‘Longings, Returns’ (2026) by Sim Chi Yin

Sim Chi Yen’s installation and performance speaks to the intersecting geographies of forced migration that came about as a result of the mass deportation of over 30,000 people from British-ruled Malaya (present-day Malaysia and Singapore) to China between 1948 and 1960. Situating us within the fluid space of the sea, the script shifts between a homage to Etel Adnan’s To Be In A Time Of War and a letter to her paternal grandfather, who was exiled to China, where he was executed shortly after arrival. Left behind in Malaya, his mother, wife and five children never speak of him. Sim’s decade-long project works to undo this erasure within her family and society. Taking on many roles—artist, historical researcher, granddaughter, niece, daughter and mother—Sim Chi Yin activates her multimedia installation through ritualistic gestures. Guiding the audience through her research, she also signals to forced migration practices from colonial to contemporary times—asking what repair might mean for those denied safe passage.