In Rice Bowl (1984), Suchen Christine Lim' first novel, the writer dramatizes the tension between the Mandarin-educated Chinese and the English-educated Chinese. This tension is linked to the underlying theme in the novel — national identity. Unlike Lee Kok Liang and Maniam, the writer moves away from the strategy of vernacular transcriptions to the strategies of code-switching and code-mixing to represent the tension among the Chinese in Singapore.

The English-educated Marie, who enters the religious order of the convent and turns into an activist after she becomes an undergraduate, is the protagonist. Though the narrative is about Marie, the writer uses Mak, a sociology lecturer, to act as her foil because he represents the Mandarin-educated. Through an interior monologue, the reader hears Mak' vision of himself:

In the above passage, the direct authorial voice does not end where the character' language begins. In fact, considerable sections of the novel are presented in either Marie' voice or Mak'. These voices are not set off from the authorial speech in any formally compositional or syntactical way. That is, there is no demarcation between the character' language and the direct authorial voice. The writer uses the technique of free indirect style, where the narrator' voice merges with the voice of Mak to portray the egoistical core of Mak' thoughts which parodies Marie' egoistical nature. It is through Marie' thoughts as she walks with Yean, one of the pupils from her select group, that this trait surfaces.

This interior monologue reveals Marie' egoistical tendencies. Here she is very similar to Mak, as both of them believe in their power to attract and influence people around them. As Mak' behaviour becomes ironical in the light of his egoistical tendencies, Marie' egoistical nature is also foregrounded.