Ecomodernist tropes in Singapore science fiction

• Main Author: Uy, Jamie
• Other Authors: C.J. Wee Wan-ling
• Format: Thesis-Master by Research
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Literature::Singapore; Visual arts and music::Film::Criticism
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171567
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This thesis centers Singapore science fiction as a vital site for understanding ecomodernism not only as a practice of environmental governance but as a futuristic, techno-utopian aesthetic seamlessly hybridizing natural and industrial motifs. While ecomodernism is commonly understood as a school of thought advocating for the compatibility of capitalism with ecological conservation, this thesis argues that ecomodernism should also be understood as a collection of visual and narrative forms that idealize intensified industrialization as a means to solve climate change. As an island nation that advertises itself as a high-tech verdant utopia and global sustainability hub, Singapore is a pioneer of ecomodernism both in terms of policymaking and artistic style. Even before ecomodernism entered the popular lexicon with the publication of An Ecomodernist Manifesto in 2015, Singapore arguably practiced a similar approach since its Garden City mission launched in 1967, which involved several state-wide programs that positioned greening and economic growth as mutually beneficial. Singapore is a progenitor and paradigm of ecomodernism. I chart central ecomodernist tropes in landmark works of Anglophone Singapore science fiction across different time periods of Singapore’s development. Science fiction is arguably the ideal genre to study ecomodernism since science fiction shares ecomodernist preoccupations with technological innovation, new worlds, and human-nonhuman relations. The settings of Singapore science fiction texts respond to the prevailing environmental politics of their production, exposing and sometimes estranging the rhetoric of Singapore’s ecomodernist government narratives. I analyze three milestone Singapore science fiction works: Joan Hon’s Star Sapphire (1985), the first Anglophone Singapore science fiction novel; Kuo Jian Hong’s Avatar/流放化身 (2004), the first Singapore science fiction feature film; and Neon Yang’s Tensorate novella series (2017-2019); the first major Singapore science fiction work to garner international acclaim. I identify an essential environmental trope from each of these primary texts that corresponds to a key metaphor of three particular phases of Singapore’s ecomodernist development: the engineered planet Eden in Star Sapphire exemplifying the growth imperative of the early Garden City initiatives from 1960s- 80s, the dystopian concrete jungle of Sintawan in Avatar/流放化身 subverting the sunny futurism of Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Tropical City of Excellence plan from 1990s- 2000s, and the feral science-fantasy world Ea in the Tensorate series complicating the myth of human control in the Economic Development Board’s Living Laboratory campaigns post- 2010s. These three images of the garden, utopia, and laboratory fuel the ecomodernist imagination, concretizing discourses of productivity, futurity, and mastery. My argument is threefold: firstly, Singapore science fiction reflects ecomodernist state discourses; secondly, reading science fiction texts in conjunction with ecomodernist narratives reveal how government campaigns utilize science fictional techniques; and thirdly, dismantling these powerful ecomodernist tropes of the garden, utopia, and laboratory show how ecomodernism functions as an emerging science fiction aesthetic in the 21st century and not simply neutral environmental policy. My analysis of these science fiction texts signifies that ecomodernism remains culturally premised on maintaining human ownership of the Earth and illustrates the need to imagine sustainable worlds beyond optimized techno-verdant landscapes primarily for human development.