Ying Hoon Clara CHOW

Grants

• 2026
• Literature
• Singapore to Japan

To participate in Japan’s traditional fire festivals, expanding her understanding of this tradition and its relation to similar practices in Singapore and China. Chow’s fellowship will take her to fire festivals across Japan, offering opportunities to interview festival organizers, participants, artisans of Japanese paper and fire festival goods, and fellow artists and writers whose practices center on fire. Engaging with locals will also offer an opportunity to share paper-burning traditions from her Singaporean-Chinese heritage. Through conversations and observing and participating in these events, Chow hopes to better understand the psychology behind the use of fire, how related beliefs and practices change and in some cases conflict with one another, and how fire festivals and related burning practices have been sustained across cultures and over time.