Shadow Theatre (35 page)

WANT TO express my deepest gratitude to Shalini Puri and
Amrita Puri, whose loving and insightful reading kept this
book from disappearing. To Carlos Canuelas Pereira, Katheryn
Rios, Geeta Kothari, Mark Kemp, Michelle Wright and Virginia
Nugent, who brought me solace, silence and food. To Edward
Washington, who tended so many fires in the early stages.
To Lydia Fakundiny, for her example of precision. To Toi
Derricote, for her constant faith. To my colleagues and students
in the English department at the University of Pittsburgh, especially Mariolina Salvatori, James Seitz, Nancy Glazener, Gerri
England, David Bartholomae, Catherine Gammon, Richard Ing and Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, whose help and encouragement
were indispensable.

Thanks to the Small Grants Program of the University of
Pittsburgh Central Research Development Fund and the
Hewlett International Grants Program at UCIS for their support. To C.M. Turnbull for his work in A History of Singapore
1619-1988, which provided the particulars of modern scholarship on the topic. To my editor Laura Hruska for her thoughtful suggestions, and my agent Alice Martell for her tenacity.

Thanks to my mother for my first library card. My father,
who once insisted that human character without compassion
was worth nothing. Butch and my cousins, for ghost stories. My
brother, who graced our childhood with his humor. Caroline,
Ah Lian and my Koko, for taking care of us.

Special gratitude and love to Christine Kanagarajah, Angela
Yeo McKenzie and Mabel Ng, for inspiration and memory.