Thursday 11 May 2017
Just quickly...
Click here for my review of Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan in Asian Review of Books.
Tuesday 9 May 2017
Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival 2017
The Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival starts in London today, and continues until Friday, May 26. This is the only UK-based literary festival dedicated to discussing writing about Asia. It takes a pan-Asian approach including books from Turkey in the West, to the Philippines in the East.
Writer, journalist and translator Hande Eagle is the Literature Programme Manager at Asia House. She is responsible for organising the Festival. Hande is a Turkish national, who has been a long-term resident of the UK. She only started her job in January, when “half of the Festival had already been organised and I had to absorb everything in the blink of an eye.” She here answers questions about the upcoming Festival.
How did you become involved in the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival?
After graduating from a UK university, the University of Leicester, with a BA in Sociology, I worked in HR at a multi-national medical company. After some time, I realised that this really wasn’t the career path I wanted to go down. So, I moved back to Istanbul in 2008 and started soul-searching. I had started writing at a young age and I wanted to write. I was interested in literature and art and as part of that, having lived in the UK as a Turkish national for over ten years, I was also interested in translation. So, by taking small steps, I entered the world of publishing. At first I worked as an Assistant Editor at a prestigious art magazine, and later decided to become self-employed and direct my own translation and editorial business. Towards the end of 2009 I was invited to write for the arts and culture pages of Cumhuriyet, a Turkish national daily established in 1924. This was something I had dreamt of since I was a little girl because I am from a progressive family who very much admired Cumhuriyet’s stance towards social life, culture and politics in the 1980s and 1990s. I wrote for Cumhuriyet for five years. Meanwhile, in 2012 I moved back to the UK and continued to work with numerous publishing houses, private art institutions, magazines and newspapers in Turkey and in the UK. Over time, I felt that I needed something more. I wanted to be involved in events organisation and in working on different ideas with a team, to add a new aspect to my career and also be more engaged with people. I had known about Asia House for a couple of years when I applied for the position of Literature Programme Manager at the end of 2016. I was both excited and intrigued by the idea of managing the only pan-Asian literature festival in the UK.
Friday 5 May 2017
Q & A: Michael Breen
A long-term resident of Seoul, Michael Breen is a British journalist who first went to Korea as a freelance reporter, contributing to a range of international publications. His wife is Korean, and he speaks the language, although he engages the help of translators and interpreters when necessary. He has just published The New Koreans: The Business, History And People Of South Korea. The book began as an update to an earlier one, The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies. This was written in the late 1990s, and Michael found so much had changed that his intended update turned into a new book.
Who are the South Koreans, and where does their future lie? The New Koreans explores the nature and the values of the Korean people against the background of a detailed examination of the complex history of the Korean Peninsula, in particular its division, and South Korea’s emergence as an economic power.
Given this is your second book on the subject, are you worried tracking the contemporary history of South Korea will come to dominate your writing life?
I’m not done with Korea, but I’m done with this topic of the general study of it. A quick update to the new book would be manageable, but a major strategic shift on the part of the Koreans – like, say, re-unification – would need another whole new book and I’m not sure I’m up for that.
Wednesday 3 May 2017
500 words from J.W. Henley
500 Words From is a series of
guest posts from writers, in which they talk about their latest books. J.W. Henley has just brought out his second novel Bu San Bu Si: A Taiwan Punk Tale, which throws readers headlong into
the grimy underworld of Taipei’s outcasts, revealing a side of Taiwan few
outsiders ever see.
Bu San Bu Si (not three not four)
is a Taiwanese idiom used to describe punks, lowlifes, and losers – people who
don't fit in. Henley’s protagonist, Xiao
Hei, is bu san bu si. Talented and self-destructive, young and reckless,
Xiao Hei is the guitar player for Taipei punk band Resistant Strain. He takes
punk as a lifestyle. Live Fast. Die Young. Get Drunk. Stay Broke. And yet, at
the back of his mind he feels a gnawing lust for fame; a longing for the big
time. He seizes his chance, even though it is offered
by former mob boss Jackie Tsai, a key player in the Taipei criminal underworld. Once Xiao Hei is bound to Jackie, everything is on the line.
His family. His girl. His band. Even life itself. How much is he willing to
sacrifice for fame? How much is he willing to give, and who is he willing to
give up?
Journalist
J.W. Henley has lived in Taipei for over ten years, documenting the underground
music scene, and playing in Taiwanese punk and metal bands. Bu San Bu
Si is his second novel, following up on the success of his first, Sons of the Republic.
So, over
to J.W. Henley…
Tuesday 2 May 2017
On a Chinese Screen / guest post by My Maugham Collection
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was a prolific
British playwright, novelist and short story writer, who, in his day, was among
the most popular writers in the English-speaking world. He was most productive
during the first half of the last century, and was said to be the highest-paid
author in London during the 1930s. He travelled extensively in Asia, and
wrote about his experiences in books such as On a Chinese Screen, and The
Gentleman in the Parlour, an account of his travels in Burma and
Vietnam. He wrote a series of short
stories set in colonial Singapore and Malaya.
My Maugham Collection is a blog focussing specifically on the blogger’s collection of first editions of
Maugham’s books, and, more generally, on all things Maugham-related. Here, the blogger discusses On a Chinese Screen. The book is mostly composed
of a collection of quick sketches of Westerners who are out of their depth in
China. It casts a sharp
eye over, amongst others, colonial administrators, missionaries, businessmen, and overbearing
women.
So, over to My Maugham Collection...
So, over to My Maugham Collection...
Friday 28 April 2017
Aquatic culture in Việt Nam / guest post by Ben Kiernan
Newly-published Việt
Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present, by Ben Kiernan explores the history of the
different peoples who have lived in the three major regions of Viet Nam over
the past 3,000 years. It brings to life their relationships with these regions'
landscapes, water resources, and climatic conditions. It addresses head-on the
dramatic impact of changing weather patterns from ancient to medieval and
modern times. The central importance of riverine and maritime communications
and systems to life in Việt Nam is a key theme.
Ben Kiernan is the A. Whitney
Griswold Professor of History at Yale University. He founded the University's Cambodian
Genocide Program, which later became the Genocide Studies Program, and has served as Chair of
Yale’s Council on Southeast Asia Studies. He has written extensively on South
East Asia, on genocide worldwide, and on genocide in Cambodia.
Here he discusses Việt Nam as an
aquatic culture.
Thursday 27 April 2017
Lion City lit listing: Art Book Fair at Gillman Barracks
Asian
Books Blog is based in Singapore – the Lion City. Lucía Damacela keeps an eye on
local listings.
What: An annual event, the Singapore Art Book Fair (SABF) showcases contemporary art books & magazines.
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