issue one
the rad cover was illustrated and designed by the talented jo leong. the only brief she was given was to illustrate “juicy lips”. She is currently studying digital media design at swinburne university, australia. have a look at her website moose-joose.com—you’ll be amazed.
VISIT MOOSE-JOOSE.COM
woop is born out of a passion for magazines and a curiousity for people—who they are, what they do and why. it is not necessarily about people who have ‘made’ it. it’s about getting to know friends and people better. woop is for the quiet (and loud) ones who have a passion and pursue it.
I’ve always loved reading magazines, and while I wasn’t very sure what I could make of it then, it didn’t stop me from thinking and planning of having my own magazine. It started 6 years ago when I brought the subject up to my friend Sarah, “hey want to do a magazine with me?” Didn’t happen. Then 3 years later again, this time to a group of people. Some responded enthusiastically, some didn’t. But again, nothing happened. Every time I read a magazine, my thoughts would no doubt go back to “my magazine”. It wasn’t the “lack of time” or that I “had no idea” what to write about—I was just making plans and then sitting on them. I was trying to perfect my plan, making lists and writing down ideas in my notebook, but perfection wasn’t going to happen. This magazine is a cumulation of those plans, desires and passion I’ve had with me for years, and the people who are my friends and inspire me to take risks and go after what I’m passionate about. These are people who are brave to pursue what they want and live life differently. To my friends and family, thank you for being so willing to help and for supporting my dreams, and encouraging me to pursue my passion. I had a great sense of joy and fulfilment working on this. —Alyssa Woo
人
人々 people
cheryl koh grace chen natasha lim khoa nguyen and buffalo & back 不要回家
natasha lim
↓
21 years old and currently studying psychology.
photo courtesy of cheryl lim
I love bad jokes, Korean food and I’m probably the most uncoordinated individual you’ll ever meet. I’m majoring in a general psychology degree. But as we know, psychology covers quite a whole plethora of topics on human behaviour.
Personally, I’m more interested in developmental psychology, which talks about the changes that occurs in humans across their lifespan (from infants to death). I’m also interested in personality psychology and other facets of interpersonal relationships. In the degree, we do cover most of the range of psychology like brain and behaviour, mental illness and so on. For modules such as counselling, we do practice counselling on each other in groups during tutorials every week to apply the skills that we learn during lectures. That was pretty fun, but very anxiety inducing because my tutor would walk around supervising our sessions. Some of it was graded too, so we couldn’t slack and talk about nonsense! I genuinely enjoy my classes, except for modules that are a little bit more biological, like brain and behaviour. I’m not too good with biology, so it’s not my most favourite module. Once our lecturer brought in an actual pig’s brain for us to examine and dissect—that was pretty
gross but interesting. Although our brains are most similar to a monkey’s brain (our DNA matches 98% with a monkey’s DNA), it would be scarily unethical to bring in a monkey brain! A pig’s brain is the most similar to a human’s brain that our lecturer could get and it’s easily found in any wet market in Singapore. I volunteer at Singapore’s Institute of Mental Health every Saturday morning and sometimes they have separate events that I volunteer for as well. There are children admitted into IMH but there aren’t as many children as there are older folks. Most of the children who are admitted are most likely chronic cases of mental illness, like extreme ADHD or maybe a profound level of autism. I’m assigned to the middle aged male ward with a group of students from uni. Basically, we go there to talk and play games with them, like mahjong or chinese chess. Most of the times when you hear about the
photo courtesy of cheryl lim
stories of why they’re here, you get a little emotional. I was talking to this uncle who kept little tattered and torn up pieces of bible verses he had written down. He made me read the verses aloud with him, and he told me about how long he had been staying in IMH (3 years). He shared with me how much he didn’t like the place, and even asked me if I could get him out of there. He said that his parents were the one who admitted him and didn’t want to visit him. So that was quite sad and I was pretty affected, but I couldn’t do much because I’m just a volunteer. Given his condition, I don’t think he’d be able to live a life outside of IMH without supervision and care as well. I felt rather sad for him that I wasn’t able to help more. I just have to keep positive for the patients. How I deal with it is by talking about it with my other peers who volunteer with me, so I don’t feel so overwhelmed. During the session itself when I’m talking to the patients, I just have to sit there and talk it out with them by offering alternatives, or trying to get them to see a better light of the situation they’re in. On the other hand, seeing their happy faces when we come in gives me the most satisfaction. It’s just a short 2 hours that we spend with them each week, but as you start volunteering regularly, they start remembering you as well. They get quite excited and will crowd around the door when we’re entering the ward, and just seeing them happy or making them laugh is definitely heartwarming for me.
