The type of story I really wanted to tell was a very urgent one about identity. The desire to tell stories is probably innate, but then certain experiences shape that and inspire certain types of stories. I think it sparked the storyteller in me. That’s probably a good way to describe it. Did also you feel indignant, and did it make you question your identity? It wasn’t so much that I thought I didn’t belong, it was that I had to convince others that I did. Moving back from those places to Singapore was like another thing, because I would have to reinstate my sense of belonging. That, I found really complicated and very confusing. But overseas, classmates and teachers - adults - would tell me, no, you’re not from Singapore because they thought that someone from Singapore would be Chinese and they only associated one ethnicity with Singapore. Up until the time we moved out of Singapore, I didn’t really have any uncertainty about that, you know? I was born here. So, when I said I was from Singapore, there was real confusion in that. I think most people’s ideas of what Singapore was, was different from what they saw. If I said I was from Singapore, there was an expectation that you should be kind of a representative of that place. What was it like for you trying to find a sense of belonging in those places as a young girl? You lived and grew up in many different countries over the course of your formative years.
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