Consider the following avant-garde poem ‘LOST’ 怅然若失 (Figure 6.1), taken from the pages of the collection 轻信莫疑 [Stretched Credulity] by Xi Ni Er 希尼尔 (2001: 36-37; cf. 1989), a contemporary Singaporean poet and novelist, and former president of the Singapore Writer's Association:

The pictorial poem on the left attempts to impress the reader by hybridizing both English (‘LOST’) and Chinese scripts or Sinoscripts – as it consists of modern, regular scripts in Song (‘怅然若失’, Line Six) and Kai ( Line One) – as well as pictorial scripts of ‘Moon’, ‘Sun’, ‘Water’ and ‘Mountains’ (Lines Two, Three and Four), which appear to be translations of one another in different script fonts within the text. However, the intertextuality between the poem on the left (which appears to be the poem's title) and the footnotes (of two other poems) on the right also allow deeper interpretation of the text(s). An ideal example of how Singaporean Chinese poets have been experimenting with poetry genres, ‘LOST’ showcases the diversity of ethnicities and languages that evidences how the poet has, through his lyrical self or subjectivity, responded to the legacy of (or confrontation with) Singapore's highly transnational and transcultural history.