A few of my favourite things (2020)
Songs
Small FRY's show Mooncake, which features music from Asian and Asian diaspora artists, introduced me to several favourites, including Jaguar Jonze's cover of 'Toxic', Jasmine Sokko - 'I Like It', Sumie - 'Upp Ur Mörkret', and Violette Wautier - 'Smoke'. You can listen on Triple R 102.7FM Wednesday midnight to 2am and catch up on episodes here. I especially love the playlists for 31 December 2020 and 5 November 2020. Thanks Small FRY!!!
Other favourites: Lucy Sugerman - 'i wanna kiss boys cos i'm bored', Friday Night Plans' cover of 'Plastic Love', 박진영 (J.Y. Park) - 'When We Disco (Duet with 선미)', and San Mei - 'Cherry Days' and cover of 'Ribs' (I regret not seeing San Mei live in late 2019).
Finally, it is little wonder the song I listened to most on Spotify was Katherine Ho's cover of 'Yellow'. I played it on repeat as I wrote Echoes and learnt the lyrics.
Books
A couple of years ago, I made small talk with a stranger who wanted to create an algorithm to match people with books. I remember feeling annoyed... then again, was I being a snob? Not everyone has the time (!!) to trawl social media to curate a personalised reading list.
Twitter has no doubt expanded my exposure and access to Asian diaspora writers (particularly Asian-American writers) and translated works, for which I am very grateful. Four of the seven books below, for example, are not available in Australian bookshops.
- Magnolia, 木蘭 by Nina Mingya Powles
- Some Are Always Hungry by Jihyun Yun
- The Magical Language of Others by E. J. Koh (a brilliant memoir on mother-daughter relationships, translation, intergenerational trauma, grief, forgiveness and poetry)
- The Coconut Children by Vivian Pham (my review here)
- Blueberries by Ellena Savage
- Smart Ovens for Lonely People by Elizabeth Tan (funny, witty, tender, thought-provoking, evocative and quietly disturbing). Here is an exquisite review by Leah Jing McIntosh and a taste of the tales within: 1 | 2 | 3.
- Unexpected Vanilla by Lee Hyemi (trans. Soje). I hope to dedicate a blog post to this delightful collection but in the meantime, a taste: 1 | 2 | 3.
I love the parallels between @JihyunYunPoetry's (AKA @JihyunYun2nd) 'All Female' and @ElzbthT's 'Our Sleeping Lungs Opened to the Cold' 💙💙 https://t.co/QIPtdn11Oc pic.twitter.com/6KyhLfPxZZ
— Shu-Ling Chua 蔡淑羚 (@hellopollyanna) September 26, 2020
if the fires we tend end up taking us all / who will write our eulogy?
— Shu-Ling Chua 蔡淑羚 (@hellopollyanna) October 17, 2020
SOME ARE ALWAYS HUNGRY by @JihyunYunPoetry is incandescent ✨💫 Highly, highly recommend seeking out a copy or poems online. Thank you @JihyunYun2nd xx pic.twitter.com/5PNNQ5Njd5
.@JihyunYun2nd's recipe poems are brilliant!!! These are from her collection Some Are Always Hungry 💚💚 @JihyunYunPoetry pic.twitter.com/kEaK44HJGo
— Shu-Ling Chua 蔡淑羚 (@hellopollyanna) December 15, 2020
A handful of pieces that stuck with me in 2020:
'How Does a Journey Start?' by H.Mur and Xen Nhà and 'heaven towards what' by Darlene Silva Soberano (part of the FCAC Writes series commissioned by Bigoa Chuol)
'dream (10 hours) but it's raining inside' by Jennifer Nguyen
'soak, reprise' and 'Is it a dream or is it a poem?' by Zhi Yi Cham
'Self-Portrait of a Yellow Woman' by Donnalyn Xu
'SEAWEED SOUP (MIYUK GOOK 미역국)' by Maria T. Allocco
'Yellow in the Blue' by Rachel Ang
'diurnanalysis' by Aïsha Trambas
