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On this episode of Chasing Leviathan, PJ and Dr. Joshua R. Brown discuss his book 'Aquinas and the Early Chinese Masters,' exploring the intersection of Chinese philosophy and Catholic theology. Brown shares his personal journey from Southern Baptist to Catholic theologian, and his influence by his Malaysian-Chinese wife. Their discussion delves into the philosophical dialogue between Thomism and Confucianism, and they discuss how these traditions are similar. The dialogue emphasizes the importance of understanding virtue in a broader context and encourages listeners to reflect on their own moral journeys. Make sure to check out Dr. Brown's book: Aquinas and the Early Chinese Masters: Chinese Philosophy and Catholic Theology
音樂人訪問 Artist Interview : Tze 柳慈【OneNightTalk x Jade Music Festival 嘉賓訪問】 主持:Novelle / Boey 溫哥華盛事 Jade Music Festival 即將在11月6日至11月9日舉行,我們榮幸能訪問參與演出的表演單位。先了解他們的音樂故事,再入場聽他們的音樂作品,必定是雙重享受。 購票查詢 Jade Music Festival : https://jmfa.ca/ 主持:Novelle / Boey 訪問嘉賓:Tze 柳慈 Tze (‘Zee') is a Malaysian Chinese soprano who loves stories, making music with people, and that feeling of dancing to a sweeping orchestra in your bedroom. A genre-bending singer with classical roots, she grew up inspired by Studio Ghibli, classical crossover hits, pop, anime, musical theatre; and in her college years, lo-fi, video game music, jazz and opera. She draws from all these worlds to write songs that are romantic, nostalgic and candid — exploring love, growth, and her identity as an Asian woman finding her wings in North America. From one broken heart to another: she hopes to be that S-tier songstress on your team, both a warrior and a healer. 柳慈(Tze,發音為「Zee」)是一位來自馬來西亞的華裔女高音歌手,熱愛故事,喜歡與人共同創作音樂,並沉浸於在臥室裡隨著宏大的交響樂起舞的感覺。 作為一位以古典音樂為根基的跨界歌手,她的成長受到吉卜力動畫、古典跨界音樂、流行音樂、動漫、音樂劇等的啟發;在大學時期,她又迷上了低保真音樂(lo-fi)、遊戲音樂、爵士和歌劇。她從這些不同的音樂世界汲取靈感,創作出浪漫、懷舊且真摯的歌曲——探索愛情、成長,以及作為一名在北美尋找自我定位的亞洲女性的身份認同。從一顆破碎的心到另一顆:她希望能成為你隊伍中的S級歌姬,既是戰士,也是治癒者. https://fanlink.tv/tze-cafebeausoir https://instagram.com/tze.musica http://www.tzemusica.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@tze.musica https://open.spotify.com/artist/0njO1GrhAzOllnZNV8pbfN https://www.facebook.com/tze.musica
Presenter and podcaster Linda Marigliano introduces you to her Malaysian-Chinese grandparents and her Italian grandmother in this episode of Grand Gestures. Hear about the core values that tie both sides of the family together.
In the wake of the Sungai Bakap by-elections, former Penang deputy chief minister and Urimai chairman, P Ramasamy wrote in a Free Malaysia Today article that the level of support among Malaysian Chinese for the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the ruling government in general has fallen. Discussing this issue with us today is James Chin, Professor of Asian Studies, the University of Tasmania.Image Credit: shutterstock.com
Cassandra Mok grew up in Australia. She was the daughter of Malaysian parents and Chinese grandparents. She will tell you that her childhood was a bit of a challenge working through the values and norms of her parents that often were quite a bit different from the Australian life and people around her. All her experiences gave her a keen interest in the blending of cultures which also led to her traveling to various countries. Our conversation covers topics like how to mix cultures in a positive way. We also discuss a lot of topics about how people can learn to be better leaders through what clearly is utilizing teamwork and trust to create better working environments within organizations. Cassandra is an executive coach with a broad world view that helps her interact with people who come to her from many different perspectives and attitudes. Clearly, she has developed a mindset that is unstoppable which she attempts to instill in those with whom she works. About the Guest: Cassandra Mok is a human; although as a child, she was often asked what the weather was like on her planet. Born in Australia, she comes from a heritage of migration as her parents were born in Malaysia to her Chinese grandparents. As such, she grew up in a blend of cultures, negotiating between different norms and social expectations. This made her highly aware of how essential intercultural communication and understanding are to building effective relationships. As an adult, she followed her dream to experience other societies and ways of life. Through her studies and career, she has lived in Cambodia, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nepal, Singapore, and Vanuatu. Her professional experience has mostly been in international development - on poverty alleviation and social & behavioural change programs as well as organisational change management. However more recently she has been working with startups, seeking to create social impact through entrepreneurship and innovation. Cassandra is a complete nerd and loves exploring the intricacies about many aspects of society, cultural evolution, group dynamics, human behaviour, science and technology. Her research focus for her Masters was about how international legal frameworks affect agrobiodiversity. While studying her Bachelors of Communications in Social Inquiry and in International Studies (Mexico), she did research on why young Mexicans weren't using contraceptives. Additionally, Cassandra has a Postgraduate Certificate in Organisational Coaching and Leadership and is certified Executive Coach - helping managers effectively implement change initiatives and to become inspiring leaders. Cassandra is passionate about collaborating with others on “wicked” problems through harnessing the power of their people and systems effectively to create positive social change. She loves meeting people working on interesting things to figure out complex challenges so feel free to reach out. Ways to connect with Cassandra: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cassandramok About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet today we get unexpected, I guarantee you. Today we get to interview a lady who, in the bio that she sent me started it by saying that she was human. Although people often asked her what the weather was like on her planet when she was a child. I don't know what to say about that. But you know, if if she's from another planet, we'll find out about it and see what language she speaks to us. But I would like you all to meet Cassandra Mok who lives well around the world. She started in Australia today. She's in Singapore. She's lived in a variety of countries, and really has a great appreciation. And she will tell us for international cultures, and finding ways to get people in cultures to communicate and interact with each other. And with that introduction to Cassandra, thank you and welcome to unstoppable mindset. Cassandra Mok ** 02:24 I'm really excited to be here. Michael Hingson ** 02:26 Well, we're glad you're here. So let's get to this business about what was the weather like on your planet? Tell us about Cassandra as a child and growing up and some of that a little bit? Yeah, Cassandra Mok ** 02:37 ah, so I was born in Australia. For those people who are watching, I don't have what is quintessentially an Australian face. Often it's perceived that you know, you have these blonde beach people is the typical Australian stereotype. My parents are actually from Malaysia, but my grandparents are originally from China or Singapore. So I grew up in this hodgepodge of different values and expectations about what was normal, what was behavior, what was being good, all of these sorts of things. And it's, it's a mix, it's not just the Australian, it's also the Chinese, but that different kinds of Chinese because Malaysian Chinese isn't the same as mainland Chinese. Right? Yeah. So that's, that's a little bit about me. I think that that's probably one of the reasons why I was always sort of thought of as naughty by my parents and weird by people at school. You know, things that I did were different. We lived in a lot of places in rural Australia, where we were often the only Asian family in town. So, you know, there is no, you know, frame of reference for people to sort of, sort of be like, oh, there's something different, you know, there's glow people don't all do the same things. Yeah. Michael Hingson ** 04:18 So what did you do? That was naughty? Ah, Cassandra Mok ** 04:22 okay. So Australians have very independent minded and we swear a lot doing, trying to make sure that I didn't swear a lot in this podcast. And, you know, tend to be a little bit troublemaker. There's a little bit of a rebellious culture in Australia. And the typical Asian parenting style, especially back then, was very, you know, you should listen to your parents. You should be obedient. You should do what you're told. You should follow the rules. And again, the rules are different. Ah, so you know, then you have to follow these unspoken rules about how to behave, and you don't have other people to comedies. So when people grow up in a culture that makes matches with their parents expectations, you learn some of those rules by watching other people. Whereas when you're living in an environment where the behavior of people is very different from what your parents expect, and you are following the things that you're learning at school, or watching others, or the other kids and how they behave and interact, then your parents think you are naughty. So I was very independent minded, very independent minded as a kid. Michael Hingson ** 05:44 So there was a little bit of a culture clash there and your parents had a little bit of a difficult time, sort of reconciling you and and behavior from school, and just what kids would do in Australia, as opposed to what they would expect you to do. Cassandra Mok ** 06:04 Oh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think when my dad went to university in Australia, so he's much more Australian eyes and likes a lot of the Australian things, but there's also a difference between being something and, you know, expectations people have in their head, you know, so talking back is definitely not seen as something you do, particularly back then and in Asian culture. Whereas, yeah, I had a very sharp tongue. So yeah, it did, it did definitely cause some some tension in my parents when I was growing up. But luckily, for me, I think my parents would become more Australian, but I think they also recognize that, you know, that sort of independence and that independent thinking, has sort of helped me as an adult, whereas as a kid, I was probably very difficult. But as an adult, makes me much more resilient and much more problem solving. Michael Hingson ** 07:01 It sounds like they did learn to cope with it some Cassandra Mok ** 07:07 told me to just cope, I think it's also appreciate, you know, coping is sort of like tolerance, you put up with something that I really like, and don't get me wrong, you know, I think that yeah, but there's, you know, that exactly, the appreciation is very much like, oh, okay, this thing that I used to think was bad, I now understand the flavor of flavors of it. I understand how it's beneficial. I understand how useful it is. So I think my parents, so become more appreciative of some of the, the skills and perspectives as I've gotten older. Well, Michael Hingson ** 07:47 so. Did you go to college in Australia? Or, or did you do college? Or what did you do? Yeah, Cassandra Mok ** 07:53 so after high school, I went to university. That's what we call them in Australia. And I did most of my university in Australia. But I also went to Mexico, because I just wanted to live somewhere completely different. I think one of my motivations to also choose Mexico was that prominent Australian perspective. For example, in the mass global media, Australia is seen as kangaroos, and deserts and beaches. And while that is somewhat true, it's not true for every Australian, it's not true for every Australian environment. Not all of us have kangaroos in our front yard, some of us do. And so for me, I was really fascinated by Mexico, which began in Australian media was very much portrayed through probably a North American lens English speaking North American lens, which was desert kept us as big hats siestas. And there was something fundamentally that I didn't feel oh, that's, that's probably not true. So what is it like in Mexico? And what do Mexicans actually think? And what is the Mexican way of life that isn't a almost a parody of very specific visual elements. So I wanted to experience that. So I spent a year and a half in Mexico. Michael Hingson ** 09:16 So when did when did you do that? What level of college were you at when you did that? Cassandra Mok ** 09:22 So I did international studies as part of my degree. So in Australia, we have these things called double degrees, where you do two degrees at the same time. And so that was my international studies component. So it was the last few years of my degree. Michael Hingson ** 09:38 Was that a bachelor's or a master's? Or did you go into it? Upper or advanced graduate work? Cassandra Mok ** 09:46 Yeah, so that was in my undergraduate but I ended up doing a marketer's later on. And yeah. Further, further academic studies later on. Michael Hingson ** 09:55 Did you do that in Australia or somewhere else? In Cassandra Mok ** 09:58 Australia In Australia I had this grand idea to do it somewhere else. But at the time, I had moved back to Australia and and was getting my master's. So spent time doing that. Eat my graduate certificate. I did it during COVID. So, technically, I was sitting in Cambodia, but it was from an Australian institution. So when people say did you study in Australia? I tend to say yes, even though I never set foot on campus in Australia. Yeah, but it was from an Australian institution. So Michael Hingson ** 10:35 well, you lived, you've lived in a number of countries now you haven't been to the US, or have you been here at all? Cassandra Mok ** 10:41 I visited. I have a few friends. Some who were from the US Originally, the others who have migrated. So I've been to the US I've been to I was in Texas one year for the Fourth of July. That was a Michael Hingson ** 10:59 that's an interesting time to be there. And interesting. Cassandra Mok ** 11:03 The supermarket was fascinating. I've spent some time in sort of the New England area. California, I think I've been to Colorado. It was a while ago. Don't quiz me about things that I remember. I mean, there was there was an interesting culture shocks, even small things, I would say, Okay, I'll give you a really silly story is that when I was young, sometimes we would get these fridge magnets and you get fridge magnets and all sorts of food. And to me, it was always really peculiar because the cheese magnet would always be very orange, and the egg magnet, the yolk would be very yellow. And as a kid, I was very confused. Because in Australia, it's the other way around. Our egg yolks are very orange. And our cheese is quite light in color. And my brain really what what, like, clearly they can do the colors. Why had they made this up? In the USA? I was like, Oh, your cheese is orange. And your eggs are a much lighter yellow color. And so it was little things like that that just a bit like oh, that's, that's different. Yeah. Michael Hingson ** 12:16 Well, so you. You mentioned the supermarket was out on the Fourth of July. Cassandra Mok ** 12:23 Around there, I think I've been to a few supermarkets because I've traveled with friends or hung out with friends in their supermarket. So yeah, different different foods, different products. I think, one, one of the times I went I think I went to one of the really big supermarkets and was just astounded by how many things that were. And specific things. I think I had never seen bread that hadn't been cut the crust cut off already, before I went to the US. And I was like this is the thing. Michael Hingson ** 12:55 When we lived in when we lived in New Jersey, and we lived there for six years, one of the things that amazed us as opposed to California and was this in California, there's an aisle that has bread and other baked goods and so on. In the markets that we generally frequented in New Jersey, they had a whole aisle of nothing but different kinds of bread, different shapes, and just all sorts of different breads. It was amazing. We never experienced that kind of thing before. And then on top of everything else. When big holidays came like Thanksgiving, for example. It was amazing how many people waited to the last second to go and shop. We went down one day on the day before Thanksgiving. And the lines were incredible. We never saw lines like that out here. And we thought the same every year, people just waited till the last minute, or they decided they need more who knows. But it was incredible. But everyone got along, which was also the other part about it. Oh, planning? Cassandra Mok ** 14:07 Do you think it was planning or panic buying? No. It's much smaller. Michael Hingson ** 14:13 I don't know. I don't know that it was either of those. I think it's just the way they did it. And, and people maybe they waited at see who I was going to come for Thanksgiving or whatever. But they, it all worked out. And everyone got along, which was really great. There weren't a lot of the kinds of things that we we hear about where people don't always get along today in markets and so on. But back when we were there, which was 1996 to the beginning of 2002 people got along really well in the markets and everyone understood it. So it was okay. But we enjoyed Cassandra Mok ** 14:52 it. I think that there's this concept of scarcity, right? That you know if If If markets or people were planned for it, there was enough things to go around, it normally isn't a bit of a problem. But I think that these days, there's also the perception of scarcity. Because we're so used to having everything whenever we want, especially in developed countries, that when we don't get something we want. And also, we have this added factor where instant gratification is so quickly resolve you, you order it online, and it shows up in half an hour, that people don't tolerate unpleasant emotions, or don't tolerate the immediacy of getting what they want, as well. Whereas before, especially before globalization became very strong. You only got certain foods and certain times and once it was done, it was done. And you didn't always get it. And so that ability to kind of be like, Oh, we didn't get it. So okay. You know, we just didn't get it, I think is much different from now. This expectation, or, yeah, this, I guess it's an expectation really, that, you know, when I want it, I can get it. And I can get it now. And we marketed that way too. Right? Yeah. Constantly to control. Michael Hingson ** 16:13 And if something happens, so you can't get it right now, then people get very testy nowadays. Cassandra Mok ** 16:20 Yeah, yeah, we somehow might not be so good at managing feelings anymore. Especially negative feelings, right? Being able to sit with discomfort being able to sit with, again, a lot of times, it might not necessarily be pain, it might not be, but it's just not pleasant. And we want to get rid of that unpleasant feeling as quickly as possible. And how will we do it, we will lash out, we will buy something we will, you know, who knows? Do all sorts of things. Michael Hingson ** 16:56 Do you find that that kind of behavior exists all over or just in some places? Cassandra Mok ** 17:03 I think I think it's becoming more common across the globe, where there is shorter attention spans on media and the ability to get what we want when we want it. I think that there are still a lot of places in the world. That that is not necessarily true. I before. A few years ago, I was living in Cambodia. And there was the expectation that if you saw something in the supermarket that you liked, you should buy it. Because there was no guarantee that in two weeks, it would be there again, and they don't have it so much. You know, I think there was a lot more when you go to market seasonal fruit, a lot less importation from different ends of the planet. So you knew what was in season, because all of a sudden there would be a whole lot of sellers selling that one product. So I think that people who are living closer to the land, I guess, is one way of putting it as some people would put on the table that they're buying things and then we'll look from that and a source from them or more local area are probably a bit more accustomed to not having certain things and they're aware of not having certain things in it. That's just the way it is. Whereas a little bit more patience. Yeah, right, or it's just not that time of the year. Whereas I think that for people who are ordering from very large supermarkets who constantly have a supply of everything, you can get strawberries in the dead of winter, you know, and so it's like, well, why can't I have my store because I really want my strawberries, something like that, Michael Hingson ** 18:50 even though the quality might not be nearly as good, which is, you know, the other issue. So yeah, you can get your strawberries anytime of the year, but gee, getting them in the summer and the when the harvest actually occurs, they also tend to be generally a lot better. And I think that's another thing that people don't notice that as much because they're just used to getting it any anytime they want. Cassandra Mok ** 19:10 Exactly our attention spans I think are a lot shorter because of media as well. We have seen over the last few decades that advertising even on television, let's not get into social media and things like that. But even television ads are getting shorter and shorter and shorter, you know, you have 10s that come blocks, one second blocks, things like that was before as used to be a minute. I think even the shortest ones were 30 seconds. So people's attention spans. And you know, immediacy is very different. And I think that as as a species, we want to solve those itches. And we have started a system that that kind of scratches that itch to the point where we don't have to sit with Michael Hingson ** 19:56 it. So what kind of experiences have you had in your life that have sort of It affected or changed some of your limiting beliefs, your self limiting beliefs. Ah, Cassandra Mok ** 20:06 it's interesting way you get self limiting beliefs from right. So I've got a story I can share with you. When I was a kid, my parents went through a phase of trying to make their own bread. I remember as a child, sampling things, and I don't know if their bread was that bad. Or when you're a kid, you just like the soft, soft stuff. I just remember being this terrible. bread making must be so difficult. I don't think I will ever be able to make bread. And that was probably a kid. And I didn't really think about it, because I think my parents gave up on that habit and whatever. And then I had this job working in Vanuatu. So for people who don't know, Vanuatu is an island in the Pacific. And I was working on community development programs. So we were living in a community that had no electric, electricity, no running water. And we had been provided some foodstuffs, and we had to provide, we had to bring with us all the food we were going to take for the whole project, which was about three months. And because of some shipping problem, we got some of the food early, and some of the food came much later. And we didn't realize that we'd gone through 50% of our breakfast foods in about a week. And so we were in this position where we didn't have enough food. And I remember calling the office and being like, we're gonna have breakfast. And the office was really nice. And they expect these sorts of things to happen. And the two breakfast foods that we had been given. One was WeetBix, which is a kind of cereal, and the other one, which was a very, very Vanuatu product was breast breakfast crickets, but they are imported goods that are quite expensive. They're processed foods. And I was looking at the budget, and it was so expensive. Now in this community, they have what's called the NACA miles. So I guess the way you could think of it as like a community hall, when I say community hall, it's a very large area with palm leafs and totally open air and a pit by. And their practice was that every month, a different woman from the village could use that make bread and sell bread to the rest of the community so they can get some cash. And then the next month, it would be somebody else's turn. So they were making bread. With no, let's say, higher technology, it was the purest, simplest forms of bread you could get is basically flour, water, salt, yeast that was in and they were doing on our buyer. And it was much cheaper to buy a 50 kilogram bag of flour than it was to buy one box of cereal. So we decided that we were going to learn to make bread. And every day, somebody's responsibility was to make bread for the next day so that people would have enough to eat. So yeah, so then it became this thing, it's a whole, we just have to learn how to make bread and the way we did it, and we would make it and then take it down to the ladies and they would bake it for us, I never thought that that would become something that I would become so keen on. So even later on in life after I left Vanuatu, I really got into sourdough or a big salad and