It seemed that this year, Singapore's squeaky clean, well-manicured streets took on a different light. The porcelain white image of the garden city donned a grittier quality because of controversial laws, and people who were brave enough to question the norm. The pot was stirred and what bubbled to the surface were issues that seemed unbecoming of a country supposedly at the frontline of progress.We went looking for pearls in a sandbox to dig up our best stories about these issues. This includes the saga of the Indian siblings who were condemned for calling out Chinese privilege, and accounts of what it’s like to come out in a country where gay sex is still illegal. Find them below, along with other stories from 2019 worth a second read.
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In Singapore, brownface is apparently completely fine. What you cannot do is call someone out for brownface, especially if that someone happens to be a large government-linked corporation. Just ask Preeti and Subhas Nair, the siblings who denounced racism in Singapore in a viral music video. Writer Edoardo Liotta spoke to them in their first interview following the controversy.It’s 2019, yet gay sex is still illegal in Singapore. The colonial-era law that prohibits such acts, Section 377A of the Penal Code, was challenged in court in November but it still stands to this day. In an eye-opening piece from earlier this year, we hear first-hand what it’s like to be yourself despite parental and religious demands, or the expectations of a conservative society.Some of the struggles and frustrations of the LGBTQ community in Singapore are highlighted in this story about True Love, a Christian group that wants to “help” people "overcome" being gay. This piece by writer Meera Navlakha exposes the wide-spread intolerance veiled by liberalist rhetoric, and highlights the power that religious groups have in the secular state.
Hawker is Singapore’s contribution to VICE’s Comic Week this year, a collaboration between two talented locals, poet Ng Yi Sheng and illustrator Xiao Yan. Without giving too much away, it’s about the mythical inception of a bowl of noodles. Like all good stories, its strength lies in its mystery and you should read it for yourself!
Buying a car in Singapore is reserved for the affluent and well-off, so it’s only natural that the rest of us plebs find a workaround. A subculture has emerged that trades in modified exhausts for beefy battery packs, and chrome rims for uprated motors. In this piece, we look at the craze and eventual struggle of the factions of e-Scooter and PMD (personal mobility device) enthusiasts in Singapore, as they weave around the rule book but are forced to slow down for laws and policies that just can’t keep up.Singapore is known far and wide for her extremely strict laws. In this piece, we explore a new legislation that would give those in power the ability to censor and curb information on online platforms including private chat groups under the pretence of stopping 'fake news'. This is VICE's guide to understanding the laws so you don't mistakenly run afoul of them.