What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world

《至柔至坚》是一部展现新加坡酷儿亲职关系的影片。在法律意义上，当地的酷儿亲职家庭仍被视为非法。与导演2021年的短片《亲缘》（Kin）类似，这部混合形式纪录片将访谈素材与一个为游戏与想象而构筑的公共空间相结合。
影片标题取自厄休拉·勒古恩（Ursula K. Le Guin）翻译的《道德经》，象征水与石的对立与互生。融合了对自然世界的感知、东方宇宙观，以及“相依相存”的理念，《至柔至坚》将酷儿身份展现为一种开放的可能性场域——一个充满未来生命力的空间。

“What’s softest…” is a glimpse of queer parenthood in Singapore, where such families are illegitimate under the eyes of the law. Like Kin, the hybrid documentary film combines interview material with a constructed communal space for play and imagination. The film’s title is taken from Ursula K. Le Guin’s rendition of the Dao De Jing and refers to the dichotomy of water and stone. By gathering sensibilities of the natural world, Eastern cosmology, and interdependence, “What’s softest…” presents queerhood as an open field of possibility, one brimming with life that is to come. 

导演：傅秀璇
编剧：傅秀璇
主演：宝贝C、凯莉、清、思、泡泡、佩琳、布伦达、维尔达、伊森、克里斯、艾萨克、坎什、祖比
制片人：索菲娅·沈
摄影：苏丽霞（伊泽）
类型：实验纪录短片
时长：15分钟
完成时间：2024年
对白语言：英语
地区：新加坡

Director: Charmaine Poh
Screenwriter: Charmaine Poh
Cast: Baby C, Cally, Ching, Sze, Bubble, Pearlyn, Brenda, Velda, Ezen, Chris, Isaac, Kansh, Zuby
Producer: Sophia Sim
Cinematographer: Lixia Soh (Eze)
Genre: Documentary Short Film
Length: 15 min
Year: 2024
Dialogue: English
Region: Singapore

傅秀璇（Charmaine Poh，生于 1990 年）是一位来自新加坡的艺术家，其创作横跨多种媒介，包括影像与行为艺术。她的实践旨在剖析、质询并承载关于“能动性”、“修复”与“身体”穿梭于不同世界语境中的意义。她的创作立基于可见与隐晦、偏离与未来性的策略。
她的作品曾展出于新加坡美术馆、首尔市立美术馆、刺点画廊（Blindspot Gallery）、洛杉矶 REDCAT 艺术中心、马赛之家摄影博物馆（Huis Marseille），以及第 60 届威尼斯双年展（主题为“无处不在的外人”）等。2019 年，她入选《福布斯亚洲》“艺术领域 30 位30岁以下精英”榜单。她的作品被维加基金会（Vega Foundation）、骄阳基金会（Sunpride Foundation）及卡蒂斯特艺术基金会（ KADIST） 收藏。她于近期获得2025 年度德意志银行年度艺术家称号，以及 2026 罗马别墅奖（Villa Romana Prize）。
她现居于柏林与新加坡，是杂志《Jom》的联合创办人，以及“亚洲女性主义艺术与研究工作室”（Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research AFSAR）成员。

Charmaine Poh (b. 1990) is an artist from Singapore working across media, moving image, and performance to peel apart, interrogate, and hold ideas of agency, repair, and the body across worlds. She aligns herself with strategies of visibility, opacity, deviance, and futurity.
She has exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum, the Seoul Museum of Art, Blindspot Gallery, REDCAT LA, Huis Marseille, and the 60th Venice Biennale – Foreigners Everywhere, among others. In 2019, she was one of Forbes Asia’s 30 under 30 in the arts. Her work has been collected by Vega Foundation, Sunpride Foundation, and KADIST. She was recently named Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year for 2025 and a recipient of the Villa Romana Prize 2026.
Based between Berlin and Singapore, she is a co-founder of the magazine Jom and a member of Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research (AFSAR). 

《至柔至坚》创作于“什么是家庭”这一论题在新加坡社会逐渐成为争议焦点的时期。将男性之间的性行为视为非法的英殖民时期第 377(a) 条法案于 2022 年底被废除，然而政府同时制定有关婚姻和家庭定义的限制措施，并宣布不会进一步修改媒体与教育等领域中现有的歧视性规定。酷儿群体依然被边缘化，酷儿家庭在法律上也不被承认为一个整体。只有生育方被视为与孩子有法律关系，并且被归类为“单亲家长”，这会直接影响其住房机会与育儿福利。

《至柔至坚》是短片《亲缘》（Kin）的延伸。《亲缘》探讨了新加坡年轻酷儿群体空间的脆弱性以及ta们对亲密的渴望；而《至柔至坚》则关注人生的另一阶段——照料与养育年幼生命的过程。这一主题成为反思的丰沃载体，从日常家庭生活的私密仪式，到以“互联共生”取代自然 / 非自然二元对立的生态宇宙观，都被纳入影片的表达之中。

家庭生活与酷儿亲缘关系所构成的私密而奇幻的世界是本片的核心。酷儿身份，尽管在国家层面仍模糊而不可识读，一直都是且将持续成为一个孕育未来性的场所。

What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world. was made at a time when the definition of family was rising in prominence as a source of contention in Singapore society. The British colonial era law, 377(a), that deemed sex between men illegal, was struck down near the end of 2022. However, the government simultaneously put in place safeguards around the definition of marriage and family, and announced that there were not to be further changes to existing discriminatory regulations in sectors like the media and education. Queer people continue to be sidelined, and queer families are not legally recognised as a unit. Only the birthing parent is considered connected to the child, and is categorised as a single parent, which affects housing opportunities and parental benefits.