Immortalizing idealism: Recognizing the nation

Idealism, as it was experienced in Singapore by the Chinese youths in the 1950s and 1960s, is seen by the ruling People’s Action Party to be dangerous and disruptive to the postcolonial project of nation-building. This article therefore argues that Sandcastle (Boo Junfeng, 2010) recognizes idealism by immortalizing it in order to recreate renewed knowledge structures of the nation’s histories. The film executes this through the politics of visibility qua the interaction between film and photography. Ultimately, Sandcastle reinforces and recognizes the multi-dimensionality of a nation’s memory by mediating the uneven interfaces of image and conflicting historical narratives.