From Clementi to Carnegie: The Journey of Singaporean Violinist Siow Lee Chin
Siow Lee Chin
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814642224

From Clementi to Carnegie is an inspirational autobiography of Singaporean violinist Siow Lee Chin. The story of one of Singapore's favorite daughters of classical music began at age 15 when, against the odds, Lee Chin made the leap from her humble Clementi HDB flat to become the first Singaporean talent-spotted to study at America's prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, which has produced musical giants the likes of conductor Leonard Bernstein. Single-handedly, she carved a name as one of the most distinguished violinists of her generation, at a time when classical music was not the popular career choice in Singapore. But success was by no means smooth sailing.

In 2012, she faced her biggest setback -- a career-threatening injury from a car accident which broke both bones in her left arm -- the arm which holds her violin. Surgery could not guarantee that she would ever regain the fine motor skills needed to make her violin sing again. But through faith and determination, she worked note by note, scale by scale to put her life together again. A year after her accident, she made her comeback as a soloist performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, considered one of the most technically demanding pieces for a violinist. Today, Lee Chin is 100% back on track (with titanium-reinforced arms), honoured to share her inspirational journey with the world.

Our Lives to Live: Putting a Woman's Face to Change in Singapore
Kanwaljit Soin & Margaret Thomas (eds.)
Singapore: World Scientific, 2015
ISBN: 9789814663151

Our Lives to Live: Putting a Woman's Face to Change in Singapore explores how women's roles, choices and voices in Singapore have changed in the last 50 years; how women, from all sectors of society, have helped to shape the Singapore we know today. The 31 chapters, some with a more academic slant, others with a distinctly personal tone, reflect the rich diversity and depth of women's contributions to Singapore's evolution in the last half century, and also point to the problematical areas that still need attention.

The authors include some of Singapore's most accomplished women in many different fields, such as Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, political scientist and diplomat Chan Heng Chee, global women's activist Noeleen Heyzer, sociologist and politician Aline Wong, Singapore's food ambassador Violet Oon, sports legend Pat Chan, law lecturer and playwright Eleanor Wong, and novelist Meira Chand.

Chinese Women's Association: 100 Fabulous Years
The Chinese Women's Association
Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2015
ISBN: 9789814385695

The Chinese Ladies' Association was formed in 1915 by twenty-three independent and modern young women from prominent Chinese families in Singapore. Chinese Women's Association: 100 Fabulous Years begins with their stories. It then goes on to chart the lives of the association's presidents and the impressive accomplishments of the CWA, including its thirty-two-year management and funding of Henderson Senior Citizen's Home.

The book also features articles written by members, past and present, reflecting on their lives; many of these pieces give the reader insight into the lives of women in 20th-century Singapore. Of course, the women of the CWA are fun-loving and adventurous, and no book about the association and its history would be complete without stories from their travels together and photographs from their elaborate fundraising events.

When the Goddesses Die
Latha
Singapore: Epigram Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789814615143

No longer silenced, the voices of Tamil women within Singaporean literature are given a powerful outlet by Latha, in her first collection of stories to be translated into English. The old lady forced to move because of an en bloc sale; the socially anxious student unable to leave her rented room because of a funeral in the house; the religious devotee taken over during a spiritual re-enactment; the daughter caring for her terminally ill mother; and the enigmatic Alyssa, who lives with her grandparents on Pulau Ubin as a child, and must deal with incredible physical loss as an adult. Culled from and expanding upon Naan Kolai Seyum Penkal, winner of the Singapore Literature Prize in 2008, When the Goddesses Die entertains and elucidates, covering a broad range of social issues with grace and irreverence.

Body Boundaries: The EtiquetteSG Anthologies Volume I
Tania Rozario, Zarina Muhammad & Krishna Udayasankar (eds.)
Singapore: The Literary Centre, 2014
ISBN: 9789810789466

Body Boundaries is an anthology of words by twenty‐seven women writers from Singapore. Comprising works of poetry and prose, the collection breaks down barriers between public and private, personal and political, to reveal both collective and diverse experiences threaded together and defied by identity markers of gender and geography.

The collection is the first volume of a series by EtiquetteSG, a multidisciplinary platform dedicated to developing and showcasing art, writing, film and music created by women in Singapore.

