Poets, writers explore Singapore’s Changi Airport connection

SINGAPORE — As a people, Singaporeans are notably obsessed with travel.

A survey on “Singapore Happiness”, conducted last August by Fiji Airways and Tourism Fiji, found that 42 per cent of Singaporeans would change jobs for the opportunity to have more holiday time.

Another survey conducted last year by Credit Suisse found that the most popular activity among Singaporean youth was “going on holiday abroad”. Tellingly, the top dream job for Singaporean youth was a job in the tourism or travel industry.

Now, the idea of travel, airports and the characters that inhabit them, are the impetus for the anthology In Transit, a collection of poems and short stories edited by writers Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Zhang Ruihe.

Zhang noted that almost every Singapore poet writing in the 1990s and early 2000s had penned at least one airplane-themed poem. She and Balasingamchow decided the topic of travel and flight was perfect for an anthology. In 2014, they put out a call for submissions. They received 95 entries, from which they shortlisted 31. Works from writers such as Ng Yi-sheng, Marc Nair, Alvin Pang and Stephanie Ye made the cut.

The pieces explore deeper issues of home, identity and what “Singapore” means at this particular point in time.

“The thing that came up was that airports and travel are very much a part of the Singapore psyche,” said Zhang.

“People need to get out,” she said, adding that we go away either because home becomes, over time, suffocatingly familiar or because we want to understand ourselves better.

Then, when you meet people abroad, “the clash makes you see how you are different”, she added. This helps you understand who you are and how you are inextricably linked to your home, she said.

Many of the pieces in the book are set in Changi Airport, which Singaporeans have a unique relationship with.

“Nobody else (in the world) goes to the airport for fun,” Balasingamchow said, pointing out that Changi’s public areas function like a mall where you can study, shop for groceries and take photos with Pokemon.

The airport is also a source of national pride.

“Whenever Singapore is number one at anything, it’s always in the press, and Changi in particular has been number one for a really long time, or at least close to number one even if it gets pipped to the top spot,” she said.

“It’s one of those things that is not political or cultural, it’s just that we are efficient. We promise to get you on the plane and off the plane, and we do it pretty well.”

That is the face we present to the world. But what is often overlooked is the people who carry out the tasks necessary for Changi to run like clockwork. The book contains stories written from the point of view of a trolley uncle, a security guard, a janitor and a Punjabi construction worker — what Zhang calls “voices from the margins”.

“Even in a bland or efficient environment, strange things can happen. People can make connections or get into arguments or fall in love,” Balasingamchow said.

The anthology also takes on “the very modern phenomenon” of transitory relationships, said Balasinghamchow, referring to stories that reflect on encounters and conversations that happen because people are stuck on planes and coming in and out of the airport.

“Even though we focus on Singapore, it’s something people around the world can connect with. Everyone has these ideas about home and dislocation,” Balasingamchow said.

In Transit (S$19) is available at Books Actually and Kinokuniya.

CLARIFICATION: In an earlier version of this story, Balasingamchow was quoted saying the book contains stories written from the point of view of a Bangladeshi construction worker, among others. She has since clarified that it is from the point of view of a Punjabi worker.