{"id":18016,"date":"2020-05-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2020\/05\/11\/mothers-gold-from-is-my-body-a-myth-2011-by-heng-siok-tian\/"},"modified":"2021-01-18T15:28:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T07:28:15","slug":"mothers-gold-from-is-my-body-a-myth-2011-by-heng-siok-tian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2020\/05\/11\/mothers-gold-from-is-my-body-a-myth-2011-by-heng-siok-tian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mother’s Gold\u2019 from Is My Body a Myth (2011) by Heng Siok Tian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo: ‘Playing by the beach’ by Filbert Kuong from SRN’s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Little is known about the origins of Mother\u2019s Day, celebrated on the second Sunday of May, despite its widespread observance throughout the world. Although usually regarded as a day to appreciate the contribution and devotion of a mother to her family, its bears greater significance.<\/p>\n

In 1908, Anna Maria Jarvis, the founder of the modern Mother\u2019s Day, held a memorial service for her late mother at her local church, now widely recognised as the \u00a0 first-ever celebration of the modern Mother\u2019s Day. Her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, was a peace activist who had cared for soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War and was an unrelenting advocate for civic movements to address public health issues. In the words of Anna Jarvis, a mother was someone \u2018who has done more for you than anyone in the world\u2019. The strength her mother displayed in her unflagging devotion to both maintaining a close relationship with her daughter despite them living in separate cities and advocating for humanitarian causes prompted her to advocate for the inauguration of Mother\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

Similarly, \u2018Mother\u2019s Gold\u2019 by Heng Siok Tian illustrates the strength of a mother\u2019s character through her use of vivid and striking imagery. Heng\u2019s use of consistent sibilance in her poem, coupled with the anaphoric themes of motherhood and money, highlights the long, arduous life of a mother as she fights to preserve, defend and protect her family. \u2018Mother\u2019s Gold\u2019 ends by juxtaposing the life of the persona with that of the mother referred to in the poem, which are both described as \u2018wild\u2019. Heng\u2019s portrayal of a mother thus gives us a greater appreciation of both the complexities of a mother\u2019s nature as well as the sacrifices she is compelled to make.<\/p>\n

Heng is an alumna of the NUS English Language and Literature Department, where she received her Master of Arts in English Literature. She has published five collections of poetry with Landmark Books:\u00a0Crossing the Chopsticks and Other Poems<\/em>\u00a0(1993),\u00a0My City, My Canvas<\/em>\u00a0(1999),\u00a0Contouring<\/em>, (2004),\u00a0Is My Body a Myth<\/em>\u00a0(2011) and Mixing Tongues<\/em>\u00a0(2011). Heng also writes short stories and plays, one of which, Choice of Two Salads<\/em> (ISBN Edizioni, 2005), was translated into Italian.<\/p>\n

Read the poem here: http:\/\/www.poetry.sg\/heng-siok-tian-mothers-gold<\/a><\/p>\n

Get the book here: https:\/\/localbooks.sg\/products\/is-my-body-a-myth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Little is known about the origins of Mother\u2019s Day, celebrated on the second Sunday of May, despite its widespread observance throughout the world. Although usually regarded as a day to appreciate the contribution and devotion of a mother to her family, its bears greater significance. In 1908, Anna Maria Jarvis, the founder of the modern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":18017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18016"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27670,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18016\/revisions\/27670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}