxist conspiracy to make us all touch grass.
Jeremy Tiang is a Singaporean novelist, playwright and translator from Chinese, currently based in New York City. He was awarded the Singapore Literature Prize for his novel State of Emergency and for his translation of Zhang Yueran's Cocoon, and he recently won an Obie Award for his play Salesman之死.
To learn more about Jeremy and for more context on this episode, read our newsletter at mynahmag.substack.com
Some notes on the podcast and additional resources:
Jeremy’s translation of Hai Fan’s Delicious Hunger is out in Singapore now with Ethos Books. Look out for his translations of Shuang Xuetao’s Hunter and Zhang Yueran’s Women, Seated later this year. His Obie Award-winning play Salesman之死 might be staged somewhere next year. That’s all we can say for now!
Hai Fan’s first novel, 雨林的背影, won the Singapore Literature Prize for Chinese Fiction last year. It’s set in the aftermath of the Hat Yai Peace Agreement (1989), following characters as they leave the rainforest, re-enter civilian life and reflect on the decades that they spent in the rainforest. Jeremy and Hai Fan are looking for a publisher for the English translation, which is tentatively titled Out of the Rainforest.
s/pores journal has published a special issue on Hai Fan, in which you can read Jeremy’s essay Nature-writing: On Translating Hai Fan. He’s also written about translating Hai Fan’s work in the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s special issue on the Malayan Emergency.
Peace Villages and Friendship Villages refer to a group of settlements located in the mountains outside the southernmost Thai town of Betong, where many MCP cadres have lived since the Hat Yai Peace Agreement was signed by representatives of the MCP, the Thai government, and the Malaysian government in 1989. As Jeremy explains, different factions occupied the Friendship Villages—the Communist Party of Malaysia—and the Peace Villages—the Communist Party of Malaya, but they're friends again now.
The Malayan Communist Party accidentally assassinated Henry Gurney, the British High Commissioner in Malaya (1948-1951), during an ambush designed to seize supplies from the British. This took place at a high point of the First Malayan Emergency and preceded military strikes from the colonial government and the evacuation and mass detention of Tras New Village inhabitants.
The Transformative Justice Collective is a movement seeking the reform of Singapore’s criminal punishment system, starting with the abolition of the death penalty.
Jeremy’s novel State of Emergency follows a family as they navigate major political upheavals in Malaya, Singapore, and Malaysia. It will be published by World Editions in the US and UK in June this year. The Chinese edition was translated by Lim Woan Fei and Chen Si’an. It has also been translated into German by Susann Urban.
The International Booker Prize, for which Jeremy has been both on the jury and longlisted (of course), is one force behind the increased recognition for literary translators and translation. Jennifer Croft, whose translation of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights won the International Booker Prize, started a campaign to get publishers to include translator’s names with the writer’s the front cover of books. You can read the open letter and view its signatories here. Yes, Jeremy’s there too.
Mynah Magazine started as a print magazine for untold Singaporean stories in 2016. We’ve published four issues to date.
Find out more about Mynah Magazine on our website: mynahmag.com
Subscribe to the Mynah newsletter: mynahmag.substack.com
Follow Mynah on Instagram: instagram.com/mynahmag
The music for The Mynah Podcast was written and recorded by Daniel Seah.
Welcome to episode 5 of the Mynah Podcast, brought to you by Mynah Magazine! Editors Karen and Kristian are joined by Ginette Chittick to talk about the Punk scene in 90s Singapore and Ginette’s latest work on archiving graphic ephemera from that period. They talk about zine-making and its distribution ecosystem, the Punk scene with all its contradictions and idiosyncrasies, and Ginette’s discoveries from leather jackets to a whole host of zines.
Ginette Chittick is a lecturer, visual artist, designer and DJ. She is a member of the shoegaze band Astreal and Singapore’s first all-girl punk band PsychoSonique. She’s also currently working on her PhD at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, which is focused on subculture and specifically Singaporean Punk history from 1992 to 2007, through the lens of defiance as expressed in graphic ephemera.
To learn more about Ginette and for more context on this episode, read our newsletter at mynahmag.substack.com. Her band Astreal will be playing at the BigO 40th Anniversary 2-day festival from the 12th to the 13th of April. Get your tickets here.
SHOW NOTES
Forum The Shopping Mall (previously known as Forum Galleria) on Orchard Road used to be a hangout spot for punks in the 90s. Ginette has a few photos on her Instagram here.
In the episode, Ginette talks about the first zine she co-created in 1993, an anarcho-punk zine called Outcast. Ginette has a photo of the first issue on her Instagram here.
Riot Grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement that started in the 90s, originating in the US city of Olympia, Washington. It combined punk music and feminism, and addressed issues like misogyny, abuse and female empowerment within the scene. You can read more about it here.
TNT Music Centre is a recording studio and musical instrument shop in Parklane Shopping Mall. It was a go-to place for punk and metal gigs in the 90s. Kurt Cobain visited TNT Music Centre when he came to Singapore in 1992.
