志异 Draft by Drama box July 2014 (english) | Page 37

Disjuncture and Discord in Singapore Comics and Cartoons

CT LIM
:
DISJUNCTURE
AND DISCORD
IN SINGAPORE
COMICS AND
CARTOONS

In the last week of December 2012,
two cartoonists from different
generations met in a small studio
at Kampong Eunos. 2010 Young
Artist Award recipient, Sonny Liew,
finally met Koeh Sia Yong, an artist/
cartoonist active in the 1960s and
1970s. Their stories paralleled the
story of cartooning in Singapore
and the history of the island nation.
The history of cartoons in Singapore
has always been political. The
first Chinese cartoon appeared
in 1907, in Chong Shing Jit Pao, a
newspaper that was set up to rally
support for the cause of Dr Sun YatSen to create a new China. These
cartoons were anti-Ching Dynasty
cartoons, to show the overseas
Chinese in Singapore the corruption
and incompetence of the Ching
government in China. The efforts

of writers, artists, cartoonists and
other intellectuals paid off when
the Ching government fell in the 1911
Chinese Revolution.
However, China’s problems were
not over. In the following two
decades, the young republic was
plagued by threats of warlordism
that divided the country. Cartoonists
in Singapore once again took up
their drawing pens to caricature
General Yuan Shih Kai and other
warlords in Kuo Min Yit Poh and
later, Sin Kuo Min Press.
Cartoons in Singapore started
out as a political weapon, a tool
for agitation. It was used against
the Ching government in the
1900s, against the warlords in the
1910s and 1920s and then against

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