by Rosemary Lim
(1,300 words)
Set in Singapore. A teenage boy is fascinated by the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto but experiences loneliness when he realizes that none of his friends share his interest. His sense of being different results in a volume war between his stereo and his mother's TV programmes until one day he hears a Sakamoto composition on TCS. He anticipates a concert as the end to his isolation but events prevent him from attending and only the passage of time helps him to confront his feelings and follow his true ambitions.
(12,300 words)
Set in Australia. A gangster's mistress and one of his bodyguards narrowly escape death as they play cat and mouse with a rival gang through the streets of a Queensland city. Thrown together by a shared need to survive the bloody feud between triads, and also to hide from their own master from whom they have stolen a precious object, they fight and squabble their way to Sydney. The mistress is an Australian-born Chinese, or ABC, and the bodyguard is from Shanghai. Their own feud over who is better is only settled when they realize their differences are less important than what they have in common.
(3,700 words)
Set in Malaysia in the 1970s. An old man ekes out a living washing dishes for hawkers. The one possession he has that is of any value is an old bicycle. He has only one arm and in the course of a typical day he recalls how he lost his other arm and how he arrived at acceptance of this and an even greater loss.
(2,000 words)
Set in Singapore and Drumcree in Northern Ireland. An intensely personal sense of time and place narrated in the present tense and recalling old Celtic myths that are linked to Chinese animist practices. The narrator is a native of Drumcree who finds in Singapore beacons of light that reflect childhood memories and ultimately demand a return to the scene of the Orange protests at Drumcree.
(1,200 words)
Set in Singapore. A young mother entertains her husband's friend on a Saturday afternoon, providing conversation and afternoon tea while they wait for her husband's return from work. It becomes apparent that her visitor would like more than tea.
(1,800 words)
Set in Singapore. A young European woman has married into a wealthy Chinese family. Her mother-in-law is also European but she speaks Cantonese to her husband. An old European aunty is dying but she speaks Portuguese, which the new bride studied at university. The family have asked her to sit with the dying woman and translate anything she might say.
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|Sakamoto ... My Soul |
ABC -- Wu, Liu, Qi |
The One-armed Cyclist |
The Spirit at Drumcree |
Afternoon Tea |
The Clock Ticks |
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