How Many Names & Identities Can You Have?

[THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS.]

I waited a long while for the digital copy of Boston-based Singaporean author Yu-Mei Balasingamchow's 'Names Have Been Changed' (June 2026). This has been a novel years in the making! I'll get around to buying a hard copy soon enough. (Reviews here, here, here and here.)

38-year-old Ophir (not her real name) hosts a podcast while being on the run from a crime she never intended to commit. As an accidental fugitive at 27 years old, she skipped town (Singapore) with $60,000 in cash, and traversed Bangkok, Tokyo, Ecuador, London and Colorado. Along the way, she does odd jobs; became a hostess at nightclubs and takes on waitressing gigs for income. She changes her name often and takes on new identities to evade arrest. She has been Kara, Amelie, Hui Ying, Kaylee and Noora.

She longs for human companionship. She is lonely and homesick. But she doesn't want to go to jail. She wants to remain free, even if it's on the run. She has led this life for ten years. Then it's 2020, the world goes into lockdown, and her father suddenly died in a traffic accident. Her mother died when she was born, so she felt this parent's death keenly. She's the youngest of a total of six children in this family. She's close to her brother Jacob, but she is unable to contact her family in Singapore or attend his funeral. Hosting this podcast makes her feel less alone. She can talk, people can hear her, but no one will know who she is. Well, unless they know her by voice alone.

I'm not sure that retelling your life story publicly while being on the run is a good idea. Ophir was a voice actor in Singapore getting by okay, leading a pretty normal lifestyle but wishing for extra cash like everyone else. She was pulled into a scam as a money mule by her best friend. She only wanted to make extra cash, but it was a crime. We know what she's running from. So where is she running to? Will there be a name or an identity she finally settles on?

London began peacefully enough, but reached a shocking end when Ophir ran into a familiar face and things spiraled out of control. Her London sojourn ended rather dramatically. But it was also in London that she got an opportunity to go to Colorado for... ... redemption. She met a Singaporean doctor who is a political exile, along with her husband. And the good doctor treated her injury and sent her to Colorado based on blind trust. The doctor has been in exile for 40 years, and she has stopped counting. 

Every Sunday night, Ah Mun paid me in cash, and I took off. She never asked where I lived.

At the time I was renting a room from a Bangladeshi widow and her sister above their curry house. My first job in London was for a cousin of theirs, cleaning the office at his car repair workshop. I think they let me move in because I looked pretty harmless, which, as you know, I am, unless you tempt me with thousands and thousands of dollars. Also, maybe no one wanted to live above the exhaust vents of their restaurant. By then I knew there were worse things than the smell of stale food and kitchen grease, and once I was spending my days at Golden Pearl, I honestly couldn't tell you whether I reeked more of chicken tikka masala or Cantonese wok hei.

Of course food got highlighted! Hahaha. Food is always a trigger point of memories and cultural references in novels. We have Singaporean food spoken of and eaten. After you read this story, you might not want to have Singapore Fried Noodles for a bit. Heck, I don't even like Singapore Fried Noodles in any city. If the kitchen ditches the curry powder and ease up on the oil, it would be almost palatable.

[STOP READING HERE > SPOILERS ARE NEXT.]

Colorado felt like redemption because it was. The 'job' in a small town in Denver was easier than manual labor and scrubbing toilets, and she had food and a roof over her head. Izati was closer to her in age, and somehow, accepted her and her past. It didn't take a genius to find out Ophir/then-Noora's true identity.

Each podcast Ophir puts out, is a chapter in the book. During the lockdown years, the podcasts somehow went viral and reached thousands. People knew who she is. She didn't think it would be such a 'hit', but it is. Television and interview offers stream in. It seems to be only a matter of time before the Singapore police get a start on identifying her location and identity, and come knocking. 

She also has a podcast producer named Tina. Of course it's a pseudonym. Tina is smart, protective and loyal. She goes through the emails received about Ophir and such. She doesn't pry or judge. She simply is there for Ophir. And oddly, Ophir didn't double-cross her, and for the first time, she felt supported and less alone. Tina is Izati. I knew it! There were plenty of hints in the lines.

The ending was expected, yet unexpected. I thought her loneliness would be a huge factor in deciding to turn herself in. Especially when her closest sibling Jacob came in search of her. And found her. He had never stopped looking for the past decade. He persuaded her to come home with him to Singapore. He outlined a possible life in Singapore after doing time, and offered her sanctuary at his home. But he has a partner, and two children. She wasn't wanting to ruin his life now. He managed to even convince her to get to the airport in Los Angeles, check in and get to the passenger boarding area.  

She hesitated, and made her decision. She can't go home to Singapore. It's not home anymore. She has done this for 10 years. She could continue to do this. It's her life now. She has chosen it.

