-
Asian Australian Studies Research Network (AASRN): Perth Symposium
I had the privilege of presenting Maybe it’s Wanchai? to a group of academics at the “Where’s your Asia?” symposium organised by Nadia Rhook and Denise Woods, the co-conveners of AASRN Perth. The person in the centre image is Denise who shared with us her research on the representations of Asia and Australia in Overwatch, a multiplayer video game. (My son says it a really really popular MMORPG that everyone talks about so I sense that he will be asking Santa for a PS upgrade this Christmas). AASRN was set up by Tseen Khoo over a decade ago and I joined after meeting Tseen through our anonymous blogs — I miss the days of…
-
Maybe it’s Wanchai – AASRN
I’ve finalised my presentation for tomorrow’s symposium. I’m really excited about tomorrow and grateful that my proposal was accepted even though I’m no longer tethered to a university. I had a moment last week where I thought perhaps I should make Maybe It’s Wanchai? a PhD project but I’m too far along with the project. So the plan is to just write and hope that my partner does not lose his hours at work. I don’t have a mentor for this project so I will be relying on various friends. Don’t worry friends, I will not make you read entire chapters but I might ask you to read and give me feedback on…
-
Deborah Cass Prize Shortlist
“Hate is not only a political strategy, it is a failure of imagination, a lack of empathy. We can’t legislate for imagination, we can only do what people have always done: tell new stories, build better worlds in the theatre of the mind.” — Dan Cass I am on the shortlist for the 2018 Deborah Cass award. Deborah was an academic at the London School of Economics who decided to focus on creative writing after a cancer diagnosis. She had two short stories published before she passed away in 2013 at the age of 53. Her family and friends set up the Deborah Cass Prize for early career writers from a…
