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.
Held annually in the former whaling capital of the world, this 26-hour reading marathon of the novel Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville, welcomes a new fan on board, who, swept away by the intensity of the event, meditates on the universality of Melville's lines.
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.
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