A Coming-of-age for University Playwrights

Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by Jian in Arts & Culture, Campus

Campus — Now that I’ve graduated, there remain only a few things that I pay attention to in NUS. One of those few things is Dramafest, an annual stage production of six short plays.

Barking Up the Wrong Avatar Tree

Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by Jian in Arts & Culture

Ho Yi Jian speculates on the political structures in James Cameron’s epic film, Avatar, and finds the blatant environmentalist reading of it faulty by exploring his inner anthropologist.

Meritocracy: Look at the method, not the substance

Posted on 10. Jun, 2009 by Jian in Opinions

Like many other things we take for granted, an uncritical understanding of meritocracy is undesirable. Yet, we often examine meritocracy from the perspective of the substance of meritocracy. We debate about what constitutes merit, whether we should include or exclude examination results, critical thinking or ability in sports, music and so on. But little attention is given to the methodology of meritocracy.

High Drama in the Perak Constitutional Crisis

Posted on 09. May, 2009 by Jian in SpecialReport

Confused and lost amongst the details of the Perak Constitutional Crisis? Here’s the quick and dirty on the history of the crisis, the day of the crisis itself and what it all means.

Can Local Programming Get Any Worse?

Posted on 30. Mar, 2009 by Jian in Arts & Culture

Deep down inside, everybody wants big, giant commercial corporations to use their capabilities to do good things. These things include being environmentally positive, creating jobs, and making the world a better place to live. In the same vein, that’s what I want to see Mediacorp doing as well. Ideally, they should be producing television shows that are compelling, meaningful, have universal appeal and help Singaporeans and global audiences alike make sense of life in the ever-changing world. But what’s this I see?

Lovers, Mad Doctors and Imaginary Friends

Posted on 22. Mar, 2009 by Jian in Arts & Culture

Eusoff Dance Production has a bit of a reputation behind it. Amongst the sea of droll and mediocre hall productions, this one is the one you would put your money on. They have a strong alumni supporting it (at least to buy the tickets and returning to oversee the choreography), and a lot of the hall’s resources are usually diverted towards getting the show on the road.

Last year’s Love Is In The Heir was generally cliche-ridden to help the audience relate to the plot. There’s a girl disguised as a boy, an evil wizard who overthrows the King, then he betroths his three ah beng sons to the three princesses, one of whom is feistily tomboyish (symbolic of how women today are so liberated yet still feminine!), and in the end, love saves the day once again. And then there’s the Bollywood-like dance sequences, or else they couldn’t call it “dance production”. Like nearly every other self-written play in NUS, it just couldn’t free itself from cliches.

This year’s Dance Production, “You’ve Got A Friend in Me” does not contain a pun in its title. It’s a story of John, the Eusoffian Valedictorian, graduate first class, environmental scientist extraordinaire, destined saviour of the world, loved by his ever faithful girlfriend, respected by his Eusoffian peers. He suits up for his first ever job interview, and up pops something from his childhood years: an imaginary Goth-rocker named Alexandra. At this point, I started wondering if spandex-wearing Goth-rockers actually existed in the Singaporean psyche 15 years ago but I forgot about it because the dancers were coming on.