In a rapidly changing urban environment, how do communities legitimise their claims to the city through various memory projects? This presentation will explore this question through Russell Lee’s True Singapore Ghost Stories, and argues that place- and memory-making efforts are moral projects that involve normative claims to place. The central grievance within these ghost stories — set in both kampongs and HDBs, is the state’s disregard for Singaporeans’ moral agency in resolving breaches to the local moral order. The series attempts to reclaim Singaporeans’ moral agency by re-enchanting of the urban landscape, highlighting the deep connections between place, memory, and community.

Tiffany Chuang is a sociologist whose research interests include urban development, political culture, and the politics of collective memory. She is currently a lecturer at NUS College, National University of Singapore. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from University of Michigan, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts in 2023. 

Discussant 

Weihsin Gui, University of California, Riverside.