person for a while then I would experiment or make all these different things put seeds in a different kinds of flowers and stuff like that. But again, it was one of those things that I never really thought I would do. If you told me as a kid, you would bake and I would make bread that people would want to eat. I think I would have been confused. But sometimes being put in those positions where you kind of have your back up against the wall makes you realize how much possibility and and ability you have. So yeah, Michael Hingson ** 24:14 you strike me as a person who likes to explore likes to always learn. And, and if I'm assessing, right and what what makes you a lifetime. I'm a lifelong learner, who are what influenced you to really adopt that kind of a mindset. Cassandra Mok ** 24:30 It's one of those things that you don't necessarily think of yourself with that label. I think that's a label that people have given me throughout time and I've learned Oh, that's interesting. I had people around me, particularly my parents, and I think parents are so influential in this thing, that they were always learning something whether that was formally or informally. My dad is such a dabbler he used to have books seem to go through phases. He like test things out. And he was always very into new hobbies and trying something in learning something. My mother reads a lot. She's a systematic learner. So she's a different kind of learner. But again, she has never, ever had a point like I never ever saw a point where they weren't looking at new information, trying new things experimenting. I think one time someone had said to me, you know, of course, it was for women's leadership. And the is the facilitator and said, Oh, you know, when you're over the age of 30, you still can go to university if you want. And my brain was like, do you mean you can't go to university, my father did his masters when he was 50. So I think that that you know, who you're around, definitely influences you a lot on kind of the things that you just do. I think I spend a lot of time with people who like ideas and like talking about ideas and like researching ideas, and they're full of random facts. So that always keeps you engaged. And they're like, Oh, I didn't know that. And I don't think it was something I was like, Oh, I'm gonna be a lifelong learner. I think I just really enjoyed it. I just really enjoyed it. I get the right endorphins when I learned something new. So that helps. Yeah, just I think I just poke around stuff you're Michael Hingson ** 26:22 brought up to explore. And that's great that your parents did that. Um, I wish there were more people who had that opportunity, or who chose to or choose to take that opportunity. I think life is an adventure all the time. And we we do best when we're constantly learning something new, sometimes reassessing, but when we're learning and growing, and we need to do that. Cassandra Mok ** 26:49 Absolutely. And I think that that's a big thing of I mean, you know, if you didn't have the most adventurous parents fine, but it is who you are around. And I think you talk about this as well, your parents been quite open with you, and being quite encouraging of you to go and do things that maybe other people would have said, Oh, you know, you shouldn't do that. So yeah, I know that my parents definitely then being adventurous themselves, the fact that they moved to a different country, and were migrants. That is a big undertaking, especially before, you know, all of the stuff we have now, I don't think people realize that, you know, well, younger people, I think, cool reflects that young people don't necessarily realize that you didn't hear from people for months. You know, you didn't you got one Christmas card a year, that type of thing. And you were very much on your own country. Michael Hingson ** 27:45 Well, you've done a lot in a variety of cultures. How does all of that intercultural exposure and innovation, if you will, or effectiveness, address the issue of innovation that makes you a more innovative person? It sounds like, tell me more about that. Cassandra Mok ** 28:04 Yeah. So the first thing I'd probably say is that innovation is often mistaken for high tech stuff. Yeah. And it's not necessarily you know, your phone, why innovation is it's really about doing something new, or improving something that exists, right. And it's not products necessarily. It could be how you do something, the way something's done, could be a service, it could be an idea. Michael Hingson ** 28:33 It's also thinking, it's also thinking innovation, is also something that really begins with thinking. Cassandra Mok ** 28:39 Absolutely, absolutely. It's thinking but it's also perspective taking. So it's another layer on just thinking because if you think that your your bubble is only so big, your thoughts can only go so far, your exposure to different ideas can only go so far. Whereas when you look at how different groups and when I say different groups, I don't always mean that intercultural. intercultural relations aren't always somebody with a different ethnicity who speaks a different language who lives across the border, you can have subcultures, you can have cultures within a nation state. But different people or groups of people have different values, they have different norms. And when you are exposed to that you understand how that works, why they do the things they do, which are going to be different from what you do or what you were brought up with or what you're used to in your environment. You say, Oh, there's a different way of doing that. And when there's a different way of doing that, you can either adopt a new way of doing it, introduce it in or you can combine them together with something that you're already doing. So, from business perspective, they talk about this a lot. They talk about biomimicry, right they borrow from somewhere else. So biomimicry is for example, thinking about the movement in robots instead of thinking that They should move like humans and they could move like octopus. So it's the change of how you structure the base information and how how the world works. So for an octopus, the way they work is very different from how humans work. But let's not get too far into it, because we'll end up talking about a subject that I'm not up that much about marine Michael Hingson ** 30:21 biology. Well, that's okay. But, you know, let's, let's look at it another way. You, you have a lot of perspective, perspectives, and you have experienced in a number of cultures, and it helps you put behavior and ideas more in perspective, having a whole multicultural, kind of attitude. So clearly, you have ideas of the way things ought to be. And you know, we talked earlier about how, today in our world, we have people who want instant gratification, and there are challenges to that, and so on, how do we shift effectively and appropriately? people's behavior sort of in an in mass sort of way? Cassandra Mok ** 31:08 Hmm, that's a really interesting question. Because underlying lean groups, societies, organizations, they are made up of individuals, but the dynamics and the interactions change how that happens. So when you have individuals who are looking to change, so for example, people who are looking to get fit or to get a degree, or to exercise more, or whatever it is, you know, they they very much only have to worry about themselves and their own their own reasons for doing it that they're willing to do it. And then you know, when you add in pathways and support, so while there's some of those similar things, when you're doing an on mass, it stops being the individual's personal choice, and it becomes having a common vision. And we see this in the concept of politics. And I say politics with a small p is about getting enough people to have the same type of vision that they're willing to commit and believe in, that they are a part of whether or not they contributed to it, or, you know, somebody came up with something that they they're happy with. And then even once you've had that idea about what are we working on, or what are we trying to change, then the interactions and talking with each other, have a significant impact on how it's taken up. So somebody who was with you, or with a particular kind of change, two weeks ago, you know, they're now gone and spoken to somebody else and met a new group of people. And they've retracted that commitment or that interest. Whereas normally in individuals, that's only their own motivations. So then you also have to look into things like social proof reciprocity hierarchy. So how do all of those interactions go together? It's kind of one way to say it is, if somebody who is popular, starts saying something is important. And this is what they think about the people will tend to pit people, people who like them will tend to, to be like, Oh, this is what they said, and they have said it, so I'm safe under that. And so being able to both find the drivers, and, and the benefits, which might not be for an individual directly, you know, in a mass change, somebody might be losing something. And this is where it gets a bit challenging. So for example, if we said something like, we want to provide better educational opportunities, for at risk youth, I'm just making something that's generally coming out of taxpayers money, therefore, somebody has to be paying that tax, which means they may see that as a loss, to say, well, now I have to give up more money, I can't buy whatever it is that I wanted to buy, that I was going to do. So often, when you're talking about individuals making change, they tend to be doing things that they're trying to get something to improve their life, or they're trying to avoid something that's bad in their life. Whereas sometimes when you're looking at organizational societal change, you are talking about also trying to have to convince and get on board people who have to have less, and that's can be quite challenging. There's also you know, people often think, Oh, why can't Why can't someone so just do this? Or why can't my team just do this? Or why can't society just do this? And I think that there is often an overlooking of the environmental factors, the physical environmental factors, like how is as is your physical space created for you to do something or not do something? So I used to work from road safety. If you don't want people to cross a road in a particular place, you have to put a physical barrier there. But there's also the social, social environment. So what are the policies? What are the signs systems, what are the procedures? What's the support in place to encourage people or discourage people from certain behaviors? Michael Hingson ** 35:06 Right? Well, you know, the, the other aspect of all of this is that if you are dealing with all this, it really makes it tough to plan or do anything, because there's so many different agendas, there's so much uncertainty, how do we get beyond that, and find ways to have enough commonality to make plans and to accomplish any kind of task? Cassandra Mok ** 35:31 That's, I think, is, you know, very much linked with the title of your podcast, right? How do you be unstoppable. And a lot of historically, how we planned as individuals or societies as organizations, has been very much a fixed, sort of, we're going to do this, then we're going to do this, and we're going to do this, and we're going to do this, right, we can have a three year plan, and or, you know, this is the task list. And I think now we have to encourage teams, groups, whatever you want to call them, to, to look more at the vision and the impact that they want to have, and tell them less about how to do it. Right. So spending more time on the purpose of why we were doing what we're doing, rather than, you know, micromanaging or being very task based. And when people know, as a collective, what they're trying to achieve together and the dependencies between them, then they're able to sense within their roles within their communities within stakeholders, and make adjustments and make suggestions and say, Hey, actually, we're trying to do a than we really need to think about this other thing that's going on, and are always this constant reflection of learning and checking in and sort of being like, Hmm, how can we do this better? Does this still work? Is this right? For this context, this group this, whatever it is that I'm functioning in? So really, there's a quite a lot of decentralization of where innovation or change or decision making comes from. And we have to do it in much shorter cycles. We can't wait a whole year and say, did this, you know, was that was that okay? Did we do the right things all? You know, you did a whole year plan, because if something changed, now they're saying the speed of disruption, could be a few weeks, I think now with AI. So if you wait that long, you may have really, really miss the turning point of what was going on in the world. So yeah, I think that that's an important thing that we have to encourage people to do is to be okay, I think there's an emotional component with also being okay with the thing, the fact that things aren't going to plan, I think people sometimes get really stuck and fixated on this is how it should be. Or this is how it should work. And and that ability to sort of recognize and say, Oh, well, this is how it actually is. And how can we adapt to that? How can we leverage and springboard off that? Yeah, we spend? Michael Hingson ** 38:21 Yeah, we spend way too much time on Well, it's got to be done this way, rather than looking at what is the this we really want? And how do we get there and getting people to to do more visioning. And really analyze that. And work as a team is such a challenge. There's there's so much mistrust or distrust in the world that it makes it all that much harder to do, it seems. Cassandra Mok ** 38:52 Yeah, I think that it's there in order to take risks, I guess, and a lot of changes about what is your risk or mistake tolerance, because when you're changing, you might not get it right the first time, you might not get a right a lot of times. And so you have to have enough buffer, right. And part of that buffer might be very practical things like financial buffers, physical buffers, things like that. But there's also psychological safety and the different people have different levels of, of how much risk they can take. But yeah, you know, people are very apprehensive about things that they're not sure about, because sometimes it's what is it the Better the devil you know, like even if I'm not happy with this, or I don't like it, it's not functioning for me at least there's a familiarity and being familiar with something not having that is a loss and as humans we have a tendency to be more motivated by loss than we are gaining. So yeah, sorry, gone. Well Michael Hingson ** 39:59 in our, in our world as things progressed and so on, are we relying too much on technology to solve problems rather than being innovative rather than being more creative rather than encouraging? More visioning and thinking? Cassandra Mok ** 40:15 Okay, I think that sometimes there is this idea that technology is going to save us from all sorts of things. Technology is a tool. And it depends on how you're using it. But it also tech, what we develop as tools reflects who we are, as humans and society. So if we are focusing on tools that and technology that helps us collaborate, that helps us be more diverse in our opinions include the perspectives of more people, then technology can be an aid to that. But I think that sometimes when people think that technology is going to help us, they're sometimes not people who work in anything to do with technology. So basically, they're saying, Well, I'm just waiting for somebody else to solve the problem. Right. And I think that's a dangerous part. It's that absorption of accountability or absorption of power or influence and saying, Well, I can do my bit, you know, what is my ability to move this along? You know, and not everyone is a coder, or, you know, building, you know, what I like to call high tech stuff. But even the way of doing something that is different, isn't innovation, right? Some of the stuff I really love is what's low tech innovation, right? Putting a planter over the part of your garden, that people keep walking on, and ruining the glass is an innovation for you, right? Like it's it creates a different way of solving that problem that you weren't doing before. So I think that there's very much there's very much one the perception of what technology is and what innovation is, but also the fact that by including more ideas, being open to more ideas by listening more to people, some people listen, just to prove themselves, right, as opposed to deeply understanding Mmm hmm. Because there's also a false assumption that all logic and all rational is objective. It's not it comes very much based in how you grew up the values you have, you know, the way the world works for you. Right. And people often like to hide behind science and, and rationality when it's somewhat of a non common platform that, if I can say it like that, Michael Hingson ** 42:56 well, you talk about people and being innovative, and so on. And clearly you, I think, support the concept of team efforts on things. So you mentioned, you mentioned things like decentralized leadership, what is that? And how does that encourage innovation? I think I know the answer, but I'd love to hear you describe it. Cassandra Mok ** 43:21 Yeah. Okay, so so we have some really interesting models of leadership. And, you know, let's not turn this into an academic class. But the concept of leadership has changed over time where, you know, leadership was originally thought of management, we still see traces of this, that people say, their senior leadership team, and those people aren't exhibiting any leadership skills as a senior management team, right. Leadership is not a designation you can give someone. It's not about authority within a structure. Right? We'd hope that those people that at the senior levels are showing leadership, but it's not a given thing. Michael Hingson ** 43:58 Right? Well, it's a delegation you can give someone but it doesn't make them a leader. Exactly, Cassandra Mok ** 44:02 exactly. And then we went, what we often see in the media now is this, what's called like heroic leaders, you know, this person did this. And you know, they're, like, the most amazing person. And I that's not discrediting their vision, how hard they worked, the fact that they could put together a good team. But none of those people that we venerate in the media as these amazing leaders did it on their own. But it makes for a nice story, this person who their magical abilities made them, you know, the head of whatever. And I think so when we talk about decentralized, leading, it's a very different model of leadership that sometimes people take some time to get their head around where it's not about a person anymore. charismatic leadership is actually quite toxic. People say well, if you have leadership skills, but then you know you can use it to start a cult, like ABS salutely, right? The ability to be persuasive and charismatic, and all of that sort of stuff doesn't say whether that's good or bad, all it says is that you can get people on board, right. And whether you use that, for something that is healthy for those other people is not necessarily a given, right. So contemporary leadership is very much looking away from a person and looking more at collective actions towards something. So we all do it together. It's like, if you are planning a picnic, with your friends, there isn't somebody who's in charge of the picnic. Officially, no one gives them a title and says you're a picnic leader, people tend to say, well, we want to have a nice time together, I will do this, and somebody else will volunteer to do that. Why? Because we all want to get together and have a nice time. And so decentralized leadership is really about not putting things that there has to be authorities always, you know, giving permission or dictating. And it's more around everybody participating, sensing, communicating, they interact with each other, and they are sharing information, so that people can say, Oh, we can work towards this. And we can walk work towards that, oh, we've seen this thing that we need to Oh, like someone messaging and being like, it's going to rain. So that somebody else can say, Ah, I have a space that we can use, that's undercover, right. So it's everybody kind of pulling together in order to get the collective got. So if you lose somebody, so if someone says, oh, you know, my car broke down, or whatever, the picnic is not going to suddenly stop. Right? There will be an ability for everyone else to sort of go, Okay, we we can we can figure around that we can work that out, we can do whatever it is that needs to be done. Because together, we want to achieve something. Michael Hingson ** 46:54 Again, it gets back to the fact that what we're really talking about is teamwork. And people working together. And they're, there's so much more of that that would really benefit us all. It is, again, something that we have to deal with. And clearly you're talking about a lot of very innovative kinds of things. People always are a lot of times think about innovation, relating to business. Lots of really innovative company. Crypto was very innovative. And just recently, we've seen some real major problems with that. So one wonders about the innovation. But why is it that innovation culture be about more than business? Cassandra Mok ** 47:43 Well, I think that I think once you start looking at it, there are social needs and human needs that we have. And the things that are easy to solve are easy to solve, we are now getting to a point where our human needs are getting more complex and interactive. It's no longer about teaching somebody how to fish. Because, you know, the water is polluted, and there's no fish living there, you know, you it stops being a linear solution. So having an in, you brought this up earlier, you know, innovation, culture and mindset is really around thinking and playing around and trying new things and testing things and then seeing what works and then adjusting until it really works. And so I think that we need what much more creative. And as you said teamwork and like collaborative views on how do we solve these problems, especially the really big global problems, because it's not going to be one person, one person's not going to go out there and solve climate change. One person out there isn't going to solve often nuclear sites and one person isn't going to go and solve child trafficking, it doesn't work like that there are so many things going on, that people need to be able to work across different areas, across different cultures across different ideas and value systems in order to come up with doing the section towards that collective goal. Right? Yeah, rather than it just being like, Oh, we're going to Band Aid solution is and only treat the symptoms as really looking at root causes, and which part of that root cause and you don't have to be doing all of it, but how you connected how we connected to other people to solve some of these social, social and human needs. Michael Hingson ** 49:41 Yeah, I appreciate exactly what you're saying. And again, it is all about exploration and wanting to learn all the time. So what do you do when you're not? Well, let me let me ask a different question. First, you graduate from college, and what do you do now? Cassandra Mok ** 50:03 So these days, I work with people in organizations as a consultant. So it's this, it's, I like to call it a company meant, but other people would call it executive coaching or mentoring, or some sort of consultancy. And so basically, I work with people and organizations that want to create some kind of change now that some, some of those changes are internal. So around their teamwork, their alignment, the systems and processes, because you can have people in a in a group or an organization who wants to do something, but the policies and the frameworks of what they're given to work in are counterintuitive to how they want to work, or what would even be an effective way of working. So there's internal change, but there's also external change. So when people are trying to do some sort of social change program or behavioral change program, we're also doing a lot of strategy around that, I like to call myself the intelligent idiot. So I ask stupid questions, to make sure that a lot of the assumptions are being checked. Because often, we, especially when people tend to come from one, academic, all one sort of background, they tend to see things in one way, because that's just the way it's been. Everybody has sort of agreed and knows that that's what it is. Whereas sometimes, it's just about being like, well, is that actually true? Is that explain this to me. And as soon as sometimes people start explaining these things, they realize, oh, it's, it's Wait, when I have to explain it to somebody else who hasn't grown up with this or hasn't been taught in this line of thinking, it actually suddenly doesn't quite make sense. Michael Hingson ** 51:52 Which, which mainly also means that you have to take a step back and maybe started a little bit different level to