Founder and organiser of Singapore Unbound Koh Jee Leong evokes Crazy Rich Asians to describe the ecstasy, and controversy, of seeing Asian and Singaporean representation on the global stage. If the local response to the movie back then is any indication, the thrill of seeing your own country and culture spotlighted where you wouldn’t expect it is something truly special.
The Asian diaspora is growing. Even so, authentic and meaningful representations can be hard to come by. That’s why Singapore Unbound is changing – and has been changing – this state of affairs since its founding in 2016. Based in New York City, the non-profit organisation promotes cross-cultural exchange between Asian and American thinkers and writers through the Singapore Literary Festival in NYC and a regular Second Saturday Reading Series. It also runs the independent press Gaudy Boy, which has introduced authors like Alfian Sa’at to audiences in the West. This June, it’s bringing The Sweetest Fruits by Vietnamese-American writer Monique Truong to Singapore and Malaysia for the first time.
Jee Leong is clear that Asian and Singaporean writers don’t need foreign validation. But the melting pot that is Asia has stories that deserve time in the global spotlight. Singapore Unbound’s new translation imprint furthers this mission by publishing literary works from under-the-radar writers and communities across Asia – in English. It launches out the gate this March with the release of a dazzling anthology of short stories from the Philippines. Titled Ulirát: The Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines, it captures the life and vitality of seven Filipino languages, translated.
The work goes on. In the meantime, Jee Leong shares with us more about Singapore Unbound and its work to bring Asian voices to the global stage.
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Photograph: Charisse Foo | Author Madeleine Thien reading at the opening reception of the 3rd Singapore Literature Festival in NYC
Hi Jee! To kick things off, would you like to introduce Singapore Unbound?
Sure! Singapore Unbound is a NYC-based literary non-profit that I founded in 2016 to fight for freedom of expression and equal rights for all through cultural exchange and literary activism. We’re powered by a team of volunteers, Singaporeans and Americans, in both countries. For instance, Kimberley Lim, the Managing Editor of our press Gaudy Boy, came from Singapore to the US for her undergrad studies and then stayed to work in the publishing industry. Judy Luo, our Assistant Editor, is an American who spent her formative years in Singapore. I am a Singaporean who has lived in NYC for 17 years.
Besides publishing Asian voices through our press and blog, Singapore Unbound also organises the biennial Singapore Literature Festival in NYC and the monthly Second Saturdays Reading Series. These innovative events bring together Singaporean and American authors and audiences for readings and discussions about literature and society. Last year, our 4th festival featured Nuraliah Norasid, Amanda Lee Koe, and Meira Chand, among others. Second Saturdays is now in its eighth season, and we have featured Pulitzer Prize winners Vijay Seshadri and Jericho Brown, and National Book Award winner Susan Choi.
You want to bring SG and US authors and audiences together to discuss literature and society. What can the literary scene in SG and America learn from each other?
I have an example that is about the movies, but is related to literature. When Crazy Rich Asians movie came out, many Asian Americans were ecstatic to find Asians represented on the big screen in a film made by a major Hollywood studio. Having lived in New York for so many years, I certainly sympathised with that reaction from a racialised minority that has constantly found itself made invisible, stereotyped, and scapegoated. However, as a number of Singaporean authors and commentators pointed out, the movie glamorised Chinese Singaporeans at the expense of other races. Brown bodies were absent in the movie except in the form of servitude. Asian Americans should be able to understand the pain and consequences of such erasure.
What we are trying to do, through our publications and events, is to show the full spectrum of Asian experiences, in Asia and in America. We do so by amplifying the work of marginalised communities that fall under the "Asian" category, e.g., queer Asians, non-East Asians, Asians with mental health struggles. We wish to challenge preconceived ideas about Asians. We send out a weekly e-newsletter, and we receive feedback every so often about how it has enlarged the ideas of its readers. Do consider signing up for the newsletter.
How did Gaudy Boy come about?
It is impossible for Singaporean publications to find distribution in the US because the market for Singaporean literary works is so small here. Epigram Books tried valiantly to establish an office in the UK from afar, but the pandemic has put paid to the effort. Singapore Unbound, however, is here in the US, on the ground. We live here and we know the American literary and publishing ecosystem. Since we are also from Singapore, we know the Singaporean ecosystem too. It makes sense for us to bring out American editions of excellent Singaporean works.
We started the press by bringing out Alfian Sa’at’s story collection Malay Sketches in 2018. Ethos Books, the original publisher, very kindly helped us to get started by selling us the American rights at an affordable price. Last year, we also brought out Tania De Rozario’s hybrid memoir And the Walls Come Crumbling Down, which was first published by Math Paper Press. Gaudy Boy stands on the shoulders of these pioneering Singaporean presses.
One of Gaudy Boy’s goals is to bring Singapore literature to an American audience. Why do you think that’s important?
