Title: Peculiar Chris
First published: 1992
Description: Peculiar Chris is the first Singapore novel to deal with gay themes. Authored by Johann S. Lee, it was published in Singapore by Cannon International in 1992.

Lee penned the book while doing his National Service in Singapore at the age of 19. It was published a year later. The book recounts the life and loves of Chris and his partner Samuel. It is also noteworthy for documenting how the military bureaucracy reacts when a soldier comes out in Singapore.

The book was translated into Italian in 1997, under the shortened title of 'Chris'.

Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa'at adapted the novel into the play Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3. It was staged by W!LD RICE, a Singapore theatre company, from 11 to 29 July 2007.

The novel is now recognised as a milestone in Singapore literature and has been described by The Straits Times as a 'cult classic'. It has since been reprinted in 2008 due to popular demand. The 2008 edition includes the following quotes:

“He is easily one of the better Singapore writers to have come along in recent years, with a sure grasp of the language, an ability to vary his style to good effect, and the conviction to write about something he understands personally. Homosexuality is, in most Asian societies, still taboo. Until recently, there has been little public discourse here on the subject. Lee's novel is the first to deal head-on with the subject and is a plea for understanding. That, to me, is a worthy aim - reminding people of their common humanity.” - Chua Mui Hoong, The Straits Times, Aug 1992

“Stylistically, Lee is crisp and clear. His prose stands in stark contrast to many western gay writers, in that it doesn’t dwell on overblown interior design details and clichéd appraisals of the male physique, so when Lee does describe events and people, they are all the more powerful…Lee’s emphasis is clearly on gay relationships as opposed to gay sex. Peculiar Chris is a deftly woven and compelling work. It may well do for Singapore what the film, Victim, and Maurice, did for Britain.” - Miles Lanham, Skoob Pacifica Anthology No. 2, 1993

“It’s about a young man in Singapore who discovers at an early age that he has a different sexual identity and who faces a great deal of prejudice as a gay man. It’s a very good first novel and I’m hoping that the author will continue writing.” - Professor Shirley Tan, The Straits Times, Oct 1996

"Deserves to be read all over Asia and beyond; it’s as relevant and fresh today as when it first came out... This book did for Singapore in 1992 what Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story had done for the States only nine years before and Hollinghurst’s The Swimming Pool Library did for England only in 1988. It came out, in all ways an apposite phrase for Lee, his book and Singapore, in that city’s repressed days of 1992 and was distributed at first often in brown-paper covered copies passed from hand to hand. That was a time when there was hardly any of the tolerance that, patchily, marks the modern Singapore." - Nigel Collett, FruitsInSuits.com.hk, Sep 2007
Subjects: Gay men, Fiction
LC classification: MLCS 92/05580 (P)