Rice Bowl
Suchen Christine Lim
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2009
ISBN: 9789812618962

A powerful story of young love and idealism set in Singapore in the 1960s, a time of political uncertainties and economic insecurity.

Young, passionate and idealistic, Sister Marie rejects the conformity of her first love, a Singaporean police inspector, and embraces the liberalism of her second love, an American missionary. Fresh into university and daring to be different, she leads a group of students to question the values of a nation gripped by fear of the government and loss of their rice bowl. They organise a protest march against the Vietnam War, which leads to a riot, detention and deportation of the workers they try to help. And in the midst of this, a student, the daughter of a prostitute, meets a tragic death, while a lecturer and a suspected Communist agent provocateur goes crazy in his attempts to radicalise the students-workers' movement.