The Asian Bookshelf The Asian Bookshelf

The Asian Bookshelf discusses Melissa De Silva’s Singapore Literature Prize Winning book ‘Others’ Is Not a Race: Being Eurasian in Singapore and Malaysia (Monsoon Books 2023).

Presenter Devika Misra, and writers, T.A. Morton and Jon Gresham, explore what they love about the book, the Creative Non Fiction form, identity and privilege, and how community status and roles change over time.

Books mentioned
Melissa de Silva, ‘Others’ Is Not a Race: Being Eurasian in Singapore and Malaysia (Monsoon Books 2023)
W Somerset Maugham, The Letter in the short story collection The Casuarina Tree (Heinemann 1926). See also Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors (Bloomsbury 2023)

For some other books by Eurasians in Singapore:
Rex Shelley, The Shrimp People (1991)
Kevin Martens Wong, Altered Straits (Epigram Books 2017)
The Eurasian Association Bookshop

Other links
My Debal Diaries - Tracing The History of Singapore’s Eurasians, Channel News Asia
Kodrah Kristang - The Initiative for the Revitalization of the Kristang Language in Singapore
National Archives of Singapore Joseph Schooling
The Eurasian Community in Singapore Infopedia
Intersectionality explained on Wikipedia
“Instead of asking what are people‘s roots, we ought to think about what are their routes, the different points by which they have come to be now; they are, in a sense, the sum of those differences. That, I think, is a different way of speaking than talking about multiple personalities or multiple identities as if they don‘t have any relation to one another or that they are purely intentional. These routes hold us in places, but what they don‘t do is hold us in the same place.” Cultural theorist Stuart Hall in The Journal of The International Institute, Vol 7, Issue 1, Fall 1999

Check out a sneak peek of our first four episodes, featuring authors Melissa De Silva and Elaine Chiew.

The Asian Bookshelf, home to words and voices from Asia today.

The Asian Bookshelf is a fortnightly podcast hosted by acclaimed writers T.A. Morton, Jon Gresham and Presenter Devika Misra.
It explores Southeast Asian fiction and nonfiction books. We discuss what works for readers and why; movie and streaming potential, emerging trends, and spotlights key industry figures.
This show is for the discerning reader keen to take a deeper dive into the region’s exciting stories and emerging voices.
Welcome to The Asian Bookshelf, home to words and voices from Asia today.