Divercity Singapore

Preface by Cherian George:

The three of us behind this book - Morgan, Justin and I - were born in Singapore between 1949 and 1984. We've seen our country go through change upon change. It's been modified by technological progress, economic development - and wave after wave of immigrants. New arrivals bring new accents, flavours, beliefs, fashions, ideas, skills and habits. They mix with the old, transforming both.

We notice the changes taking place in our lifetimes, sometimes welcoming them, sometimes resisting the foreign and rueing the loss of the familiar. But, rarely do we stop to think that what's comfy to us once chafed an earlier generation. Or, that our own immigrant parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were once the aliens - embraced or downtrodden, appreciated or despised. It's the cycle of life in Singapore and a story that's at least 700 years old...

This book "Divercity Singapore - A Cartoon History OF Immigration" by Morgan Chua, an independent cartoonist who made his name at the Singapore Herald and the Far Eastern Economic Review. His previous book was My Singapore.

Justin Zhuang, deputy editor of Mix Media. He writes mainly on design and heritage. His is a graduate of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at NTU.

Cherian George is an academic, journalist and publisher. He is the author of Singapore: The Air-conditioned Nation, and the co-founder of What's Up, a current affairs newspaper for students.

Divercity Singapore is on sale at major local bookstores at a retail price of S$10.90. The book will also be distributed to schools and at citizenship ceremonies to welcome immigrants who have chosen to become Singaporeans. For more information, please write to us at divercity@mixmagazine.sg.

This book is published with the support of the National Integration Council.

This blog is not a book review on "Divercity Singapore". What is this about then?

More information about this book is available at Divercity Singapore .

As a personal blog, this is about the cartoonist Morgan Chua .

The first time I met Morgan was about one afternoon a year ago at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library at the 11th storey National Library Building, Victoria Street, Singapore.

My acquaintance with Morgan was under unusual circumstances. We encountered as strangers at Photocopy Room, each of us stacked with books and magazines about old Singapore for our respective individual researches.

Morgan is a friendly, humble, unostentatious guy who wasn't snobby or aloof. Our agitated conversation about nostalgic memories of Singapore (my favorite topic) and the material for my blogs was a scoop for heritage monuments, buildings and places stuff. We were born at about our same age in Singapore and grew up in kampung during our childhood days.

Morgan accepted my invitation for dinner at a nearby coffee-shop opposite the National Library and he recommended the "teh tarek" and "shiok dum nasi bryani" there. With the nice chitchat with "memory aids" to share with me, I appreciate Morgan to offer him a treat. Several blog topics I posted later was as a result of Morgan's interesting old stuff.

I did not cross path with Morgan for many months since we met. Until news about the book "Divercity Singapore" was published in the papers.

Congrats Morgan. Best wishes for the success of your book with Justin Zhuang and Cherian George and to bring so much funstuff, joy and stories which your cartoon history of immigration in words and graphic brought the book alive to young and old.