Editor’s Note

On January 1, 2015, Singapore begins a year-long celebration of its fiftieth anniversary of independence. With about 5.5 million people living in an area smaller than New York City and a population density greater than that of Hong Kong, Singapore faces challenges unlike those of many countries. Despite this, it is one of the most prosperous and literate in the world.

Until recently, history books have dated the founding of Singapore from 1819, when Sir Stamford Raffles—acting as an agent for the British East India Company—established a trading settlement on a small island at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. At that time, the location may have been hardly more than tiger-infested jungle and swampland ringed with mangroves. For at least five hundred years prior to 1819, however, the island had been a robust trading hub, prized by Malay rulers and fought over by warrior kings who recognized its importance. Raffles is significant in part because he secured British control of an area that had great potential but had been in decline. He negotiated for use of the land with the weakened Johor Empire, and in a little over ten years, Singapore attracted thousands of migrants from China, India, and Southeast Asia and became the center of British maritime trade in Southeast Asia.

Growth continued through the nineteenth century, spurred in part by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the introduction of long-distance steam-powered ships, which shortened the routes to and from Europe. The value of Singapore’s trade between 1824 and 1883 increased from $11.6 million to $147 million, and by 1926 was $1.9 billion.

For three years during World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan and suffered greatly. With liberation, it and other British colonies sought to attain independence. In 1948, eleven British protectorates, predominantly on and around the Malay Peninsula—but not including Singapore—came together to form the Federation of Malaya. The Federation achieved independence from Britain in 1957, and the State of Singapore was granted self-rule in 1959. For the first time in 143 years, Singapore was free from British control. In 1963, four years after independence, Singapore joined the Federation—renamed Malaysia—but its inclusion was met with resistance. Just two years later, Malaysia expelled Singapore, and in 1965 the city-state became a sovereign republic.

Singapore’s route to independence was circuitous in part because Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew wanted the country to be unified but multicultural—a peaceful, pluralistic democracy. Under his leadership, the majority of Singaporeans trusted that the nation could become a society that respected separate ethnic identities—officially, Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Other (CMIO)—yet still cohere as Singaporean. This multicultural vision was opposed by Malaysia. When Singapore was ex pelled in 1965, the Republic of Singapore—led by Lee and a one-party government—set out to be a nation where races and cultures were distinct and integrated. Mixed-ethnic housing became state policy, members of all races had equal job opportunities, and a common language, English, was adopted. Singaporean identity, transcending racial and cultural categories, was to be based on meritocracy and prosperity.

The idealistic social programs of Singapore’s founding leaders have been difficult to realize. For example, within each of Singapore’s four ethnic categories, the CMIO, there is far more diversity than would appear. The plurality of voices in Starry Island reflects this diversity in Singapore’s linguistic, cultural, and social communities and in their complex histories: nuances of place and displacement, individuality and social membership, identity and alienation. And it’s not surprising that the writers use many approaches to tell their stories—from social criticism, satire, and magical realism to nostalgia, lamentation, and lyricism.

Traditional family ties are central in Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s “A Pot of Rice,” about a Singaporean woman of the diaspora. Su Yu lives with an American man, Mark, in New York City. Living abroad when her father died, Su Yu had not been able to attend his funeral. Now, a year later, wanting to reconnect with her heritage, she performs a small ritual at...