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Notes
1 Section 377A (‘Outrages on decency’) states that: ‘Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years’ (see ‘Section 377A of the Penal Code (Singapore)’, Wikipedia). Note that this law also applies to non-penetrative acts between consenting male adults in private spaces.
2 Leigh found the filming, immediately after performing in the West End, gruelling and commented, ‘I had nine months in the theatre of Blanche DuBois. Now she’s in command of me’ (Coleman Citation2005: 233–36). In later years, Leigh would say playing Blanche DuBois ‘tipped me over into madness’ (Holden Citation1989: 312–13).
3 There was a Samoan drag queen performance artist from Auckland, New Zealand, who could not join the rehearsal process in the end.
4 Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the eternal recurrence of every event in the universe affirms that reality is in a continual state of becoming.
5 One apparent contradiction amongst the different translations was that Tan saw the gay protagonist as a bottom while Yew imaged him as a top.
6 King suggests that cinema culture is full of internal alterities as it is a world in which copies are already thought of as indistinguishable and inseparable from originals.
7 This anachronistic law does not exist in other parts of Asia that were not colonized by the British Empire. The independent government of Singapore has consistently chosen to keep S377A as its ‘heritage’. This is in stark contrast to its extensive legislation passed specifically for the local context.
8 (1) All persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law. (2) Except as expressly authorized by this Constitution, there shall be no discrimination against citizens of Singapore on the ground only of religion, race, descent or place of birth in any law or in the appointment to any office or employment under a public authority or in the administration of any law relating to the acquisition, holding or disposition of property or the establishing or carrying on of any trade, business, profession, vocation or employment.
9 For a general overview of censorship in Singapore, see ‘Censorship in Singapore, Wikipedia.
11 These evangelical churches, which have a very strong presence in Singapore, conducted elaborate campaigns about the dangers of homosexuality in relation to children. During the 2007 debates to decriminalize S377A, Pastor Derek Hong of Church of Our Savior allegedly sent a mass email out to warn that the gay and lesbian lobby was wanting to make it compulsory by law that homosexual practices were taught to children in all schools (‘Church of Our Saviour, Singapore’, Wikipedia).
Pastor Hong supposedly called for a mobilization of Christians and concerned people to give feedback to the Parliament: ‘A mother could send in something like: ‘I have three young children and I’m against any legislation that allows for same sex marriages’.
In February 2010, Pastor Rony Tan of another megachurch, Lighthouse Evangelism, equated homosexuality with paedophilia: ‘If we don’t warn people against this, then there will be more and more homosexuals and many of these people will be harassing and seducing young boys, and they in turn will become homosexuals.
And very soon, half the world will be homosexual … ’ (Tan Citation2010).
12 The Chinese-speaking Singaporeans are the mythical heartlands of the small island-state; they are deemed to be less individualistic than English-educated Chinese. The Chinese are 75 per cent of the Singapore population of five million, all living on an island of 26 miles by 14 miles.
13 Despite the Prime Minister’s statement about not proactively enforcing Section 377A, there were two arrests in 2010. For one arrest, Section 377A was finally used to charge consenting adult men for having oral sex in public toilets (fridae 2010). The gay community was enraged because the non- discriminatory Section 294 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes ‘any obscene act in any public place’, irrespective of gender, could easily have been used instead.
14 Karen Tongson’s book Relocations: Queer Surburban Imaginaries is interesting to apply to Singapore. She suggests the finding of unenigmatic queer spaces in entertainment venues such as Studio K, a club in theme park Knots Berry Farm, where it is safe, convenient, engineered for and inspired by the nuclear family’s flight from the city. Singapore, despite being a small island-state, has many utterly ordinary satellite towns organized as suburbs. Its nouveau riche obsession with youth consumption, entertainment, comfort, safety, convenience, shopping malls, theme parks, integrated resorts (casinos) mean that spaces like Studio K can exist. Perhaps it is here that the Prime Minister’s heteronormative myth about the disinterested majority of Singapore with regards to S377A may be shattered in time. Tongson quotes John D’Emilio’s essay ‘Capitalism and Gay Identity’ that talks of affectional communities beyond the nuclear family, where the rights of young people broaden outside of traditional heterosexual units. This research for queer spaces in Singapore’s satellite towns is the task of another essay but it does give food for thought. Tongson’s concern for taking back public space with collective improvisational models of affection (through dance, musical exchange and general hanging out), rather than simply taking refuge in private sexuality, is relevant for Singapore.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ong Keng Sen
Ong Keng Sen is the Artistic Director of T:>Works and the artspace 72-13 in Singapore.
Apart from creating renowned productions, Ong founded the Arts Network Asia, a micro-grant peer organization, and the international Curators Academy, focused on the synergy between contexts and curation. He recently inaugurated an annual digitalized lecture programme for the Curators Academy where he conducted four lectures, clinics and consultations under the ‘Curating No-thing’ series that attracted 2,200 participants from around the world.
His seminal work was the nomadic artist residency The Flying Circus Project, with international artists travelling through Asia, sharing their contexts among themselves and with young people in the local sites.
Ong was the Founding Festival Director of the all-new Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA). He directed four editions of SIFA from 2014 to 2017. He was a Fulbright Scholar and was awarded the prestigious Fukuoka Asian Arts and Culture Prize in 2010 for his creations in Asian contemporary performance. He holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.