My NUS experience…
… was not a typical one. It started out innocently enough: the first three semesters were spent in Singapore. The choice to study mathematics was in retrospect evident; although I cannot pretend to mathematical genius, I have always enjoyed and excelled sufficiently at it. USP then added a much appreciated social sciences slant to my education, forming me to be a better non-fiction writer.
I then studied at Ecole polytechnique in a two and a half year program with 500 other students. From re-learning how to make friends and jokes in a third language to working alongside brilliant and hardworking individuals, my time in France has challenged me intellectually and deeply sharpened my sense of who I want to be as a person. Polytechnique was a space that I fought to make a hard earned home.
This fifth year in Singapore has been a return to silky Teh C, picking up of paused friendships, and being overfed by my grandma. But I find also surprisingly jarring notes that are strangely tiring: the casual plastic waste generated, the unceasing waves of people, the French words that slip through my Singlish.
Here, Singapore; there, France; something to love, something to miss.
Here and there…
… is a search for nuance, a foothold between the categories, labels, and words we use when speaking of race, mathematics, technological smartness, and faith. Posts can be read independently, but were written in the order presented below.
How we talk about race attempts to pitch the sociological deconstruction of race as encountered in a mind-stretching USP class with soul-stretching experiences as a Singaporean trying to defend her “Chineseness” in a language that does not have the word “race”. Questions posed here may help in recognizing the subtleties hidden behind our mental shortcuts or in grappling with changing understandings of racial categories in Singapore.
How we talk about mathematics stems from a long pent up need to respond to the many individuals who have wrinkled their noses and said “I hate mathematics”, when I speak about my major. However much I have complained about my analysis homework, I have always (grudgingly) found it beautiful. I hope here to provide non-mathematician readers with a more nuanced treatment of what mathematics is, beyond memorizing formulas.
Paylah! Cash Sua… investigates payment practices in NUS canteens, unveiling our preconceived notions about who can adapt to new technologies and what it takes for a nation to become Smart. The difference in titling from my other posts is the only unfortunate side product of collaboratively writing with Michelle and Tak Wei.
How we talk about faith considers the difficulties of conversing across faith divides, exploring the spaces between religion and rational scientific thought, between belief in absolute truth and intolerance. While I write here as a Christian, ensuing reflections could be “good to live with” regardless of where one stands faith-wise: intellectual responsibility in examining convictions, integrity in being beyond what we say, and commitment to conversation beyond offense.
cover photos
“Here and There”: the last three lines of Paul Verlaine’s Chanson d’automne, “deçà delà / pareil à la / feuille morte” can be translated to “here and there / like the / dead leaf”.
“Race”: Ecole polytechnique X2014 rowing team
“Math”: MA5205 notes
“Cashless”: NUS arts canteen
“Faith”: Oxford grounds, a nod to C.S. Lewis