The prodigious achievement of the Housing and Development Board in Singapore since independence furnishes the physical environment for Daren Shiau’s literary endeavours. Shiau’s novel,
Heartland, was published by SNP Editions Ltd under their Raffles Imprint in 1999, and won a Commendation Award in the Singapore Literature Prizes the same year.
Heartlandwas also voted one of the best reads of the year by
The Straits Timesnewspaper. It was re-published by Ethos Books in 2002. The novel is a prescribed text for O-Level Literature in English in Singapore’s secondary schools for 2008.
In one respect, Heartland is a standard account of the coming of age of a teenage Chinese Singaporean male, Wing Chen, an innocent, amiable fellow who stumbles on to a path of experience. “What did he
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Citation: Wicks, Peter Charles. "Daren Shiau". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 September 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11821, accessed 22 November 2024.]