explain it and teach it. Cassandra Mok ** 52:04 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think it's called Socratic learning is that the one that the you ask a lot of questions, and people have to think things through and explain how they came up with things, rather than just kind of doing it just because it's been done like that before. And don't get me wrong. There's a reason why we have habits. There's a reason why we have stereotypes, right? All of these things take cognitive effort, they take energy, and it's an it's a shortcut, and that's shortcuts are helpful. As long as you know, people aren't just always relying on them. And assuming that they are 100%. Correct all the time. I think that those that kind of we need to challenge, what beliefs that we hold and where did they come from? And what does that say about us? And I think it's also, sometimes people think that empathy is just, you know, like, what is it putting yourself in somebody else's shoes, which isn't quite the same thing? It's there is this understanding of understanding why somebody shoes feel the way they feel, because of how they grew up, what's around them, what resources they have, you know, their experience of life is very different. And I think that when we talk about diversity, this is this is a key thing. You know, we often like to poke at diversity by these things that are very measurable, you know, they're they're, they're kind of visible labeled differences, as opposed to even understanding that people come from all these different combinations of things, and some of them might be more similar. And some of them might be very different. But how do we get that to come out? How do we focus more on the empathy and less on dog or knowledge collection? From from having diversity? Right? Right, not everybody is going to be the same. So you know, how, how can we learn from people's experiences? And I think that, and you talk about this a lot, you know, it's attitude, if you believe that everybody has had experiences that may inform the same thing in a different way, regardless of what that experience is, you know, you're gonna have different combinations, different solutions, different ways of thinking about it, different perspectives on it. Right, right. And that's where you get opportunities for innovation, but you also get opportunities for inclusion. How long have you been a coach? Oh, I think I did my coach training in 2018. I think this was after. So just a little bit of background about me. I my first degree was actually in something called Social Inquiry. Don't worry if you don't know what that is. Nobody knows what that is, including my parents. But basically really looking at how societies work, how to groups work, how do you get social and behavioral change? What is social identity, things like that. So that's how I ended up with all this sort of cultural stuff, but also changed stuff. And then I happened to. And also I was working in the nonprofit international development sector for a long time and happened to be in a few organizations that had problems, and ended up being good at organizational change. And so that the organization's mission was still to do so for behavioral projects, and poverty alleviation, all that sort of stuff. But there was massive changes in terms of structure, policy, introductions, business models, all of that sort of stuff had to happen within the organization. And I was surprisingly good at it. I didn't ever think and didn't ever know. So that's what I encourage people to remember as well, when we talk about Don't be so fixated on how you think should things should be, because you never know what comes up. And you never know what you turn out to be good at, or interested in, or, you know, the opportunities are there. So I was doing organizational change for a few organizations. And then I was looking at saying, well, if I'm done social and behavioral, I've done organization, then I should be looking at individuals, because organizations and societies are made up of individuals. So how does that How did those things connect? Yeah. Michael Hingson ** 56:10 Which is an adventure in of itself, which is really pretty cool. So what do you do when you're not? What do you do when you're not working? Cassandra Mok ** 56:19 Ah, I'm a big traveler, funnily enough. Yeah, I like to go to other places and experience different, like, how things work. So going back to supermarkets, for example, I like walking around supermarkets, where different places put things and how they group them together, it's sometimes not what you expected. It's like, where do I find this? And they're like, we put this in these sections like, Hmm, fascinating. Yeah, I think travel is very much an easy, or a good step for people who are trying to think about diversity and innovation, and all of these sorts of things. Because when you are in a another country, now, the longer you go, and the more embedded you are, the deeper your experience will be. But you know, not everyone has that privilege to be able to do that. But when you're in a different environment, you are the odd one out, which is much clearer to accept, when then when you are in your hometown, where you've lived for I don't know how many decades, right. So when you're in a different place, there's distinct boundaries, and you are technically an outsider. So you have that ability to sort of observe and experience now some people go traveling, and they're just a tourist, they just take pictures of stuff. And whatever they they're the same regardless, as opposed to having that opportunity to observe and experience a different environment, how things work, the structures, you know, somebody was commenting, somewhere about cook turns, I don't know if you know what that turns out. It's like where you go, Okay, well see, I'm Australian. So I'm like, which way are we turning. But basically, you want to cross across the traffic, instead of so let's say if you're crossing to the left hand side, you know, like you don't hook chain, you just stay in the left lane and hang out in the middle of the road. And then when there's a gap, you go across, the hook turns as you go to the very far side of the road, and then you wait on the side of the road, and then you almost pitch yourself in front of the cross directional traffic, right? So even things like that simple stuff like that. It's like, Huh, interesting. That's how people think that's where they do that, why might they do it that way? How does that work? What are the benefits and nothing is ever perfect? Right? So it's like, well, what are the advantages of doing it this way? What are the disadvantages of doing it in a different way? And I think that helps reflect on yourself in a different place, right and challenge what you think is normal. Michael Hingson ** 58:54 In this in this country, I think they call those jug handles, at least in New Jersey, they have those kinds of things where you literally, the way you turn is like the handle of a jug, you go out and come back. 59:09 They go, why is Michael Hingson ** 59:11 it why they're not elsewhere? Or what's the value of it? Good question. But everyone, everyone has their different places. Yeah. Well, we've been doing this a while, but I have to ask you one question that came up in your bio, you said that when you were studying in Mexico, you found that a lot of young people didn't deal with contraception. Why? Okay, so this was a Cassandra Mok ** 59:34 long time ago. So I just want to caveat that for anyone who's listening, it's not like I've done this piece of research. This was a long time ago. Yeah, this is a long time ago. And I was in a situation where because I was living living in Mexico, I had Mexican housemates. And almost every single one of my Mexican friends had somebody in their life who had gotten pregnant unintentionally. And we're not talking about People who, you know, they kind of finish school when they're 13. And there's nothing else for them to do. And the virtually they become an adult by the time they're 14 because they're working in the field or something we're not talking about. We're talking about people who finish high school when this sort of thing. And I was, I was particularly interested in sex health education back then. And so I was like, oh, okay, so how you having all these people who technically have learned to at school, still getting pregnant? And so that, for me was a curiosity. So I went and talked to some doctors, I talked to some psychologists, I talked to social social scientists around what was going on. And so there are there are certain things that came up. One was machismo, so if you if you don't know what that is, that's basically it's a very male dominated decision making a thing and so, particularly at that time, you know, if you're a woman, and you wanted to have sex, you couldn't say that you wanted to have sex, you had to pretend you didn't want to have sex. And then, you know, asserting yourself so even the example that was given to me was, even if you know, a woman and a man, they want to go on a date, the woman would basically sit by the phone and wait for the guy to call, you don't call the guy. And so you're very much looking at a disparity and being able to negotiate. So if the guy says, I don't want to use a condom, then, you know, it's quite hard to sort of say, well, I think you should get one. Got it. But then you've also got, you know, like, a Catholic country that doesn't believe in contraception. So it's very difficult to get contraceptives, so some places they could get contraceptives, but some times it was very embarrassing, and especially as a woman, you know, to go and say, oh, I need to get a contraceptive. It's there's a social pressure and an embarrassment. And you don't know if somebody's going to tell your parents and then you're not supposed to be doing this. So it was almost like not not planning Britain not getting the pill not getting your own condoms, because you didn't want people to know that you were having sex because you were supposed to not want it. Right, especially as a woman. Michael Hingson ** 1:02:09 Of course, we're dealing with a situation that was a long time ago. And I don't know how it's changed. But nevertheless, it is what you saw. And it's fascinating that you studied it a lot. Hmm. Cassandra Mok ** 1:02:21 Yeah, I think the the third component was around the political situation. So very much, you know, the political rhetoric. So it is interesting, when you look at certain countries around the world, the concepts of rights and birth control, and family planning is very interesting. Around the world, I know that this is a bit of a hot debate in the US at the moment. And a lot of it stems from, you know, certain values, I think, predominantly in Christianity, which, for example, in certain parts of Asia, that is not a major factor. Right. So, you know, and I mean, like, China had the one China one child brycie For so right. So clearly, their, their attitudes to are vastly different. Because of their, you know, kind of political stance and beliefs about things. Well, so yeah, it's there's a lot of things that that affect things that are not necessarily people's individual, but they sort of culminate together to give you a social trend Michael Hingson ** 1:03:23 in a culture. Well, if people want to reach out to you and explore, working with you, and using your consulting services, and so on, how do they do that? Cassandra Mok ** 1:03:33 Oh, yeah, the easiest way is on LinkedIn. I'm not really on other social media. But if you Google Cassandra Mok, that's the Double S and the Cassandra and Michael Hingson ** 1:03:43 C a s s a n d r a. And then Mok is M o k . M o k. Yeah. So besides LinkedIn, okay, Cassandra Mok ** 1:03:53 do you have a website? I don't, people can email me, or collaborate with Cas, that's with one. So collaborate with cas@gmail.com. You can also email me, I'm always happy to have a chat with people. Sometimes I'm just keen to hear what people are doing. So if people want to reach out and just being like, Oh, I'm working on this. I want to get your perspective on something I'm always happy to, to have a call. So yeah, great. Michael Hingson ** 1:04:20 Well, I want to thank you for being with us. And spending a lot of time talking about a lot of these different kinds of ideas, and clearly a lot of innovation, a lot of teamwork. And it helps build trust, which is always a good thing. So I really appreciate you spending so much time with us today. And you being in Singapore, it's getting late in the evening for you or actually early in the morning for you. So very much that's late in the well not late in the evening, but it's in the evening here. So I am going to let you go but I really appreciate you being here and I want to thank you for listening to us. Hope that you enjoy this and If you can reach out to Cassandra, she would love to chat with you. As she said, I'd love to hear from you want to hear your thoughts, you can always reach out to me Michael hingson. At Michaelhi at accessibe.com. That's Michael m i c h a e l h i at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. You can also go to our podcast page www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast. Michael Hingson is m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcast. Always we really appreciate it if you would give us a five star rating. And we value your input. And I'd love to get your thoughts on this and all the things that we're doing with unstoppable mindset. And Cassandra for you and for everyone out there. If you have any suggestions for guests that we ought to have on unstoppable mindset, love to hear from you. So please reach out. We value your ideas, and we will work to b
In this episode of Chatabout Children, Sonia Bestulic welcomes Carrie Kwan, Co-founder and executive manager of Mums&Co, speaker, coach, and podcast host of Mumbition. Carrie grew up in a big Malaysian Chinese family with strong support from her parents and siblings. Her upbringing instilled a sense of possibility and curiosity, leading to her current entrepreneurial endeavors. Together Sonia and Carrie discuss insights on raising empowered children, especially for women who are nurturing family and business. Empowering Moments Empowering Women in Business: Carrie Kwan emphasizes the importance of supporting women in business, highlighting structural barriers and the need for investment in women-led ventures. Balancing Family and Career: Mums&Co's mission is to help women balance family and career without having to choose between them, providing resources and support through a digital subscription model. Holistic Approach to Wellbeing: Emphasis on the importance of ambition, livelihood, and wellbeing. Strategies for Coping with Guilt and Pressure: Findings from a report indicated that many business-owning mothers do not feel guilty about less time with children and believe they set a good example.This highlights the importance of setting strategies to minimize guilt and maintain a healthy balance. Transferable Skills: Parenting skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and resilience are valuable and transferable to the business world. Community and Support Systems: The significance of having a strong support system, both professionally and personally, and the value of a judgment-free community where parents can share and learn. Empowering Children: Use intentionally empowering language and involve children in decision-making. Encourage children to solve problems and learn from mistakes; and emphasize the importance of having fun and learning from both wins and losses. So sit back and enjoy this episode of the Chatabout Children Podcast with Sonia Bestulic as she interviews Carrie Kwan. Contact and Further Information Learn more about Mums&Co: mumsandco.com.au Follow on social media: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Explore "Mumbition the Journal" for practical insights and personal growth tools. Host's Invitation Sonia Bestulic invites listeners to join her newsletter at soniabestulic.com for more tips, tools, and strategies for transformational empowerment. Links:Chatabout ChildrenFlourish with SoniaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to Season 4, Episode 13! Today's guest is Dr. Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, an author, educator, speaker, and professional learning facilitator. Born in Bangkok, Thailand into a mixed-race Malaysian Chinese and white American family, she's a classic “third culture kid.” She's had a very diverse upbringing, living in various East and Southeast Asian countries as well as the Washington DC area. Sarah moved to the Deep South in 2009, and she has now lived there longer than anywhere else. We're so excited about the release of her book Exclusion and the Chinese American Story that is launching on March 26th 2024 (so available now!). It's intended for middle grade students aged 10 and up, but it's great for everyone. Exclusion and the Chinese American Story is part of the Race to the Truth series of books and helps tell the Chinese American experience in an engaging, relatable way for kids and adults to connect with. We love how she selected the narrative of what topics to include in the book… not to mention her use of deep questioning. Her intentionality and thoughtfulness makes the book so powerful. We talk about her thinking behind the questions, how she chose topics for the book, her hopes for the ways the book could be used, and a lot more. We also discuss her career, including reflections on her facilitation of workshops, common mistakes with Diversity and Inclusion, and even the session she does focused on Survivor (the TV Show). If you're looking for a great book for kids (or the kid in you), pick up a copy of Exclusion and the Chinese American Story. You can also support and learn by visiting Dr. Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn's site, following her on Instagram and LinkedIn, engaging her to help your workplace culture through diversity and inclusion, and listening to the conversation. If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or social media links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com.
Hello, Happy New Year! And welcome to the Wise Not Withered podcast. We are on Season 4, and this is episode number 11. Today's guest is Helen W. I found her on Instagram. Her username is 50_over_and_beautiful. And I really loved the vibe of her profile, just so colorful, she looks so happy. Lots of modeling, clothes and food and drinks, and all kinds of different places that she has traveled to. There's a lot of different performances where she has sung. And she talks about all of those things in our interview. She is truly a citizen of the world. She grew up... And actually, I'll let her tell you where she grew up and where she has lived all throughout her life. It's pretty interesting, pretty unique. In addition to all the places where she has lived and visited, she talks about her pretty complex job, and also the intricate family dynamics, of her upbringing with her family of origin, and her dynamic with her son currently. And she also talks about just her experience being an older woman in today's society... What that means, how she's been treated by other women, especially—older and younger, and a pretty interesting work-life balance that she has maintained for a pretty long time. So without further ado, here is Helen! All right, so what is your age? I just turned 60! Oh, you just turned 60! When was that? I turned 60 in September. I think before turning 60, you have this fear, like, “Oh my god… Another decade.” And people regard you as “old”. You think of retirement, yeah… But yeah, I was thinking, because at 60, you get this “Joy Card” in Hong Kong. And then you get like discounts for transportation. Ohh okay! Anywhere you go, you'll be paying 2 Hong Kong dollars. Which means everybody will know that you're 60. And I was thinking, before I got the card, “Oh, would I actually use it? I'll use it when I'm alone… If I'm with people, would I use it? Cause then everybody would know I'm 60.” Then when I got it, it's like… What the heck! Just use it! I mean, I'm entitled to this! (Laughs) This discount to travel, because I've actually lived on Earth for 60 years, and contributed, and yeah! I should be proud! Amazing! I love that!! And what did you call it? Just a discount card? Or did it have a special name? It's called a Joy Card! A Joy Card! Which is is nice name, isn't it? Right! It's a nice name, right? Yeah. I love that!! Be happy! In your senior age. Yeah. That is so cool! Yeah. Let's see, so you live in Hong Kong right now. Did you grow up there? Where else have you lived? Okay. Yeah… I'm quite multi-national, in terms of where I've lived. So I was born in Japan. My parents are from China. But I was born in Japan, Tokyo. So I'm Chinese, born in Japan. Okay then, I did not actually do schooling in Japan, cause the family moved. I moved with my mother to Macao. And then from Macao… My parents divorced, so we were living there with my mom—me and my brother, in Macao. And then she found someone and remarried—an Australian Chinese. So we all moved to Sydney. Oh, wow! So in my teens, I actually moved to Australia, and grew up in Sydney. Did my education there, did my university there. Then after a few years, I married a Malaysian Chinese. And we moved to Singapore. And then the relationship didn't really work out, so my child was born in Singapore as well. So we divorced. And then the boss that I was working for, he was a Hong Kong Chinese, and he announced he was moving to Hong Kong, so would you like to come and work for me in Hong Kong? He just got a position, so he invited me if I was looking for something. So I said yeah okay, I'll come along with you. So that's how I ended up and stayed in Hong Kong. Read the full transcript on wisenotwithered.com!
Many netizens have noticed that there are more Malaysians on Little Red Book. And in a podcast interviewing Malaysian Chinese, the guest from Malaysia said that the new three treasures of the Malaysian Chinese community are WeChat, Douyin and Little Red Book.Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily Chinese reading in Mandarin Chinese in your inbox. Full text in Chinese, daily quiz to test your understanding, one-click dictionary, new words, etc.Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at contact[at]maayot.com
In this Global Irish conversation, we search for the true origins of Western Civilization with a most global of guests, Naoíse Mac Sweeney, author of The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives. Her father is from Cork City, her mother is Malaysian Chinese, she grew up in London, studied the Greek and Roman world, and is a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Vienna. And to make her even more global, her husband is from Malta, which we visited in our episode with Malta's ambassador to Ireland, Giovanni Buttigeig.She tells of how both Greek and Irish mythology pulled her into the ancient world, through the lure of the ancient Greek diaspora communities, her fascination with Troy, and her growing realization that “Western Civilization”—the concept of a single cultural inheritance extending from ancient Greece to modern times—is really a figment of our collective imagination.In The West, our award-winning guest thoroughly debunks that figment through the stories of fourteen figures who each played a role in the creation of the Western idea—from Herodotus, a mixed-race migrant, to Phylis Wheatley, an enslaved African American who became a literary sensation. From these narratives, a more nuanced, expansive, and intriguing view of the West emerges.Naoíse wraps up Irish Stew with the most unexpected “Seamus Plug” to date, which got your co-hosts thinking of approaching Dunnes Stores for sponsorship.And we'll happily endorse her comment early in the conversation, when she said, “part of the joy of following Irish Stew is to hear the origin stories of so many people in the diaspora.”Links:The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives Smithsonian Magazine: “The Myth of the ‘Dark Ages' Ignores How Classical Traditions Flourished Around the World,” University of Vienna: Naoise Mac SweeneySeamus Plug: Dunnes Strores, Helen James plates
denise chang (they/them) is a somatic trauma resolution practitioner, erotic movement arts facilitator, and intuitive energy healer. They are a genderfluid, solo-polyamorous, immigrant of taoist Malaysian Chinese ancestry whose work focuses on the cultivation of erotic power and the healing of intergenerational trauma through the school of consensual culture and body ecology. In this episode, denise and I discuss: - denise's background and what brought them to somatic work - denise's experience of embodiment and what it means to them - Consensual culture (the framework denise developed in 2020) and their work with relational somatics - Cultivating erotic power - The future of connection and belonging You can find denise's work on their website denisehuiming.com and on IG at @denisehuiming I hope you love listening to this beautiful and wise conversation as much as denise and I loved having it! If you do love this episode, if it nourishes you in some way, please subscribe to the pod, leave a review and rating, and share it with a friend, thank you!
