Kirsten Han 韩俐颖
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kirstenhan.com
Kirsten Han 韩俐颖
@kirstenhan.com
2.6K followers 410 following 1.1K posts
🇸🇬 Writer and activist. Author of 'The Singapore I Recognise: Essays on home, community and hope'. Editor-in-Chief of @mekongreview.com. Everything Elf at https://wethecitizens.net. Member of @transformjusticesg.bsky.social and @adpan.bsky.social.
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kirstenhan.com
It’s the birthday of Soonie, Stray Kids Lee Know’s oldest cat.

That cat is wearing silk Gucci ties because his dad is a Gucci ambassador.

Yet another cat revealed to be living better than me
January 10, 2026 at 2:03 AM
kirstenhan.com
💔
My friend of 15 years died on Christmas Eve and the media knew before I did. In fact, my friends and I found out because a reporter reached out seeking confirmation he was dead so that they could run a story. At that point we had no idea what the fuck they were talking about. Couldn’t believe it. We all tried to call Ravi, hoping it was some cruel joke or misunderstanding. Now I’m seeing an awful lot of detail from the police in the media about my friend’s death, even before investigations are complete and findings submitted to the state coroner. Ravi’s reputation had already been savaged in the local media when he was alive. Yes, there were times when he behaved bizarrely and badly. No one knows this better or more intimately than his friends. Sometimes he blazed with brilliance, sometimes he blazed with fire that burnt those closest to him. But there was always more to it than what the public could read in the news. Between his courage, his ego, his strength, his deep feeling, his volatility, his kindness, his mental illness and more besides, it has always been difficult to fully encapsulate the quicksilver spirit that we call M Ravi. The past two days have been unreal. I thought seeing him at the wake would make the news sink in, become reality. It didn’t. It still feels unbelievable that Ravi is gone, that this is a world without Ravi whipping through it like a force of nature. What absolute fucking nonsense. And once again we have to read about him in the news, all these details coming out in the press even though investigations are still ongoing. The comments on social media, the impressions and opinions strangers are forming and expressing about him. And we, his friends, watching and hurting, knowing—as we have always known—that there is more to Ravi, so much more. But also, after we give him his final send-off tonight, no more. How is this real?
December 26, 2025 at 2:34 AM
kirstenhan.com
The amount of feelings I have tried to eat this year

I mean it with my whole chest when I say “FUCK 2025”. It has been such a cruel year.

I guess at least my favourite K-pop group is on the Pepero box. This is where we’re at now.
December 25, 2025 at 2:43 PM
kirstenhan.com
Got this from Reddit. I’m baffled by how this law can possibly be enforced. Kids are going to be kids and they will find their way on to these platforms—except now they might keep it secret from adults, making it even harder to monitor or have conversations about what they’re exposed to.
December 9, 2025 at 3:15 AM
kirstenhan.com
This seems like a good time to ask if anyone has watched Armando Ianucci’s The Death of Stalin
December 7, 2025 at 1:00 AM
kirstenhan.com
In 2018, Jason Soo, a Singaporean filmmaker, was on board Al Awda, part of a freedom flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Singaporean authorities have given his film a conditional R21 rating, which means he has to seek their approval every time he wants to screen it in the country.
December 6, 2025 at 3:04 AM
kirstenhan.com
One execution has been scheduled for 26 November, and two for 27 November. A vigil will be held in Singapore on the night of the 26th.
November 23, 2025 at 3:35 AM
kirstenhan.com
Despite there being an ongoing constitutional challenge against the mandatory death penalty for drugs, the Singapore government has issued three new execution notices for next week, to three people given mandatory death sentences for drug offences.
November 23, 2025 at 3:28 AM
kirstenhan.com
The Singapore government issued a “Correction Direction” to Malaysian news website MalaysiaNow under the anti-“fake news” law. Failing to comply w/ a Correction Direction is an offence in Singapore.

MalaysiaNow has released a statement essentially telling the Singapore government to fuck off
November 15, 2025 at 8:22 AM
kirstenhan.com
Respecting his wishes would mean flinging a wrecking ball at the house but we will just delulu is the solulu until the national narrative shifts into believing LKY would have welcomed transforming his home into a heritage park
November 3, 2025 at 7:03 AM
kirstenhan.com
A teach-in by the Transformative Justice Collective happening this weekend, covering Singapore's crackdown on pro-Palestine activism.

The livestream link will be shared via this Telegram channel: t.me/sghs4g
October 24, 2025 at 6:46 AM
kirstenhan.com
I don't want to give too much away but the upcoming @mekongreview.com cover (and the whole issue) is absolutely 🔥🔥🔥

So if you haven't subscribed to our magazine yet, you should right now: mekongreview.com/subscribe

We're compiling the mailing list for this issue TODAY so this is your last chance!
October 13, 2025 at 3:25 AM
kirstenhan.com
I lack the motivation to create a long thread out of this, so please just read these screenshots.

And also this celebration of Pannir’s spirit, love, and triumphs: www.wethecitizens.net/goodbye-pann...

