ABSTRACT
This short story is by prize-winning author Philip Jeyaretnam, one of the most prominent writers of modern Singapore, but also an established and well-known lawyer. He has published several novels, including First Loves, Raffles Place Ragtime, and Abrahams Promise, and numerous collections of short stories, all written in English. Among these is Painting the Eye, which touches on many elements of the complex ethnic landscape of modern Singapore. The storys main character, Ah Leong, was the central figure of the earlier novel First Loves, in which he appeared as an adolescent growing up in a Singaporean high-rise apartment, exploring life in his immediate community and the larger city. Painting the Eye depicts the central characters passion for drawing faces, seeking to capture the rich ethnic diversity of the islands population. The focus on peoples faces causes Ah Leong to recognize the distinctiveness of each none readily classifiable, each more complicated than the overly simplistic ethnic categories delineated by the state.