Please consider donating $15 to the Indiegogo campaign to help Chris Angel celebrate their 15-year anniversary of taking testosterone; there are only six days left! If Chris Angel didn't scare you away with their bizarre personals ad for Kaitlyn, check them out on Instagram This week, Jack Lam (they/them) discusses how being a Malaysian Chinese immigrant has impacted them, including struggling to release shame and fear so they could name and embrace their genderqueer identity after coming to the United States. In this episode, you will learn 1. How their gender expression becomes a powerful tool for visibility 2. When allyship begins to become performative and how to avoid it 3. Why we need to normalize talking about mental health and getting support Resources, references, and full transcripts are available at www.allyshipisaverb.com/episode/jack-lam/ Host Chris Angel (they/them) has a background in LGBTQ+ training, community organizing, and social work. Guest episodes feature at least one allyship tip, including tailored questions given their unique intersecting identities. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chris-angel-murphy/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chris-angel-murphy/support
The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. sydney khoo (they/them) is a nonbinary and aromantic asexual writer, born on Dharawal Country in South Western Sydney, to Malaysian Chinese parents. They are the recipient of the Penguin Random House Australia's Write It fellowship. sydney joins us today with their new novel The Spider and Her Demons. High School can be hard at the best of times but somehow Zhi juggles study, tutoring and working in her Aunt's dumpling shop. Zhi's Aunt Mei has sacrificed a lot so that Zhi can attend a private school and all she asks in return is that Zhi maintain an 85 point grade average and hide the fact she has fangs, spinnerets and four prehensile limbs that emerge from her back! Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/
Eileen is finally here! Eileen “the most mentioned person in our show” is our loyal audience and a good friend of Heena and Linda. She is also a 1.5-generation Malaysian-Chinese immigrant who has Korean DNA (in the heart). In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM), Eileen talks about her recent trip to Malaysia for QingMing Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day) and her story of growing up in the States in an immigrant family. Last but not least, she clarifies her stance on Jjampong noodle soup (Check out Ep.19)! [Time Stamps] (00:23) Intro (02:19) How Eileen met K-sisters (07:52) Eileen's recent visit to Malaysia for Qing Ming Festival (17:39) Eileen's story as a 1.5-generation immigrant (33:07) What Korea means to Eileen (39:12) Closing [Mentioned in This Episode] Qingming Festival: a traditional Chinese festival observed by ethnic Chinese celebrating Spring on the first day of the fifth of the lunar calendar Hagwon: the Korean-language word for a for-profit private institute, academy, or cram school prevalent in South Korea Jjampong: a Chinese-style Korean noodle soup with red, spicy, and seafood-based broth flavored with red chili powder The ‘Jjampong' episode (Ep.19): What would be your last meal on earth? Salty-snacker Linda and sweet-toothed Heena's wild talk about food Seventeen's new song: Super [More on American K-sisters] - Instagram: @AmericanKsisters - Email: AmericanKsisters@gmail.com - Website: AmericanKsisters.com - YouTube: YouTube.com/@AmericanKsisters - Music: MissChristineMusic.com
Sam Wong is a General Partner at Blackbird Ventures, who exist to supercharge Australia's and New Zealand's most ambitious founders. She was the first hire in their Australia fund and has since invested in companies including Vow, Halter, Harrison AI and led the raising of their inaugural $59M New Zealand Fund, and $80M New Zealand Fund II (2022) + heads up their New Zealand office. Sam was born in Perth, Australia and now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. In this episode #129 w Sam Wong, learn about:Sam's sunrise in Perth, Australia growing up in and around her parent's business packing Soundblaster boxes, and influenced by various cultures with mum of Malaysian/Chinese heritage and Dad being half English and half Chinese but grew up in India.This one is wide ranging and Sam is very candid — we cover her highlights from 7 years as a lawyer and influences from early managers that have shaped Sam's leadership style today as General Partner at the Venture Capital firm, Blackbird.Sam's been at various vantage points in her career, from law to early stage startup to co-founding a startup to investing so I wanted to know where would she start her career if she could do it again? Learn about her experience co-founding a startup with her partner Ben, biases Sam had to delete switching from founder to investor and we cover the Blackbird story to date, including Sam's reflections on her investments in companies like Vow and Halter that seemed very non obvious at the time, the story behind raising and building the NZ fund and her most painful learning to date.
Why is there a "Little Chaoshan" hidden in Malaysia? Where did the delicious Bak Kut Teh originate from? Why did the ancestors of Malaysian Chinese choose Klang as their new home? Find out more in the first episode of Fantastic Travel Agency: wander in Klang on Friday at 9pm!
"This is me dealing with how to be a progressive man in this era." The Sea Cucumber boss discusses his new album on PAN in this live Exchange from Rewire. Malaysian Chinese artist Tzusing is currently splitting his time between Taipei and Shanghai, but he spent a significant amount of time in the US as a young adult and university student. It was only after moving back to China in his early 20s and taking a long break from production that he amalgamated these diverse influences and refined his sound, releasing a string of EPs on the label L.I.E.S. and launching into his musical career in full force. His 2017 release, Invincible East, was his first exploration into more thematically loaded work that interrogated masculinity and power. His second (and newest) LP, Green Hat, builds on these tropes. The full-length—which came out on PAN in late March—examines Confucian values around familial obligation, the patriarchy and how to be "a progressive man" in 2023. It also brings together his penchant for trap, techno and industrial, while still mining Asian instrumental motifs. In Tzusing's words, the music itself is full of angst and fear, and it's his most intense output as an artist yet. In this live RA Exchange at Rewire Festival, he talks to Resident Advisor's senior producer, Chloe Lula, about the production of the album, Chinese club culture and his move towards a sound that isn't indebted to a singular genre or scene. The episode is part of Resident Advisor's cover series on PAN; read the article in full on our website, and listen to Tzusing's conversation in full here.
Raise The Platform podcasts are back! This episode features RTP Executive Producer Imi interviewing Shawn Phua. Go to this link to read the transcript of this interview: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12ov5pa8Y3wxlSwY4Gt2asqQqa9qAaKms/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106161155725293630716&rtpof=true&sd=true Shawn Phua is a profoundly Deaf young man and an Australian citizen of Malaysian-Chinese cultural backgrounds. He has lived experience of Deaf Culture and still learning more about the Hearing Culture. He can communicate in written English, Australian Sign Language (Auslan), Australian Signed English, Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) and Singaporean Sign Language (SgSL). His personal interests are LEGO bricks, learning foreign Sign Languages and disability inclusion and diversity. Shawn & Imi discuss work and disability, advocacy, accessible communication, global sign languages and more! Shawn requested that we include these links:https://www.aussiedeafkids.org.au/terminology-for-deafness.htmlhttp://www.aussiedeafkids.org.au/deaf-culture.html This episode was originally aired on Saturday March 4th 2023 (4pm - 5pm). -- You can find out more about Raise The Platform on our website - http://syn.org.au/show/raise-the-platform/ For more info, or to join the show, email Raise The Platform's Facilitator. Is Hay – is.hay@syn.org.auDonate to SYN: http://syn.org.au/donate-to-syn/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Yes, you can speak English with a big accent, you have the most powerful 'gwailo' slang, but I think you cannot change this part about you if you are a Malaysian Chinese. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tuck-talk/message
Winnie Yee-Lakhani is a chef, mom, entrepreneur and the self-taught “Pit Madam” / founder of Smoke Queen Barbecue. She was a finalist on Food Network's “BBQ Brawl” (Season 3) and was featured on the “Kelly Clarkson Show.” In this episode, we learn how Winnie weaves in the flavors of her Malaysian-born Chinese childhood with traditional American smoking techniques to create a unique style of barbecue. We discuss her thoughts on stepping into a mostly male dominant field, how she balances owning multiple businesses while being a mom of two kids, and what inspired her to create a restaurant during the pandemic. Winnie is a proud supporter of Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA), an organization that has been dedicated to enhancing the health, social, and economic well-being of the under-served populations in Orange County, CA. Enjoy this episode as we go Beyond the Plate… with Chef Winnie Yee-Lakhani.This episode is brought to you by Fords Gin.Check out our #BtPlatePodcast Merch at www.BeyondthePlateMerch.com Follow Beyond the Plate on Facebook and TwitterFollow Kappy on Instagram and TwitterMentioned in this episode:Martin's Famous Potato RollsFollow @potatorolls on ig for recipe inspiration.
To mark two years of Asian in Aotearoa, Jenna is joined by Elina Ashimbayava (episode 22 guest, Storyo founder & friend) and answers questions sent in from various past guests about the podcast, life, relationships, vulnerability and more! Thank you for your great questions: Cindy Leong Marwin Silerio Geoff Ong Alyssa Medel Amanda Grace Leo Grace Ko Steven Junil Park Nathan Joe Hazel Zishun Sam Low Marc Conaco Jenna is Aotearoa-born and raised, Malaysian-Chinese, Japanese, Pākehā and Melanau. She is the founder and host of Asian in Aotearoa and a seasoned marketer, a certified coach, a Tarot reader, an INTJ, Cancer Sun with a Capricorn stellium. FOLLOW @asianinaotearoa on Instagram VISIT asianinaotearoa.com SUPPORT Asian in Aotearoa: https://ko-fi.com/asianinaotearoa ___ ABOUT THE PODCAST Hosted by Jenna Wee, Asian in Aotearoa (New Zealand) explores the lives of Asian creatives, one uncensored convo at a time. Questioning our concept of home, identity, family, relationships, sex, racism, body/beauty, healing, decolonisation, navigating whiteness - and how this shapes the way we move through the world and influences our creative work. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/asianinaotearoa/message
Entering the world of inclusivity… I don't even know the ‘right' words to say when it comes to inclusion, people of colour and honouring the land I grew up on or reside on… I'm lost… I was part of an inclusivity training a few months ago. Even though I am of Chinese ethnicity, I grew up in Melbourne, Australia with Malaysian-Chinese parents who spoke English at home because their dialects were completely different (Hokkien and Cantonese). I was one of three asians in a class of caucausians. I took part in a retreat in Darwin with the Yolngu people of Elcho Island 2 years ago… and I was lost, and ashamed at how little I knew in the space I found myself in… I'm at the start of my journey learning about how to speak about this topic, how to honour the land and the people… This is an off the cuff recorded conversation with the beautiful Jodie Treanor. We met one week prior and she was my safe person to start the journey describing my NZ origins and I am forever grateful. I am sure this is just the start. I'm sure if I feel this way some of you also feel this way. I realise with anything, it's about starting. Now I have the desire after so many years. Jodie has kindly left her details below and the template that she discussed on our call. As always I love if you reach out to my guests and of course if you are after assistance and you feel that Jodie is the person who can help you please reach out. Pepeha Template: HERE We always appreciate a 5 star rating, review or for you to share with your friends. To watch the video version of this Podcast head to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTpnN0BqACf-K15rCsgruuA To find out more about Jin https://drjinong.com For group courses and trainings https://theartoflisteningtoyourbody.com
Denise (they/she) is a somatic trauma resolution practitioner, steward of consensual culture, abolition feminist, writer and dancer. Their work focuses on creating spaces for the embodiment of self-worth, sovereignty and sexuality for melanated people on the feminine spectrum through their extensive training in somatic trauma resolution, erotic movement arts, spiritual consciousness and ancestral power. Denise offers 1:1 sessions, immersive group experiences and healing circles as an intuitive space holder. They are a queer, nonbinary Malaysian Chinese immigrant femme of Daoist descent. Websites: https://denisedimensional.com https://consensualculture.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/denisedimensional Listen to the full bonus episode by subscribing to our Substack for $5 a month. Follow us on social media Twitter: @ThoughtfulWRPod Instagram: @ThoughtfulWellnessRevolution If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review on Apple or Podchaser Theme song: Katy Pearson
Namewee is a singer-songwriter and filmmaker who is known for speaking his mind and composing songs that go viral on YouTube. He tells The World's Rebecca Kanthor why promoting his music is important.
Award-winning Investigative Journalist Ian Yee joins Proudly Asian to talk about his experience growing up as a Malaysian-Chinese and what got him started in journalism. The investigative journalism team led by Ian is known for pushing through the Sexual Offences Against Children Act in the Parliament of Malaysia and winning the United Nations Malaysia Award. The co-founder of media startup The Fourth and Obama Foundation Leaders also talks to us about how he turned a college lifestyle section of The Star newspaper into an investigative journalism unit and what he thinks the future of the news industry looks like. Follow Ian on Instagram and Twitter ------------------------------------------------------- Stay Connected with Proudly Asian: Website - https://proudly-asian.com Instagram - https://instagram.com/proudly.asian Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtBzoAJQGbEB_K9Se8AlYlQ Send us a voice message - https://anchor.fm/proudlyasian/message Support us - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/proudlyasian Email us - proudlyasianpodcast@gmail.com
For some context, in partnership with my friends at Where the Asians At?!, comes ASIAN(SOUND)SCAPES - a free event that's showcasing the best pan-Asian-kiwi local talent around and it's happening at Potters Park in Auckland on July 2nd and 3rd. Expect cultural celebration, music, dance battles, poetry AND Tai Chi… … which is where my father, Charles, comes in. Dad is Malaysian-Chinese and Melanau and starting with Tae Kwon Do, he and his friends were among the first to teach the art in Auckland well before I was born. He doesn't like to talk himself up at all, but he did reach 7th dan black belt before focusing on Tai Chi and has been teaching it since the 90s. Although he doesn't refer to himself as a Master, others sometimes do. He will be at ASIAN(SOUND)SCAPES talking about and teaching some Tai Chi on July 2nd at 10am. See you there! Book your spot for Tai Chi HERE ASIAN(SOUND)SCAPES event info: @wheretheasians.at.nz SUPPORT Asian in Aotearoa: https://ko-fi.com/asianinaotearoa FOLLOW @asianinaotearoa on Instagram VISIT asianinaotearoa.com ___ ABOUT THE PODCAST Hosted by Jenna Wee, Asian in Aotearoa (New Zealand) explores the lives of Asian creatives, one uncensored convo at a time. Questioning our concept of home, identity, family, relationships, sex, racism, body/beauty, healing, decolonisation, navigating whiteness - and how this shapes the way we move through the world and influences our creative work. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/asianinaotearoa/message
In this episode, I interview my beloved yoga teacher, the owner of Liquid Room in Bayside, Melbourne. Asian-born, raised in Canada, and long-time Melbourne resident, Ivy came into my life in the gap between the many lockdowns in Melbourne. We talk about the heavy job of keeping a yoga and float studio afloat (pardon the pun!) during Covid. And what home truly means, and how to create it. Biography Ivy Mckenna is the owner and creator of Liquid Room, a space created to provide individuals with a haven for respite from a world where the word 'busy' has become more of an identity rather than just an adjective describing one's moment in time. An immigrant child born to a Malaysian/Chinese mother and father, she has grown up understanding the importance of hard work through her childhood experiences of being a non-English speaking kid. At the age of 12, she had to learn the English language while being thrown in an English Catholic school when she first arrived in Sydney, Australia and then moved to Montreal, Canada two years later. Growing up, she faced many challenges to secure opportunities where, as a minority living in a low socio-economic western society, opportunities were hard to come by. Despite these challenges, her fiery spirit and her tenacity to succeed helped her thrive in whatever she takes on. Prior to Liquid Room, Ivy had graduated with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Computer Science along with a Diploma of Marketing. She was employed by several major IT companies, working with clients ranging from the US Military, and Telecommunications to big brand Automotive industry. Following her time in IT, she progressed her career into Digital Marketing and Advertising, managing digital media projects during a time when digital media was only in its infancy, and a few more years leading to what it is today. She is a full-time single mother of two girls and a successful entrepreneur, who has grown her business from a staff of 2 to more than 16 employees within 8 months of opening in 2016. She has travelled to more than 10 countries around the world both for leisure and business, across Europe, Asia and the South Pacific Islands, just to name a few. Ivy believes that her success can only continue if she embraces her past challenges and celebrates her failures, viewing them as the necessary wisdom to be happy and arrive at a balance in life. She continues to learn and sees herself as a necessary contributor rather than seeking reward as an entitlement for her hard work. In this episode we discuss: the power of 'floating' how she chose to support her community and teachers during lockdown what she has observed in people post-lockdown the challenges of running a business in this new paradigm Episode Resources Social: Instagram | Facebook Website: https://www.liquidroom.com.au
This week we are joined by our lovely guest Denise Chang, a somatic trauma resolution practitioner, located on Kumeyaay land. We start off with Denise's story and how they got into the somatic work. We learn about the field of trauma resolution and what Denise does as a practitioner. Plus, you'll get a more clear definition of ‘somatics' and some helpful advice for finding and creating a relationship with a somatic practitioner. Denise shares their work with Consensual Culture, a framework they developed/uses in their work. We get real about the heaviness of the last few years and Denise shares some ways to practice embodiment when life is hard. Zahra and Hien end with a conversation discussing their frustrations, hope, and potential for the people/systems in this country. Denise (they/she) is a somatic trauma resolution practitioner, steward of consensual culture, abolition feminist, writer and dancer. Their work focuses on creating spaces for the embodiment of self-worth, sovereignty and sexuality for melanated people on the feminine spectrum through their extensive training in somatic trauma resolution, erotic movement arts, spiritual consciousness and ancestral power. Denise offers 1:1 sessions, immersive group experiences and healing circles as an intuitive space holder. They are a queer, nonbinary Malaysian Chinese immigrant femme of Daoist descent. https://denisedimensional.com https://consensualculture.com https://instagram.com/denisedimensional "The role of the artist is to make revolution irresistible." ~Toni Cade Bambara “The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.” ~Dalai Lama Image of leader vs. manager/boss https://www.modernservantleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/boss-vs-leader-800x800.png Follow us on social media Twitter: http://twitter.com/ThoughtfulWRPod Instagram: http://instagram.com/ThoughtfulWellnessRevolution For transcripts and bonus content, check out our Substack https://thoughtfulwellnessrevolution.substack.com/ Theme song: Katy Pearson
A Malaysian-Chinese doctor pioneered modern epidemic control during the deadly Manchurian Plague of 1910.Read the article by Sun Jiahui: https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2020/06/masked-warrior/Narrated by Elyse Ribbons.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Support The ShowListen, Like, Subscribe & Review on your favourite podcast directory.Share the podcast with someone you think will enjoy the showBuy Me A Coffee – This podcast is only possible thanks to our supporters, simply buying a coffee keeps us on air. It is just like shouting your mate a coffee, and we consider our listeners close mates. https://bit.ly/2T2FYGXSustainable Fashion – choose a TBCP design or design your own… all using organic cotton, green energy and zero plastic https://bit.ly/32G7RdhSupport Chris in his walk from Cape to Cape: All donations support zero2hero empowering young people to deal with mental health. https://donate.mycause.com.au/cause/263123?donateToMember=156839Cruise NewsHolland America Line Ship Will Become Temporary Home for Ukrainian Refugees in the NetherlandsHolland America Line's Volendam will be used to accommodate Ukrainian refugees as part of an agreement announced by Netherlands and City of Rotterdam government officials. The ship will dock in Rotterdam for three months to provide a temporary home for approximately 1,500 Ukrainians, part of a larger commitment from the Netherlands to accommodate 50,000 people who fled the war in their homeland.Under the agreement to charter Volendam, Holland America Line will provide three hot meals per day, private stateroom accommodations, housekeeping services, use of public spaces, fitness facilities, internet access, and other necessities. Volendam will be staffed with approximately 650 crew members.Volendam was scheduled to return to service May 15, with voyages from Rotterdam to Norway, the British Isles and Iceland. To accommodate the three-month commitment, Holland America Line will cancel three of those voyages and resume service on July 3 instead. Guests on canceled cruises are being notified today and will be accommodated on similar itineraries.Volendam will be docked at Merwehaven, a cargo port on the north side of the River Maas in Rotterdam. Remaining docked will ensure Ukrainian families can transit easily to and from services in Rotterdam.Holland America Group has already been working with its own team members who are Ukrainian. A $1 million emergency assistance fund provides direct financial support. Team members from the region also receive counseling assistance, free internet service to communicate with family, and scheduling accommodations such as early disembarkation or an extension to remain on board as needed.Costa Cruises is offering one of its cruise ships to house Ukrainian refugeesCosta Cruises is offering one of its cruise ships to house Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their country. The company offered the cruise ship Costa Magica, which is currently out of service, to the Italian government as a potential hosing vessel for the Ukrainian refugees, if the number of refugees arriving in Italy increases in the coming weeksCosta Cruises added that the costs of managing the ship, including staff and meals, will be covered by the company in the initial time period.Costa Magica is a 102.587 gross tonnage ship with a capacity to accommodate up to 3.250 people. The ship is not in service and is currently located near La Spezia, Italy.In June 2021, Carnival Corporation announced that Costa Magica will be sent to dry dock to be rebranded and transferred over to Carnival Cruise Line sometime in mid-2022.Pacific Explorer bound for SydneyPacific Explorer departed the anchorage off Cyprus and is headed for home and that wonderful prospect of the first guest cruise from Sydney on May 31.P&O Cruises celebrates full return to serviceWhen Arcadia sailed to the Canary Islands on Sunday, 27 March, it will mark P&O Cruises full return to service following its pause in operations.Britannia and Azura have had a very successful season in the Caribbean from Barbados and will spend the summer in the Mediterranean. Iona has spent her maiden winter months in the Canary Islands and northern Europe and will soon head up to the spectacular Norwegian fjords for the summer of scenic cruising and thrilling adventures.Arvia will join P&O Cruises in December as the seventh ship in the fleet. The maiden voyage will be to The Canary Islands followed by a winter season of fly/cruise holidays in the Caribbean from Barbados. Arvia, which, similar to its sister ship Iona, will be powered by