Dear 爷爷 (grandpa),
We arrived safely in Singapore on Monday.
You flew in Business Class while I was in Economy — the kind Air China stewardess was worried the glass over your frame might crack in the overhead cabin so she took you and put you behind the seats in Business.
We’ve been busy installing the “Relics” exhibition here at the Esplanade’s Jendela gallery yesterday and today, putting up some of these compatriots of yours from the anti-colonial movement. Some of them ended up in the jungle, others deported by the British like you were in 1949.
Tomorrow evening at 7pm, we’ll open the exhibition. Hopefully their faces, stories, objects and songs, and the landscapes of Malaya from their memories, will speak to people here, telling of the unspoken traumas, and stories missing from any archive.
yours,
Chi Yin 绮颖
17 Jan 2018
Singapore
