The blockbuster Dear You has sparked a wider debate over Chinese identity, exposing competing ideas of culture, language and belonging across China and Southeast Asia. In this article originally published in ThinkChina political scientist Chong Ja Ian (National University of Singapore) examines why.
Seamless progress can edit our lives away, cautions documentary filmmaker TAN PIN PIN, in a Commencement address for NUS College.
Economist NG KOK HOE explains how policies on public rental housing and migrant workers are based on a logic of discrimination that denies people’s common humanity. This article is based on his remarks at the “States of Unease” Public Forum.
Architectural historian YEO KANG SHUA critiques the unease written into Singapore’s fabric, and argues that conservation is a discipline of attention we can all practise. This essay is adapted from his remarks at the “States of Unease” Public Forum.
In a world inundated with data, literature helps us seek truth, argues poet POOJA NANSI. It is where we learn to be patient with difference and contradiction, and thus discover how to understand and live with one another. This article is based on her remarks at the “States of Unease” Public Forum 2026.
In his contribution to the “States of Unease” Public Forum 2026, media scholar CHERIAN GEORGE explored the idea of moral progress as a core objective of a good society. This essay elaborates on his argument.
At the “States of Unease” Public Forum 2026, sociologist TEO YOU YENN explained why Singaporeans should not think of the Government as the only relevant conversation partner if they want to change things. This article is based on her remarks at the event.
Historian THUM PING TJIN argues that The Albatross File Exhibition and its accompanying book turn Lee Kuan Yew from a historically consequential actor into a passive victim of circumstance, thus diminishing him. By trying to protect him from moral scrutiny, Singaporeans are given a comforting story instead of an educational one where power, fear, race, ambition, and moral compromise destroyed Malaysia.
Sociologist Teo You Yenn’s previous book was an academic publishing phenomenon; her latest appears to be following suit. CHERIAN GEORGE (Hong Kong Baptist University) explains the structural conditions that make her an exception in Singapore academia.
Drawing from his new book, The Economic History of Singapore, CHOY KEEN MENG identifies continuities over the long span of Singapore’s 700-year history and argues that its economic success can be attributed to both luck and astute decision making.
