Former Comp Lit concentrator, Chong Jing Gan is among three winners of the Singapore Unbound award recognizing the best undergraduate critical essays on Singapore and other literatures. Chong Jing’s winning essay, entitled Marginal Misdirections: Imitation and Mistranslation in the Theater of Kuo Pao Kun, will be featured in the Singapore Unbound publication SUSPECT in January 2024 along with the two other winners.
Comparative Literature
Date
October 5, 2023
Singapore Unbound chooses Chong Jing Gan as essay award recipient
Founded in New York City by Singaporean poet Jee Leong Koh, Singapore Unbound builds people-to-people understanding by facilitating cultural exchange, publishing literary works of merit, and presenting insightful events.
With beautiful prose, original translations, and an elegant argument, this essay offers fresh insights into Kuo Pao Kun’s playwriting practices. The author introduces the reader to a traditional Chinese performance technique called Xiangsheng and the myriad ways in which Kuo integrates this technique into his experimental English language plays. Such a strategic use of Xiangsheng, the author argues, curates a powerful space where difference produces a sense of belonging and, most importantly, joy.
Chong Jing Gan graduated in May 2023 with honors in Comparative Literature, focusing on English and Mandarin Chinese. His honors thesis, Strange Emigrations: Affective Movements and Alterities of Belonging in the Margins of Singaporean Literature, won him the 2023 Rosalie Colie Prize.