In the episode, Ginette and Karen discuss the sensationalised New Paper article that was published in 1992 about slam dancing. Shortly after the article was published, the state mandated that show organisers would have to put down a $2000 deposit. This was to ensure that people did not slam dance or stage dive during gigs.
Ginette has a wonderful carousel of photos of a leather jacket decorated with patches and studs. The leather biker jacket, or Perfecto jacket, was a staple fashion item for punks.
In 90s Singapore, there was a vibrant underground Drum and Bass scene that has helped to shape contemporary underground and mainstream club culture. Many of the pioneering DJs crossed over from the Punk scene. You can read more about this particular DnB scene’s history here.
BigO (an acronym for Before I Get Old) was Singapore’s first-ever independent rock magazine that covered local underground music. Started in 1985 as a black-and-white-zine, it grew in popularity and eventually evolved into a full-fledged magazine. It finally shut down in 2023, when it had already transitioned into an online publication. BigO was hugely influential in the 90s and 00s, giving exposure to burgeoning local musicians and writers. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Neonpulse is organising Big O: 40 Years of Counter Culture, a 2-day music festival celebrating independent and underground music from Singapore.
At the end of the episode, Kristian quotes from the book, Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture by Stephen Duncombe. The book explores the history, production and ecosystem of zines.
Look out for Singaporean Punk Archive, slated to launch in the later part of 2025. This will be a web archive of Singaporean punk ephemera from the early 90s to 00s that Ginette has been documenting.
Welcome to episode 4 of the Mynah Podcast, brought to you by Mynah Magazine! Editor Ruby and Renée Ting, the director of the Singapore Art Book Fair, talk about the financial realities of independent cultural production. We discuss the limitations of National Arts Council funding, paying yourself from passion projects, not treating audiences like they’re dumb, and more.
Renée Ting is the founder & director of Thing Books, a centre that organises art book events & initiatives such as the annual Singapore Art Book Fair (SGABF) and the SG Art Book Library.
To learn more about Renée and for more context on this episode, read our newsletter at mynahmag.substack.com. Applications to exhibit at SGABF2025 will open in mid-May. Stay updated via the Singapore Art Book Fair Instagram page (instagram.com/singaporeartbookfair) or website (www.singaporeartbookfair.org).
Some notes on the podcast and additional resources:
To mark its 10th edition, the Singapore Art Book Fair produced a 5-part docuseries about the genesis and evolution of the fair: https://singaporeartbookfair.org/SGABF-ACROSS-10-EDITIONS
On the National Arts Council withdrawing funding from Sonny Liew (The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye) and Jeremy Tiang (State of Emergency): https://asiatimes.com/2017/08/state-versus-arts-singapore/
Sonny Liew went on to return a subsequent NAC grant so as to “not get too tangled up in the compromises involved in a relationship where genuine dialogue is so limited.” https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/comic-artist-sonny-liew-to-return-state-funding-for-his-new-work
Printed Matter, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the appreciation of artists’ books, organises major book fairs like the NY Art Book Fair and LA Art Book Fair. They exhibited and spoke in the keynote discussion during 2024’s Singapore Art Book Fair.
Representatives from the Tokyo Art Book Fair and abC, who ran the defunct abC Art Book Fair in Beijing and Shanghai, also took part in the keynote discussion.
Cloud Projects, the Malaysian independent publisher that Mynah shared a booth with for the 2023 SGABF.
Atelier Hoko publishes Science of the Secondary. Each book in the series examines a different everyday object like bananas, plates, and toilet paper.
Mynah Magazine started as a print magazine for untold Singaporean stories in 2016. We’ve published four issues to date and our working on our fifth.
Find out more about Mynah Magazine on our website: mynahmag.com
Subscribe to the Mynah newsletter: mynahmag.substack.com
Follow Mynah on Instagram: instagram.com/mynahmag
The music for The Mynah Podcast was written and recorded by Daniel Seah.
Welcome to episode 3 of the Mynah Podcast, brought to you by Mynah Magazine! Editors Ruby and Karen are joined by Syazwan Majid, or Wan, to discuss his project Wan’s Ubin Journal and his heritage work on Pulau Ubin. We talk about Wan’s family history on Ubin, nature conservation at Chek Jawa and Sungei Durian, islander values vis-a-vis contemporary interpretations of “kampung spirit” and “gotong royong”, and more. Syazwan (Wan) is a descendant of an Ubin Orang Pulau and through his online social platform, Wan’s Ubin Journal, he advocates for the conservation and celebration of the Ubin Orang Pulau community, culture, heritage and identity.