Clockwise from top: drinking strawberry soda from a packet in korea; a portrait of natasha by a imh patient; being a ‘badboy’ in korea photo courtesy of natasha
CHERYL KOH 24 years old currently studying dentistry in Brisbane
I think I’m a pretty cheerful and bubbly person. I like the outdoors a lot and I used to be really into volleyball, which I started playing in secondary school.
↓ I don’t have enough time because of university, and it’s expensive here in Australia. I think being in Brisbane or studying abroad has made me grown a lot. Before, I was very sheltered and protected. My life was very set out for me—not trying to sound elitist, but I went to prestigious school and there were expectations from my parents, but they were very understanding and not controlling. I’m very grateful I have the chance to study abroad. Back then I never thought it was an option. I was like a crybaby! I’m very close to my family and the thought of being away by myself and being independent…I couldn’t fathom it. But before coming over to Aussie, I was quite stuck up. You know how when you’re at this university age…I just felt like I made enough friends or majority of my friends, and I didn’t have to get to know more people. I feel closer to my secondary and junior college friends. Coming over here, I was like “Shit! How am I going to make new friends?” It was like a wave of panic. But I’ve since made quite a few really close friends. I’ve been studying dentistry in Brisbane for about close to 4 years now. I want to be different from the typical boring stereotype of dentists, which are like nerdy and geeky. The biggest motivation for me to study dentistry is because my parents are dentists, and since I was young I remember going to the dental clinic and helping my parents do the ‘suction’ on patients, you know, the thing that sucks their saliva up? I’m used to the smell and feel of dental clinics, and it was always a familiar setting to me. As a kid I looked up to my parents and thought that it was something I was going to do. In second year we practiced on dummy heads and did lots of theory, but in our third year there was a major transition where we had to treat real patients. So we partnered up with a classmate and learned how to minister local aneasthesia. It was really funny and even though we knew all the theory stuff, we were still scared. If you didn’t do it right you could temporarily paralyse half of your friend’s face. So for three hours, the lower halves of our mouths were all droopy and everyone was laughing at each other and laughing at how we couldn’t laugh properly.
I want to be different from the typical boring stereotype of dentists, which tend to be nerdy and geeky. The first day we saw our real patients, we couldn’t tell them they were our first because we had to be confident. My first patient was boring because she had really good oral hygiene, so I couldn’t do much. My second was a 76 years old man who was partially deaf and he couldn’t really hear what I was saying. He had his dentures for 40 years and it was in such a horrible state and worn in so badly that there were holes in it. He couldn’t eat properly and he was very thin and frail. Because he couldn’t hear, I had to shout and everyone could hear us because we were only separated into cubicles. At the end of the whole treatment, he got his new set of dentures; he looked really good in it and I felt very happy. The idea of preventive dentistry is not in the majority of patients’ minds—it’s only when symptoms gets worse then they’ll think about coming in. The reason why dentists are not the most loved in the medical profession is because patients think dentists cause them pain. But more often than not, they only come when the pain is too severe and by then, it’s usually too late. We are very misunderstood. We also have to be very tactful when telling them about their bad teeth and breath. Every fortnight, we are scheduled for oral medicine class and go down to a hospital to see patients. We get to see patients who come in with oral pathology and you also see cancer patients. Usually it would a very draining day and it’s depressing, because it’s never good news to break to a person that they have cancer. Or when patients have been through chemo and they’re clear of cancer, and when it relapses…I’m so used to telling patients things are okay, but this time round, what can you say? It’s just very sad. I had a chat with my professor and I asked how he numbed himself to it, and he said he’s become desensitized after seeing so many cases.