liquefied natural gas, will have many sustainable and environmentally-friendly innovations and technology on board.P&O Cruises Australia Celebrates its Return to the High Seas with a Sparkling Pride CruiseP&O Cruises Australia is celebrating its return to the high seas by counting down to its first dazzling ‘Pride Cruise' – a celebratory weekend at sea created especially for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, their friends, family and supporters.Setting sail on 4 November 2022, the three-night cruise will give Australians the chance to join P&O Cruises in proudly recognising individuality, diversity and inclusion in Australian society.The celebrations will continue with a Pride Cruise departing Melbourne on 9 December, followed by three dedicated sailings in 2023.Joining P&O Cruises in the new sailing will be a raft of community organisations that support the LGBTQIA+ community through health, well-being and social initiatives.The home-grown cruise line has also partnered with some of the best names in the Australian entertainment business to develop the three-night cruise, including talented artists and entertainers who are champions of equality.Headlining the fun with plenty of feathers, sequins and flamboyance, will be international superstar, accordionist and Berlin boy-wonder Hans the German, the award-winning comedy cabaret star who found fame on America's Got Talent.P&O Cruises Pacific Adventure will depart Sydney on the inaugural Pride Cruise on the afternoon of Friday November 4, 2022, and will return on the morning of Monday November 7, 2022.Carnival Cruise Line unveils bucket-list Transpacific Journeys CruiseCarnival Cruise Line has today unveiled the cruise of a lifetime, as Carnival Splendor returns home to Sydney in September via four incredible Hawaiian Island destinations on her Transpacific Journeys Cruise.The 23-night journey from Seattle to Sydney will offer guests ample opportunity to immerse themselves in the ‘Aloha Spirit', as the ship visits the tropical Hawaiian Island ports of Maui, Honolulu, Kona and Hilo ahead of heading to Fiji and Australia.Crossing the world's biggest ocean, Carnival Splendor will treat guests to the awe-inspiring views of the Pacific, before she makes her long-awaited return to Sydney.Splendor's arrival in the harbour city will kick-start Carnival's birthday celebrations early, with the cruise line celebrating 10 years in Australia in October.Carnival Splendor's 23-night cruise from Seattle to Sydney departing 6 September 2022 starts from $1799 AUD* per person twin share interiorSydney White Bay Cruise Terminal to use shore power derived from certifiable renewable energy Australia's main cruise organisation, Carnival Australia, representing seven distinctive cruise lines including P&O Cruises Australia, has joined the Port Authority of NSW in signing a letter of intent for cruise ships using White Bay Cruise Terminal to connect to shore power derived from certifiable renewable energy.The Port Authority project to progressively install shore power infrastructure at the cruise terminal and each of the four major commercial berths at Glebe Island is an element of the NSW Government's Bays Precinct urban renewal project involving a 95-hectare site on Sydney Harbour's western fringe.Carnival Australia has embraced the shift to shore power at White Bay, demonstrating its local commitment to environmental protection. This is in line with being part of a global organisation that is committed to strong sustainability goals including achieving net carbon neutral ship operations by 2050.Silversea Christens Silver Dawn in Lisbon Silversea Cruises, the leading ultra-luxury cruise line, officially named its 10th ship, Silver Dawn, in Lisbon on 31 March. Executives from Royal Caribbean Group®, Silversea Cruises, and Fincantieri, as well as local dignitaries and esteemed guests, celebrated the milestone with a formal ceremony and gala dinner. An expression of Silversea's rapid expansion, Silver Dawn becomes the cruise line's third new ship to debut in nine months. The launch of Silver Dawn also marks the debut of Otium, travel's most indulgent new wellness programme, as well as the next iteration of Silversea's S.A.L.T. culinary programme.The newly named Godmother of Silver Dawn, Nilou Motamed—an influential food and travel editor, tastemaker, and television personality—subsequently cut the ribbon to trigger a champagne bottle to smash on the ship's hull, signalling the end of the ceremony.NILOU MOTAMED: GODMOTHER OF SILVER DAWNAn Emmy-nominated television personality and former editor-in-chief of some of the world's leading culinary brands, including Food & Wine and Epicurious, Nilou Motamed has been shaping the conversation in food and travel for more than 20 years. Born in Iran, raised in Paris and New York, Motamed is fluent in four languages — and believes “food is a language of its own, one in which everyone can find comfort, compassion, and community.” Her passion for culinary adventures and far-flung cuisines has found a perfect match in Silversea's S.A.L.T. programme, which the New York resident first experienced with its launch in 2021.Silver Dawn departs on her inaugural voyage on April 1, sailing from Lisbon to Barcelona. She is scheduled to sail in the Mediterranean until November, when she will cross the Atlantic Ocean, via the Canary Islands, to unlock the Caribbean and Central America for guests.Cunard reveal impressive line-up to join Matt Moran aboard its Great Australian Culinary VoyageAfter the well-received news that acclaimed Australian chef Matt Moran will be headlining Cunard's inaugural Great Australian Culinary Voyage, the luxury cruise line is thrilled to reveal the high calibre line-up of culinary talent onboard this highly sought after 5-night voyage, setting sail from Sydney on 28 January 2023.Both on board and on shore, Australia's culinary story will come to life for Queen Elizabeth's guests as they are treated to a robust itinerary of food and wine experiences including bespoke dinners, exclusive menus, talks, interviews, cooking masterclasses, wine tastings, and curated onshore excursions.Cunard's Great Australian Culinary Voyage talent line-up joining Matt Moran:Mark Olive has been a celebrated chef for over 30 years, establishing himself as an Australian food icon through his work with Australian indigenous and native ingredients. A Bundjalung Man, Mark's family originated from the Northern Rivers region in NSW. Mark will treat guests to a native Australian ingredient cooking demonstration, collaborate with Cunard's chefs to create a 3-course menu incorporating indigenous produce for a special dinner and participate in an engaging Q&A session.Darren Purchese, owner of cult favourite B&P Sweet Studio in Melbourne, is one of the most respected pastry chefs working in Australia today. Aboard Cunard's Great Australian Culinary Voyage, Darren will be putting his spin on Cunard's famous Afternoon Tea, creating unique pastries to feature on an exclusive menu, and giving a live cooking demonstration where guests can learn tips and tricks from one of Australia's most acclaimed pastry chefs.Terry Durack and Jill Dupleix, touted as Australia's most famous foodie couple, have masterfully mapped the last 30 years of Australian wining and dining as two of the industry's best food writers, restaurant critics and cookbook authors. For the sailing, Terry and Jill will be the expert hosts for talks, cooking demonstrations, Q&A sessions and a very special dinner for guests on board Queen Elizabeth between them.Huon Hooke is a leading Australian independent wine writer and critic, writing about wine since 1983. Huon will delight guests with his extensive knowledge of Australian and international wines through a wine masterclass, various talks and wine pairings at special dinners.No stranger to executing some of the industry's best themed event voyages, Cunard's inaugural Great Australian Culinary Voyage will be the first of its kind for the luxury cruise line, celebrating all aspects of Australia's unique food and wine landscape.Departing Sydney on 28 January 2023, the sailing takes in three of Australia's culinary hotspots, sailing to Melbourne and Burnie (Tasmania), before arriving back in Sydney on 2 February.Popular TV Game Show “Deal or No Deal” Comes to Life on New Discovery Princess StageOne of the world's most popular game shows, “Deal or No Deal,” is about to set sail onboard Discovery Princess℠, the newest cruise ship in the Princess Cruises fleet, debuting from Los Angeles on March 27, 2022. This live, hosted experience with high energy, and lots of onboard buzz offers contestants the chance to win prizes ranging from a free cruise to the grand prize of $1,000. “Deal or No Deal” is also available on Majestic Princess®, Regal Princess® and Sky Princess®, with plans to roll out across the fleet.In partnership with TimePlay, an award-winning entertainment company with a deep history of awakening audiences through interactive games, “Deal or No Deal” takes place on the Princess Theater stage of the new Discovery Princess during every voyage. This exhilarating experience offers contestants the chance to play and deal for cash or free cruises in a suspenseful contest of nerves and raw intuition. Guests can play along with their “case card” with a buy in ranging from US$25-$50, as well as be one of two contestants—selected at random—who play live on stage for a chance to win up to US$1,000. Guests in the audience who have purchased a game card are also working towards achieving eight matches to win up to US$1,000 or even a free cruise.Discovery Princess is homeporting in Port of Los Angeles and will sail on a series of Mexican Riviera and California Coast voyages from March 27 – April 24, 2022. She will then head up the Pacific coast to begin a season of seven-day Alaska cruises from Seattle, making her the newest ship sailing in the Alaska region.The Love Boat but not as you know itInspired by the Classic Hit Scripted Series “The Love Boat,” theNew Reality Romance Series Sets Sail on Princess Cruises in the U.S. and Australia in 2022U.S. network CBS and Australian broadcaster Network 10 jointly announced today they have ordered localized versions of THE REAL LOVE BOAT, a reality dating competition series inspired by “The Love Boat,” the hit 1970s scripted series that used Princess Cruises ships as its setting. Production begins summer 2022, and both versions are expected to air in the U.S. and Australia later this year.The “The Love Boat” IP is owned by CBS Studios which, along with CBS and Network 10, are Paramount Global brands.“‘The Love Boat' is a timeless, romantic concept with universal appeal, and we're excited to reimagine this popular series for audiences in two different countries,” said George Cheeks, president and chief executive officer of CBS, and head of global content strategy for Paramount's free-to-air networks, including Network 10. “On the heels of NCIS: SYDNEY, today's announcement is another example of our global franchise strategy to use our rich intellectual property and vast international footprint to develop new content for viewers around the world.”THE REAL LOVE BOAT brings singles together to cruise the Mediterranean on a luxury cruise ship while looking for love. Destination dates, challenges and surprise singles will test the couples' compatibility and chemistry. Like the beloved original scripted series, the indispensable crew members including “captain” and “cruise director” will play pivotal roles in the matchmaking and navigation of the romantic (and sometimes turbulent) waters ahead.After almost a month at sea, only one winning couple will make it to the final port and take home a cash prize plus a once-in-a-lifetime trip courtesy of Princess Cruises, the series' exclusive cruise line partner.CBS and Network 10 are casting for their local versions.Click HERE for CBS casting information.Click HERE for Network 10 casting information. The All-Inclusive Photo Project by Celebrity Cruises Celebrity Cruises is launching a bold new initiative to change the meaning of “all-inclusive” in the travel industry.Recognising the need to improve the representation of all people who travel in marketing materials, the new-luxury cruise line has created both a new campaign and the world's first free to use, ‘open source' travel image library. The campaign and collection – ‘The All-Inclusive Photo Project' (AIPP) – aims to start a movement, calling on travel companies to help address the lack of diversity in travel marketing imagery.The stunning new images were unveiled today and feature the work of acclaimed photographers including: Annie Leibovitz; Giles Duley, an English documentary photographer and a triple amputee; Naima Green, a Black, queer New York-based photographer; and Jarrad Seng, an Australia-based photographer, filmmaker and creative director of Malaysian-Chinese descent.The collection features models, musicians, athletes, artists, advocates and activists, refugees and more, all change-makers in their own right from underrepresented groups, as they enjoy the varied offerings on Celebrity's ships and within the destinations visited.For more information on the photographers and talent featured in the AIPP campaign, consumers can visit www.celebritycruises.com/PhotoProject.Celebrity Cruises will make dozens of the images available via an open-source online library for other travel brands and companies to use to help kickstart their journeys towards more inclusive travel marketing.Disney Wish Reaches Key Milestone After Leaving Meyer Werft Shipyard for Open WaterThe Disney Wish reached another key milestone after nearly two years of construction, leaving the Meyer Werft shipyard on a journey to reach open water for the first time. When it sets sail this summer, the newest Disney Cruise Line ship will be filled with innovative new experiences steeped in Disney storytelling, including the first-ever Disney attraction at sea, immersive dining experiences themed to “Frozen” and Marvel, and a high-end lounge set in the Star Wars galaxy.Oceania Cruises Reveals NEW Solo StateroomsOceania Cruises, the world's leading culinary- and destination-focused cruise line, announced the addition of dozens more dedicated staterooms for solo travellers along with the debut of the line's Go Green and Beyond Blueprints shore excursion concepts as part of its industry-leading OceaniaNEXT initiative.Each of the four ships will feature 14 Solo Oceanview Staterooms, which will debut aboard Regatta on 25 September 2022; Nautica on 26 September 2022; and Insignia and Sirena on 1 October 2022. With the addition of these 56 staterooms, plus those that debuted to a sell-out success on Vista last year, Oceania Cruises is reinforcing its commitment to solo travellers.The line also revealed two new shore excursion concepts – Go Green and Beyond Blueprints – to provide curious travellers with even more options for discovery, exploration, and personal connections with the destinations visited.Go Green Shore Excursions include:Bordeaux Wines and Sustainability: Bordeaux, FranceA Sloth Paradise – Give Back to Nature: Puntarenas, Costa RicaBeyond Blueprint Shore Excursions include:Beyond Blueprints: Copenhagen, Denmark, The Royal Library & The Blue PlanetBeyond Blueprints: Oslo, Norway, Equinor & MunchmuseetNorwegian Jewel returns to Service from Panama City Norwegian Cruise Line, has announced the return to service of Norwegian Jewel, which will be the Brand's first ship sailing from Panama City (Colón), Panama. The fully renovated Norwegian Jewel becomes the 13th vessel in the Company's 17-ship fleet to return to service offering immersive itineraries to Alaska from May through September before homeporting in Panama beginning 24 November 2022. The November voyages will mark the Brand's first time homeporting in the destination from either port – the Colón Cruise Terminal and Fuerte Amador Cruise Terminal in Panama City.Guests on Norwegian Jewel can enjoy numerous amenities including action-packed activities at the outdoor Sports Complex, high energy Zumba® and Flywheel Sports® classes, and multiple uniquely themed bars and lounges, including Bliss Ultra Lounge where guests can dance the night away. Norwegian Jewel, with a guest capacity of 2,376 (double occupancy), also offers some of the largest suites at sea with staterooms that accommodate every style and budget. The ship also offers a Haven Deluxe Owner's Suite that features the most luxurious, well-appointed accommodations on board, including a 24-hour butler service.Through the end of March 2023, Norwegian Jewel will offer a total of eight Panama Canal roundtrip cruises ranging from eight-to-10-day itineraries starting from Colón, the Caribbean side of Panama, and ending in Panama City (Fuerte Amador), the Pacific side of Panama, and vice versa. In addition, the vessel will offer a selection of 12-day open-jaw repositioning voyages that begin or end their sailings in Panama City (Colón), Panama.Coral Expeditions Kicks Off 2022 Kimberley SeasonCoral Expeditions, set sail on their first Western Australian voyages of the 2022 season. The occasion was marked with much excitement for guests and crew on both Coral Adventurer which departed Fremantle for Broome on a 12-night exploration of the Abrolhos and Coral Coast, and Coral Geographer which departed Broome on a 10-night Kimberley cruise. The fleet will be joined by Coral Discoverer in mid-April. This year, there are 50 planned expeditions in the Kimberley and Western Australia, hosting over 3000 guests between March and October, the highest number in the history of the company.Coral Expeditions pioneered small ship expeditions in the region and are renowned as the Kimberley experts with strong local roots, Australian-flagged ships specifically designed for the Kimberley environment and expedition crew with years of local experience.Through the pandemic, Coral Expeditions have operated over 105 successful domestic voyages and paved the way for the Australian cruise industry with their SailSAFE health protocols. Now, with the opening of the Western Australian borders and the entry of the company's cruise ships into the state, sustainable cruise tourism is poised to come back to the Kimberley. The classic Kimberley Cruise is a rite of passage for many who seek to connect with the unique landscapes and rich Indigenous heritage of this remote part of Australia.With the opening of Western Australia's borders and greater confidence in the travel industry, there has been unprecedented demand from Australian travellers for the Kimberley region in recent weeks. In response, Coral Expeditions have added additional capacity to their 2022 season, giving a rare opportunity for guests to secure last-minute berths. This week they have also published their refreshed 2023 rates and launched their full 2024 Kimberley season sailing schedule which is now open for bookings.Aqua Expeditions launch in Ecuador's enchanting Galapagos IslandsKnown for scouting some of the most unique and uncharted corners of the world to set sail, Aqua Expeditions is gearing up to launch their most opulent vessel to date in the breathtaking Galapagos Archipelago, 600 miles off the Ecuadorian coastline.Beginning operations on June 3rd, the stunning seven-suite Aqua Mare will be the first true superyacht to sail the Galapagos, offering guests the most luxurious seat in the house to experience the beauty of this pristine UNESCO World Heritage Site.One of the major drawcards of the Galapagos region is that it is a melting pot of diverse wildlife, flora and fauna, and remains one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world.As you meander through the islands and inlets aboard the elegant Aqua Mare, you'll get up close and personal with some of the rarest species found nowhere else on earth.Magnificent marine iguanas, rare waved Albatrosses, playful sea lions and gigantic sea tortoises are only a few of the vast number of species that guests will encounter.With Aqua Mare's eight-guests to one-naturalist guide ratio, guests receive the most comprehensive discovery of the archipelagos as they cruise through the Isles, taking in the wonders of the fascinating biodiversity with expert knowledge at hand.Guests can choose from 7- and 14-night itineraries that explore both the East and West of the islands, tailoring their experience to be as action-packed or laid-back as they like.Hong Kong reopens for transit travel to the rest of the worldFrom 1 April, transfer and transit services at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) resumes for all passengers flying via Hong Kong to all destinations. In addition, the Hong Kong SAR Government has lifted the flight ban from Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States into Hong Kong.If Hong Kong is your destination, eligibility to enter is open to fully vaccinated Hong Kong residents. The quarantine requirements for returning residents has also eased, with a negative PCR test required 48 hours prior to departure, and quarantine reduced to 7 days.Best April Fools Prank Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines unveils ‘Magical Music of The Beatles' world cruise from Liverpool in 2024Fred. Olsen has today unveiled a brand new world cruise for 2024 celebrating the magical music of The Beatles – including a specially-commissioned yellow submarine to offer tours to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.Fred. Olsen's Journey Planners have come together to hand-craft an itinerary that follows – as closely as possible – in the footsteps of The Beatles when they embarked on their 1964 World Tour, with a call into Copenhagen to mark 60 years since the opening night in the city.More than just day trippers, our guests will find ‘newspaper taxis' waiting ashore to take them on tours to many of the venues played by The Beatles during the famous tour. In addition, in Australia guests will be able to purchase a ticket to ride aboard Fred. Olsen's new submarine – of course, painted yellow and aptly named SS Penny Lane – to witness the Great Barrier Reef.On board, guests will find their very own Cavern Club where they can dance the night away to their favourite Beatles songs, and also a special ‘hill' out on deck – built from Norwegian wood from our homeland – where guests can sit and enjoy scenic sailings and sunsets.The cruise is a celebration of Fred. Olsen's long-standing links to Liverpool, with new ship Borealis homeporting from the city for another year in 2022. The ship will berth almost opposite the statue of the ‘Fab Four' at The Beatles Pier Head.And more... Join the show:If you have a cruise tip, burning question or want to record a cruise review get in touch with us via the website https://thebigcruisepodcast.com/join-the-show/ Guests: Chris Frame: https://bit.ly/3a4aBCg Chris's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisFrameOfficialPeter Kollar: https://www.cruising.org.au/Home Listen & Subscribe: Amazon Podcasts: https://amzn.to/3w40cDcApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2XvD7tF Audible: https://adbl.co/3nDvuNgCastbox: https://bit.ly/2xkGBEI Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/2RuY04u I heart Radio: https://ihr.fm/3mVIEUASpotify: https://spoti.fi/3caCwl8 Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2JWE8Tz Pocket casts: https://bit.ly/2JY4J2M Tune in: https://bit.ly/2V0Jrrs Podcast Addict: https://bit.ly/2BF6LnE Hosted on Acast. 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Being a 5th generation Malaysian Chinese, I'm always very grateful for what my parents and those who came before did for us. Tune in today as me and Lan Nhi, a 2nd generation German Vietnamese, talked about our experiences growing up and how crazy our families are. Also, we have Tyler, here with us too! Enjoy
“Guys get judged as harshly in Asia as women get judged in the West” says globetrotting Malaysian-Chinese comedian and insanely popular social media superstar Nigel Ng. Uncle Roger himself talks diets, six-packs, hairlines, cooking fish in an office microwave, make-up for men, British boozing and Bruce Lee. Nigel’s off on a World Tour - from London to Singapore to Seattle and everywhere else - but his new podcast HAIYAA means he can stay at home with you, so definitely check it out, wherever you got this one. Get in touch and have a great day. And consider leaving a review - and telling your mother. Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our twice-weekly newsletter, packed with stories and useful stuff, at manatomy.co.uk.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ben Chong the coordinator of the Surrender Leadership Program, a space designed for emerging leaders from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. He is also the Director of Blueprint Leadership Coaching, and was a pastor for eight years. Ben is passionate about helping people to become Christ-centred leaders - able to lead themselves and others well, with integrity, sustainability and joy. Ben is a professional Christian leadership coach and has trained in Australia and overseas. He is second generation Malaysian-Chinese and lives on Gubbi Gubbi country (Sunshine Coast) with his wife Chelsea and daughter Hallies and Maya. In this episode Ben and Mitch chat about their mutual love of coaching, the impact that healthy leaders can have on their communities for the long term, and how we can transform ourselves to transform our world. You can connect with Ben at @benjaminjchong on Instagram, and find out more about the Surrender Leadership Program at https://www.surrender.org.au/leader. You can find Blueprint Leadership Coaching at http://www.blueprintleadership.com.au. -- Join the conversation: http://embody.org.au/discord Follow us: http://facebook.com/embodyau http://instagram.com/embodyau Credits: Our theme music is 'Overboard (Instrumental)' by Josh Woodward, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward Used under Creative Commons. We respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters of Australia, and pay respects to elders past and present. We recognise their continuing connections to land, waters, and culture.