Goodbye, Pannir. You’re free now.
Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was executed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and laid to rest yesterday, on World Day Against the Death Penalty. A couple of days before his execution, his sister Sangkari said he had a message for me. “Pannir said you’re like a lion,” she told me with a smile. “The way you talk even when you get in trouble with the government.” The day before, I’d printed out the newsletter I wrote about his book launch, alongside a few news articles and statements, for him. He’d asked for them; he was curious about the media coverage about him and his book. Sangkari said the prison allowed him everything else, but not my newsletter. There’s a common pain and anger that follows every execution. It comes from disgust at how the authorities behave, from a deep sense of injustice, from the knowledge that the only reason these people are dead is because others with more power and money and opportunity judged them from up high and decided they could be discarded. None of these executions disrupted the drug trade; none of them made Singaporeans safer. Yet we’re forced to swallow the propaganda the state churns out to make us believe that some humans deserved to be sacrificed. For people like Pannir, like Datch, like Syed and Masoud and Roslan—who I’ve known, whose families I’ve befriended for many years—there’s an additional layer of grief and loss. During his final family visit on his last day on earth last November, Roslan told his sister to send his regards and thank me for 10 years of solidarity and support. I am so sorry that, throughout those 10 years, there was so little I could do for him. There are days when it feels like there’ll be no end to the killing, no end to the brutality. When it feels like we Singaporeans will always live in a murderous state. But even during those days when it’s hard to feel anything but exhaustion and defeat, I know that we will ultimately prevail, and one day future generations of Singaporeans will be horrified that executions had ever taken place in our country, that we’d taken this long to get rid of something so blatantly unjust and evil. All of us who see the death penalty regime up close have days when we don’t want to do anything but curl up in bed and escape from this terrible world. Every one of us has to find some way to cope with the pain and trauma we witness when the ones with blood on their hands don’t even have the guts to look these families in the eye. But no matter how tough it is, we will keep going. Pannir, the bravest person I’ve had the privilege to know, thought of me as a lion. I hold on to this courage he saw in me, even when I struggled to see it myself, and keep on. We’ve come so far already. There’s no stopping now. Thank you, Pannir. They took so much from you, but they never took your strength and your spirit. You wrote your own story, and now you’re free. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
October 11, 2025 at 3:13 AM
kirstenhan.com
Hong Lim Park, the only space in the country where Singaporeans can gather without a permit, is fully booked for the whole week for some reason. But that won’t stop us.

There’ll be four vigils across Singapore tomorrow night: www.wethecitizens.net/vigils-for-p...
October 6, 2025 at 1:34 PM
kirstenhan.com
Reflections from the launch of Death Row Literature, a collection of poetry by Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, a Malaysian national on death row in Singapore: www.wethecitizens.net/death-row-li...
September 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM
kirstenhan.com
Yesterday, at the launch of Death Row Literature, a collection of poetry by Pannir Selvam Pranthaman from death row in Changi Prison.

The launch was made all the more poignant, powerful and heartbreaking by the knowledge that, after Datch’s execution on Thursday, Pannir is next on the list.
September 28, 2025 at 2:33 AM
kirstenhan.com
Is this happening to anyone else on Bluesky? What’s going on?
September 27, 2025 at 3:01 PM
kirstenhan.com
If you would like to contribute, please send your donations via PayNow to the UEN 201025212ETJ8 (Function 8 Limited), or scan the QR code provided in this post. Please remember to add “For Datch” in the reference so we can identify your contributions.
September 24, 2025 at 3:45 AM
kirstenhan.com
I spent Tuesday night at a vigil for Datch in Hong Lim Park. Years ago, Singaporeans could gather outside Changi Prison for vigils for death row prisoners. These days, no matter how small the gathering outside the prison, people will be subject to police investigations and risk criminal prosecution.
September 24, 2025 at 3:45 AM
kirstenhan.com
This morning, the Singapore Prison Service issued Datchinamurthy Kataiah, a Malaysian on death row in Singapore for drug offences, an execution notice. They plan to hang him on Thursday, 25 September.

There’ll be a cross-border press conference tomorrow morning; open to the public to join remotely.
September 21, 2025 at 1:42 PM
kirstenhan.com
“The man was a fascist who spouted racist hate speech and condoned gun violence, but you gotta appreciate how dedicated and effective he was at spreading those ideas around”

what the fuck
September 12, 2025 at 3:37 AM
kirstenhan.com
Singapore and Israel have a close and long-standing connection. In 2019, we marked 50 years of strong ties with a book that goes into how Israel played a key role in building up the Singapore Armed Forces after Singapore's independence in 1965.

www.straitstimes.com/singapore/me...
September 6, 2025 at 7:11 AM
kirstenhan.com
The SG govt says that they're prepared "in principle" to recognise the state of Palestine, but not before Palestine meets conditions that the SG govt recognises they can't meet because of Israel, but the SG govt won't recognise Palestinian statehood now because of potential "counter actions".
September 2, 2025 at 8:23 AM
kirstenhan.com
Today in acronym hell:

I learn that Singapore’s LLM is not actually called MERLION

It’s called MERaLION
August 29, 2025 at 8:25 AM
kirstenhan.com
They have increased the fines for the use of nicotine vapes and “repeat offenders” will even be forced to go to some six-session mandatory rehab

www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/kp...
PENALTIES FOR ABUSERS The new penalties were announced in a press release by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday. At present, those caught vaping are fined S$300 if they are under 18 years old, and S$500 if 18 and above. This is regardless of whether it is their first or subsequent offence. From Sep 1, first-time offenders under 18 will face an increased fine of S$500, while those 18 and above will be fined S$700. A second offence will require the individual to undergo a three-month rehabilitation programme, consisting of six sessions. Failure to complete the programme will result in prosecution. For a third or subsequent offence, the offender will be prosecuted in court under the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act (TCASA) and may be fined up to S$2,000.
August 28, 2025 at 5:26 PM