We don’t believe that we need to “legitimise” Singapore literature by gaining American approval of it. Singapore literature validates itself by its own writing and criticism. The US is just where we live and what we know. If we were living in Russia, Nigeria, or Indonesia, we would be bringing Singapore literature there instead. What we want to do is to bring the Singaporean books that we love to our American family and friends and say to them, you have to read this! This will make you laugh and cry and, maybe, think differently. That’s the power of great literature.
We don’t believe that we need to “legitimise” Singapore literature by gaining American approval of it. Singapore literature validates itself by its own writing and criticism.
What’s something surprising about the reception that SEA/Singaporean literature gets in the USA?
Not surprising to us, but perhaps surprising to the reader. They love our books! We table at a number of book fairs, such as the Brooklyn Book Festival and the Association of Writing Programs (AWP) Book Fair, and we are seeing people coming back to us for more.
How do you make publishing choices at Gaudy Boy?
Gaudy Boy publishes two to three books a year. That’s not a big number, and so we are highly selective about what we publish. We want to be able to stand wholeheartedly behind what we publish. Quality of writing is important, of course, but also the potential impact on society. I think it’s fair to say that the whole editorial team leans towards publishing powerful and necessary voices that are overlooked by mainstream publishers. If you have been rejected multiple times, we want to see your manuscript! Our poetry books are selected through an annual contest open to all poets of Asian heritage residing anywhere in the world.
We’ve heard novelist Balli Kaur Jaswal referred to as a rare example of an author who’s found success in the States. What more needs to be done to elevate SEA and Singaporean literature globally?
Support Gaudy Boy by buying our books! We plough all our revenues back into publishing more books by Singaporean and Southeast Asian authors. You can find our books in Singapore at the website SGBookshelf. They will soon be available at your favourite bookstores, such as BooksActually and Kinokuniya. This April, we are releasing the winner of the 2020 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize, selected by Cyril Wong. The winner Object Permanence by Filipino Nica Bengzon is a very timely examination of the language and culture of medical care. Then, in June, we are releasing a Singaporean edition of the novel The Sweetest Fruits by the award-winning Vietnamese American author Monique Truong. An abiding goal with us is to have more Asians reading Asian Americans and vice versa.
You’re about to launch Gaudy Boy Translates – congratulations! What is this new imprint all about and why are you launching it now?
Having grown up in Singapore, many of us are keenly aware that Asia is multilingual and multicultural. Asia cannot be represented by English alone. However, the literary translation industry is dominated by the bigger countries, such as China and India, and the more famous authors. Gaudy Boy Translates wishes to fill some of the gaps by publishing writings that cross nationalistic borders or come from less well-known regions, communities, and languages. We were especially motivated to set up the imprint when we received the terrific Ulirát manuscript, which crystallised for us the mission of Gaudy Boy Translates.
Ulirát: The Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines will be the new imprint's first release. We’d love to know more about it, and why you think Singaporean readers should pick it up.
Ulirát is truly a groundbreaking anthology. It is a thrilling collection of contemporary Philippine short fiction across seven different languages. There have been anthologies translated from one or another Philippine language, but never an anthology from seven different languages. The stories, all by masters of the form, are dazzling. In one story, a man grows mushrooms from his nostrils. In another, a woman gives birth to a snake. There is political allegory – a town elects three mayors at the same time. There is sentiment – an old couple plans a trip that never materialises. The anthology is a brilliant testament to the vitality of the story form in the Philippines.
Why should Singaporean readers pick up the book? If they are Filipinx, they would love these stories originally written in their mother tongues, permeated with the cultural mores and social concerns of their origins. If they are not Filipinx, they would still have had such extensive interactions with Filipinx in Singapore, perhaps even deep emotional ties, that they would appreciate this wonderful opportunity to learn more about the place where their lovers, friends, bosses, and employees hail from. Go beyond Tagalog! Or else, Singaporeans may just appreciate a good yarn, and there are plenty of them in Ulirát.
Besides Ulirát, what else can we look forward to from Gaudy Boy Translates in the near future?
We are now considering an exciting manuscript of stories by Kazakh women writers. Neither Singapore nor the US knows much about the fiction coming out from the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, although we hear about the Belt and Road Initiative from the news, and it would be wonderful if we could help to amplify individual voices from the ground, so to speak. Through a featured author at our last festival, we have also been alerted to an intriguing body of writings in Tamil by Sri Lankan women writers. Closer to home, we would love to publish an anthology of short fiction translated from Malay, written by a border-busting group of writers from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. We are looking for anthology editors for the last two projects. If you are interested, please get in touch!
We've got to ask – what are you reading right now?
I’m rereading Monkey, Arthur Waley’s translation of the Chinese classic Journey to the West. I’m doing this because I’m teaching it to my sixth-graders in my independent school in Manhattan. I’m looking forward to our conversations about translation and culture when we parse the antics of Sun Wukong. Further in the future, I’m looking forward to the day when I can teach a Gaudy Boy translation classic, written by essential Southeast Asian authors.
