J[our]ney - 4 Short Stories by Joel Tan

Elise brushes past the politician outside Simei station. He’s handing out flyers, and a small crowd has formed around him. In her hurry, Elise notices she hasn’t caught the colour of his uniform. Is it a mixture of red and white? Or all-white? Or pastel blue, or green? Not green. If it’d been one of the Greens, she’d definitely have stopped to take a flyer, maybe even a selfie. As she waves her wrist watch over the gantry and enters the steaming hot station, she realises she doesn’t know if the Greens are even contesting in Simei. She purses her lips a little sadly. They’re made up of young university professors with socialist ideas and she thinks their angry Instagram stories about climate change are pretty cool. She’d have liked to cast her first ever vote their way in this, the hottest August in recent memory.

This story is read by Brendon Fernandez.

Show Notes

Elise brushes past the politician outside Simei station. He’s handing out flyers, and a small crowd has formed around him. In her hurry, Elise notices she hasn’t caught the colour of his uniform. Is it a mixture of red and white? Or all-white? Or pastel blue, or green? Not green. If it’d been one of the Greens, she’d definitely have stopped to take a flyer, maybe even a selfie. As she waves her wrist watch over the gantry and enters the steaming hot station, she realises she doesn’t know if the Greens are even contesting in Simei. She purses her lips a little sadly. They’re made up of young university professors with socialist ideas and she thinks their angry Instagram stories about climate change are pretty cool. She’d have liked to cast her first ever vote their way in this, the hottest August in recent memory.

This story is read by Brendon Fernandez.

What is J[our]ney - 4 Short Stories by Joel Tan?

J[our]ney is an original all-Singaporean digitally presented production exploring an essential component of every Singaporean’s life - the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) commute. We will be presenting 4 newly commissioned short stories by Singaporean writer Joel Tan paired with newly commissioned pieces by 4 Singaporean composers. The music will be performed by K口U and stories told by Brendon Fernandez.

In this collection of four short stories, we follow different rides along the East West line across 1987, 2015, 2025, and 2087. Introspective and ruminating, the stories track the changing urban and social landscape of Singapore, and plot a speculative roadmap for the near and distant future.