I owe particular thanks to Yu-Mei Balasingamchow. Not only was her Singapore: A Biography (co-authored with Mark R. Frost) a vital source, her wisdom and knowledge throughout this process have been invaluable.
Too many other books were consulted to name them all, but particularly useful were: Poh Soo Kai’s Living in a Time of Deception, Teo Soh Lung’s Beyond the Blue Gate, Han Suyin’s And the Rain My Drink, Ian Ward and Norma Miraflor’s Slaughter and Deception at Batang Kali, Agnes Khoo’s Life as the River Flows, Chin Peng’s My Side of History, Fong Chong Pik’s The Memoirs of a Malayan Communist Revolutionary, and Tan Jing Quee, Tan Kok Chiang and Hong Lysa’s The May 13 Generation.
I am indebted to the excellent journalism of Kirsten Han, and to the films To Singapore, With Love by Tan Pin Pin, The Last Communist by Amir Muhammad and 1987: Untracing the Conspiracy by Jason Soo.
Gratitude also to those who agreed to be interviewed in the course of my research, including David and Janice Wong; Richard Lee at Seminyih New Village; Ling Yi, Liao Xiongmin and the other inhabitants of Friendship Village 2 at Betong; Father René Nicolas; Chua Shop Fong; and my parents.
Many others provided help and encouragement along the way, including Lydia Shah, Aditi Shivaramakrishnan, Dan Koh, Zhang Ruihe, Teng Qian Xi, Fikri Alkhatib, Christie Chua, Deanne Tan, Sarah Day, Kate McNaughton and Diana Wong. I’m particularly grateful for the inspirational support of Jim Crace and Maggie Gee, who saw an early draft of this novel come to life during an Arvon course they led.
Thanks to publisher Edmund Wee, editor Jason Erik Lundberg, line editor JY Yang, UK rep Kate Manning, marketing manager Winston Tay and all at Epigram Books, and to my agent Karolina Sutton.
And finally to Drayton, for all the rest.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by: Oliver Rockwell
Jeremy Tiang is a writer and translator. His short story collection, It Never Rains on National Day (Epigram Books, 2015) was shortlisted for the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize. He has translated more than ten books from the Chinese, including novels by Chan Ho-Kei, Zhang Yueran, Yeng Pway Ngon and Su Wei-chen. He won the Golden Point Award for Fiction in 2009, and has received an NEA Literary Translation Fellowship, a PEN/Heim Translation Grant, and a People’s Literature Award Mao-Tai Cup. He also writes and translates plays, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
The Epigram Books Fiction Prize promotes contemporary creative writing and rewards excellence in Singaporean literature. The richest literary prize in Singapore is awarded to the Singaporean, permanent resident or Singapore-born author for the best manuscript of a full-length, original and unpublished novel written in the English language.
For more information, please visit ebfp.epigrambooks.sg