Local Sensibility and Nostalgia: The Tanshe Poetry Society in Colonial Singapore

Abstract

Under the leadership of Qiu Shuyuan, the “Poet Master of the South,” a group of Singapore Chinese poets formed the Tanshe poetry society in the 1920s and published the only group collection of classical-style poetry in the colonial period. This society forged a close social bond between the resident- and sojourner-poets, who used traditional poetry to create a cultural space for themselves in overseas Chinese communities. Although they still possessed a sojourner’s mentality and often expressed their nostalgia for China or their hometowns in China, they also attempted to accept and appreciate the unique Nanyang culture and customs. By sharing their individual narratives and experiences with fellow members, they together constructed a collective memory and multiple narratives of the homeland while exchanging opinions about the host society. Through textual analysis of Tanshe group compositions, this paper proposes that localization and nostalgia, two seemingly contradictory concepts, are in fact compatible, as emotional attachments to both homeland and hostland both appear in Tanshe society writings. It thus seeks to offer an alternative viewpoint for current Sinophone studies and scholarship about overseas Chinese, holding that nostalgia could prompt Chinese immigrants to contemplate the many potentialities and possibilities of their future, their relationship with “routes and roots,” and connections between past and present. The transplantation of many of their cultural practices, of which the poetry society was a significant manifestation, also helped them create a more familiar living place in their out-of-placeness.