Petition NLB to advertise Ah Kua Show
Petition NLB to advertise Ah Kua Show
emerican_life6/19/09 10:50 am

From www.glass-castle.org

by Jolene

I've previously mentioned Ah Kua Show, a biographical play about the experiences of a trans woman in Singapore. It takes courage to explore these issues in as public a medium as drama, a medium which brings with it so many vulnerabilities, and I’m rather in awe of Leona for doing it.

The National Library Board (NLB) has refused to put up posters advertising Ah Kua Show on the grounds that “displays at our libraries should be relevant to a broad audience of all ages”. Leona very amply rubbishes this argument on that post, but I'd like to add a few words.

The experiences of trans people in Singapore’s society are “relevant to a broad audience of all ages”. Trans people, and the cis (i.e. non-trans) friends and family and colleagues and neighbours of trans people, comprise “a broad audience” and come in “all ages”. The fact that trans people are differently situated in society from cis people, and that cis people are the majority, doesn’t mean that the experiences of trans people should be treated as some kind of “irrelevant” ghetto. As Leona points out, trans people – including trans youth – are precisely part of the “broad audience” that the library posters are meant to reach.

That alone is enough to negate the NLB’s reasoning, but even if we were thinking about cis audience members only, the claims of irrelevance still don’t make any sense. Many people readily enjoy theatre that may not apply with detailed specificity to our individual circumstances, but which enlarges our understanding and deepens our consciousness. Trans people are not reducible to only their trans identity any more than cis people are reducible to only our cis identity. Cis people can find relevance in works about trans experiences – just as trans people everyday find relevance in works about cis experiences, just as men and women frequently enjoy works about the experiences of someone of a different gender from them, just as any of us is perfectly capable of finding worth in works about someone of a different ethnicity or nationality or other background from us. A work about a trans person is a work about a person: how can a mere difference in gender identity render a person "irrelevant", or so alien that no commonality of concerns can be found with others?

Many of us regularly watch Hollywood films featuring situations far removed from the more prosaic settings of our everyday lives. The works of Shakespeare are considered “relevant” enough to be taught to Singapore’s schoolchildren despite the fact that no secondary school student will ll ever be, or encounter, an 11th century Scottish warrior lured by the false promises of witches to murder a king. If the thematic ideas raised by Macbeth are acknowledged to have applicability to the 21st century Singaporean consciousness, what more a coming-of-age tale set in modern Singapore, dealing with intimately local biographical experiences and pervasive attitudes of discrimination?

Indeed I daresay many cis people exploring the experiences of trans people in a transphobic society are likely to find themselves left with reflections on gender and sex, and social marginalisation and discrimination, which resonate deeply with something in their own lives.

The NLB’s statement makes no sense and reflects an exclusionary attitude towards trans people. Please sign this petition calling for the NLB to put up posters for Ah Kua Show.

Some useful, if American-centric, background reading for people new to trans issues here.