Singapore and the Strait Literary Corridor

Since the 18th century, the Strait of Malacca has become a key waterway in imperialist colonial agendas, linking ports such as Penang and Singapore in an interconnected and interdependent network. The migration of Chinese elites and laborers facilitated encounters between China and the West, mapping a distinctive landscape of Chinese-language literature in Singapore. Surveying the southbound journeys and epistemic configurations of the Nanyang in the 20th century, the literati writings on exile in Singapore and Sumatra reveal geopolitical confrontations, national identity formations, and historical imagination. The bodies of water, the shipping routes and the ports along the Straits of Malacca work jointly to carve out new interpretive dimensions for Chinese-language literature.

Speaker

Professor Ko Chia Cian

Department of Chinese Literature

National Taiwan University

Professor Ko Chia Cian serves as the Deputy Head at the Department of Chinese Literature and the Chair of the Center for Taiwan Studies of the National Taiwan University. His research has received the Ta-You Wu Memorial Award and the Academia Sinica Early-Career Investigator Research Achievement Award. His recent works include Maritime Poetry Road: East Asian Routes and Nanyang Mesology and Loyalists, Boundary and Modernity: Southbound Diaspora and Lyricism of Classical-Style Chinese Poetry, 1895-1945.

Moderator主持人

Dr Chan Cheow Thia

Assistant Professor

Department of Chinese Studies

National University of Singapore