Coming into dentistry, it wasn’t like a “oh wow I’m doing this” but in a social setting when people find out you do dentistry, I find they tend to stereotype you as nerdy, or as someone who is just smart. And if you look it up online, dentists have the highest suicide rate in medical professions because it’s so stressful. Dentistry is more than just looking at teeth—it’s a skill for you to talk to the patient and let them be comfortable with looking and working with their mouth, because it’s a very personal and intimate area. It’s also like a mix of science and art in dentistry, because you need to make dentures, do the crowning and match the colour of their teeth. You also have to build rapport with your patients. After studying for 4 years, I realized I like the social interaction and helping the patients, and feeling a sense of satisfaction.
↓ khoa nguyen 19 years old currently studying media & communications in melbourne, australia
For me, what I like about fashion is that it’s expressing oneself…it’s a type of selfexpression and...when you see someone on the street you get a sense of who they are.
↓ I don’t really have spare time, I like keeping busy. I like to shop and thinking of little projects to do, like DIY. I have university— I’m studying media communications and I’m in my 2nd year. Then I have my internship with Couturing. I want to do PR, although I guess I do enjoy and like what I’m studying right now, and I know it can get me somewhere, but currently the subjects I’m doing this semester is kind of pointless. I suppose with that degree I can still go and do other stuff. My focus for Oh, That Boy is menswear, because I think there aren’t very good menswear blogs online. Most of my content, I’ve done for Couturing; I write articles for them and then post it up on the blog. I also do behind-the-scenes when I go to photo shoots and stuff. Usually it’s my friends who take photos of me for my blog. My blog is more for me and not for other people. I just do stuff that I like, it’s more for developing myself and my sense of style. I want to look back at this 10 years later and maybe have a laugh, who knows. It’s something fun to do on the side. I think of ways to keep up with the content, like Fashion week—there’s always fashion week somewhere in the world! I do little projects, DIY, usually fashion, or interior décor—fashion and interior go very well together. Putting a room together is like putting together an outfit—everything has to complement each other. It’s expressing yourself as well, it’s almost the same as fashion. My entire room is monochromatic, and yea I have my days where I’m in black and white, but I also do
colours too. My style is minimalist; I don’t like overdoing it, like Nicki Minaj. I can’t stand her style! I was born in Vietnam but I grew up in Melbourne. I still have family there but some are in Paris and the US as well. I think I would really like to live in New York—I wouldn’t mind moving to there one day. I mean, it looks interesting and my friend’s working there at the moment and he’s having a lot of fun. I know it sounds cliché but I think it’s really fun that there’s always something happening. I like Melbourne for its culture but when it comes to fashion it’s very slow sometimes—we get all of last season’s stuff. That’s why I do lots of online shopping. For me, what I like about fashion is that it’s about expressing oneself…it’s a type of self-expression. When you see someone on the street you get a sense of who they are because you don’t actually get to know them. It feels nice when someone comes up to me and tell me they like my outfit. I had to wear a uniform in high school but it’s a different story. I didn’t mind it because picking something different to wear everyday was pressurizing. I’ve always felt the casual days at high school was rather liberating and it was something I liked. I do street style as well and I love it. Runway is runway but you can’t get any more creativity and originality than [you would do from] street style. I don’t think I have a fashion icon; I don’t think there’s anyone I look up to when it comes to styling. It’s weird because I suppose I should have one but I don’t. I
think it would be really fun to do fashion styling. Sometimes I help out with Couturing on some shoots. My internship with Couturing…it’s been really good. I actually applied to be an intern and I pictured getting coffee and maybe sending out emails out for them, but it turned out to be a completely different story. The first week after I applied for an internship, they sent me to my first event and it was actually overwhelming, but it was a good experience. It was fun and I enjoyed it. I’m doing PR for them now too. I’ve been there since June this year. It’s been really good and I feel like I’ve been learning a lot more there than at uni. They’ve opened so many doors for me, and as a blogger they’ve sent me to so many events. I think in this industry, connections and networking is vital and Couturing has been giving me so many opportunities. I think the only person I
ever really tell about my fashion plans are my close friends, my mom, or people who I think will understand. Some people don’t. I have an upcoming collaboration with Melbourne-based fashion designer Cathleen Jia for my blog. I recently interviewed her before Melbourne Fashion week, and she wanted to do a giveaway and I suggested, “Why don’t we do a one-off headpiece giveaway for a reader?” I helped to design it and I’m very excited. I wanted it to have a Cathleen Jia aesthetic but also an Oh, That Boy aspect as well. My main focus isn’t becoming the biggest fashion blogger in Melbourne; I do it for fun and my blog is still fairly new. Response from friends has been quite good I’m getting close to like 100 visitors a day. I know it’s no big deal for some but it’s encouraging for me and it motivates me.
