Creative producer Natalie Tan relaxes with classic literature and shoujo manga

Who: Natalie Tan, 44, is a freelance creative producer and founder of creative consultancy 39Bias. She is the executive director of the Kampong Gelam Alliance – a voluntary group of residents, cultural institutions, business organisations, property owners and hotels in the heritage district. She is also working on a project with creative studio The Culture Story. She has worked in Singapore’s arts scene for close to two decades and has previously produced projects and programmes for Singapore Art Week, Singapore Design Week and the Singapore International Festival of Arts.

“Reading is one of my favourite ways to relax. It has helped me with vocabulary, phrases, descriptions and imagination. When I don’t read, I find it harder to write.

It is also a way for me to learn more about the world, history and culture – about how common our feelings can be no matter the time period. Human nature never really changes, but the rules of society do. That helps contextualise my view of the world and my place in it.

I have been reading from a young age. As a Xennial (someone roughly born between 1977 and 1985), I had the privilege of growing up without the internet, so I am able to embrace being bored and the joy that comes with the delayed gratification of unfolding a story.

Literature was my favourite subject in school. I later took a degree in English literature, where I was reading two to three books a week. Now, I read consistently simply because I love it.

For literature, I usually read the classics. In terms of themes, they can range quite widely, but I tend to go into little rabbit holes like Japanese Heian literature, Russian classics or Chinese classics.

I am currently reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte. It is a charming story told in the first person and I am enjoying the protagonist’s descriptions of the people around her – specifically of Madame Beck, a fashionable silly girl Ginevra Fanshawe and of her ‘crush’ Dr John.

Other than literature, I read a lot of manga – mostly shoujo (young girl) manga and slice-of-life titles, though I have also read quite a few shonen (young boy) series.

For manga, I am currently following quite a few different series: In The Clear Moonlit Dusk by Mika Yamamori, Tamon’s B-Side by Yuki Shiwasu and several others on the Manga Plus by Shueisha and Manga Up! apps.

I read them for a laugh or, as they say, ‘for the kyunz’. Kyun is a Japanese onomatopoeic phrase about being shot through the heart in a romantic way.

Earlier in 2026, I read Volumes 1 to 7 of In The Clear Moonlit Dusk three times consecutively because of how giggly, girly and feet-wiggling it makes me feel.

On Manga Plus, my current favourite is The Struggle Is Real With Giriko Kirigiri, about an office lady who is extremely detailed about food and has life hacks when it comes to cooking.

It is difficult for me to pinpoint a favourite book because I go through phases, but I love The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu from Japan’s Heian period in the early 11th century.

To date, I have read it three times and, when I went to Kyoto in 2024, I endeavoured to do a tour of locations from the book. Of course, I went to Uji to visit the Genji Museum and fangirled over the statue of Shikibu by the river.

I have been reading before bedtime for a long time now – lying in bed is my favourite place to read.

The other is my couch – I spent a lot of time there reading during Covid-19. Outdoors, I remember reading a lot during solo trips to beaches and resorts.

I have also read a lot of manga while waiting for flights and on planes. I primarily read on electronic devices because they are extremely portable.

It is lovely to see how words and language can become such interesting mediums of expression – from the stream-of-consciousness novels of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, to the sharp wit of Mark Twain, to the heaviness of Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Like art, literature is a way to capture the feelings of a generation.”