Other Cities, Other Lives

Cultural Medallion #7

by Chew Kok Chang, Shelly Bryant (Translator)

Other Cities, Other Lives is a collection of micro-fiction from one of Singapore’s pioneer Chinese writers that features characters living through a time of volatile change in the region. Short travelogues are populated with swindlers and enterprising tour guides, where nothing is as it seems. Closer to home, husbands, wives and children are captured in a state of flux. Told in the elegant, spare style of a Chinese scholar, this is the first collection of Chew Kok Chang’s works to be translated into English.

216 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2013

About the author

Chew Kok Chang has published more than 100 works including poetry, novellas, short stories, essays and children’s literature. Born in 1934 in Guangdong, China, he is one of Singapore’s most prolific and well-known Chinese writers. Also known by various pen names including Zhou Can, Qiu Ling, Yu Yin, Lin Zhongyue, Zhou Zhixian and Zhou Aijia, he has received several awards including the National Book Development Council of Singapore Book Award for Poetry, the National Book Development Council of Singapore Book Award for Children’s and Youth Literature, the Singapore Chinese Literature Award, and the Cultural Medallion.

Reviews

[Michael]

This is part of a series of books published on behalf of Cultural Medallion literature winners and there lies the problem.

Since those prizes are awarded by the National Arts Council and presented by the President, the 'quality' of the writing is debatable.

Here are the nomination criteria

" Cultural Medallion nominees are assessed upon the extent to which they have achieved or demonstrated all of the following:

Artistic excellence and professional maturity, manifest through an outstanding and distinctive body of work

Extraordinary contribution and leadership in:

Shaping the development of Singapore’s arts and culture;

Advancing his/her field of arts practice; and

Bringing the arts to the local public through educational and/or community development efforts

Being an inspiration and role model to other artists
Good standing and recognition internationally"

As you can see, it does not involve the general reading public but a set of criteria set by a govt body so who are we, the general public to judge the merits of Mr Chew's writing?

A quick read of the book (which was written quite awhile back and given the emperor's new clothes in English) shows the creakiness of the prose and the ideas conveyed, even if they are termed as micro-fiction.

Shame as I am sure Mr Chew has a lot more to say, just not in this book/form.

[Trung]

Short read. Feels like the English version loses some depth compared to the original Chinese. Easy to read and follow, but not very memorable. Kind of a pity I cannot read the original Chinese version.

[Losergeek87]

Interesting book. Think would be worthwhile to read the Chinese version as well!

[Mel]

Learned about Singapore culture. The translation was pretty good. Stories were very short and most left me thinking

[Elaine T]

Liked the short stories!