Welcome to My World in Transit: Eric Tinsay Valles

Kamusta? Ni hao?

 

As a Chinese Filipino, I have had brushes with otherness in my native and adopted societies. While growing up in Manila, I was aware that I was fairer and had smaller eyes than most people around me –and for a while got teased for this. Living abroad, first in Taipei in the 1990s and now in Singapore, has made me realize that I speak and, in certain ways, think differently from many of my colleagues.

 

This otherness could be frustrating, especially when I was just starting to learn Mandarin, the language of my maternal grandfather’s family. How could one make sense of noodle-like brushwork on billboards or bus guides in the grimy, old section of Taipei, for instance? But might this otherness, the experience of the migrant or itinerant writer, also be liberating? It gives me some objectivity in exploring ways of looking and voicing my experience of self and others in a much more integrated world. It is akin to being a foodie with a long record of sampling soups and dishes from various food stalls, all over the place. Being other also opens up possibilities for cobbling together colloquialisms, imagery and poetic forms from more than one cultural tradition in my writing. The resulting fusion, rojak or halo-halo may appeal to some adventurous readers out there.

 

Formerly a journalist and editor, I currently teacher English Language and Literature at a magnet for smart students, the National University of Singapore High School of Math and Science. I have been published in Routledge's New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, the Hispanic Culture Review (George Mason University), the Southeast Asian Review of English, the Singapore National Arts Council-published anthology Reflecting on the Merlion, the Ethos-published & Words: Poems Singapore and Beyond and Moving Words, the Math Paper Press anthology The Coast, the Under the Storm anthology of contemporary Philippine poetry, Ceriph as well as in online journals Double Dialogues (University of Melbourne) and Bukker Tillibul (Swinburne University of Technology).

 

I am a veritable citizen of the global economy, with some achievements in editing, journalistic writing (for the English-language Taiwan News, Asian Infrastructure Monthly and the Far Eastern Economic Review) and teaching overachieving students (e.g., in Hwa Chong Institution [College] and NUS High). Among the cities I have called home are Manila, Taipei and Singapore.

        In my 20s, I became like Clark Kent—that is, a journalist. I was so for an English-language daily in Mandarin- and Hokkien-speaking Taiwan. I reinvented myself and, along the way, picked up a foreign tongue, that of my maternal grandfather.

        In the prime of life, I teach English—spelled in British fashion—in a place that is uniquely Singapore. This island is both Asian in its vaunted Confucian values and Western in its occasional high-risk, high-gain investments. 

         I draw inspiration from all sorts of music and feed off great writers (and souls) such as St. Augustine, Geoffrey Chaucer and Flannery O’Connor. I face the future with a sunny outlook that has served me well but with slight quavering.

       I am also exploring the use of St. Augustine of Hippo's interpretive theory of reading (distinguishing between literal and figurative interpretations) in the study of cupiditas (disordered love of self that prevents communion with others and the Other) in the works of Chaucer, Jonson, Pope and Flannery O'Connor.

       St. Augustine says that the end of interpretation (principally of the bible and secondarily of other Christian-inspired texts) is charity, the ordering of values with turning to God on top and turning to the self at bottom. It follows then that any allegorical text that may seem to subvert this order should be interpreted not literally but figuratively.I am trying to see now just how each writer brings the uniqueness of his or her time and culture to the shaping of allegory in depicting evil or the lack of good in fictional characters. In so doing, I am testing just how fruitful still is the classical interpretive mode of St. Augustine in generating criticism and, in that light, will outline some fictional models for the depiction of cupiditas (which necessarily presupposes a prior and superior caritas).

      Singapore is a grab bag of things representing the full continuum of goodness (It's clean, all right, but no Disneyland.). The heat is unbearable (worse than in Manila), but its lush gardens (even airconditioned ones with piped-in bird songs) make it a pleasant home.The weather here sort of reminds me of Taiwan's spring: it rains at least once a week. Because of that, Singapore's shrubbery looks a deep shade of green all year round --unlike Japan or Texas in late winter.

