May - June Zine Reportage for Sticky Institute Melbourne

FROM OUR SINGAPORE CORRESPONDENT with Donna Lipowitz
This month:
Buddah’s Birthday & 2 new zines!
Interest in zines and zine culture in Singapore is small, however while there is indeed even just a fleeting teeny tiny bit of interest then it is still worth patiently pursuing.
Antoinette and Stanley from the Little Drom Store in Ann Siang Hill are still keen to toy with the idea of hosting a kind of zine appreciation event in their shop somewhere down the line, which is very promising.; but first we need Singaporeans to make Zines, but everyone is so busy leh. No time cannot. I’m doing my best efforts to spread the good word of the zine , perhaps I‘ll start an informal group of me and those guys and call it “The Zine Appreciation Society of Singapore” (ZASS for short) Everyone loves an acronym right?
I did find 2 new Zines at the shop “Books Actually” (in Club St round the corner from Little Drom), where I found my first ever zine in Singapore. They still have a teeny collection tucked away in the corner of the store under the staircase, but still it is there, “ZINES” . The same zines have been there since I first started writing these bits six months or so ago,. But, tad ah..... i found 2 new Zines there on my last visit, and I purchased both.
Tokyo in Pink A zine about the history Japanese erotica circa 1970’s. It was in a sealed plastic cover and had a small label on the front “ Not suitable for the young.” There are pornographic pics inside, interesting since pornography is illegal to sell in Singapore; yet this being a zine. Seems to make it a kind of legitimate artistic expression I guess.
Date King – A comic strip kind of autobiographical revelry and admission of often offensive behaviour of an ‘Ah beng” (young Singapore guy who thinks he’s a bit all that’) whose main concern at the weekends is to ‘ pick up girls’, preferable grade A hot girls, in the local Singaporean nightclubs, and the fine rules and regulations involved in attracting the opposite sex, ultimately to get laid. All very complicated and not at all making me wish I was young again. To sum up, offensive but frighteningly accurate.
In other news this is a very important time for Chinese buddist Singaporeans. Yesterday a public Holiday (28th) to celebrate Buddah’s birthday. This means the loud dancing dragon teams are in large demand. Let the drumming begin.

stickyinstitute.com