Kuo Pao Kun wrote The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole in 1984, eight years before his citizenship was reinstated. Yet this play is one of the most widely known of his productions, and has been performed both locally and internationally, and is considered a seminal piece of Singapore literature. In this case, what makes this work of Singapore literature uniquely Singapore?
More recently, the film by Tan Pin Pin To Singapore, With Love, also features ex-Singaporeans who were exiled due to the "political unrest" they brought to the nation. Yet, despite the events being in the distant past, despite their physical banishment from Singapore, their feelings for the nation are still clearly visible.
Goh Poh Seng himself studied in Kuala Lumpur and Dublin, and throughout his book the use of Singlish is contrived and distinctly unnatural: clearly the local vernacular is not second nature to him, not something that he has grown up around. Rather, it is a way of distinguishing his texts as being Singaporean, a way to try and relate to his own fellow citizens.
Singapore literature is something that is not just tied to the physical locations that we are in, nor does it depend on a person's official citizenship status, or the ability to speak like locals speak. The idea of a literary work being able to represent Singapore as a whole is a dangerous misconception: each piece has a subjective view, and represents Singapore as the writer sees Her. To me, this does not make the articles any less meaningful. Rather, knowing the limitations of these literary works, I feel that the impression I get of Singapore becomes less rigid: each person takes away a different feel from Singapore, the relationship between the nation and the authors emerge in various literary forms, and ultimately the result is a menagerie which builds a more comprehensive view of Singapore as a whole.
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