Kevin Martens WONG
Kevin Martens Wong is the Kabesa (Leader) of the creole/indigenous Kristang community of Singapore and Southeast Asia, and the Omimerliang (Merlionsman) and Tigrisoneru (Dreamtiger) of Singapore. He is the developer of the Osura Pesuasang, the Kristang theory of human individuation, and the primary scholar, writer, poet, playwright and teacher for Kristang in Singapore. He was the 2017 recipient of the Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding All-Round Achievement (LHL-OAA), the 2017 President’s Volunteer and Philanthropy Award for Individual-Youth (PVPA), the 2017 NUS Minerva Prize and 2017 Eurasian Association Henry David Hochstadt Award winner for the best graduating undergraduate student in Linguistics and best graduating Eurasian undergraduate student in Singapore, and is a 2023 Next Generation Foresight Practitioner Fellow, a 2023 Poesiaeuropa Fellow under the High Patronage of the European Parliament, and (as Merlionsman of Singapore) a Researching Phenomenological Psychopathology Network Partner with the University of Birmingham and the Wellcome Trust. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics (Honours Highest Distinction) from the National University of Singapore, a Postgraduate Certificate in Archeoastronomy from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from the National Institute of Education in Singapore.
| Research interests/ primary fields |
language revitalisation; Kristang; decolonisation and postcolonial studies, especially in the context of Sundaland / Southeast Asia; decolonisation of academia, especially psychology and history; creole/indigenous sexuality and gender, language and well-being, especially the Kristang four-way approach to gender and sexuality and the body; language and encoding for mental health; creole/indigenous psychology and human individuation, including the Osura Pesuasang and Osura Spektala; creole/indigenous epistemology and epistemic uncertainty, including the Lembransa Krismatra; creole/indigenous archeoastronomy; speculative fiction and fantasy (and their intersection with memory studies); creole/indigenous theatre and creole/indigenous notions of and conceptualisations of performance and their effects; creole/indigenous physics and conceptualisations of spacetime reality; creole/indigenous mathematics and non-Western/decimal approaches; Deep Time and occluded/suppressed oral/community histories; creole/indigenous approaches to trauma recovery and resilience against and negotiation of institutional trauma; creole/indigenous futures studies and approaches to foresight, especially dreamfishing; variation and tension/paradox in creole/indigenous representation, especially orthography |
| Recent Presentation | “Temastra: A Kristang creole/indigenous approach to time and time travel for better mental health and well-being.” Presented at Science and Sensibility: A Transdisciplinary Conference at the London Arts-Based Research Centre, 22 September 2023, London, United Kingdom.“Karta Kareta Fogu: Reclaiming and reindigenising the linguistic landscape of Singapore through the translation of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network into Kristang, a critically endangered creole language undergoing revitalisation.” Presented at 14th Linguistic Landscape Workshop: Utopias and Dystopias, 7 September 2023, Madrid, Spain.
“Istoria Krismatra: Toward a provisional reclamation of our shared human history through the revitalisation of the critically endangered Kristang language and culture of archipelagic Southeast Asia.” Presented at the 23rd Utopian Studies Society / Europe Annual Conference, 4 July 2023, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. “Stradu di Mundu: The lost golden age of Kristang-language theatre in Singapore (1892-1926), and its potential for reclamation in the present day.” Presented at the Singapore Drama Educators Association (SDEA) 2023 Conference: Rooting Deep, Branching Wide: Strengthening Practices, Expanding Possibilities, 30 June 2023, Singapore. First known academic conference presentation in the world delivered entirely in Kristang. “Via Hierosa: Excavating and Reclaiming the Kristang Hero’s Journey as embodied in the Eurasian Short Story.” Presented at the 16th International Conference on the Short Story in English, 22 June 2023, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore [ICSSE 2023]. “Intresmiu intrametederu: A comparative ecology of the creole Kristang language under Dutch and British colonial rule, 1750-1914.” Presented at the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies World Congress 2023, 21 June 2023, Singapore Management University, Singapore [SGNCS 2023]. Panel: Assimilation and Empire. "Resisting and subverting legacies of empire in long-term indigenous cultural revitalisation: The case of Kristang in Singapore." Presented at the International Society for Cultural History 2023 Conference, 21 June 2023, Singapore Management University, Singapore [SGNCS 2023]. Panel: Assimilation and Empire. "Pedra Draku: Excavating a Possibly New, Possibly Forgotten Name for Singapore in the Critically Endangered Creole Language Kristang.” Presented at The Place of Memory and the Memory of Place, St Anne’s College, University of Oxford & The London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, 18 June 2023, United Kingdom. Panel: Words of Truth: Aspects of Authenticity. |
| Publications | Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Libru Laranja / The Orange Book. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Libru Lontra / The Otter Book: The Kristang Dreaming Dictionary. Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.
Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “There is no word for gay in the Kristang language”. Practice, Research and Tangential Activities (PR&TA) 3. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “The Ship”. Sploosh 1, 70-79. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Festa San Pedru, 5511 CE”. हाकारा । hākārā 18. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “A Glimpse of the Sea: Healing from Trauma and Abuse through Kristang Songs”. Terralingua & Langscape Magazine: Indigenous Youth Storytellers Circle 11. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). "Kristang revitalisation in Singapore after COVID-19." Journal of Asian Arts, Culture and Literature 4(2), 1-7. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). "Terror, trauma and the transhuman: Exploring possible representations of Kristang / Portuguese-Eurasian identity erasure in Kevin Martens Wong’s Altered Straits (2017) and Stuart Danker’s Tinhead City, KL (2021)." In S Chelliah & Bijender Singh (eds.), World Literature: Words of Wisdom, pp. 41-51. New Delhi, India: Rudra Publishers. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Bros Before Bros, and Other Quasi-Masculine Adventures in Pseudo-Heteronormativity: A Real Man’s Anthology of Incurably Bromantic Poetry. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “All Up To Me”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Songs of a Young Star-Tiger: New Creole-chromatic Kristang Stellar Poetry from Singapore. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “When the Boys Come Home”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Sons of New Sundaland”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Intelligence”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Dos Korsang / Undecided”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Glow-Glow Dancer: A new double-sized Diseideza of sun-soaked Kristang creole/indigenous poetry from the last Merlionsman of Singapore. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Speculative post-revitalisation Kristang professional revenge, c. 2367 AD”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Relwe di Reinyang: Ngua Diseideza. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Harimau Jadian”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “This Stirring Love”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “The Jardine Steps”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Another Dreamtiger”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Spektala”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “On the challenges and contradictions inherent in translating Dick Lee’s Home into Kristang”. A Polite Lie: Notes Along the Way. Singapore: Shelly Bryant. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Agora kung Naki / Here and Now”. Tigri sa Chang / The Tiger’s Land. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). "Towards a Kristang / Portuguese-Eurasian literature: Contestations, challenges and characteristics." In Meenu Dudeja & Shikha Saxena (eds.), World Literature: Past, Present and Future, pp. 11-23. New Delhi, India: Rudra Publishers. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Encore”. Peskanobas: The Merlionsman Blog (February 15). Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Amateurs”. In Daryl Lim Wei Jie, Hamid Roslan, Melizarani T. Selva & William Tham Wai Liang (eds.), The Second Link: A Malaysia-Singapore Literary Anthology pp. 44-60. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Ardansa sa futura: Strategies and principles for youth leadership and empowerment from the Kodrah Kristang model of language.” In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC 8), March 2-5, online. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Alabanda”. In Sarah Rafael Garcia (ed.), Immigrant Sci-Fi Short Stories, pp. 409-415. London, United Kingdom: Flame Tree Publishing. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). “Roda Mundansa: Excavating and revitalising a creole-indigenous approach to deep time in Singapore Kristang.” In Bhawna Vij Arora (ed.), Unearthing: Past in Present and Future, pp. 35-56. New Delhi, India: Asian Press. Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Island of Individuation: Teaching with a new, dynamic approach to the development of the human psyche in the Singapore context. In Proceedings of the 3rd Southeast Asian Conference on Education (SEACE 2023), February 10-13, Singapore Management University and the Singapore EXPO, Singapore. Wong, Kevin Martens (2021). “Kristang language revitalization in Singapore under the Kodrah Kristang initiative, 2016-present.” In Justyna Olko and Julia Sallabank (eds.), Revitalizing endangered languages: A practical guide, “Chapter 15: Teaching Strategies for Language Revitalization and Maintenance”, by Janne Underriner, Lindsay Marean, Pigga Keskitalo, Zalmai Zahir, Pyuwa Bommelyn and Ruby Tuttle. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Wong, Kevin Martens (2020). “So We Might”. Commissioned for the 2020 Light to Night Festival. Singapore: National Gallery Singapore. Wong, Kevin Martens (2019). “Na kaza, greza kung stradu: The Kristang language in colonial Singapore, 1875-1926.” Language Ecology 3(2) special issue: Working with communities: Toward reclamation of linguistic and cultural heritage, pp. 157-188. doi:10.1075/le.19003.won Wong, Kevin Martens (2019). “Korua Karang / Coral Crown”. The Tiger Moth Review 2. Wong, Kevin Martens (2019). “Kodrah Kristang: The initiative to revitalize the Kristang language in Singapore.” In the Journal of Language Documentation & Conservation 19 special issue: Documentation and conservation of contact languages in SEA and East Asia: current issues and ongoing initiatives, pp. 35-121. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24906 Wong, Kevin Martens (2018). “A Merlion for His Majesty”. In LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction vol. 10, pp. 22-50. Winner of the 2015 National University of Singapore Creative Writing Competition. Wong, Kevin Martens (2017). Altered Straits. Singapore: Epigram Books. Longlisted for the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize. Wong, Kevin Martens (2017). “Reviving my grandmother tongue.” In Erin Hodgers-Chew, Tan Lai Yong and Wong Soon Fen (Eds.), CAPTIVATED: Encounters that Challenge, Nurture, and Inspire, pp. 90-93. Singapore: College of Alice and Peter Tan. Wong, Kevin Martens (2017). “Bos papiah Kristang?: A Eurasian linguistic legacy.” In Myrna Braga-Blake, Ann Ebert-Oehlers & Alexius A. Pereira (Eds.), Singapore Eurasians: Memories, Hopes and Dreams, pp. 369-379. Singapore: World Scientific. Starr, Rebecca Lurie, Theng, Andre Joseph, Wong, Kevin Martens, Tong Jing Yi, Natalie, Nurul Afiqah Bte Ibrahim, Chua Mei Yin, Alicia, Yong Hui Min, Clarice, Loke Wei, Frances, Dominic, Helen, Fernandez, Keith Jayden and Peh Tian Jing, Matthew (2017). “Third Culture Kids in the Outer Circle: The development of sociolinguistic knowledge among local and expatriate children in Singapore.” Language in Society 46(4), pp. 507-546. doi:10.1017/ S0047404517000380 Wong, Kevin Martens (2015). ‘Young Singaporean Protopolyglot At His Desk’. Transect 3. Wong, Kevin Martens (2014). The Field. entitled 1. Wong, Kevin Martens (2013). ‘Expected Date of Completion’. In Jasmine Ann Cooray (ed.) I feel the tails of comets: an anthology of new poetry. Singapore: USP Press. |
| Modules Taught | EL3212: Field Methods in Linguistics |