Tonight, we unpack Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's controversial remarks on the cultural assimilation of non-Malays in the country. First, we look at the claims he made about the Malaysian Chinese community, and how racial dynamics have shaped our politics. Then, we discuss cultural assimilation in the region, and whether it really ought to be an aspiration for the Malaysian society. Image Source: IZZ HAZEL, Shutterstock
The rare modern contemporary wizards vs lesbians novel, set here and now. It's about a young woman of Malaysian Chinese descent who returns to Penang under difficult circumstances and has to deal, among other things, with the ghost of her grandmother. An extremely solid piece of work: If you have any litfic snobs in your circle, this is the one to break 'em in with.
This week on The Cultural Frontline, Anu Anand looks at how migration and the journeys we take have inspired writers and theatre makers. French author Faïza Guène made a global impact with her first novel Kiffe Kiffe Demain, which was translated into English as Just Like Tomorrow. It shook up the literary scene in France with its humorous portrayal of the lives of immigrants in the deprived suburbs of Paris. Faïza Guène talks about her novel Men Don't Cry and how the French establishment reacted to her ground-breaking debut. Writer Nina Mingya Powles grew up in New Zealand, in a Malaysian-Chinese family, and she now lives in London. Her essay collection, Small Bodies of Water, takes the reader on a personal journey to the places across the globe which have given Nina a sense of belonging and home. In a piece written especially for The Cultural Frontline, Nina reflects on migration and the impact of the journeys we take. After the 2010 earthquake that devastated large parts of Haiti, many Haitians migrated to Chile to build a new life. But Haitians in Chile have faced racism and discrimination, and many have struggled to find work. LETTM, a theatre project in Cartagena, is working with Chilean locals and Haitian migrants. Assistant Director Ramona Suarez explains how they are finding common ground between the communities. Award winning author and journalist Omar El Akkad's new novel tells a harrowing tale of enforced migration. What Strange Paradise focuses on the journey a nine year old Syrian refugee. Omar El Akkad tells The Cultural Frontline how the classic children's story, Peter Pan by JM Barrie, influenced and inspired his writing. Photo: Faïza Guène. Credit: Faïza Guène)
A Mahjong Night of 6 Strangers 六个陌生人的麻将之夜 by YUAN原文链接 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YDg4IUSxmef-NBuy6MLaiw背景音乐 Jake Shimabukuro - Field of GoldsRiddle Apple Podcast https://apple.co/3tl9UBf Riddle 喜马拉雅 https://bit.ly/riddleximalaya Riddle Wechat Blogs https://bit.ly/riddlewechatRiddle Instagram https://bit.ly/riddleinsta Patreon Page https://www.patreon.com/yuanriddle The red lanterns on these foreign streets reminded me that Chinese New Year was coming to this foreign town too. The credits had to be given to the fortunate fact that Chinese culture is one of the many local cultures Malaysia embraces and boasts. Satiated by its renowned cuisines mixed with exotic flavors and immersed in its cultural extravaganza, I almost felt at home in this tropical country I'd fallen in love with. In fact, my love affair with Malaysia started way before I set my foot on this land thanks to one person, Nigel, my Malaysian brother from another mother back in New York.挂在异域街边的红灯笼们一直在提醒着我,这儿也过农历新年。这不得不感谢马来西亚,中华文化只是这个国家自豪拥有的本地文化之一。满足于出了名的马来饮食,浸泡在其文化的盛宴之中,在这个我深爱的热带国家我似乎找到了家的感觉。事实上,我与马来西亚的爱恋早在我来到这儿之前就开始了。这一切都源于一个人,Nigel,我在纽约的亲如兄弟的哥们儿。Zigzagging through quiet alleys in the old yet exotic town of Ipoh, I was targetting some leisure space to read, preferably with a refreshing cocktail in my hand. With that goal driving me and thanks to some local hipsters leading the way, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a speakeasy bar hidden inside the dimly lit alleys. Upon entering Tiga, the speakeasy bar, I could tell from its retro wooden decor and light music that this hidden watering hole had been a soothing haven for many foreign touristy minds and local lost souls before.穿梭在怡保老城弯曲而寂静的胡同中,我在猎寻着一个舒适的地方去读书,最好手里还能有一杯清爽的调酒。就这么被这个目标驱动着,当然也得感谢当地潮人,跟随着他们的步伐,我在胡同深处走进了一家隐藏酒吧。Tiga酒吧灯光昏暗,从他古朴的木质装修和轻柔的音乐我就知道,这个隐蔽的酒馆是很多游客和当地人来放松身心的港湾。1 drink out, a stranger tapped on my shoulder.一杯酒下肚,一位陌生人拍了拍我的肩膀。"How do you like your drink ah?" a Chinese-looking gentleman asked me in English with the local accent, white collars of his shirt bringing out his warm eyes and neat haircut.“你觉得酒怎么样啦~?”一位华人男士用马来英语问道。他的白衬衫衣领衬托出他温暖的眼光和整齐的发型。"It's quite good!" I replied casually yet with reserved respect. "Are you the owner?" “很好喝!”我自然的回答道,稍保留了一些敬意。“你是老板吗?” "No. I'm just like you lah. Anyway, I got some friends over there. You wanna join us or not ah?" “不是的啦,我和你一样啦。嗯,我那边有些朋友,要不要加入我们哩?”At first, I was startled by such a blunt invitation, considering one fact that it was from a total stranger and the other fact that I knew no one within the 1000 km radius. Yet, knowing how inviting Malaysians are and following my nature of trusting strangers, I nipped the party-pooping thought in the bud.被这么赤裸裸的邀请,我一开始有点愣住了,毕竟我在这个城市是一个完全的陌生人,方圆千里之内没有我认识的人。但,深知马来西亚人的热情,我就遵循着自己相信陌生人的本性,早早的把扫兴的念头抛向脑后。It was a gang of friends, 3 guys and 2 girls, plus me. 5 local Malaysian Chinese and 1 Chinese from the motherland. The way David, the gentlemen who invited me to this part, conversed with them made me believe that this place was their regular hangout. Most of our conversations were about comparing young people's lives in both countries and complaining about small things of our motherlands while envying the other's. A typical international bar chat. Of course, they were surprised by how much I knew about Malaysia and amazed by my mastery of Manglish, an English accent spoken only by the locals. I told them all due credits should be given to a Malaysian friend back in New York. I didn't mention Nigel's name though. I had to admit two things: I was showboating a little to prove I was no regular dumb tourist and Nigel had taught me well in Malaysia 101. 一群朋友中有三个男生和两个女生,还有我。5个马来西亚本地华人和1个来自母亲大地的中国人。David,也就是那位邀请我的男士,和其他人交谈甚欢,这让我相信他们一定是这儿的常客。聊天中的大多数时候,我们会比较两个国家年轻人的生活,对自己国家的小事儿发发牢骚,顺便羡慕一下对方。一个很普通的国际青年间的酒吧对话。当然,他们也吃惊于我对马来西亚的了解,还有我以假乱真的马来英语口音。我告诉他们这一切都要归功于一位我在纽约认识的马来兄弟,我并没有提及Nigel的名字。我必须承认两件事:我有点在臭显摆自己不是那种走马观花的游客;还有Nigel在“初学马来”这门课上真的是一个优秀人民老师。2 rounds of drinks helped warm our cheeks and our festive moods. One guy suggested that we go upstairs to play Mahjong together. "Ahhhh, that was where the wooden staircase led to--a secret Mahjong room," my inner voice said. 两圈儿酒后,我们的节日气氛和我们微红的脸蛋一样暖了起来。有人提议我们上楼去打麻将。“啊,原来如此。那个楼梯上面是个秘密麻将屋。”我内心独白道。Nothing, I mean, nothing could top gambling in working up the festivity during Chinese New Year and Mahjong is the most popular of all gambling games across all China towns. However, over the years, I mainly busied myself with munching homemade delicacies and counting how many red packets I got. I never gave the good old game a serious try. Besides, its complicated changes of rules in different locales demoralized me even more. But, 3 drinks in my stomach, being in a different country, 5 strangers as my buddies, Chinese New Year. In a scene like this, man, I'd never wanted to try Mahjong so bad in my life.在提高新年气氛上,没有,我强调,没有任何东西能够超越赌博,而麻将是所有中国城最为人津津乐道的游戏。然而,这么多年以来,我一直都是忙着往嘴里塞山珍海味,数数今年我拿了多少红包,从来没有好好学过麻将。而且,麻将在不同的地方规则都不一样,这更打击了我的学习积极性。但是,刚干了三杯美酒,身处异国他乡,五个陌生人做我的靠背,还是农历新年,怎么着,我也得来整两圈儿麻将。So we 6 tipsy bodies wobbled up the stair, entered a dark room, and arranged ourselves around the table of beige Mahjong tiles. Normally, Mahjong is a game of 4 players, but in Malaysia, it's a game of 3. To make the maths even more friendly to us, among us 6, 3 were rookies like me and 3 female old-timers in the gambling world. So each student was paired with a master to learn the game.就这样,六个微醺的身体晃晃悠悠的走上了楼梯,走进了一个黑暗的房间,在摆满米黄色麻将牌的桌旁随便的坐了下来。通常,麻将是个四人游戏。但是在大马,是三人一局。恰巧的是,我们六人中有三人是像我一样的新手,另外三位是搓麻高手,所以我们每个新手配备了一名麻将老师。The rest of the night was linguistically chaotic, yet in the most culturally enlightening way.那天晚上,麻将桌上,七嘴八舌,多种语言,群英荟萃。这一文化之夜,让我茅塞顿开。Even though English was the common tongue among us, we all spoke different languages on the Mahjong table. My master, a short-haired girl with a slight tan, was well versed in Mandarin. She could've had fooled me to believe that she was from northern China since she spoke the "er" sound--only northerners add "er" at the end of some words-with panache. Later, I found out that she had received lots of mainland Chinese customers in Malaysia. The pair sat to our right-hand side were talking vehemently in English as they were "the banana people", local Chinese who didn't know how to speak their ancestral tongue. To our left-hand side, a more flamboyant dialect of Chinese, Cantonese, became their lingua franca in explaining the rules of the game.虽然英语是我们所有人的通用语,我们在麻将桌上都操着不同的语言。我的师傅,短发,美黑的皮肤,说的是很标准的普通话。她的口音绝对把我唬住,以为她是国内的北方人,因为她的儿化音——只有中国北部方言才会在一些词后面加上儿化音——老地道了。后来我才知道她经常和大陆的客户打交道。坐在我右边的一对在用英语说得热火朝天,因为他们是“香蕉人”,这是指那些已经不会说他们祖先的语言的本地华人。而在我们左边能听到的是猴赛雷的广东话。Just like that, 3 different languages spoken together, 2 countries, 3 or 4 drinks downed, 1 major and common holiday around the corner, we 6 happy gamblers spent such a culturally festive night together like old buddies from high school.就像这样,三种不同的语言,两个国家,几杯美酒下肚,一个即将到来的重大节日,我们六个开心的赌徒就像高中的老玩伴一样,欢度了这一文化盛宴之夜。We bade farewell to each other around 3 am. It wasn't until then did I realize that these 5 Malaysian locals who I thought were old friends just met each other that night as well. 大概凌晨三点左右,我们打烊收摊,准备告别。直到临别之际,我才发现这五个马来本地人也是刚刚认识,并不是像我之前以为的那样是一群老友。 And 2 months later, on Facebook, David, the guy who approached me at the bar, commented on one of my posts, "It WAS a small world. The guy who taught you Malaysia was Nigel? My high schoolmate Nigel???"两个月后,在脸书上,那个在酒吧和我打招呼的David在我发的一张照片下面评论道:“世界真小哈。关于马来西亚,教你那家伙是Nigel?我的高中同学Nigel???”
A Mahjong Night of 6 Strangers 六个陌生人的麻将之夜 by YUAN原文链接 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YDg4IUSxmef-NBuy6MLaiw背景音乐 Jake Shimabukuro - Field of GoldsRiddle Apple Podcast https://apple.co/3tl9UBf Riddle 喜马拉雅 https://bit.ly/riddleximalaya Riddle Wechat Blogs https://bit.ly/riddlewechatRiddle Instagram https://bit.ly/riddleinsta Patreon Page https://www.patreon.com/yuanriddle The red lanterns on these foreign streets reminded me that Chinese New Year was coming to this foreign town too. The credits had to be given to the fortunate fact that Chinese culture is one of the many local cultures Malaysia embraces and boasts. Satiated by its renowned cuisines mixed with exotic flavors and immersed in its cultural extravaganza, I almost felt at home in this tropical country I'd fallen in love with. In fact, my love affair with Malaysia started way before I set my foot on this land thanks to one person, Nigel, my Malaysian brother from another mother back in New York.挂在异域街边的红灯笼们一直在提醒着我,这儿也过农历新年。这不得不感谢马来西亚,中华文化只是这个国家自豪拥有的本地文化之一。满足于出了名的马来饮食,浸泡在其文化的盛宴之中,在这个我深爱的热带国家我似乎找到了家的感觉。事实上,我与马来西亚的爱恋早在我来到这儿之前就开始了。这一切都源于一个人,Nigel,我在纽约的亲如兄弟的哥们儿。Zigzagging through quiet alleys in the old yet exotic town of Ipoh, I was targetting some leisure space to read, preferably with a refreshing cocktail in my hand. With that goal driving me and thanks to some local hipsters leading the way, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a speakeasy bar hidden inside the dimly lit alleys. Upon entering Tiga, the speakeasy bar, I could tell from its retro wooden decor and light music that this hidden watering hole had been a soothing haven for many foreign touristy minds and local lost souls before.穿梭在怡保老城弯曲而寂静的胡同中,我在猎寻着一个舒适的地方去读书,最好手里还能有一杯清爽的调酒。就这么被这个目标驱动着,当然也得感谢当地潮人,跟随着他们的步伐,我在胡同深处走进了一家隐藏酒吧。Tiga酒吧灯光昏暗,从他古朴的木质装修和轻柔的音乐我就知道,这个隐蔽的酒馆是很多游客和当地人来放松身心的港湾。1 drink out, a stranger tapped on my shoulder.一杯酒下肚,一位陌生人拍了拍我的肩膀。"How do you like your drink ah?" a Chinese-looking gentleman asked me in English with the local accent, white collars of his shirt bringing out his warm eyes and neat haircut.“你觉得酒怎么样啦~?”一位华人男士用马来英语问道。他的白衬衫衣领衬托出他温暖的眼光和整齐的发型。"It's quite good!" I replied casually yet with reserved respect. "Are you the owner?" “很好喝!”我自然的回答道,稍保留了一些敬意。“你是老板吗?” "No. I'm just like you lah. Anyway, I got some friends over there. You wanna join us or not ah?" “不是的啦,我和你一样啦。嗯,我那边有些朋友,要不要加入我们哩?”At first, I was startled by such a blunt invitation, considering one fact that it was from a total stranger and the other fact that I knew no one within the 1000 km radius. Yet, knowing how inviting Malaysians are and following my nature of trusting strangers, I nipped the party-pooping thought in the bud.被这么赤裸裸的邀请,我一开始有点愣住了,毕竟我在这个城市是一个完全的陌生人,方圆千里之内没有我认识的人。但,深知马来西亚人的热情,我就遵循着自己相信陌生人的本性,早早的把扫兴的念头抛向脑后。It was a gang of friends, 3 guys and 2 girls, plus me. 5 local Malaysian Chinese and 1 Chinese from the motherland. The way David, the gentlemen who invited me to this part, conversed with them made me believe that this place was their regular hangout. Most of our conversations were about comparing young people's lives in both countries and complaining about small things of our motherlands while envying the other's. A typical international bar chat. Of course, they were surprised by how much I knew about Malaysia and amazed by my mastery of Manglish, an English accent spoken only by the locals. I told them all due credits should be given to a Malaysian friend back in New York. I didn't mention Nigel's name though. I had to admit two things: I was showboating a little to prove I was no regular dumb tourist and Nigel had taught me well in Malaysia 101. 一群朋友中有三个男生和两个女生,还有我。5个马来西亚本地华人和1个来自母亲大地的中国人。David,也就是那位邀请我的男士,和其他人交谈甚欢,这让我相信他们一定是这儿的常客。聊天中的大多数时候,我们会比较两个国家年轻人的生活,对自己国家的小事儿发发牢骚,顺便羡慕一下对方。一个很普通的国际青年间的酒吧对话。当然,他们也吃惊于我对马来西亚的了解,还有我以假乱真的马来英语口音。我告诉他们这一切都要归功于一位我在纽约认识的马来兄弟,我并没有提及Nigel的名字。我必须承认两件事:我有点在臭显摆自己不是那种走马观花的游客;还有Nigel在“初学马来”这门课上真的是一个优秀人民老师。2 rounds of drinks helped warm our cheeks and our festive moods. One guy suggested that we go upstairs to play Mahjong together. "Ahhhh, that was where the wooden staircase led to--a secret Mahjong room," my inner voice said. 两圈儿酒后,我们的节日气氛和我们微红的脸蛋一样暖了起来。有人提议我们上楼去打麻将。“啊,原来如此。那个楼梯上面是个秘密麻将屋。”我内心独白道。Nothing, I mean, nothing could top gambling in working up the festivity during Chinese New Year and Mahjong is the most popular of all gambling games across all China towns. However, over the years, I mainly busied myself with munching homemade delicacies and counting how many red packets I got. I never gave the good old game a serious try. Besides, its complicated changes of rules in different locales demoralized me even more. But, 3 drinks in my stomach, being in a different country, 5 strangers as my buddies, Chinese New Year. In a scene like this, man, I'd never wanted to try Mahjong so bad in my life.在提高新年气氛上,没有,我强调,没有任何东西能够超越赌博,而麻将是所有中国城最为人津津乐道的游戏。然而,这么多年以来,我一直都是忙着往嘴里塞山珍海味,数数今年我拿了多少红包,从来没有好好学过麻将。而且,麻将在不同的地方规则都不一样,这更打击了我的学习积极性。但是,刚干了三杯美酒,身处异国他乡,五个陌生人做我的靠背,还是农历新年,怎么着,我也得来整两圈儿麻将。So we 6 tipsy bodies wobbled up the stair, entered a dark room, and arranged ourselves around the table of beige Mahjong tiles. Normally, Mahjong is a game of 4 players, but in Malaysia, it's a game of 3. To make the maths even more friendly to us, among us 6, 3 were rookies like me and 3 female old-timers in the gambling world. So each student was paired with a master to learn the game.就这样,六个微醺的身体晃晃悠悠的走上了楼梯,走进了一个黑暗的房间,在摆满米黄色麻将牌的桌旁随便的坐了下来。通常,麻将是个四人游戏。但是在大马,是三人一局。恰巧的是,我们六人中有三人是像我一样的新手,另外三位是搓麻高手,所以我们每个新手配备了一名麻将老师。The rest of the night was linguistically chaotic, yet in the most culturally enlightening way.那天晚上,麻将桌上,七嘴八舌,多种语言,群英荟萃。这一文化之夜,让我茅塞顿开。Even though English was the common tongue among us, we all spoke different languages on the Mahjong table. My master, a short-haired girl with a slight tan, was well versed in Mandarin. She could've had fooled me to believe that she was from northern China since she spoke the "er" sound--only northerners add "er" at the end of some words-with panache. Later, I found out that she had received lots of mainland Chinese customers in Malaysia. The pair sat to our right-hand side were talking vehemently in English as they were "the banana people", local Chinese who didn't know how to speak their ancestral tongue. To our left-hand side, a more flamboyant dialect of Chinese, Cantonese, became their lingua franca in explaining the rules of the game.虽然英语是我们所有人的通用语,我们在麻将桌上都操着不同的语言。我的师傅,短发,美黑的皮肤,说的是很标准的普通话。她的口音绝对把我唬住,以为她是国内的北方人,因为她的儿化音——只有中国北部方言才会在一些词后面加上儿化音——老地道了。后来我才知道她经常和大陆的客户打交道。坐在我右边的一对在用英语说得热火朝天,因为他们是“香蕉人”,这是指那些已经不会说他们祖先的语言的本地华人。而在我们左边能听到的是猴赛雷的广东话。Just like that, 3 different languages spoken together, 2 countries, 3 or 4 drinks downed, 1 major and common holiday around the corner, we 6 happy gamblers spent such a culturally festive night together like old buddies from high school.就像这样,三种不同的语言,两个国家,几杯美酒下肚,一个即将到来的重大节日,我们六个开心的赌徒就像高中的老玩伴一样,欢度了这一文化盛宴之夜。We bade farewell to each other around 3 am. It wasn't until then did I realize that these 5 Malaysian locals who I thought were old friends just met each other that night as well. 大概凌晨三点左右,我们打烊收摊,准备告别。直到临别之际,我才发现这五个马来本地人也是刚刚认识,并不是像我之前以为的那样是一群老友。 And 2 months later, on Facebook, David, the guy who approached me at the bar, commented on one of my posts, "It WAS a small world. The guy who taught you Malaysia was Nigel? My high schoolmate Nigel???"两个月后,在脸书上,那个在酒吧和我打招呼的David在我发的一张照片下面评论道:“世界真小哈。关于马来西亚,教你那家伙是Nigel?我的高中同学Nigel???”
