by Joshua Chiang

Sometime in September, a new youth magazine started by local publisher Marshall Cavendish called “So What?” featured an interview with me for its 14th issue. You can read it here. Besides the usual questions about what got me into the visual storytelling business, at least half the article was devoted to asking me about my activism when I was with The Online Citizen.

I thought it was really brave of them to do so, considering that The Online Citizen has always been a very vocal critic of the Government and certainly inspiring youths to be pushing the invisible ‘Out of bounds’ markers is something very few mainstream publishers dare to do. It was also extremely humbling to be featured in an issue devoted to civil rights activism, and which included articles about Rev. Martin Luther King and Gandhi. (Although I would say the article about racial riots in Singapore during the ’60s reinforces the often unchallenged status quo that our society is not ready to have a mature and honest conversation about race and religion without denigrating into senseless chaos.)

I did think about what some of my current and potential clients might think about engaging the services of someone who had been a frequent critic of the Establishment, but then again, it only goes to show that creativity and pushing boundaries go hand-in-hand. Quality doesn’t happen when you play safe.

Joshc

(Note: Some of my friends mentioned that I look creepy in the picture the magazine uses of me. Perhaps I really need to start preparing some really well-taken photos of myself just in case I get requests for interviews again)