Novel
新加坡屋顶下
Not translated into English
Miao Xiu · 1951
Synopsis
Under the roofs of Singapore: a short novel about the common people of the postwar city, coolies, rubber plantation workers, the poor districts' ordinary folk, among coconut groves and palms. The characters speak the street Cantonese, which the author blends with written Chinese to give them their voice, and the narrative follows their everyday hardships, far from the nostalgia for China that dominated immigrant letters.
Context
The book appears in the early fifties, when the Chinese writers of Singapore, settled for good, turn to local life after the years of resistance literature. It belongs to this movement through its settings, its characters and its use of Cantonese, which its author also defended in theory. It has been translated into Japanese, and a Guilin publisher reissued it in 1987 in a series of overseas Chinese literatures. Its author is known for his portraits of workers, apprentices, the unemployed and pickpockets, whom he knew at close hand.
Who it is for
A short text in Chinese, mixed with Cantonese; it exists neither in French nor in English, and it requires a good command of reading Chinese.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first example, in the Chinese novel of Singapore, of writing rooted in local life.