To learn more about Wan’s work and for more context on this episode, check out our newsletter at mynahmag.substack.com
Some notes on the podcast and additional resources:
Wan’s Instagram post on the 2021 incidents of indiscriminate foraging on Changi Beach and the traditional foraging practices of the indigenous people of Singapore https://www.instagram.com/p/CQEAMIYhJqQ/
The Channel News Asia article about the 8,000-tree OCBC Mangrove Park due to open in Pulau Ubin in 2026 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sustainability/pulau-ubin-mangrove-park-2026-nparks-ocbc-sungei-durian-3032241
Wan on Chek Jawa and its place in Ubin Orang Pulau history as an important source of sustenance https://www.wansubinjournal.com/post/chek-jawa-and-how-it-provided-for-the-ubin-orang-pulau
Biology lecturer and longtime Singaporean ecologist Sivasothi N on Chek Jawa in 2001, noting the irony of resettlement of “‘squatters who are affected by reclamation work’ that has finally allowed easy public access to Chek Jawa” https://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/articles/AG/AGart4.htm
Orang Laut SG is a platform founded by Firdaus Sani, a fourth-generation Orang Laut/Pulau descendant from Pulau Semakau. Pulau Semakau and neighbouring Pulau Seking were acquired from the islanders by the Singapore government in 1987 to build Semakau Landfill: https://oranglaut.sg/
A Facebook page collecting memories of life on Pulau Brani run by Izyan Nadirah, a second generation islander: https://www.facebook.com/memoriesofpulaubrani
In 2023, Firdaus of Orang Laut SG and Asnida Daud, whose family lived on Pulau Sudong, collaborated on the performance Air Da Tohor, staged at the Esplanade’s Pesta Raya festival: https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/remembering-singapore-s-disappearing-south-islander-cultures-in-air-da-tohor
On the restoration of House 6J on Pulau Ubin: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/watch/developing-dedicated-kampung-house-restoration-programme-pulau-ubin-4429141
Mynah Magazine started as a print magazine for untold Singaporean stories in 2016. We’ve published four issues to date. Our fifth issue will be published in the second half of 2025.
Find out more about Mynah Magazine on our website: mynahmag.com
Subscribe to the Mynah newsletter: mynahmag.substack.com
Follow Mynah on Instagram: instagram.com/mynahmag
The music for The Mynah Podcast was written and recorded by Daniel Seah.
Welcome to episode 2 of the Mynah Podcast, brought to you by Mynah Magazine! Editors Ruby and Darren are joined by a long-time contributor to the magazine, Faris Joraimi, to discuss the Malay world. We talk about the different approaches to this concept over the last three centuries and how understanding diversity and migration within the Malay world sheds light on race, and particularly the place of Peranakans, in Singapore today.
Faris is currently a PhD student in History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. His essays on Singaporean history and the Malay world more broadly have been published in a range of outlets, including Mynah, where he holds the record for the most bylines of any of our contributors. His latest piece for us was issue 4’s “Eating the Malay World: Singapore’s Peranakan Amnesia”.
To learn more about Faris and for more context about this episode, check out our newsletter at mynahmag.substack.com
Some notes on the podcast and additional resources:
More information on the sources and scholarship discussed in the episode can be found in the Mynah newsletter.
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Mynah Magazine started as a print magazine for untold Singaporean stories in 2016. We’ve published four issues to date.
Find out more about Mynah Magazine, including where to purchase a copy of our latest issue, here: mynahmag.com
Subscribe to the Mynah newsletter: mynahmag.substack.com
Follow Mynah on Instagram: instagram.com/mynahmag
The music for The Mynah Podcast was written and recorded by Daniel Seah.
Welcome to episode 1 of the brand-new Mynah Podcast, brought to you by Mynah Magazine! Editors Ruby and Karen are joined by Lim Jialiang to discuss the political economy of hawker culture in Singapore. We talk about how hawkers were unfairly handed the responsibility of ensuring food security in Singapore, people’s expectations of (and delusions about) hawker food, and what the future of hawkering looks like. We also talk a lot about hokkien mee.
(This episode is marked Explicit because of occasional coarse language. We'll swear less next time.)
Jialiang is the founder of the beer distribution company Watering Hole. Before that, he managed a hawker stall in Chinatown for four years. To learn more about Jialiang and for more context about this episode, check out our newsletter at mynahmag.substack.com
Some notes on the podcast and additional resources:
We recorded this episode in September 2024, when Old Airport Road Food Centre was still under renovation. It reopened on October 1.
Speaking of (upsetting) 8days coverage of corporates turned hawkers: https://www.8days.sg/eatanddrink/hawkerfood/ex-engineer-who-sold-his-company-25mil-now-sells-hokkien-mee-cooked-robot-wok-ai-838261
“Hawkerpreneurs: hawkers, entrepreneurship, and reinventing street food in Singapore” by Nicole Tarulevicz, for a brief overview of the history of hawkering in Singapore
Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in an exchange with MP Lily Neo in Parliament in 2007: “Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?”
Key findings of the 2023 Minimum Income Standards report
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Mynah Magazine started as a print magazine for untold Singaporean stories in 2016. We’ve published four issues to date.
Find out more about Mynah Magazine here: mynahmag.com
Subscribe to the Mynah newsletter: mynahmag.substack.com
Follow Mynah on Instagram: instagram.com/mynahmag
The music for The Mynah Podcast was written and recorded by Daniel Seah.
