Since 1936, more than 100 Chinese-language novels have emerged from Singapore, many of them rich in content and featuring diverse themes. They often reflect the thoughts of local writers narrating past and present events that took place on the island. Their works range from realist to modernist novels; from those with local flavour to those which capture a sense of Southeast Asia. Told using diverse narrative techniques, they are imbued with a sense of their authors’ concern for the region.

Lin Cantian’s (1901–1972) novel Thick Smog, published in 1936, is considered the first novel in the history of Malayan-Chinese literature. It was originally published by Shanghai Life Bookstore and reprinted in Singapore by the Youth Book Company in 1959. The novel is set in a place called Ti Er Guo in northern Malaya in the 1920s and 1930s. It portrays the problems and turmoil of Chinese education at that time, marking the start of a recurring theme in the Chinese novels of Singapore and Malaysia — “Chinese education”. Chinese schools and Nanyang University nurtured Chinese-language novelists, and later became subjects that those writers would revisit time and time again. This can be seen in Feng Shayan’s (1943–2021) The One Chasing the Sun (2003) and You Qin’s The Fragments of a Chinese School Student’s Memories (2013).

Cover of the reprinted edition of Lin Cantian’s Thick Smog in Singapore, 1959. Reproduced with permission from The Youth Book Co.

Identity

Another related theme is identity. Sometimes, during the dialogue between students from Chinese and English schools, there is dramatic tension arising from differences in their values and self-identity. In A Man Like Me (1987), Yeng Pway Ngon (1947–2021) highlights Chinese school students’ feelings of pride and inferiority, as well as their dreams and desires. A sense of identity could also emerge or crumble while a character is growing up, interacting with family, school and society, or while navigating their distance from “the Other”, as seen in Chia Joo Ming’s Exile or Pursuit and You Jin’s Fabulous Whirlpool. This portrayal of identity is a recurring feature in Singapore Chinese literature.

Many Singapore Chinese authors were active in society and concerned about the nation’s development. Political and student movements, wars, and anti-colonialism have been key sources of inspiration. Take for example Mei Hua’s Lion City Chronicles (2000) and Yeng Pway Ngon’s Unrest, which were inspired by political movements; Yuan Dian’s Living Sacrifice (2002), set against the backdrop of student movements; and Miao Xiu’s (1920–1980) Waves of Fire (1950) and The Lost Night (1976), Zhao Rong’s (1920–1987) Malacca Strait (1961); and Liu Jun’s Equatorial Torrent (1993) which portray the wartime suffering and spirit of the people.

Cover of the reprinted edition of Yeng Pway Ngon’s Unrest in Singapore, 2018. Reproduced with permission from City Book Room.

Widening scope

Authors have also sought to explore new themes and grow as writers. Some examples are Chia Joo Ming’ historical memoir novel 1644: The Year A Dynasty Was Hanged (2012); Sebastian Sim’s wuxia novel Tianchu Ji: History of Wulin in the Ancient Tang Dynasty (2004); and Zhou Tongquan’s engineering-related Ambitious Blueprint (2015). These works reflect a strong spirit of literary innovation.

Novelists tend to hone their craft as they go along. Between Liu Jun’s Equatorial Torrent and Conch (2002), one notices a progression from mere storytelling to “writing a novel”. The author Chia Joo Ming also strives to reinvent himself, evident in his transition from historical novels to personal growth journey. Meanwhile, famous novelist Yeng Pway Ngon, who died in 2021, was determined to “avoid repeating (himself) where possible”. He borrowed techniques from modernism, Russian literature, as well as the French nouveau roman, and applied them in his writing.

Singapore Chinese novels continue to have a presence in the market, although there are not a lot of them being published. The limited platforms for Singapore Chinese literature, high publishing costs, and a lack of full-time novelists all pose significant challenges. Singapore’s unique Chinese literary environment, however, has nurtured many excellent essayists as well as writers of microfiction and flash fiction. Perhaps these rich, short-form literary works will nourish the wider literary ecosystem and shape its future in ways yet to be seen.