FEELING INCREASINGLY ALIENATED IN HIS HOME CITY OF SINGAPORE, DAVID CHAN TALKS ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED HIM TO CREATE THE MOVEMENT, 不要回家.
free stickers and the back of the envelopes David sends out
What is 不要回家? In mandarin, “家” means “home” and “不要回家” means “I don’t want to go home”, or “Do not go home”. 不要回家 is a movement which I was inspired to create as I watched my home, the city of Singapore, go through many changes which made me feel alienated, despite having grown up here and having lived here my entire life. Home is such an important concept. Everyone has to have a home to return to, a certain space which we have come to label as such. But as many of us know, a house isn’t always necessarily a home. This also applies to the context of home when we talk about the city we grew up in, in this case, Singapore. I love Singapore a lot. It’s where I grew up and where I developed as a person, where I learnt everything that I know and where all my friends and family live. I will cherish so many of these things forever, but things keep changing, and not necessarily for the better.
Whether it’s old buildings I love being torn down, fields I used to hang out in being built upon by some insane development, the influx of people from a certain foreign land, my childhood friends suddenly gaining “power” in a forced dictatorship where suddenly it’s like we were never friends— these things all contribute to this place becoming scarier and more foreign to me as the days go by. I just feel that we are constantly being lied to, and taught things that are a total contradiction to what I know in real life (for example, that we are living in a “democratic society”). There are millions of us but we are all afraid to converge and fight for truth because the real truth is that so few of us even KNOW that anything is wrong. And friends who believe so wholeheartedly in the “truth” that is fed to us just disappoint me, because they view me as an extremist or think I’m kidding. All of this makes me really terrified and afraid, and most of all confused. I’m confused by the idea of what “home” is. It’s not what I used to know, and I don’t want to know this
Preview the upcoming video
new “home”. Sure, it’s where I grew up, and it’s where home is for real, it makes me question the concept of home being “where you grew up and where all your friends and family are”, and most of all whether it is home to me right now. And while the answer may or may not be “no”, I cannot say for sure yet. I can only say that I don’t know, and I’m still constantly searching for the answer. But that is my interpretation. 不要回家 could be a symbol of anything for anyone reading this right now. It could be not looking forward to death (also known as “ 回家”), to “go big or go home” (not to return home until you’ve “made it”), to be brave and step outside your comfort zone in order to progress as a person, to travel and leave and never return (the more literal and immediate interpretation). I believe in all these things a lot, and I hope that anybody who follows this movement or even “likes” the FaceBook page finds some kind of empowerment from the idea of 不要回家, because I just went through a rough 2 years
where I struggled a lot to find something to believe in and hold on to, and the idea of “home” and themes of escapism really spoke to me for the longest time. I’m working on sending and giving out free stickers to anyone and everyone in hopes of reaching more people, and I hope to be able to start a collection of user-contributed photographs where people “tag” foreign lands with 不要回家 stickers by taking a photo of the sticker in front of a landmark of another country. I feel like it is a great symbol of the movement, to have something so localized in something which is the furthest example of “home”, a foreign landmark. It just sums up the whole project really simply. I was walking around Marina Bay Sands one day, and the song “You Are A Tourist” came on shuffle on my iPod as I was looking out at the water through the glass of the mall, and I was immediately inspired. To conclude, I can only quote said song by Death Cab For Cutie — “If you feel like just a tourist in the city you were born, then it’s time to go.”
