i like this article by professor quah syren, deputy chair of ntu's chinese department, though probably much better known by his chinese name, 柯思仁, and as a poet and theatre critic, and associated with the litty set of the mid-nineties who'd dominated the chinese literary scene and founded coterie magazines like the now defunct houlai magazine. (poach and i used to buy houlai when we were in secondary school!) and i am sure hwachong LEP students remember him from his long tenure there - hey, did he teach our xinyi?

anyway, this a undefensive, but well-defended, answer to a reader's query: on what a chinese department in singapore is and ought to be, and isn't and need not be..

i've only just found this blog last month - people who read chinese might want to visit regularly. his intellect is wry and lively, and his voice tolerant, thoughtful, moderate (quite unlike certain other bloggers at home who promised radical alternative voices but whose anger has now become merely shrill and embarrassing (i bet that's what yeats thought of maud gonne later on) and you can't help but feel they squandered their intelligence and gifts.) i especially like those entries categorised under 边界思维, 如果岛国, and 一个离人 (what lovely titles! and as someone pointed out in the comments, an allusion to calvino.) oh and i love this anecdote: 与诗人为邻 and the conclusions he drew.