Book: Ministry of Moral Panic

Singapore isn't generally known for its home-grown literature, at least in English. But authors such as Amanda Lee Koe are beginning to forge a distinctive literary voice for the city-state; in Ministry of Moral Panic, her debut collection of short stories, she addresses questions of Singaporean identity, national memory and national myth-making.

In "Fourteen Entries from the Diary of Maria Hertogh," Lee Koe explores one of the key episodes of Singapore's late-Colonial history: the Hertogh riots of 1950. These were sparked when Maria Hertogh, a Dutch girl who may or may not have been given up for permanent adoption to a Malay Muslim family in Singapore, was subsequently returned by the colonial courts to her biological parents.