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Kit Sun Cheah Profile picture
Kit Sun Cheah
@thebencheah
Singapore's first Hugo- and Dragon-nominated SFF writer. #PulpRev and #IronAge author. Get your free story here: https://t.co/bUJNqr1NGY
Dec 9 • 32 tweets • 6 min read
Let's treat this question seriously.

I've read scores of authors attempting to write Chinese epic fantasy. Chinese and Westerners alike.

Only one living author comes close to being able to do it, and even he falls short.

Why is it so hard to write such stories? Epic fantasy is grounded in the culture that it is based on.

Lord of the Rings is grounded in European (and British) culture and mythos.

Alloy of Law is based on the American West.

What about Chinese epic fantasy?

It cuts to the heart of what it means to be Chinese.
Nov 26 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
You know it was called an AR-15, I know it was called an AR-15, but if I wrote 'AR-15', Americans will start jumping on me to scream that it wasn't an AR-15.

For the Americans and the gun nerds (but I repeat myself), here's a mini-thread: The ArmaLite AR-15 was designed in 1956, and manufactured by Colt in 1959.

Under the name 'Colt ArmaLite AR-15 Model 01', Colt sold a batch of rifles to Malaya on 30 September 1959.

That AR-15 model was basis of the assault rifle that would later be called the M16.
Nov 26 • 27 tweets • 4 min read
Hi.

I'm Singaporean.

I studied the history of Singapore.

My parents and grandparents wrote a part of that history.

Which is why I can tell you that many of the claims here are bunk. 'No army'

Singapore had 2 battalions of infantry prior to 1965.

First they were the called the Singapore Infantry Regiment, then later the Malaysian Infantry Regiment, and later they reverted to SIR.

There was also the Singapore Volunteer Corps.
Aug 24 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Tell me you haven't read Journey to the West without telling me you haven't read Journey to the West.

Like leftists the world over, you're trying to shoehorn modern ideology into a 430-year-old work of literature, inspired by ancient religious teachings. Guanyin (aka Avalokiteśvara) is not a woman.

Avalokiteśvara is a Bodhisattva, and Bodhisattvas transcend notions of form and sex.

And Avalokiteśvara was originally depicted as a man.
Jun 13 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
Let's follow up on this thread by exploring a fascinating topic:

What is the difference between a god and a superman?

In other words:

What is the difference between the slob on the left and the god on the right?

Image
Image A superman is a human with superpowers.

A god IS power.

Read this carefully. As many times as it takes for you to get it.
Mar 21 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
This represents Singapore's highest-profile break from Israel in recent times.

Or does it?

Let's talk about what might be going on behind the scenes: 1. Singapore is attempting to improve ties with Malaysia

The most obvious sign of this is the introduction of automated passport scanning and QR code entry at the border checkpoints.

Malaysia remains a favoured destination for Singaporeans, and vice versa.
Mar 16 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
This observation reminds me of what was so striking about David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers (written post-Vietnam).

The Slammers field the most technologically advanced forces in the setting.

But their true advantage lies in the men. Even though the Slammers have the best hardware, their opponents have good-enough tech to counter the Slammers’ own.

The Slammers can’t simply steamroll over their enemies.
Feb 11 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
East Asian countries have some of the highest suicide rates in the world.

Mental illness is prevalent in South Asia.

Modern-day Korea is called Hell Joseon.

How did we get to this point? In Confucian cultures, the individual is subordinated to the group, the junior obeys the senior.

Sure, the relationship is supposed to be reciprocal, but beyond moral suasion there is no in-built mechanism to achieve this.
Nov 30, 2023 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
Many people have no idea of just how wide the gulf is between a man and in a woman in hand to hand combat.

Here's my own story, of when I trained with a female martial artist. At that time, I'd trained in Pekiti Tirsia Kali for little over a year.

Unbeknownst to me, at that time I was underweight and anemic.

My vitality was low, my stamina was shot, my immune system was weak, I wasn't sleeping well.

I showed up for training anyway.
Sep 16, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crud.

But in the case of indies, it's probably closer to 99.99%.

Part of this is because there are no publishers to filter out the worst of the lowest-quality crud.

But beyond that...

The market incentivises crud. Algorithms, search engines, and Kindle Unlimited are engineered to optimise returns for specific kinds of content:

Rapidly-written stories that slot neatly into arbitrarily-defined genres and can be rapidly consumed.

What's wrong with that?

Well, how do you write such stories?
May 29, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Yesterday my wife and I visited a certain high-end restaurant/bar in the Downtown Core.