       This city-state is not really as uptight as most people think. Some people jaywalk; I've seen peoople without a car seatbelt on; teenagers can now stand up and dance at concerts (not like in the early 2000s); my pants or shoes occasionally get smeared with -- chewing gum. Hey, they're loosening up!

      Prior to postgraduate research, I worked in Taipei as a business reporter and columnist at the English-language daily Taiwan News. I stretched my mind by covering diverse fields from information technology to cross-strait relations. That experience gave me opportunities to grab freebies and to chat with world shakers (great salesmen too) such as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Intel Chairman Andrew Grove, Acer Chairman and CEO Stan Shih and Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang.

        A decade ago in Manila, I tried to put sense into the papers of woolly-headed economists as an editor for top think tank and academic institution University of Asia and the Pacific (formerly Center for Research and Communication). I was also privileged to have taught Composition to four batches of "creme-de-la-creme" students at UA&P.

       As there are many sources and intensities of light, so are there many shades of truth in this fractured world. Given our very limited stay here, I think it is quite good to reach for the fullness of truth that faith and reason can make us attain (As Pope said, "What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,/ The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,/ Is virtue's prize.... [not] 394 erring Pride....").


       This is a struggle for me and most people.

 
HOBBIES AND INTERESTS:
 
Music keeps me sane. I have a very eclectic taste, with my faves ranging from Bach's Brandenburg concertos to the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour to the Black-Eyed Peas' "APL Song." Among current pop artists, I find Coldplay and Kanye West riveting.

'Used to be a big film buff ("Seventh Seal," "Rashomon," and "ET" top my list). Film is to our generation what theater was to the Elizabethans and the novel to Victorians.


"Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility." -- St. Augustine 

LINKS

Christian Classics

Catholic Education Resource Center

Opus Dei

Singapore Poetry Today

Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Filipino Poetry

A Tribute to Edwin Thumboo (with mention of my reading)

Singapore Writers Festival 2012 (with a reference to the panel discussion on the City and Literature)

Elite Skills (Online Writing)

A Look at China

Contact me:
 

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I'm a published poet and an English teacher at a top independent school in Singapore. I also have had the good fortune of engaging other writers and academics in conversation at conferences at the Universities of Melbourne, Baylor and Oxford as well as at writing residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Centrum (Washington),  and the Wellspring House (Massachusetts). In 2013, I won a Goh Sin Tub Competition prize, which offers the biggest cash reward for creative writing in the region.

I'm growing in understanding of a context of my work, the melting pot that is Singapore. My short introduction to prominent Singapore writers, all of whom I have met, will be back online soon. An article on otherness in unofficial poet laureate Edwin Thumboo's poetry is in the December 2013 issue of The Asiatic: http://asiatic.iium.edu.my/article/Asiatic%207-2%20pdf%20files/Eric_Tinsay_article.pdf. Another fairly recent poem, about an artwork in the middle of the city, is in this issue of the illinois journal Jet Fuel Review: http://jetfuelreview.com/?page_id=650.

Interacting with others makes me sharper. I'm currently a mentor at the Ministry of Education Gifted Education Branch's Creative Arts Programme.

I've released my second book, "After the Fall (dirges among ruins)." The book seeks to give witness to hope amid the violence of war and everyday traumatic events. It also sees how victims can pick up the pieces from the resulting brutality and destruction.

Book details and purchase info are available here (Click on the space symbol >_ below):  

 
At the Singapore Writers Festival 2014, I shared thoughts on Filipino poetry and the diasporic experience at the Pinoy Poets Panel (Click on the space >_ symbol below): 
My recent public engagements included  "In Conversation on Craft" with Desmond Kon on March 20; The National Junior College's Poetry Night with Edwin Thumboo and Joshua Ip   on February 13; Giving Witness to Hope amid Human Frailty: a poetry workshop   on love and loss (trauma) on  January 9 for the National Library Board; a poetry workshop on structure, imagery & rhythm, for NUS Tembusu College on   January 21 at College; the "Imagining Asia" colloquium in NTU on February 28; and a workshop at the Bayanihan Centre on January 19.
On most days, I prepare lessons and mark students' papers, an adventure in itself.