Remembering the Samsui Women: Migration and Social Memory in Singapore and China
Kelvin E.Y. Low
British Columbia: University of British Columbia Press, 2014
ISBN: 9780774825757
Singapore: NUS Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789971698584

In the early twentieth century, thousands of women from the Samsui area of Guangdong, China migrated to Singapore during a period of economic and natural calamity, leaving their families behind. In their new country, many found work in the construction industry, with others working in households or factories where they were called hong tou jin, translated literally as "red-head-scarf," after the headgear that protected them from the sun.

In Singapore, the women have been celebrated as pioneering figures for their hard work and resilience, and in China for the sacrifices they made for their families. Kelvin Low explores the lives and legacy of the Samsui women, both through media and state representations and through the oral histories of the women themselves. Thus, his work sheds light on issues of their identity, both publicly constructed and self-defined, and explores why they undertook their difficult migration.

Remembering the Samsui Women is an illuminating study of the connection between memory and nation, including the politics of what is remembered and what is forgotten.

More Than a Mountain: The Journey of Singapore's First Women's Team to the Summit of Mount Everest
Singapore Women's Everest Team
Singapore: Singapore Women's Everest Team, 2014
ISBN: 9789810768140

“When we first started telling people that we wanted to climb Mount Everest, the most common question we got was, ‘Wow that’s great! But surely you mean to Everest Base Camp?’”

The Singapore Women’s Everest Team presents a unique and inspiring success story about a team of six young women who started off as strangers, united by a common love for the mountains, coming together in a five-year journey that defied all doubts and culminated with two spectacular days on the summit of Mount Everest.

More Than A Mountain brings to life the team’s journey through personal stories, anecdotes and humbling experiences – told through a series of captivating photographs, illustrations and never-been-told before accounts of what truly went on in the Everest expedition. Through personal journal entries and behind-the-scene stories, the book also provides a first-person’s insight into the massive planning and preparation necessary for the mammoth task of climbing Mount Everest.

Where I Was: A Memoir From the Margins
Constance Singam
SIngapore: Select Books, 2013
ISBN: 9789810760274

Where I Was: A Memoir From the Margins is a rich, funny and compelling account of the life of an extraordinary woman. It is filled with anecdotes, both humorous and moving, of her colourful life, from early years in Kerala; her teenage years and adult life in the country of her birth, Singapore; and her journey from being an apathetic innocent citizen to a committed civil society activist.

Beyond the Singapore Girl: Discourses of Gender and Nation in Singapore
Chris Hudson
Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2013
ISBN: 9788776941253

The branding of Singapore International Airlines with the image of a beautiful, petite, and servile "Oriental" woman dressed in figure-hugging sarong-kebaya is one of the world's longest running and most successful advertising campaigns. But this image does not simply advertise a service; it is a part of a global and national regime of symbolic constructions of gender that today is seen as outdated and sexist, and bearing little relation to modern Singapore where women have good access to education and increased life choices resulting from engagement in the wage economy.

The failure of these campaigns and rethinking of the Singapore Girl highlight a key premise of this book: there are limits to the power of discursive constructions of gender in the national interest.

A Clean Breast
Theresa Tan
Singapore: Write Editions, 2012
ISBN: 9789810739294

The morning she woke up with a pain in her right breast, Theresa Tan knew her life would never be the same again. In this deeply personal book, Theresa shares her horrific discovery of breast cancer and the painful loss of her breast to the disease. Journey with her as she emerges through the darkest period of her life to be stronger and fitter than ever, filled with a purpose to help and encourage other women experiencing cancer. Written in an intimate style, speckled with humour, A Clean Breast is the story of a woman who decided to kill cancer before it killed her.

In the Mood for Cheongsam: A Social History, 1920s - Present
Lee Chor Lin & Chung May Khuen
Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2012
ISBN: 9789814260923

Spanning almost a century, this book examines the origins and development of the cheongsam in the social context of Singapore since its introduction from Shanghai, China, in the 1920s to the present day.

