Faris Joraimi
Faris studies the history of the Malay world. He believes Singapore cannot be fully understood separately from its ancestral archipelago. Faris is pursuing his PhD at New York University.
Jom's history editor Faris Joraimi walks us through a cityscape radiant with the sights and sounds of a shared multicultural and archipelagic heritage, and posits how we might find relation through identity and assimilation beyond the limits of nationhood.
The nation as a concept is so new and limited. For most of recorded history people tended to identify with their city, town or village first. To cherish the Singapore of “Saint Jack” opens up a different kind of belonging.