A World in Transit, my poetry collection, offers a migrant’s perspective on the new world order in our Age of Migration and the central issues which settled inhabitants may overlook. The book explores the migrant experience sometimes with humour and always with empathy for otherness.

Click for photos taken during the launch of A World in Transit on June 10, 2011 at Books Actually.

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A few remaining copies from the first print run are on the Singapore/Asian literature shelf of Kinokuniya, Booktique and fine bookstores (ask help from staff since enthusiastic browsers may not put them back in their proper place). Click here to buy a copy online.

Reviews by top writers and academics in SIngapore and Australia.

A public reading of "Shekem to Dina" at the book launch.

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"Poet in Residence": A Feature from The Straits Times (August 6, 2011)

A report on a panel discussion on migration with poets Alvin Pang and David Fedo at Kinokuniya on August 13.

The program of the 2011 Philippine Independence Day celebration featuring the launch of A World in Transit (p.42).

A photo from one of three sessions that I was part of at the 2012 Singapore Writers Festival

My poetry reading at the NTU Epiphany in January 2013

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My assessment of creativity in Singapore in The Creativity market: Creative Writing in the 21st Century

National Arts Council's funding for the publication of A World in Transit.

A Traveler's Journal (UPDATED)

A Vintage Column

A reflection on migrants' hidden stories in the Double Dialogues journal of the University of Melbourne and Deakin University

Heartaches, High Hopes (Filipino Migrant Workers).

My Fave Spots

Finicky Saints: Contemptus Mundi in Flannery O'Connor's "A Temple of the HOly Ghost," "Why Do the Heathen Rage?" and "The River" (Art & Soul literature conference at Baylor University (Waco, Texas) on February 24, 2001.

Uncovering Chaucer's Pardoner (Central New York Conference on Language and LIteratue at the State University of New York [Cortland] on October 29, 2001).

My conference paper at the Diaspora conference in Oxford mentioned on the English Language Institute of Singapore website

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"Awit ng Hayok sa Ibang Bayan," a Tagalog poem in the Substation's Love Letters Project.

"Singapore River on Exhibit" closes the 2nd issue of literary magazine Ceriph, available at Books Actually (Yong Siak St.).

"Flor Reunited with Her Family" in Routledge's New Writing The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, Volume 7 Issue 2 2010

"Grazing" poem in the Table of Contents of & Words: Poems Singapore and Beyond edited by Edwin Thumboo and published by Ethos Books.

"Putting on the Merlion" in the Merlion poetry canon.

Two poems on the migrant experience in Swinburne University of Technology's Bukker Tillibul journal site.

"Picking Weeds" in the Hispanic Culture Review (George Mason University)

Double Dialogues conference paper "Migrants' Untold Stories" (University of Melbourne)

PUSONG PINOY (Filipino at Heart)

Revisiting EDSA 1986

A Meeting with Ex-Philippine President Joseph Estrada

On Censorship

TAN LIANG AN (Cross-Taiwan Strait Talk)

Some Notes on China-Taiwan Relations.

World's Richest Party Restructures Investments

TSMC: The Anatomy of a World-Class Microchip Foundry

TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Notes on Daily Christian Living)

Work: The Stuff of Saints.

Norms of Piety: Encounters with God

Notes on Avoiding Spiritual Lukewarmness

Confession

Holy Eucharist: More Than a Memento

A Reflection on the Relevance of the Ten Commandments in Modern Life

Love of God Shown in Little Things

On Holy Purity

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Please get in touch with any comments or reactions to my site.