Review
June Yang, Joyce Chng, eds.
2012
Math Paper Press
Review by Peter Young in Big Sky #1 (2013).
This is the second collection of speculative fiction from Singapore in 2012, from the same small press that produced the admirable Fish Eats Lion (actually, I believe they were released concurrently). A brief explanation in the introduction of what the term “Ayam Curtain” means would have been helpful for non-locals buying the book because the collection takes a thematic approach, that of ‘Speaking Bird Language’: with birds flitting between universes, what alternative Singapores might they see on their travels? The first half of this collection comprises of flash fictions built around just such a concept: we get aspects of Singapore as it might yet be, and Singapore as it thankfully isn’t. It’s a colourful variety of ideas, brief and punchy, my favourites being Geraldine Choo’s dystopian ‘The Heart of the Rain Tree’ and Lucas Ho’s ‘KY USB’. Most of the authors here are younger and perhaps less experienced, but all have a good standard of prose and get their ideas across with clarity: these flashes are mostly quite refreshing. The second part of the collection includes longer works, stories that are still connected to Singapore but which may, to some readers, feel otherwise unthemed. One that made me catch my breath and say, at a particular point in the story, “Wow, now that’s neat” was Joses Ho’s ‘Her Name Was Jane’, which has already appeared as a Nature flash fiction in 2011: it’s simply excellent, and cunning; also Clare Yeo’s ‘Woodwind’, a mature work by a teenage writer that I found echoed my own speculations about the interconnections between the miracle of life and nature as a whole, and the story was something a little unexpected and revelatory. If feasible, a series of themed collections like this would certainly be a great thing, and would continue a momentum that Singaporean speculative fiction is clearly developing. More will be very welcome.