Archive · All stories
Stories
Every interview and family memoir from Lahpet Voices, linked from one place. Each story opens on its own page. Every contributor has reviewed their piece for consent and safety before publication.
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The story on the reel
Between the long-form pieces on this page, Lahpet Voices shares shorter notes on Instagram. This is our latest reel.
An interview with my father
A conversation about belonging, collective responsibility, and the quiet resilience of Burmese identity — told across generations.
Open story →
SISU: From vulnerable to valuable
Inside the Yangon training centre turning displaced youth into confident, employable members of society.
Open story →My family's personal experiences
Culture lives in families. Our own family's memories are written into a small book — one chapter at a time, alongside the interviews on this page.
Sporadic thoughts on my country
Twelve scattered notes about home — tea shops, monsoons, names, money, weddings. Read in any order.
1967: The year our world turned upside down
An eleven-year-old remembers the Anti-Chinese riots of Rangoon — and the hundred days that followed.
Read Chapter One →
1975: To love is to provide
A grandmother marries in 1975, builds a market stall under Ne Win's rationing, and holds to the belief that to love is to provide.
Read Chapter Two →
1988: The year we left
A boy loses both parents, fails Grade 10 five times, survives the 1988 uprising — and brings his young family to Singapore to start again.
Read Chapter Three →
1990: New roots
The daughter of the family that left Yangon remembers growing up in Singapore — the Peninsula Plaza weekends, the mother who never gave up, and what it meant to plant new roots.
Read Chapter Four →The taste of home, from a basement kitchen
A conversation with a cook at a Burmese restaurant in Singapore, and the customers who order home. Name changed for safety.
Lahpet thoke, three ways
A Burmese tea-leaf salad, adapted for the ingredients you can find in Little India.
A worker, a phone, and the money that goes home
A Burmese migrant worker on leaving, the work, and the money sent home. Name changed for his safety.
Growing up between two countries
The family's daughter, born in Singapore, on heritage, belonging, and the country that is hers too.
A table at Peninsula Plaza
Why a mall food court became the unofficial Burmese living room of Singapore.
Myanmar: A timeline
From the Pyu city-states, through Bagan and colonial rule, to the 2021 coup.
Burmese culture, in twelve small pieces
Language, food, festivals, art, dress, and the rituals that travel with people across borders.
Burma or Myanmar? A short answer to a long question
Rangoon or Yangon, Burma or Myanmar: a short, personal guide to the names of a country and what each one carries.
A field guide to reading about Burma
The eras of Burmese history and how they fit together, so the long timeline stops being a blur of dates.
What researching our own history taught me
A reflection on reading the history of a country you belong to, from somewhere far away.
Thingyan, from across an ocean
The Burmese new year from Singapore — where the water mostly stays in the bucket.
A series · Sporadic thoughts
Reflections
Twelve notes about home. Read them here, or all together in the series hub.
A miniature book
My family's personal experiences
Culture lives in families. Our own family's memories are written as a small book, one chapter at a time — alongside the interviews on this page. Three chapters are published, with more to come.