To join the movement and request for stickers, visit the Facebook page or keep updated via David’s Instagram.
woop welcomes artistic collaboration email any queries or interest to woopzine@gmail.com
contribute collaborate
し ま す
寄 与
↓ GRACE CHEN 22 years old and is currently doing a degree in Fashion Media and Industries at Lasalle SIA College of the Arts, Singapore.
I’m just trying to find my place in the world. I’m a hopeless romantic and I fall in love with poetic words and moments all the time. Fashion is a big part of me and I enjoy being immersed in the culture, but I wouldn’t say that I eat, live, breathe fashion the way some fanatics do. I also like to indulge in books that resonate with me and television shows that make me laugh. People may think I’m intimidating but honestly, I think I’m just shy and really socially awkward at times! It doesn’t help that I fumble to find the right words when I’m nervous… I have a brown toy poodle called Cookie and she’s my absolute precious! I previously did a diploma in Fashion Communication and Visual Communication at Laselle and Temasek Polytechnic respectively. Both schools have such different ways of teaching. I remembered having a culture shock when I came to Lasalle—I was a mess, trying to juggle multiple submissions at the same time. During my first year there, I remembered struggling with sewing and textiles because it was so time-consuming, and I wasn’t especially good at the hands-on stuff. I had zero interest in that aspect of fashion so it was agonizing. I had to come back to school during the weekends and watch my friend cry because she was so afraid she couldn’t complete it as well...talk about losing our minds! So it was definitely a relief when I got into my specialization of Fashion Communication in the second year because I got to do the things that I liked, which included styling, art direction, writing and also photography. I really enjoyed and loved what I was doing despite the massive workload. I felt like I really got a chance to know myself and develop my own style during my time in school. The environment was very conducive and I made several good friends that inspire and motivate me to challenge myself, and to be a better me.
It’s really nice to see people appreciating fashion and bothering to dress up to express themselves.
I am mostly inspired by London’s and Paris’s street style scene because it feels more real to me and not staged, like photos from fashion editorials or advertisements. I love how the fashion there is so extreme— some are absolutely adventurous and experimental, yet some look fab even in a simple minimalist style. It makes me wish that Singapore is not such a hot and humid place to be because I would kill to dress up in coats and layer on most days. What I love most about the street style scene is that their passion for fashion really shines. It’s really nice to see people appreciating fashion and bothering to dress up to express themselves. In Singapore, most people just want to be decked in shorts and flip flops which I find is unacceptable! As for fashion bloggers, I adore Nicole Warne and Olivia Lopez. I have always wanted to work in a fashion magazine as a stylist or a fashion buyer because I want to be exposed to much bigger things, and also hopefully get to travel and explore what’s out there. If I’m able to find a job which I really like, I wouldn’t mind diving straight into the scene after graduating! I did an internship at Catalog Magazine and it was fun to help out with fashion shoots and see the published work. Fashion gives me a sense of purpose, which is why I find myself falling in love with it again and again.
grace hard at work!
The most satisfying moment in my fashion education is when I surprise myself. I have had doubts when I first enrolled in Fashion, not knowing if this was really the path that I want to take because the fashion industry is a lot more unpredictable and tough than I thought. But there was never a moment where I told myself, “I’m not going to do fashion anymore in the future because I’ve become jaded about everything”. This was how I knew fashion is something I really enjoy doing. I got lucky enough to watch Roland Mouret’s show at the Audi Fashion Festival 2012— that was really special to me. I enjoyed it so much and it was exhilarating! At that moment, I told myself that this is what I want to be a part of in the future for a long time to come.
