You by the Merlion

You by the Merlion was written as part of the Composers Society of Singapore Young Composers Forum 2024. The piece was written for and premiered by weird aftertaste, a new music collective based in Singapore.

The Merlion has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It is also Singapore’s official mascot. First used in Singapore as the logo of the tourism board, the main Merlion statue perches itself in the heart of the city in Merlion Park, with a never-ending stream of water gushing out of its mouth. The Merlion, being a national symbol, is of great significance to not just Singapore, but to Singaporeans too.

In 1979, Edwin Thumboo wrote the poem Ulysses by the Merlion,  in which the Greek hero visits Singapore and is in awe with the Merlion and the city. This poem would be the spark for future generations of Merlion poetry and literature, where poets after Thumboo felt that it was necessary to respond with their own Merlion (or anti-Merlion) poems. Many poets point out and critique the artificiality of the Merlion and its status as a tourist attraction, expressing ambivalence on whether to accept the Merlion as their national icon.

The overwhelming amounts of Merlion poetry led to the creation of Reflecting on the Merlion: An Anthology of Poems in 2009, in which nearly 40 poets contributed a poem each. As a whole, the anthology provides an amazing and beautiful encapsulation of the emotions a Singaporean can go through and feel towards the Merlion. The poems capture not just the flaws in the Merlion, but also within ourselves, and how we as Singaporeans all have a projected Merlion in  ourselves too. Beyond just being about the Merlion, the anthology is also a deeper and enriching look into what Singapore means, and what it means to be Singaporean.

You by the Merlion takes direct inspiration from Reflecting on the Merlion and is a distillation of the emotions and ideas from the poems. The piece also uses excerpts from the poems from the anthology as a form of narration. The piece is split into 4 sections:

i. critique

ii. ambivalence, uncertainty

iii. self-reflection, reinvention

iv. acceptance

In the process of writing this piece, I found myself going through the emotions above many times, oftentimes feeling like a struggle to solidify what the Merlion means to me, and what the poems were trying to tell me. Ultimately, I came to my own conclusions, and You by the Merlion is my response to the Merlion poetry and the insightful vines of questions that came entangled with them.

Hopefully, You by the Merlion will be the start of your own discovery to the question: What does the Merlion mean to you?