Yo sa nomi Tigrisoneru di Tera Singapura

They call me Kevin Martens Wong, magnamakara of drowned Sundaland, Makaravedra Hierosa / Dragon Reborn of the Holocene, Omimerliang / Merlionsman of the Lion City and Pulau Ujong’s big brown lucky gay non-binary star. But you, little lion heart, krensa giliang ja beng naki? You can call me Tigrisoneru Prumiru di Tera Singapura: the first Dreamtiger of the Republic of Singapore, brown, brave, bold, buff and very, very beautiful. Teng bong to you and all those you cherish and love!

I find it tremendously hard to get my writing published, not because, as I quote many potential publishers, it lacks any kind of literary merit, but for other reasons. Perhaps they are really other reasons, or Other reasons.

Whatever the case, this is my stage now. Isti yo sa stradu. Yo sa greza. Yo sa kaza. Sometimes I am a writer in English; sometimes I am one of the few people alive writing in Kristang, the critically endangered language of my creole/indigenous community the Jenti Kristang or Portuguese-Eurasians of Southeast Asia. Sometimes I am a linguist, commenting on both languages; sometimes an archeoastronomer, examining what they have to tell us about what Sundaland left behind, and space and time forgot — or invited us to forget.

Here, I invite you to unlearn all that you have left behind. Enjoy the harbour, the Roads, the dreaming Krismatran ocean of my heart. Dance in my storms. Walk amidst my forests. Trace your life in my sands. And learn that sometimes the only thing that separates you and me is Lady Luck, Siara Fortuna di isti Semesta Beleza.