Who should be among Singapore's pantheon of heroes?
As the nation slides into middle age, it is perhaps time to reflect on the kind of achievements we want to celebrate
SINGAPORE received an early National Day present two weeks ago. It's not another report on our students' top scores in the latest PISA study, or about our local universities' rising rankings against renowned institutions internationally. Neither is it to do with our world's best airport (five years in a row at last count), or how our national carrier maintains its iconic status amid a slew of Gulf-bankrolled upstarts - the Manchester Cities of the aviation premier league if you will. No.
Rather, the good news is that our own homegrown (albeit Malaysian-born) graphic novelist, Sonny Liew, has won Singapore's first ever Eisner Award, dubbed the "Oscars of Comics", at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2017. In fact, Liew swept three Eisner Awards for his graphic novel-cum-political commentary, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye.
Shortly before the book's release in Singapore, the National Arts Council (NAC) withdrew its cash grant for the title, citing "sensitive content" and its potential to "undermine the authority and legitimacy" of the government.
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