Sandi Tan’s “Shirkers”: Moving Backwards in Order to Move Forwards
about 65 months ago (12/19/2018)
Sandi Tan’s "Shirkers": Moving Backwards in Order to Move Forwards | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles December 19, 2018 By Ke Weiliang (1180 words, six-minute read) NB: It is important to differentiate between the two versions of Shirkers that were filmed. In this article, Shirkers refers to the 2018 documentary film that I am reviewing, whereas Shirkers 1.0 refers to the road movie that was originally shot in 1992. “Memory is the sense of loss, and loss pulls us after it.” – Ruth, in Housekeeping (1980) by Marilynne Robinson In a 2012 interview with the Los Angeles Times about her debut novel The Black Isle , Sandi Tan talked about her interest in “ghosts of various kinds” – not just the ghosts that are literally featured in the novel, but also the metaphorical ghosts of “regrets, things left undone, people left behind [and] the past”.