I vaguely recalled an
interview (but I had forgotten if it was two or three years ago)
when I got an email from one Jimin Lai, a freelance photographer,
assigned to take photographs of me and Silverfish Books for an
article written by Richard Covington about the arts scene in
Malaysia for the Saudi Aramco World magazine. That was six months
ago.I was used to the usual Malaysian press style photographs, the posing-posing type, with the forced smile and pointy finger. (Ever wondered why pictures in local newspaper always have dignitaries pointing stupidly at something or other? Apparently, that’s the editors’ way of being creative! Duh.)
Jimin Lai was quite different. He didn’t even want me to smile. The magazine had sent him the article and he was required to interpret it. I was fascinated when he told me what he was going to do. He made me stand at three different spots (no posing) and stitched the three photos together for a panoramic view of Silverfish Books here.
The story titled New Art Mix featured several Malaysians associated with the arts, including the Islamic Arts Museum, Nurul Izzah, Malaysian National Arts Gallery, the Matahari gallery, film producer Zarul Albakri, composer Johan Othman of USM, Valentine Willie, Joe Sidek, and the city of George Town.
Read the full article here.
Editor Shannon Young is
seeking contributions from expatriate women in East Asia for a new
anthology from Signal 8 Press in Hong Kong. This collection will
feature the writing of women who are currently expatriates or who
previously lived in an East Asian country. For the purposes of this
anthology, we construe East Asia to include Korea, China, Japan,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and the ASEAN countries. All submissions
should be creative non-fiction and/or travel memoir pieces that
speak to the expat experience in modern East Asia. Potential topics
include travel, work, relationships, gender roles, safety, family,
and repatriation. We are looking for stories with a strong and
personal narrative arc, not just travel guides or descriptions of
the places you’ve lived. We hope to make this anthology as inclusive
as possible, as well, and we welcome submissions from women from
different parts of the world.