A Mahjong Night of 6 Strangers 六个陌生人的麻将之夜 by YUAN原文链接 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YDg4IUSxmef-NBuy6MLaiw背景音乐 Jake Shimabukuro - Field of GoldsRiddle Apple Podcast https://apple.co/3tl9UBf Riddle 喜马拉雅 https://bit.ly/riddleximalaya Riddle Wechat Blogs https://bit.ly/riddlewechatRiddle Instagram https://bit.ly/riddleinsta Patreon Page https://www.patreon.com/yuanriddle The red lanterns on these foreign streets reminded me that Chinese New Year was coming to this foreign town too. The credits had to be given to the fortunate fact that Chinese culture is one of the many local cultures Malaysia embraces and boasts. Satiated by its renowned cuisines mixed with exotic flavors and immersed in its cultural extravaganza, I almost felt at home in this tropical country I'd fallen in love with. In fact, my love affair with Malaysia started way before I set my foot on this land thanks to one person, Nigel, my Malaysian brother from another mother back in New York.挂在异域街边的红灯笼们一直在提醒着我,这儿也过农历新年。这不得不感谢马来西亚,中华文化只是这个国家自豪拥有的本地文化之一。满足于出了名的马来饮食,浸泡在其文化的盛宴之中,在这个我深爱的热带国家我似乎找到了家的感觉。事实上,我与马来西亚的爱恋早在我来到这儿之前就开始了。这一切都源于一个人,Nigel,我在纽约的亲如兄弟的哥们儿。Zigzagging through quiet alleys in the old yet exotic town of Ipoh, I was targetting some leisure space to read, preferably with a refreshing cocktail in my hand. With that goal driving me and thanks to some local hipsters leading the way, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a speakeasy bar hidden inside the dimly lit alleys. Upon entering Tiga, the speakeasy bar, I could tell from its retro wooden decor and light music that this hidden watering hole had been a soothing haven for many foreign touristy minds and local lost souls before.穿梭在怡保老城弯曲而寂静的胡同中,我在猎寻着一个舒适的地方去读书,最好手里还能有一杯清爽的调酒。就这么被这个目标驱动着,当然也得感谢当地潮人,跟随着他们的步伐,我在胡同深处走进了一家隐藏酒吧。Tiga酒吧灯光昏暗,从他古朴的木质装修和轻柔的音乐我就知道,这个隐蔽的酒馆是很多游客和当地人来放松身心的港湾。1 drink out, a stranger tapped on my shoulder.一杯酒下肚,一位陌生人拍了拍我的肩膀。"How do you like your drink ah?" a Chinese-looking gentleman asked me in English with the local accent, white collars of his shirt bringing out his warm eyes and neat haircut.“你觉得酒怎么样啦~?”一位华人男士用马来英语问道。他的白衬衫衣领衬托出他温暖的眼光和整齐的发型。"It's quite good!" I replied casually yet with reserved respect. "Are you the owner?" “很好喝!”我自然的回答道,稍保留了一些敬意。“你是老板吗?” "No. I'm just like you lah. Anyway, I got some friends over there. You wanna join us or not ah?" “不是的啦,我和你一样啦。嗯,我那边有些朋友,要不要加入我们哩?”At first, I was startled by such a blunt invitation, considering one fact that it was from a total stranger and the other fact that I knew no one within the 1000 km radius. Yet, knowing how inviting Malaysians are and following my nature of trusting strangers, I nipped the party-pooping thought in the bud.被这么赤裸裸的邀请,我一开始有点愣住了,毕竟我在这个城市是一个完全的陌生人,方圆千里之内没有我认识的人。但,深知马来西亚人的热情,我就遵循着自己相信陌生人的本性,早早的把扫兴的念头抛向脑后。It was a gang of friends, 3 guys and 2 girls, plus me. 5 local Malaysian Chinese and 1 Chinese from the motherland. The way David, the gentlemen who invited me to this part, conversed with them made me believe that this place was their regular hangout. Most of our conversations were about comparing young people's lives in both countries and complaining about small things of our motherlands while envying the other's. A typical international bar chat. Of course, they were surprised by how much I knew about Malaysia and amazed by my mastery of Manglish, an English accent spoken only by the locals. I told them all due credits should be given to a Malaysian friend back in New York. I didn't mention Nigel's name though. I had to admit two things: I was showboating a little to prove I was no regular dumb tourist and Nigel had taught me well in Malaysia 101. 一群朋友中有三个男生和两个女生,还有我。5个马来西亚本地华人和1个来自母亲大地的中国人。David,也就是那位邀请我的男士,和其他人交谈甚欢,这让我相信他们一定是这儿的常客。聊天中的大多数时候,我们会比较两个国家年轻人的生活,对自己国家的小事儿发发牢骚,顺便羡慕一下对方。一个很普通的国际青年间的酒吧对话。当然,他们也吃惊于我对马来西亚的了解,还有我以假乱真的马来英语口音。我告诉他们这一切都要归功于一位我在纽约认识的马来兄弟,我并没有提及Nigel的名字。我必须承认两件事:我有点在臭显摆自己不是那种走马观花的游客;还有Nigel在“初学马来”这门课上真的是一个优秀人民老师。2 rounds of drinks helped warm our cheeks and our festive moods. One guy suggested that we go upstairs to play Mahjong together. "Ahhhh, that was where the wooden staircase led to--a secret Mahjong room," my inner voice said. 两圈儿酒后,我们的节日气氛和我们微红的脸蛋一样暖了起来。有人提议我们上楼去打麻将。“啊,原来如此。那个楼梯上面是个秘密麻将屋。”我内心独白道。Nothing, I mean, nothing could top gambling in working up the festivity during Chinese New Year and Mahjong is the most popular of all gambling games across all China towns. However, over the years, I mainly busied myself with munching homemade delicacies and counting how many red packets I got. I never gave the good old game a serious try. Besides, its complicated changes of rules in different locales demoralized me even more. But, 3 drinks in my stomach, being in a different country, 5 strangers as my buddies, Chinese New Year. In a scene like this, man, I'd never wanted to try Mahjong so bad in my life.在提高新年气氛上,没有,我强调,没有任何东西能够超越赌博,而麻将是所有中国城最为人津津乐道的游戏。然而,这么多年以来,我一直都是忙着往嘴里塞山珍海味,数数今年我拿了多少红包,从来没有好好学过麻将。而且,麻将在不同的地方规则都不一样,这更打击了我的学习积极性。但是,刚干了三杯美酒,身处异国他乡,五个陌生人做我的靠背,还是农历新年,怎么着,我也得来整两圈儿麻将。So we 6 tipsy bodies wobbled up the stair, entered a dark room, and arranged ourselves around the table of beige Mahjong tiles. Normally, Mahjong is a game of 4 players, but in Malaysia, it's a game of 3. To make the maths even more friendly to us, among us 6, 3 were rookies like me and 3 female old-timers in the gambling world. So each student was paired with a master to learn the game.就这样,六个微醺的身体晃晃悠悠的走上了楼梯,走进了一个黑暗的房间,在摆满米黄色麻将牌的桌旁随便的坐了下来。通常,麻将是个四人游戏。但是在大马,是三人一局。恰巧的是,我们六人中有三人是像我一样的新手,另外三位是搓麻高手,所以我们每个新手配备了一名麻将老师。The rest of the night was linguistically chaotic, yet in the most culturally enlightening way.那天晚上,麻将桌上,七嘴八舌,多种语言,群英荟萃。这一文化之夜,让我茅塞顿开。Even though English was the common tongue among us, we all spoke different languages on the Mahjong table. My master, a short-haired girl with a slight tan, was well versed in Mandarin. She could've had fooled me to believe that she was from northern China since she spoke the "er" sound--only northerners add "er" at the end of some words-with panache. Later, I found out that she had received lots of mainland Chinese customers in Malaysia. The pair sat to our right-hand side were talking vehemently in English as they were "the banana people", local Chinese who didn't know how to speak their ancestral tongue. To our left-hand side, a more flamboyant dialect of Chinese, Cantonese, became their lingua franca in explaining the rules of the game.虽然英语是我们所有人的通用语,我们在麻将桌上都操着不同的语言。我的师傅,短发,美黑的皮肤,说的是很标准的普通话。她的口音绝对把我唬住,以为她是国内的北方人,因为她的儿化音——只有中国北部方言才会在一些词后面加上儿化音——老地道了。后来我才知道她经常和大陆的客户打交道。坐在我右边的一对在用英语说得热火朝天,因为他们是“香蕉人”,这是指那些已经不会说他们祖先的语言的本地华人。而在我们左边能听到的是猴赛雷的广东话。Just like that, 3 different languages spoken together, 2 countries, 3 or 4 drinks downed, 1 major and common holiday around the corner, we 6 happy gamblers spent such a culturally festive night together like old buddies from high school.就像这样,三种不同的语言,两个国家,几杯美酒下肚,一个即将到来的重大节日,我们六个开心的赌徒就像高中的老玩伴一样,欢度了这一文化盛宴之夜。We bade farewell to each other around 3 am. It wasn't until then did I realize that these 5 Malaysian locals who I thought were old friends just met each other that night as well. 大概凌晨三点左右,我们打烊收摊,准备告别。直到临别之际,我才发现这五个马来本地人也是刚刚认识,并不是像我之前以为的那样是一群老友。 And 2 months later, on Facebook, David, the guy who approached me at the bar, commented on one of my posts, "It WAS a small world. The guy who taught you Malaysia was Nigel? My high schoolmate Nigel???"两个月后,在脸书上,那个在酒吧和我打招呼的David在我发的一张照片下面评论道:“世界真小哈。关于马来西亚,教你那家伙是Nigel?我的高中同学Nigel???”
Fyiona Yong chats with Aaron Pang on how to manage generational diversity and work through differences. After a 14-year successful career at Shell, a Malaysian Chinese who grew up in Germany named Fyiona told her dad she wanted to leave her job and pursue something of her own. Her father said to her at lunch, "why do you millennials all like to chase after your dream!" Fyiona was intrigued by the question. Through this discovery and conversation, she found out the crazy adventure that her father once did when he was 19 years old.Fyiona is an intergenerational leadership coach. She works with leaders and young talents to help them understand each other better. Different generations have more similarities than you think. Are we listening to understand or listening to respond and give advice? About Transformative Purpose Every week we speak to some of the world's most successful leaders and unsung heroes about what each and every one of us can do differently to make a better world. Our mission is to help you relearn and rediscover to become a better future-self. Follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, InstagramSupport the show
Khim Teoh, mastermind chef at SEASONS KITCHEN USA has a passion to share the exciting culinary delights from his home country, Malaysia. His secret recipe of well known South East Asian (S.E.A.) dishes are Crispy Skin Roast Pork, Barbecue Pork Belly, Hainan Chicken, Nasi Lemak Chicken Curry, and Beef Rendang. The special spices are specially imported from Malaysia making Seasons Kitchen the only place you can enjoy this delicious cuisine. His dream is to make the Malaysian Chinese cuisine a part of Southern California food culture! Co-Owner and wife Khim Teoh loves to share her gift and passion for music with her customers. She offers free beginner ukulele lessons by appointment and entertains her diners with songs sung from her heart to nourish their souls. She also leads the front of the house to share the warm Malaysian hospitality that she grew up with. You can also request for Khim to sing at your catering event. Khim is also a volunteer teacher at a non-profit school for blind children in Whittier, Academy of Music for the Blind (www.ouramb.org) To learn more about the Enabled Disabled Project and how you can get involved, please visit: https://www.enableddisabled.com/contribute --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/enableddisabled/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/enableddisabled/support
Kim-Joy is best known for her turn on The Great British Bake Off. Her birthday falls on World Baking Day, which she takes as the surest sign there can be that she was born to bake. Born in Belgium to an English father and Malaysian–Chinese mother, she grew up in London, studied in both Bristol and Leeds, and now lives in Leeds with her partner. She has an open attitude to all styles of baking, loving rustic baking just as much as she loves creating cute bakes with an emphasis on detail. But her story is a little more complicated than you might think—she's an advocate for mental health whose life has taken many turns. Kim-Joy on IG: @kimjoyskitchen You can listen and subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform https://bit.ly/ShesAWomanPodcast If you wanna support the show, and get all the episodes ad free go to https://shesawoman.supercast.tech/. If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/ShesAWomanPodcast. Thanks to our sponsor: Check out Apostrophe! We have a special deal for our audience: Save $15 off your first visit with a board-certified dermatologist at apostrophe.com/MIZ when you use our code: MIZ. This code is only available to our listeners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Chinese community throughout the world is vast, diverse and nuanced. Overseas Chinese and those from China share many cultural traits, but as you may expect, there are certainly differences between us. In this episode, I sit down with my friend Adele Du, who is from China, and talked about our similarities and differences. We also touched on the migration of Chinese people to Malaysia, Peranakan/Baba Nyonya culture, dialects and accents, as well as Malaysian Chinese idols in China.
Ciao! Diasporahood is back and we are building conversation within the African Diaspora and beyond. Today I'm joined by my friend and activist Tyler Lum, who is Malaysian Chinese and White American. In this conversation, we start with what it meant to graduate in the midst of a Global Pandemic and Tyler highlights how this impacted his identities. Talking about identity, he also shares what he means for him navigating his identity as a mixed-race person born in Asia and raised in the US. What are the similarities and differences with my identity as an Afroitalian? In this episode, we also tackle some difficult conversations from #StopAsianHate to whether there are tensions between the Asian and African Diaspora and we can come together. We will chat about how Asian men are perceived within Western Society and the joys and challenges of activism. Enjoy x
Peter Ho Davies, the 2017 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for fiction, joins The Asterisk* to discuss how racism and stereotypes play into the notion of a model minority, what it's like being a professor – in the midst of a pandemic – and his next book. Davies grew up in Coventry, England, the son of a Welsh engineer and a Malaysian Chinese dentist. His first novel “The Welsh Girl,” longlisted for the Booker Prize, explores questions of Welshness. He sees his second novel, “The Fortunes”, as “examining the burdens, limitations and absurdity of Asian stereotypes.” “The Fortunes is a boldly imagined work of fiction in which historic figures—Chinese, Chinese-American, ‘white'—come to an astonishingly vivid, visceral life through the power of Peter Ho Davies's prose,” writes Anisfield-Wolf juror Joyce Carol Oates. She went on to contend that it bends genre and race in ways that make it “a prophetic work in 2017.” Little did she know just how prescient it would turn out be… Davies sat down with The Asterisk* in June of 2020 from his home in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he lives with his wife, Lynne Raughley, and son, Owen. He is a professor of creative writing in the English Language & Literature department at the University of Michigan, and his latest novel, “A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself," came out in January of 2021.
Trauma Resolution- what is it? Can we ever be fully resolved of our trauma? The key may lie in the connection you hold to your body and its truth. My guest this week is an incredible expert in the field of somatic trauma healing, Denise Chang. Denise is a queer enby femme, somatic trauma resolution guide, and co-creator of consensual culture- a community collective and relational healing ecology for trauma resolution and QTBIPOC liberation. Denise is an immigrant of Malaysian-Chinese decent, who came to the U.S. at age 21 to attend college. After experiencing the American culture of self expression and sexuality, Denise discovered repressed trauma and shame in her heart that would lead her to learning more about how she could learn to trust herself as she uncovered layers leading to her true self. The discovery of the layers of protection around her heart due to the conditioning and messaging she received around her identities gave Denise the clue she needed to begin exploring the spiral path through the parts of herself that needed more love, more attention, to simply be met and held. This journey took Denise deep into the realms of somatic trauma healing where she learned that when the conditions are safe enough for us to express, our bodies respond and we can find deep healing and authenticity. In this week’s episode, Denise brings her wisdom of somatic trauma resolution, spiritual embodiment and the uncanny ability to sense systems of oppression that exist within our culture and relational field to light.