Being away for so long, it was all I had to hang on to. It's not going to be the same, though. It'll never be like it was, and it's not the place I'm looking for anymore. They'll put me in a box—a box I deserve, to be fair, but I don't want that or what comes after, starting over and also trying to live down what I've done. Why do I have to keep paying for it? Haven't I carried enough my whole life?

I can't be the person they want me to be. I know how to live like this now. I can do it.

I should move quickly. I don't have much time.

I don't see Jacob, I think he's still at the gate. Waiting. He trusts me. Don't think about that.

Is this a book about migrant culture? I think not. If it is, it makes a very odd reference point to what Singapore is about. I look at the book as one that explores the Singaporean diaspora. Yet it's uniquely Singaporean. The multi-culturalism and inherent prejudices come up. We see Singlish in the lines. We have Malay too. I didn't listen to the audiobook, so I wouldn't know about the different accents adopted by the narrator. But I heard a sample of it, and some friends say that the audiobook narration is excellent.

Mooncakes for Mid-Autumn

Today is the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. It's the Mid-Autumn Festival. I'm not big on eating mooncakes since it's simply a ton of calories, and that sticky mushy taste isn't appealing to my tastebuds. Eiooow. I'm thankful that nobody would buy boxes of mooncakes for us because it's really not appreciated in this home. 

I still buy a few boxes here and there for people who like it. But this year, I needed to seek out vegetarian and halal options for mooncakes (from Delcie's and Fairmont Hotel) that could also cater to a low-sugar and gluten-free preferences. Oooof, yeah, people shifted diets for health or out of necessity, which is a good thing. 

One standard-sized 200-gram mooncake is like... 900 calories. I'll just round it up to 1000 calories. *gulp Most of us would cut up a regular-sized mooncake into eight small pieces to share with people. That one tiny piece is more than enough for anyone. Even a smaller 60-g snowskin version offers 100-calories to choke you up. Uggggh. Never mind the calories, it's the flavors of the mooncakes that I cannot fully appreciate.

The brands, clients and friends still gave me some mooncakes. I couldn't control what brands and clients chose; I've no guilt re-gifting the ones given by brands and clients, and some acquaintances since it's really a perfunctory gesture. However, the ones gifted by friends always mean a little more, and carry genuine well-wishes. So I try to have a bite of each mooncake. I have no preferences over whichever bakeries that produce the mooncakes. They're all the same to me. 

The smart friends went for the low-sugar options, or simply gifted me ONE BIG MOONCAKE or TWO SMALL MOONCAKES. They're so very clever. Hahahaha. I certainly do not mind a bite of one mooncake. That's an excellent call. Two regular-sized mooncakes from each person would be wayyy too much already. 

I didn't just carelessly give these gifts away. I shared them and did taste some of these mooncakes. I don't have a preference for traditional baked mooncakes or the snowskin versions with different fillings. I'm not very into either anyway. While fun and colorful with interesting flavors, they're just... ...  sugar-laden lor. A nibble or two of a mooncake will do. That doesn't mean a nibble or two of ten mooncakes. Just two mooncakes would suffice. 

This year, I tasted three mooncakes — a regular-sized traditional baked version (from Raffles Hotel), a traditional baked black Owa coffee with lotus paste and melon seeds (Mandai Rainforest Resort), and a mini-sized snowskin of whisky and lapsang souchong truffle (from Raffles Hotel, gifted thoughtfully in a pair). I didn't eat all of them in one sitting, obviously. I still have some frozen in the freezer. LOL

Minced Meat Noodles

I didn't realize that the brand 'Macpherson Minced Meat Noodles' is 'famous'. Well, I'm not a fan of bak chor mee per se, so I don't particularly care about it. I ate at this one because it was convenient and the husband was curious about it. 

Apparently, all the stalls named 'Macpherson Minced Meat Noodles' aren't the same. They're not franchises or related to one another. The OG Uncle Yap's stall is now in Potong Pasir Block 136. But I can tell you that stall's version isn't nice. I bravely tried it thrice and it truly sucked, even for a regular plate. The meat really really stank, and the ratio of sauces was terrible. 

I very much prefer the iteration across the road done by Uncle Yap's disciple at the corner of Tai Thong Crescent. I kinda eat bak chor mee as minced meat kway teow, 'dry, white white'. LOL That's non-negotiable. I wouldn't eat it if it's drenched in sauces. So when I eat it like this, I'm not bothered about vinegar or type of chilli of whatever. I can taste all the flavors clearly. I know this is a caloric bomb, with all the grease and very little protein. So I don't eat it that often. 

Now that kway teow. That day, the kway teow came brown. Walao. NO. DUNWAN. When I said that I wanted 'white-white', I mean it — no sauces, no vinegar, no ketchup, no gravy, nothing. I dislike those flavors. I emphasized on white-white. So when the bowl of kway teow came back with a bit of sauce, I promptly went back to the stall, paid a $1 to get another bowl of white-white kway teow.

Do I like this brand's bak chor kway teow? No. I prefer the flavors at Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodles. The soup offered is much better too.