It was supposed to be a pit stop for coffee.

It became an illustration of Singlish vs English... and what schools don't teach you about language. Singlish uses the vocabulary of English; the grammar, pronunciation and high context orientation of Chinese; and loanwords from Malay, Tamil, and other langauges and dialects.

It is close enough to English to fool you into thinking that it operates by the logic of English.
Nov 1, 2022 • 30 tweets • 6 min read
#NaNoWriMo is here again.

50,000 words in 30 days.

Impossible?

There was a time when I would have thought so too.

Now, after a 5-year publishing career with 16 published novels, writing 50K words in 30 days is routine.

Here's the secret to massive output: Don't focus on writing more.

Focus on eliminating obstacles to writing.

With nothing to hinder you, your productivity will ramp up dramatically.
Oct 31, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Whoever said that you should write the way you talk has never been to Singapore. Over here, the word 'straight' means 'upright', 'lying down', 'horizontal', 'vertical', 'diagonal', 'taut', 'flush', 'direct', and even, on the rarest and most exalted of occasions, 'straight'.
Jul 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Singaporeans are not 'overly-worried'.

They trust the government.

And they also trust that Bad Things happen to everyone who disagrees with the government.

They don't dare to think about anything outside the narrative. Lockdowns.

Mask mandates.

Vaccine mandates.

Censorship.

Legalised discrimination against the unvaccinated.

All this was justified in the name of Covid, and almost everyone went along wholeheartedly.
Jun 21, 2022 • 26 tweets • 4 min read
Singapore is safe.

Which means Singapore is boring.

Singapore is a poor setting for most pulp-style stories.

Save for one genre:

Horror.

/1 To understand why, let's look at history.

The region we now called Singapore was originally settled by the Malays.

Prior to Islam and Hinduism, the Malays practiced a folk religion combining animism and shamanism.

These practices still survive today.

/2
Jun 12, 2022 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Question like this deserves its own thread.

On matters of rulership and power, this is the fundamental difference between the West and China.

In the West, power corrupts.

In China, morality leads to, and justifies, power.

/1 The lesser man is governed by superior men.

The superior man governs himself.

The superior man attains his rarefied state by virtue of proper conduct, creating inner peace and social harmony.

How does one choose the superior man?

/2
May 1, 2022 • 24 tweets • 4 min read
I don't think about fantasy the way most people do.

Lots of readers think in terms of tropes, genre conventions, aesthetics.

I think in terms of culture.

/1

#PulpRev What is a Western fantasy?

Mythical creatures. Wondrous magic. Legendary weapons. Exotic locations. Perilous journeys. Grand quests.

/2
Apr 15, 2022 • 31 tweets • 5 min read
To illustrate this, here's a story I encountered yesterday.

It's a 'paranormal thriller' written by a woman.

It's about an undercover Special Operations team hunting monsters in a South American city.

This should be up my alley.

Or so I thought...

/1 The story begins with the FMC—the newbie on the team—and her three male teammates discussing how to take down their target.

Right off the bat, FMC calls the team leader 'sir'.

There and then, I knew the story wasn't what I thought it was.

/2
Apr 12, 2022 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
I've seen this in 'cultivation fantasy' stories and related subgenres.

There is nothing beyond the steady dopamine drip, a shallow puddle of transient pleasures and illusionary glories.

/1 They cherry pick Asian cultures, taking the exotic (but not too exotic) elements and leaving out everything that makes them unique.

Their worlds demand immersion in the world of Pop Cult consoomerism.

Their characters chase empty glories to attain fleeting pleasure.

/2
Dec 16, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The standard writing advice for the aspiring professional is to write to market.

Identify a hot genre. Understand the tropes. Place your own spin on the tropes and craft a compelling tale.

A time honoured strategy. But what if you disagree with the tropes?

/1

#PulpRev #Cultivation, xianxia, whatever you call it, the tropes are familiar.

MC seeks to become invincible. He engages in an endless cycle of violence, bloodshed, revenge and growth. In the end, he reigns supreme.

The story structure may be compelling, but it's not cultivation.

/2
Aug 31, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
In my youth, I read about the fall of Saigon, Operation Eagle Claw, the Berlin Airlift, Dunkirk.

In the last week I have seen them all wrapped up in a single word: Kabul. Hundreds of Americans left behind.

Thousands of terrorists freed from jail.

Countless numbers of Afghan allies stranded.

Billions of dollars of American hardware abandoned.

And private individuals blocked from assisting the evacuation efforts.