Rewriting The Strange And The Unfamiliar

On this episode we welcome special first-time guest Minh Bui Jones, alongside ABOC regular Eddin in exploring the cultural-literary landscape of Southeast Asia. Kam examines the exoticised notions non-Asians hold towards the region's peoples and their ways of life. Minh Bui then talks about the Mekong Review, a literary journal he founded in 2015 focused on Southeast Asia, and it being a promising sign of the revival of the print medium. Eddin sheds light on rich gems in Southeast Asian writing, such as 'The Woman Who Had Two Navels' by Nick Joaquin, and how the diasporic and colonial nature of the region's pasts underlines the varied languages and narratives produced by its writers.