la_vie_noire | (no subject)

Postcolonials Read Comics (And We’re Pissed).

Gail Simone depicted Singapore in Birds of Prey as a crime-riddled, totalitarian state inhabited by decadent drug lords. That’s not as bad as Marvel’s Principality of Madripoor, a parallel Singapore of authoritarianism and corruption eventually salvated by neo-colonial occupation; but that’s still better than in The Authority, where the fictional PRC destroyed the fictional Singapore in a secret nuclear attack.

Another interesting relationship between Singapore and superheroes: Ng Chin Han played the villainous Hong Kong accountant Lau in The Dark Knight.

[...] I want to see a Singaporean superhero genre that can amply offer critique on issues like race and gender politics in Singapore without relying on orientalist tropes or orientalised narratives of Asian political authority. [...] Asian political systems are either failed states or dictatorships, because the Orientals cannot be trusted to govern themselves. – A sign of how deeply we have internalised this discourse is evident in even homegrown criticism of the political system. I trust we can analyse and critique without resorting to such imagery, such portrayals.

Singaporean superheroes? I’ve been dreaming of this for years. If we postcolonials could take steampunk – with its intrinsic Victoriana – and subvert it, can we do the same for the superhero genre?

I could talk about the depiction of every non-western/developing nation in western comics. But I wouldn't end.

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If I could draw - ... and write and FINISH - a comic, I'd try for a Singaporean superhero comic or something.

:|

I get this little jolt of OMG YAY when I see Singapore mentioned in mainstream western media, and then I just hope it's actually just a MENTION and not... well, anything else.

Because when they do more than just mention it (like as in, stop-over-flight in Singapore or something) they WILL always go on to conflate Singapore with China and possibly North Korea with a nice delicious side of Rustic Generic Thatched Huts with Coconut Palms. And Paddi fields.

Or, like I mentioned, Singapore cannot possibly be depicted without reference to chewing gum, caning, and the death penalty for drugs.

There are local activists tackling the latter two concerns (comparted to Western armchair critics for whom the gravity of the situation becomes a punchline). And the purported ban on chewing gum (in actual fact merely a ban on the sale thereof!) is a facetious representation of a complete non-issue.

God forbid, though, that we should dare to be anything more than a caricature.

Or, like I mentioned, Singapore cannot possibly be depicted without reference to chewing gum, caning, and the death penalty for drugs.

I remember when that Australian guy was going to be executed for having drugs in Singapore. Australia threw a huge hue and cry about it... and talked about how their country was so damn clean. Without realising that Singapore IS the gateway to a lot of drugs to the western world - if we weren't so strict, their country would be have a nice supply of heroin and others and they would have to do their own monitoring.

There are local activists tackling the latter two concerns (comparted to Western armchair critics for whom the gravity of the situation becomes a punchline).

It's always all about that goddamn Michael Faye, who was so utterly spoilt. :| Always, always, those armchair critics don't even know our country's needs at ALL.

And let's not talk about the goddamn chewing gum - when I was in the US and NZ there was chewing gum everywhere that people were too lazy to dispose of it, and it was not just disgusting, it was difficult to remove.

Chewing gum being banned for sale is hardly a giant loss, c'mon.