Grace during her internship with catalog magazine, and hanging out with friends at fashion college. photo courtesy of Grace
buffalo & back
↓
WOOP spoke to one-half of the band, Jeff Wight on his lyrics and inspiration, and how he used it to deal with the pain of heartbreak.
“I made this album for one person. It was a plea to go home.�
I’m from a country called Trinidad & Tobago. It’s made up of two relatively small islands in the southern Caribbean. As a child I think I was extremely ADD. As an adult I think I’m extremely ADD. I really liked acting as a child, but when I was about 14 one of my sisters starting getting me into bands like Radiohead and I found a pretty intense and quick spreading love for music. So I guess I’ve always wanted to be a musician or performer. Before Buffalo & Back, I was studying film in New York City and taking weekend buses to Buffalo to see my girlfriend at the time. She was very important to me, but I was also very immature. It was really intense; the whole lifestyle and everything I was trying to commit to at the same time seemed totally juxtaposed. It was wonderful but then at other times, it was horrible. I met my band mate Andrew through a mutual friend, Rhys Thomson, who is the drummer in another local band. I had already known of Andrew—his band Skid”Nevely had been supplying the local rock scene with a lot of great music for quite some time, so I was excited and a little nervous to see what we could come up with. It was a rough time, but the music we started making really gave me hope.
I have way too many favourite artists, however if I had to choose the one I would crusade for the most, it would have to be Keaton Henson. I’m not sure if he influences our sound, but he certainly was saying the things that I was feeling and the way he did it was just so honest; the pain he shared. It made me feel less alone even if I was miserable. Andrew is responsible for all the instrumentals and he is a wiz on harmonies. Usually I would come to him with a general melody which might change as he makes up the music to my lyrics, sometimes he would suggest I sing something differently to go along with what he’s composing. Often enough he’s had to create a melody to my rambling lyrics. His taste definitely differs to mine, although we do have a couple intersecting favourites like the Beatles and Blink 182. I’m probably into ‘folkier’ stuff. He also loves to make fun of me for the sadder, sleepier music I’m into. He does a great Keaton Henson impression (mocking) and I can no longer use the word “profound” around him. To be honest, pretty much all the feedback we’ve had has been overwhelmingly supportive. It’s weird to hear people say they’re “fans”. To think I have fans just
↓
seems strange, though for Andrew I’m sure it’s normal at this point, but me—not so much. We’ve only been doing this for about 4 months, and earlier on just finding the time was the biggest struggle. I had a full time job working as a marketing manager at a trading company in Trinidad, and Andrew was on a pretty different schedule to mine. I’m not sure if there has been any fulfilling or satisfying moment to be honest. I made this album for one person. It was a plea to go home. That didn’t happen so it was just about coping. It was like therapy and without it I don’t like to think what kind of state I’d be in.
Jeff and his friend
I think more than anything I’ve realized that you just have to accept people as they are. We’re all just hurt by someone or something, we all just want to express that hurt, or hide it, or deal with it in whatever way. People have reasons for being the way we are, perhaps not excuses, but reasons. I’m still learning to accept and forgive certain people, but I definitely think the world could do with a little more understanding and tolerance. As for now, Buffalo & Back is moving to London. I’d like to release our first album independently and I’m not really sure what will happen in the future, but we’ll just have to see where it goes.
Jeff and bandmate Andrew
Click to listen to Buffalo & Back
BLUE HAIR YORKTOWN HEIGHTS TO YOUR HAPPINESS
the making of this issue warranted a few things...
...like some music
played mumford & sons’ BABEL on repeat too.
listened to this song on repeat like a hundred times.
“i just want to BE OK today” BE.
tried to sing along to ‘surrender’ by ball park music
...and was serenaded by tom waits.
mid-jan 2013
問次 題の next issue
あ り が と う
本読 当書 にを Thank you very much for reading!