Quietly busy
or is it busily quiet?
If I close my eyes, today’s muggy heat could very easily be a cool day in Malaysia. I want to say that London’s summers are changing… but the truth is, I don’t really remember how they were.
I’ve missed you… I hope the first half of the year was awesome for you! I wasn’t hiding away on purpose, just been quietly busy. The biggest news is that I recently passed my PhD viva with minor corrections (yay!). It was such a brilliant experience! I will share more details in a separate post later, so do let me know if there’s anything you’d like me touch upon, anything you’re curious about the whole PhD process or my research.
For this post, though, I have to tell you about the 82nd Worldcon—Glasgow 2024! Though I won’t be there in person, I will be attending online and have quite a busy schedule! If you are attending (online or in-person), do say hi!
Thursday 8th August
2.30pm: Magic as Art vs Magic as Science (Online)
Friday 9th August
2.30pm: Table Talk with me!
Saturday 10th August
4.00pm: Hopepunk: Dystopia or Utopia?
7.00pm: Decolonising Games
Sunday 11th August
10.00am: Unpacking Chinese Female SF
4.00pm: Climate Fiction: Despair or Hope? (Online)
You’ll want to bookmark the full programme, which is also searchable.
Very excitingly, the incredible fanzine, Journey Planet is on the ballot again this year for the Hugo Awards. It is the home to the most diverse collection of science fiction discussions and engagement I’ve ever come across, and I’m very lucky to have been a small part of it, working on the two ‘Chinese Science Fiction and Space’ issues (see image above). Massive thanks to Arthur Liu for the print copies, and for bringing a copy all the way to London en route to Glasgow! Though it feels like such a long time ago now, I am forever grateful to Regina Wang, Arthur Liu, James Bacon, and Chris Garcia for having me on board.
By the way, I’ll be heading to Sheffield to watch Ancestral Futures - Street Procession & Performance by Eelyn Lee & Collaborators, which I am really looking forward to. Eelyn’s work resonates with Sino-diasporic and mixed-ethnicity experiences, speaking directly and powerfully to the questions of heritage, identity, and growth. Let me know if you’ll be there too… and what you’re up to this summer. I’ll be writing more soon!
