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Singapore Writers Festival 2024: Chinese literary pioneer Dan Ying in search of a new readership
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Chinese-language Singaporean writer Dan Ying is the literary pioneer for Singapore Writers Festival 2024.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF DAN YING
SINGAPORE – When Chinese-language poet Dan Ying learnt she would be honoured as a literary pioneer at the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), she was both delighted and conflicted.
The 81-year-old writer, who received the Cultural Medallion in 1996, displays humility in her voice notes to The Straits Times: “There are other poets who are more accomplished than me. And, as you know, very few people read poetry. It is rare for a poem to find an appreciative reader or a soulmate – and I don’t think I’ve found many of such readers.”
