And true enough, my friends had this to say collectively when we discussed the production over drinks: This was a great play – and we didn’t know Singaporean Malays felt that way. When the play ended, I exited the theatre with this unspoken sentiment: This was a great play that more ethnic Chinese Singaporean people need to watch so that they know how minorities in Singapore feel. In Alfian Sa'at's hands, these sketches are reimagined as flash fictions that record the lives of members of the Malay community in Singapore. I am an ethnically mixed (Chinese-Indian), English-educated professional with a middle-class background. Malay Sketches is a collection of stories that borrows its name from a book of anecdotes by colonial governor Frank Swettenham, describing Malay life on the Peninsula. Those I watched the play with were ethnic Chinese Singaporean, English-educated professionals with an upper-middle/lower-upper class background. Two years ago, a couple of friends and I watched the premiere of Charged by Chong Tze Chien, a play with a National Service setting that explores tensions between the Malay and Chinese communities in Singapore. – David Mamet, Race, Samuel French: New York, 2010. Henry Do you know what you can say? To a black man. My review of Alfian Sa’at’s Malay Sketches is now up on the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (QLRS).Īlfian Sa’at sketches what it is like to be Malay in Singapore
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