1) How did you come up with the idea for the project?
The idea for the project came about through our usual photographers' informal idea-storming sessions. People often ask where ideas come from. But really, it's hard to pinpoint because sometimes ideas bounce around so much we end up with a mishmash of everyone's inputs. As far as I remember for this project, it started out with my interest in doing something about young people in Singapore, particularly about the children of rich expats here. My colleague, Samuel, then suggested focusing on young Chinese in Singapore and we decided to go with that.
2) How did you go about selecting the profiles for your story?
Like many other stories, 'The Young Chinese Next Door' is challenging not because it was hard to find the profiles, but because it was hard to find the right one. I spoke to many Chinese people, cold-called, and went to places where young Chinese Singaporeans hung out. I spent my free time scouring the streets of Chinatown for Chinese people to strike up conversations with. It was pretty random but I couldn't think of a better way to do it.
I even attended an orientation party for Chinese students. I walked the length of Geylang Road four times, speaking to Chinese working in the restaurants and coffee shops there. It was tiring but fun.
Although not everyone I spoke to were featured, they led me to others who in turn led me to the eventual six profiles. It is kind of like social networking but in the physical world instead of online.
3) Did you face any difficulty? Was it difficult to get them to speak frankly about their situation?
I suppose the difficulties I faced were not unique to journalism in general. Finding the right profiles was the first step. The next, and more challenging part, was to convince them to share their stories. I had limited time to work on the project so I had to gain their trust in the shortest possible time. I dropped some profiles because I felt that they were not completely honest with me and were hiding something. I needed them to open up their lives to me so that I could observe and photograph their lives in Singapore. And when they did, I saw it as a great privilege.
I wanted to get figures of Chinese nationals in Singapore but the authorities were not willing to release them, even after much persuasion. I wish I had the figures though. It would have provided something for the stories to hang on, making it an even better project.
4) The story ran in the papers on Dec 17 and the multimedia site was launched alongside it. How has the response from the public been?
Frankly, I did not get as many e-mails as I had hoped. It's always nice to get some readers' responses, whether good or bad. I did get a few e-mails, most of which were not positive. The comments were not targeted at the stories per se but at the profiles themselves. It seems there is a lot of anti-foreigner sentiments in Singapore now.
Comments left on Facebook were also not very positive. In fact, some were so mean and derogatory, it would have made a foul-mouthed boot camp sergeant blush. Still, it's always interesting to see what people's responses are and it gave me more insight about Singaporeans' attitudes towards Chinese nationals here.
5) Let's talk about the multimedia process. How did you craft the plan for a multimedia element in your stories? Is a lot more time needed? Do you think it is a necessary investment of your time?
Yes, the multimedia element to the project is way more intensive than doing just a print story. I wanted to give up at some points, but I'm glad my colleague prodded me to do it and gave me the help needed to pull it off.
We wanted the multimedia element to be a simple narration of the profiles' views on their Singapore experience. It was challenging because we had to make sure that the content in the multimedia project did not repeat verbatim what was in print. We did not want one medium to cannibalise another. It would have been fruitless if that were the case. Our aim was to value-add to the print version through the multimedia aspect. Honestly, it was a lot of team-work. I cannot imagine doing this alone.
It was a huge investment of the team's time. We had to work late nights and juggle our daily assignments on top of this project. But yes, it's definitely worth it because the reach of the multimedia site can go further and stay longer than the print version which is largely available only in Singapore. With the site, people in China can get to view it too, which is also the reason why there's English and Chinese text for the site.
Go to http://straitstimes.com/ttl/chinese to watch the multimedia story!