Jemimah Wei on building a writing life

Vogue Singapore

2 days ago

Does the great Singapore novel exist? If you ask Jemimah Wei, the answer is that it doesn't matter. 'I don't believe that there has to be one defining Singaporean novel,' she says. 'That type of thinking is competitive and not generative. It leaves no space for anyone else. It also reflects a Western obsession with hierarchy and power that I don't believe we need to subscribe to. I think we can afford to not only open the door, but to hold it open.'
Wei has been careful to reiterate that her debut novel is a Singaporean story—not the Singaporean story. An intertwining tale of two sisters and their unconventional bond , The Original Daughter traverses time and space. Yet, it remains viscerally rooted to its core material: the poignant, everyday textures of life in working-class Singapore. Its characters are palpably real—as easy to root for as they are to rail against. A decade in the making, it's a novel cut straight from Wei's soul.
A breathtaking literary debut, the release has already racked up a string of accolades, from being named a National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 honoree to a Good Morning America Book Club pick. Chanel jacket, necklace and shoes; top and skirt, stylist's own. Lenne Chai
At the time of our conversation, it is barely a week from the book's official launch on 6 May. How does this moment feel for Wei? 'The most accurate way I can describe it is the feeling is too big to step into. It might be a feeling that I haven't had yet. There isn't one word to describe it.'
On launch day, Wei go on to do a reading at Yu & Me Books, the first fully Asian American-owned bookstore in New York City, followed by a fireside chat where she shared more about her journey as a first-time author. The latter was hosted by none other than acclaimed writer (and one of Wei's literary heroes) Roxane Gay, who also wrote the blurb for Wei's novel.
'A lot of my friends from Singapore flew in for this. They've been hearing about this book for such a long time and they're all excited to celebrate,' Wei says gratefully. 'It almost feels like a wedding.'
Wei may have put the polish on The Original Daughter in the US, but the novel first took root in the depths of her mind as a young adult living in Singapore—sprouting from her concerns about the future. This is plain to see in Wei's prose—from her portrayal of the mind-numbing pressures of Singapore's education system to her reflections on the premature class-consciousness we develop under the looming idea of meritocracy. Even when sweetened with a welcome dose of nostalgia, her writing feels unmistakably live.
'I knew that I had to try and become the writer that the book needed me to be.'
'I wanted the book to be true to a specific experience in Singapore. One of the big concerns throughout my adolescence was witnessing boundaries of class and how they could solidify or become porous,' Wei muses. 'As a society, how do we account for people who fall between the cracks?'
'A big part of the book deals with the stress of being in the Singaporean education system, which is quite difficult to write because studying is boring to read about. If you think about the external visual of studying—you're struggling at your desk, then going to sleep, waking up, maybe crying, then going to school—it's not very interesting, yet it's important to represent accurately on the page. So a lot of the challenge, craft-wise, was to motivate those scenes in a way that would keep the reader interested.'
The reason why the novel took nearly 10 years to complete, then, was Wei's innate desire to push her writing to a higher level. 'I started writing the book in my early 20s, when I wasn't in control of my craft the way I am now. So even though the skeleton of the book did not change—the big things that happen in it were always going to happen—I knew that I had to try and become the writer that the book needed me to be.' Chanel jacket; top and pants, stylist's own. Lenne Chai
Wei's obsession with the art form of writing has long been on simmer. Millennials in Singapore might recognise her from her past life as a host on digital platforms like Clicknetwork and E!. As one of the country's earliest online breakout stars, it might have been news to her audience that, alongside her glamorous media job, she spent every spare hour writing.
'There's no other way to say it, those days I used to feel demented,' she laughs. 'I would wake up at 5.30am to go into the co-working space where I was renting a desk, and write for three hours before starting my freelance media work.'
A turning point came during a 10-week creative writing masterclass taught by Malaysian writer Tash Aw, which Wei describes as a light bulb moment. 'It was the first time I had seen someone from our region successfully be a working writer. Tash had been on the Man Booker Prize long list twice. It made me realise—maybe this was actually possible.'
This sparked a deep contemplation on what it would mean to build a life devoted to writing. 'When you're spending time in a room with writers, writing becomes a muscle. My growth during those 10 weeks felt exponentially greater than anything I had experienced before,' she says.
Two years later, Wei pulled the trigger on her commitment to the writing life by moving to New York City to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Columbia University. At the end of her MFA came another life-changing moment: she received the Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University—one of the most prestigious writing residency positions in the US. The most magical thing about this, in Wei's eyes, was that they were essentially hiring her to write full time for two years.
'That's the beautiful thing about writing—you write to understand.'
'When I was living in Singapore as a freelancer, planning my schedule around my writing was difficult because I never had foresight into what the next month would look like. My time was dictated by the opportunities that came my way but also the things I say yes to. So even if I wanted to set aside time to write, would I be able to say no to a job, which would pay the bills, to stare at my manuscript instead?'
The Stegner, Wei reveals, was the first time in her career she knew that she had a reliable source of income for two years to come. 'It created this psychological safety for me that made it possible to take The Original Daughter past the finish line.'
I ask what it was like writing something so intimately tied to her hometown while being so far from home. Did her imagined audience for the book change? It was quite the opposite, Wei attests. 'Going farther from Singapore solidified my vision that this novel had to be read by a Singaporean audience. I remember thinking to myself that even if the whole world loved it, I would still be heartbroken if people at home were like, 'This sounds like she's writing to an American audience, right?''
This manifested in Wei's writing through a deliberate pull back on explaining her local references. 'During my MFA, I read so many books written by American authors filled with references that I didn't know prior. It didn't reduce my enjoyment of those books. I felt the need to do the same for The Original Daughter ,' she says.
'Of course, it is helpful for the reader if you scaffold their understanding a little bit because, at the end of the day, your job is to keep the reader engaged. So I would meet the reader at a certain point, and if they don't go beyond that to make a leap of understanding, I'm not going to spoon-feed. I don't think it's that difficult to guess what a void deck is—it's literally in the name,' she adds with a chuckle.
So, I ask half-jokingly, when can we expect her next book and what will it look like? 'I don't think that I have it in me to write a book that's not about Singapore in some way,' she says. 'Even if I set a book in a galaxy far, far away, Singaporean sensibilities and considerations will still bleed into it in some form.
'One of the things I've been thinking about recently is what it means to live in community with each other and go through a big crisis. I've also always been concerned with the idea of freedom and agency. I don't mean it in the sense of 'Yes, freedom is great and we should all move towards it'. What does individual freedom mean? What agency do we have over our personhoods while living in society?
'That's the beautiful thing about writing—you write to understand. Writing serves a testing realm for certain questions, which then becomes a controlled environment where these questions can be explored.' She breaks herself out of reverie with a wave of her arm and a chuckle. 'But hopefully, the next book will not take nine years. I think the first one has taught me a thing or two.'
Welcome to Vogue Dialogues, a new series by Vogue Singapore in which we spotlight key writers, poets and literary voices driving change for good through groundbreaking work.
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