Writing in History’s Margins: A Speculative Fiction Workshop with Manish Melwani

How can we reveal, recover, or reimagine stories that history didn’t preserve?

Tchang Ju Chi (1904-1942) played a pivotal, under-appreciated role in Singapore’s cultural history. A prodigiously talented artist, leader and designer working across multiple genres and fields, his life and career were tragically cut short by the Imperial Japanese Army.

In this workshop, led by Singaporean writer Manish Melwani, we’ll use speculative fiction as an aperture to examine Tchang’s life, legacy, and historical context. We’ll work with fragments and relics: archival materials, artworks, artistic statements—and even gaps and absences in the record. In doing so, we’ll find a way into our own speculative fiction projects that’ll reveal, recover and reimagine historical knowledge.

Through a curator-led exhibition tour, creative writing exercises, and collaborative group discussions, participants will explore speculative writing as a way of listening and attending to historical truths that remain partial, uncertain, or unresolved.

Following the workshop, participants will be able to receive one round of personalised feedback from the instructor on the writing that emerges from the session.

*This workshop is open to writers, artists, researchers, and anyone interested in writing as a speculative practice. No prior experience in creative writing is required—only a willingness to work with ambiguity, unfinished ideas and language in flux.

• When: 15 Mar 2026, 2–6pm
• Suitable For: Adults, Students and Educators
• Where: City Hall Wing, Level 5, Rooftop Studios 3 and 4
• Ticket Information: $40 per pax
  (Inclusive of same day admission into Singapore Stories: Pathways and Detours)