Diary and the Whale (Singapore Writers Festival x Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre）

Diary and the Whale is a project led by Rei Poh and Deng Xiaofei in collaboration with the University of the Arts Singapore BA Contemporary Chinese Theatres students that explores what young people carry inside and rarely say out loud. These two original student works ask what freedom means when love comes with conditions, and what happens to the parts of ourselves that we learn to hide.

One piece looks at how care can turn into control, as a young person searches for a space of her own inside a home shaped by someone else’s expectations, while the other uses a diary to trace the distance between the self we perform outwardly and the self we don’t show anyone. A diary of blank pages, crossed-out lines and empty space become a language for feelings that stay unspoken. The whale motif runs through this second piece – something large, quiet and often out of sight – moving between the pull to stay safe and the pull towards open water.

Both pieces invite audiences to consider; What do we hide, and from whom, on the way to becoming who we are?