Page 24 - FMH 4

cher tan
Cher Tan is a tough-as-fuck feminist zinester who used to organise shows for touring bands through South East Asia, write a perzine, run a zine distro and be incredibly nice, social, calm and eloquent all at the same time. She has recently received Resident Status in Australia, and is great to commiserate with about the SE Asian immigrant experience in that racist husk of a land. She’s compiling an upcoming zine on immigrants and radicalism/activism (still being conceptualised). Look out for more radness from her general direction. Here she is.
1. Tell us about growing up in Singapore, and when/how you got into punk, feminism, and activism.
Growing up in Singapore has been multi-faceted. To give a short summary about Singapore society and its workings (for those who don’t know), it still is to this day a one-party nanny state dystopia which at surface level operates like your typical first- world democracy, but dig deeper and you realize there are a lot more layers than that. For example, all media is state-controlled and peaceful protest is illegal. I grew up in a middle-class family
and was very sheltered -- I don’t think it was until I was 13/14 that my dad lost his business and fell into a lot of debt that I started being conscious about class, which saw me also start questioning the issues prevalent in Singaporean society. Also in Singapore the predominant race is Chinese, which I am, and as a result I have been afforded many privileges that people of other races (Malay, Indian, etc -- which make up the “mul- ticultural melting pot” that is Singapore) would not be have such easy access to.
I got into punk when I was 18 or so. I remember being very