The cheongsam, a one-piece Chinese ladies' dress, was the epitome of Chinese identity and feminine beauty during the middle decades of the 20th century. Initially seen as a symbol of a trendy, new, Republican China, shorn of the shackles of the imperial system, the cheongsam soon adopted intellectual overtones, and was favoured by the sophisticated and society's elite at elaborate social functions. When it was abandoned following the success of the Communist Party in China, the cheongsam survived in Singapore as the garment of choice for independent, educated women. Over the years it has risen and fallen in popularity and been revived and re-interpreted for new generations by designers such as Tan Sheau Yun and Priscilla Shunmugan.

Containing extensive archival photographs and showcasing the collection of the National Museum of Singapore (NMS), this book goes beyond a mere study of the garment itself, but places it in context as a symbol of a people and emblem of its times, as well as the role it played in Singapore's social scene. The book will interest both serious social historians and amateur enthusiasts alike.

Nightingale Songs: Survival Stories From Domestic Violence
Kendra
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2011
ISBN: 9789814328890

In Nightingale Songs: Survival Stories From Domestic Violence, Singapore-based counsellor and mental healthcare professional, Kendra, speaks to survivors of abuse and the professionals who help those impacted by violence in the home. The diversity of stories reflects Singaporean society, illustrating that this social problem is not limited to one class or ethnic group but crosses all boundaries of race, religion, education and socio-economic background.

Private stories are revealed for the purpose of raising public awareness about violence in the home. Kendra presents domestic violence as a social issue needing to be understood and addressed at the community level.

This book provides useful information for those considering working in the field of domestic violence, especially the importance of self-care, and will resonate with anyone whose life has been personally touched by this issue.

The AWARE Saga: Civil Society and Public Morality in Singapore
Terence Chong (ed.)
Singapore: NUS Press, 2011
ISBN: 9789971695514

In March 2009, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) was briefly taken over by a Christian faction. Their coup was overturned within a matter of weeks, but the episode highlighted a variety of issues, including the role of religion in civil society, sex education, homosexuality, state intervention and media engagement. Although the immediate issue was control of an activist group concerned with women's rights, it has implications for the agendas and concerns of NGOs, 'culture wars', the processes of citizenry mobilization, mass participation and noisy democracy, and liberal voices in contemporary Singapore.

In this book, academics and public intellectuals examine the AWARE saga within the context of Singapore's civil society, considering the political and historical background and how the issues it raised relate to contemporary societal trends. In addition to documenting a milestone event for Singapore's civil society, the authors offer provocative interpretations that will interest a broad range of readers.

Women Artists in Singapore
Bridget Tracy Tan
Singapore: Select Publishing, 2011
ISBN: 9789814022781

Women Artists in Singapore showcases Singapore's women artists and their contributions. Bridget Tracy Tan's selection of 37 artists and artworks offer interesting and much-needed insights about the role women have played, and continue to play, in Singapore's art history.

The styles and mediums of artists from different generations are creatively juxtaposed to highlight the sheer diversity of their output and influences, as well as their international character. The book contains commentary on the late doyenne Georgette Chen, who specialised in oils, as well as contemporary installation and performance artists Amanda Heng and Suzann Victor, just to name three.

The question of what it means to be both an artist and a woman lies at the heart of Women Artists in Singapore. Enlivened by colourful artwork images from the national collection as well as private and artist collections, this book presents a visual feast, attractive to art lover and lay person alike.

Singapore Women's Charter: Roles, Responsibilities and Rights in Marriage
Theresa W. Devasahayam (ed.)
Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011
ISBN: 9789814279765

The chapters in this book are an assembly of commentaries by a distinguished team of specialists on the social impact of the Singapore Women's Charter on women and men. The Women's Charter is the main legislation protecting women's rights in the context of the family in Singapore. Highlights of this book include the reasons for the significance of legislation to protect women's rights in marriage; how the legislation came about; case studies from Southeast Asia; how the Singapore Women's Charter evolved and became established; how the Charter goes beyond protecting women's rights by reinforcing men's and women's obligations and duties in a marital partnership; how the Charter has come to be perceived by men and women especially in its enforcement in the context of divorce; and the social repercussions of the Charter on the family in its application.

There has been ongoing discussion on the implications of the Charter on the lives of Singaporean women and men for some years since its implementation. The purpose of this book is to enrich our understanding of this legislation further - its objectives, efficacy and shortfalls.