CNNGo: Do you see yourself working more in China?
Tok: Yes but I don’t want to live there. I like New York because it’s where I’m zapped. I go to a museum and I feel, my god, New York sets the standard for me to aspire to.
CNNGo: Are you working on anything in New York right now?
Tok: I might be either doing a reading of a Singapore play, provided I can get funds. On a commercial front I am negotiating with a producer to do the play "Proof," using an Asian American cast, and to stage it on Broadway. Maybe for the third quarter or second half of next year. It’s an expensive affair to stage something on Broadway, like an US$8-10 million affair, so we’ll see. My take is that an Asian-American cast will give the play a different dimension, and yet preserve its American essence.
CNNGo: In many ways you are a global citizen, but where do you consider your home?
Tok: Where my wife is. (In New York.) She doesn’t like China. She’ll come back to Singapore if and when there’s a need to.
CNNGo: If you get elected, are you ready to curtail your artistic life to participate in politics here?
Tok: It will be a curtailment. I will still have to keep up the art thing in China, that’s my business, that’s my livelihood. But I will be based here, and Shanghai is just five hours away.
CNNGo: Singapore just celebrated National Day. What are your hopes and dreams for the country?
Tok: I hope that all [this] talk about Singapore as merely a city will stop. Because I’ve lived my life telling people that my country is Singapore. And if Singapore is not a country and merely a city then I don’t know how I’m going to answer this question in the future. I don’t know when Singapore became a global city instead of this country that we thought we were a part of; I find that really confusing. Calling this a global city obfuscates the issue. We got kicked out (of Malaysia) and had to become a country. Whether we fit the mould or the definition of what other people call a county or not is immaterial. I grew up thinking we were a country. And that to a large extent has defined a lot of us in our generation. If not Singapore, what? Where? What place can I claim to be mine? Shanghai? Even though I like it a lot more as a city.
CNNGo: Can I take it that home and country mean two different things to you?
Tok: Don’t call Singapore our best home or our global city, it’s our country. You have certain duties and obligations with regards to that. And this is what I’m trying to oblige, my relationship with my country. Though this may not be my home, it is still my country. And I still relate to it as my country and I’m duty bound to do what I think is for the better of it. And it’s both my duty and my right. I absolutely feel strongly about that. It may not be my home, for now, but it is my country.
http://www.cnngo.com/singapore/life/alec-tok-shining-light-singapore-287377