Geoff Ong is a Malaysian-Chinese singer/songwriter, producer, photographer, videographer, and giant nerd, based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. In this episode, we talk about Geoff's background, him getting a scholarship to go to Berklee, synchronicity, the music industry, being open to opportunity and more. @geofffong / geoffong.com ☕️ SUPPORT the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/asianinaotearoa FOLLOW @asianinaotearoa on IG VISIT asianinaotearoa.com ___ ABOUT THE PODCAST Asian in Aotearoa (New Zealand) explores the lives of Asian creatives in their 20s and 30s, one uncensored convo at a time. Questioning our concept of home, identity, family, relationships, sex, racism, body/beauty, healing, decolonisation, navigating whiteness - and how this shapes the way we move through the world and influences our creative work. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/asianinaotearoa/message
You may have heard of the “big Italian wedding” but you probably haven't heard about the game show-esque activities that occur before Chinese weddings! In this episode, Annie and Cheyenne recount the crazy traditions they upheld while living in Asia. They go through all the nuances and differences between Vietnamese-Chinese holidays and Malaysian-Chinese traditions! Warning: you may get very hungry listening to this episode! Follow us on Instagram @barelyadulting.podEmail: thebarelyadulting@gmail.comSlip Silk Hair Ties: https://www.slip.com/collections/hair-accessoriesLogitech K380 for Mac Keyboard: https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Multi-Device-Wireless-Bluetooth-Keyboard/dp/B0876MVKQCLogitech Pebble M350 Mouse: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/m350-pebble-wireless-mouse.htmlYongpeng Style: https://youtu.be/W3bR7BJvfhU
Fraser is a New Zealander, born to an Australian mother and a Malaysian-Chinese father. In his twenties he made an unconventional switch from pursuing professional rugby to the learning and teaching of Qigong. He shares what prompted his transition away from competitive sports, what life lessons he gained from Qigong, and what exactly is qi(chi).
Hi there Jack! Jack Lam (They/Them, He/Him) is a passionate about queer/trans advocacy and mental health. Jack has experience with crisis intervention and suicide prevention work, education around gender identities and experiences, and intergroup dialogue facilitation. Through their Instagram, they also commonly share helpful, easy-to-digest guides and reflections to help us all be better advocates and allies. Jack's work is informed by their identity as a queer, non-binary Malaysian Chinese person. They aim to help shape a society that is more willing to embrace and celebrate the queerness in us all. Currently, they are a Clinical Social Work graduate student and Trauma Fellow at the University of Houston. In this episode, we have an authentic conversation revolving around identity and allyship. Jack shares their journey to finding their passion in trauma therapy, their preconceived notions about the states growing up in Malaysia, and the actualizations they had once moving here. We share with them our frustration that arises when trying to converse with friends and family who may have differing opinions and Jack gives us tips to instead create a constructive dialogue rooted in empathy and patience. We also discuss the harmful impact of societal gender norms and why it is imperative we work to dismantle them so that space can be created for everybody to be valued. Jack's instagram has been such a helpful resource for the three of us as we educate ourselves in anti-racism work and navigate authentic, sustainable allyship. We encourage everybody to check out their account after listening to this episode! We also chat about: The importance of local elections Learning vs. unlearning Understanding the range of coping mechanisms Resources: Instagram: @jacklamlj (www.instagram.com/jacklamlj) Mentioned: The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez
Our Kitchen, Dining Hall, Restaurant, Hangout snack joints, even salad bars need dose of creativity. Did you know that an attractive plate can actually makes your food taste better? Proven by an Oxford University UK professor named Charles Spence. He found that even the simplest of meals can be made to look more appetizing, but even more flavorful and nutritious depending on your presentation skills and garnishes. If you have ever associated healthy eating with bland, boring meals, you will appreciate the creative tips highlights of Ms Lizy Limiadi. You do not have to be an art pro or artistic curator to deliver creatively presented appetizing dishes. It's just the foundation of successful catering career and viable sustainable eat out place. For more tips especially for orient food Creativity by Gloria Teo, a Malaysian Chinese station Manager for Asia on WeradionLine on anchor.fm send your enquiry to wemtonglo@gmail.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/enterpriseafrica/message
Welcome to Week 13 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I am recording from my kitchen table today, for a change of scenery. It's a little windy outside, so you may hear the gentle tinkling of the wind chimes right outside my front door throughout this episode. This week features the last PAIR of women: our fire and water twins, Feu and Sui. Their supernatural story about parallel worlds and elemental powers was written by Jessie Jing, with gorgeous illustrations by Marah Ali.A lot of the Wise Not Withered stories are set in reality, or at least a realistic world. Something really special about Feu and Sui's story is that there are actually two worlds: the living world of Earth, and the parallel spirit world of Etern. Jessie will talk more about this later in the episode.In terms of plot, the Fire and Water Twins' story was perhaps the most bare-boned idea I had at the beginning. I just knew that I wanted there to be twins that had fire and water powers. That idea sparked from the plethora of natural disasters that have been happening in the United States: raging fires in the west (where I live), and devastating hurricanes in the east. I thought about how it would be great if someone could take all the water from the other side of the country and bring it here to the west coast. I started to imagine two middle-aged women floating high in the sky, bringing all the water over there to over here. And that's really all the thoughts I had about these characters!Jessie brought such a depth to the twins, coming up with their names and the idea of being cast into parallel worlds. I'm amazed at just how broad Jessie's creative spectrum extends: she is arguably one of the most multi-talented artists on the team so far, not only excelling in writing but also dancing and choreography. I was so happy to hear back from her.The story of Feu and Sui is definitely fit for a video game: it starts with a narrator named Vide, inviting the reader/player to learn about the twins and help reunite them, to bring balance to the world. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the story:"They need to be reunited in order for the world to be in balance once again...Hello, my name is Vide. I am the answer to all that is unknown, which shall be revealed soon. What we will need to do first, however, is reunite the twins in order for the world to be in balance once again. Will you help me?I will tell you the story of Feu and Sui, and you can be the judge of whether or not you will help me in this journey of reuniting the twins..."Jessie and I collaborated on the rest of the story, bringing her ideas of Feu and Sui's past and rooting them into current-timeline scenarios. The ending is purposefully left open-ended, which I will read at the end of the episode.—The illustrator I found for these characters was Marah Ali from Jordan, whom I discovered through Behance. I was really drawn to the realistic details and colors she used for the portraits she had on her page. She was such a joy to work with!Both of the artists involved in the creation of these characters' story and illustrations got involved in the Podcast this time, so without further ado, here is the illustrator, Marah!"Hi, my name is Marah Ali. I'm a studio artist and animator from Jordan. The projects that I'm most proud of are probably two animated music videos that I've done for a local band that I'm a huge fan of. My experience with Wise Not Withered was extremely nice. I had so much fun drawing the fire and water twins. The story was extremely creative, extremely beautiful—I was blown away when I first read it. I got so excited. I tried to make the characters as magical and beautiful as they were in the story. I was also happy that I was given enough creative space to work with my own style. Juliana was such a sweetheart. Illustration by Marah AliI also joined Wise Not Withered because the concept of empowering middle-aged women is extremely important, yet we're always saying on TV, how we should empower young women, and children. We don't talk much about empowering middle-aged women, though it's extremely important. I think that most middle-aged women that I know of are superheroes to me. So I would love if my art might empower any of them. Make them more confident, or might put a smile on their faces when they see middle-aged women with super powers.I also would love to be a storyteller with my art. So telling stories with my own art. So that's one of the reasons that I joined Wise Not Withered. It was a very, very awesome experience."And here is the writer, Jessie!"Hi! My name is Jessie, and I am currently living in London. I am Malaysian Chinese, and I am a dancer and writer. I largely within the contemporary dance scene, and currently studying my master's in choreography. So I'm an all-around creative!I work a lot with writing and text as well, for my dance projects, and vice versa. With writing, I like to work with flow and movement, so both sides of my artist identity informs the other. I'm actually publishing a book, so the launch date is the 28th of February. It's a poetry collection I've written nearly three years back. It's called Manuscripts of the Mind. Publishing with the Ghost and Ribbon, which is an independent publisher. So a little plug there!It's interesting, with this [story]. One of my biggest influences in narratives and story telling is actually Harry Potter. Even Lord of the Rings, although reading-wise, when I was younger I was much more affinitised with Harry Potter. I loved the magical world that it created. I read a lot of Jacqueline Morrison's books as well, and Roald Dahl. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda... These are books that I hold dear in my heart. So I think naturally, when it came to this project... To write about the twins, Feu and Sui, I naturally gravitated toward creating a world. Creating, really opening the imagination, and going really supernatural, with magical abilities.It's also quite a theme that goes across my projects, where I like to create a narrative, create a different space and world for whoever's reading—or watching, if it's for my dance projects.So Feu and Sui are twins. They are elemental twins basically, fire and water. The name Feu is French for fire, and Sui is the Romanization of the Cantonese pronunciation of water. I really like to play with language! It talks about them being in... General background is that they're long-lost twins. Not in the sense that they're lost in one single world, but actually parallel worlds. Sui is in a world "Etern", like a supernatural world, and it's parallel to the Earth that we live in. For Feu, she has supernatural abilities that she is kind of aware of but not, but she's much more in the sort of normalcy of Earth. The story jumps off that point.They're separated from birth. Basically there's a long, deeper story to it. But in the womb, what happened was Feu was the surviving twin, and Sui unfortunately wasn't. But she never truly disappeared, but went into the parallel world of Etern. The story would eventually lead to their meeting, and it would cast the world off balance should their meeting not happen. So yeah, it's quite a dramatic story! (laughs) This is where we start.Obviously, Feu and Sui individually can... Well more Sui, because Sui is aware of her elemental powers. They can manipulate their elements: Feu is for fire, and Sui is for water. And this is the overarching storyline of the story.So like I mentioned, I am very into the whole creation of a different world, hence why Etern is introduced. Should this be a longer extended project, Etern would come into play a lot more. My love for creating worlds and narratives really influenced this creation of a different supernatural, elemental world, and the parallelism of the worlds in this universe. Illustration by Marah AliIn terms of culture... A theme that happens a lot throughout my projects is that I love to play with the notion of duality. Hence the parallelism of the worlds, in that what we see is never what we really... It's not always the only truth. There are many different truths and also many different existences. I wouldn't pinpoint it to a particular culture, but definitely there's this sort of belief of dual or multiple realities. Maybe it's much more science, in that sense? There are many different influences. But definitely my interest in creating a magical, different world is the biggest influence.I joined the Wise Not Withered project because I really liked what it stands for. The notion that you know, middle-aged and above, senior-aged women are very under-represented across the board, whether it's commercially or even day-to-day in jobs. There is this culture of casting elders aside, perhaps they are not aesthetically fitting to the demands of the commercial society. I feel that is not true: there is so much that the senior ages can offer. Their wisdom, their power, their strengths are so underrated. This is a big reason as to why I joined. And also because I was raised by my mom, she's a single mother. She obviously will grow older as well. As a younger generation, I hope to carry her legacy as a wise, older woman. So beautiful in her heart, inside and out, and pass that on, really.I would say to a fellow woman... It's been on my mind always, but especially lately, because I've been working in collaborative projects and we've had lots of chats... To stand strong and be confident for other women, and your fellow artists. And to be proud of them... It's so satisfying. It makes you feel so wholesome, as both a person and an artist. I feel the world can get very competitive at times, and we cannot let this culture of competitiveness make us lose our very innate empathetic and supportive nature.Thank you for having me! I really enjoyed this experience in Wise Not Withered, really really enjoyed this experience. I hope to you know, see more artists and writers all across disciplines come together for such projects. And thank you Juliana. Such a great initiative. I really hope for the best for this initiative to go further and further in the future. Thank you!"—And here is how the story ends:"This is where you come back in, friend. Feu has fallen and now is precariously treading on the thin line between the living Earth and Etern. On Earth, one can be alive with land-dwelling beings, and feel the warmth of the sun on human skin, complete with human emotions. In Etern, there is no warmth but that which lies within your spirit. Elemental powers are active and heightened in Etern.Now, dear friend, two options lie at this fork in the road. What shall Feu and Sui do?1) Feu blacks out, her lungs filling with water. Sui gently touches her hand, and Feu begins to glow red. Just as the life force returns to Feu’s motionless body, Sui is catapulted out of the water and onto the pier. Her first time out of the water, Sui stays on the ground for a few seconds, crouching down and feeling the sturdy wooden logs of the pier beneath her toes and fingertips. She glances down at the water below, then tilts her head up toward the clouds and the brilliant sun, whose cascading rays nearly bring Sui to tears.“My sister... Where am I? Is this the place where you have lived all this time? I must find you, and bring you back... To Earth.”This route would follow Sui on Earth and Feu in Etern, and their adventure in trying to get Feu back onto Earth. 2) Sui catches Feu, and quickly breathes a flurry of bubbles that flutter across Feu’s face, magically clearing the water out and repelling it from her lips and nostrils. Feu opens her eyes, and the two women stare at each other. Without a word, they embrace, their elemental hair burning and flowing together in an intricate dance. They separate and look at one another once more. Feu marvels at her sister’s electric blue hair, slivers of silver shining like the moonlight and stars. Sui admires her sister’s fiery smoke and ember red and grey hair, dancing like flames even though they are underwater.This route would follow Feu and Sui both in Etern, and their adventure in trying to get both of them back onto Earth.The choice is yours, dear friend. Go with your gut feeling, and choose the path that speaks to you."—Stay tuned for more Wise Not Withered Character Showcases, releasing nearly every Sunday, sometimes Monday, until mid-2020!
Malaysian Chinese literature is undergoing a new renaissance. Postdoctoral fellow at the Australia National University, Show Ying Xin, joins us this week to discuss the recent global attention that Mahua literature has been receiving.
Malaysian Chinese literature is undergoing a new renaissance. Postdoctoral fellow at the Australia National University, Show Ying Xin, joins us this week to discuss the recent global attention that Mahua literature has been receiving.
For artist Sean Lean, the past is made up of contradicting cultures that sit, sometimes oddly, next to each other - coming from a “traditional” Malaysian Chinese upbringing, his childhood memories are made up of everything from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, to Lord of the Rings, TVB dramas to American sitcoms. Drawing on these, Lean presents “M2”, a series of works that merge the sensibilities of Chinese bedtime stories with comic books. We speak with Lean about the series.
For artist Sean Lean, the past is made up of contradicting cultures that sit, sometimes oddly, next to each other - coming from a “traditional” Malaysian Chinese upbringing, his childhood memories are made up of everything from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, to Lord of the Rings, TVB dramas to American sitcoms. Drawing on these, Lean presents “M2”, a series of works that merge the sensibilities of Chinese bedtime stories with comic books. We speak with Lean about the series.
Lianna BrindedLeila is joined by Lianna Brinded - Head Of Yahoo Finance UK.IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT· The recent launch of Lianna’s ‘Global Change Agents’ programme, where she has been interviewing leaders of her choosing, from CEOs to Heads of D&I· Lianna’s mixed cultural background (she is half-Malaysian/Chinese on her mother’s side) and the time she spent abroad during her childhood· The importance of not following a set viewprint as a leader and instead taking great tips and using them to forge your own path· Lianna’s belief that more inclusive environments can in turn lead to a more joyful and productive environment· The intersectionality of diversity: age, ethnicity, gender, neurodiversityRESOURCES & INFORMATION MENTIONEDhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/liannabrinded/
FWEP0009 Never give up with Carrie Lee Sze Kei Miss Chinese Cosmos International Carrie Lee Sze Kei is a Malaysian Chinese actress, model, and businesswoman. 李诗琪 won for her home country, Malaysia in Hong Kong and won the prestigious title of Miss Chinese Cosmos International 2004.
Today, we explore the erhu, a bowed string instrument with Jin Yue, the chief erhu instrumentalist with China National Traditional Orchestra. Jianhao, a Malaysian Chinese who learns erhu in Beijing, shares with us his love and dream for Erhu.
As part of Canada 150, a week of programmes marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of the nation, Michael Berkeley talks to Canadian novelist Madeleine Thien. Born in Vancouver, she is the daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants to Canada and her writing explores the history of the Asian diaspora. She is the author a short story collection 'Simple Recipes' and the novels 'Certainty', 'Dogs at the Perimeter' and 'Do Not Say We Have Nothing' -about musicians studying Western classical music at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s and about the legacy of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Scotiabank Giller Prize 2016 and the Governor General's Award 2016. Her books and stories have been translated into 23 languages. Madeleine talks to Michael about the history of Western of classical music in China and its suppression during the Cultural Revolution. Countless instruments were destroyed, including more than 500 pianos at the Shanghai Conservatory. The bravery of its director, He Luting, a Debussy scholar, in resisting the Red Guards was an inspiration to her as she wrote the book and she chooses a piece of his music. She tells Michael how her love of music was reborn as she listened to Bach whilst writing Do Not Say We Have Nothing, and we hear Bach's music played by the Chinese pianist Zhu Xiao Mei. She also chooses music from fellow Canadians Glenn Gould and Leonard Cohen. Producer: Jane Greenwood A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3 CANADA 150: a week of programmes from across Canada, marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of the nation and exploring the range and diversity of Canadian music and arts.
Dr. Tay is a first-generation immigrant to a Malaysian-Chinese father who had his PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Michigan and was a research scientist for over 15 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and a Filipino mother who has her master’s in social work and specializes in Alzheimer’s and dementia care for the elderly. … Continue reading Episode 34: How a Yale-Trained Physician Takes Things to the Next Level →
On the 12th episode of Win Your Own Personal Olympics Podcast my guest this week is my close friend and “half-sister”, Alicia Tang. Alicia Tang is the head physiotherapist for the English National Women’s Football team. Born in Melbourne, she is part Australian and part Malaysian Chinese, with a master’s degree in Sports Physiotherapy and[...] The post WYOPO 012: Alicia Tang – Head Physiotherapist with The English National Women’s Football Team appeared first on Sean Wroe - Olympian now Finance Broker.
This week's show features more interviews from the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. We talk with actor Rainn Wilson, author of a new memoir, The Bassoon King, and with Malaysian Chinese writer Mei Fong, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and the author of One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment. We also talk with LARB Senior Humanities Editor Sarah Mesle about the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. Featuring Tom Lutz, Laurie Winer, and Seth Greenland. Produced by Jerry Gorin. The LARB Radio Hour airs Thursdays at 2:30pm on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.
Andrea Bachner‘s wonderfully interdisciplinary new book explores the many worlds and media through which the Chinese script has been imagined, represented, and transformed. Spanning literature, film, visual and performance art, design, and architecture, Beyond Sinology: Chinese Writing and the Scripts of Culture (Columbia University Press, 2014) uses the sinograph as a frame to look closely at the relationships between language, script, and media and their entanglements with cultural and national identity. In a structurally meticulous and brilliantly articulate guide through the corpographies, iconographies, sonographies, allographies, and technographies of her study, Bachner introduces fascinating cases that span Malaysian-Chinese literature, film, Danish architecture, Mexican fiction, “Martian Script,” and the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This reader came away from Bachner’s book wonderfully inspired, thinking of writing in a completely new way and with a mental basket brimming with new things to read and watch. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andrea Bachner‘s wonderfully interdisciplinary new book explores the many worlds and media through which the Chinese script has been imagined, represented, and transformed. Spanning literature, film, visual and performance art, design, and architecture, Beyond Sinology: Chinese Writing and the Scripts of Culture (Columbia University Press, 2014) uses the sinograph as a frame to look closely at the relationships between language, script, and media and their entanglements with cultural and national identity. In a structurally meticulous and brilliantly articulate guide through the corpographies, iconographies, sonographies, allographies, and technographies of her study, Bachner introduces fascinating cases that span Malaysian-Chinese literature, film, Danish architecture, Mexican fiction, “Martian Script,” and the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This reader came away from Bachner’s book wonderfully inspired, thinking of writing in a completely new way and with a mental basket brimming with new things to read and watch. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Debut novelist, Yangsze Choo turns her pen to the rare yet fascinating custom among Malaysian Chinese of spirit marriages, where the living are married to the dead to placate a restless ghost. We travel to the late nineteenth-¬century Malaya through the eyes of the highly relatable Li Lan, a poor but spunky young woman, who is approached by the wealthy family of a dead man to become his bride. Is coffee necessary to keep us healthy? New research indicates that a cup of java may relieve dry eyes, reduce the symptoms of Parkinson's, and protect against certain cancers. In Health Matters, Heather Brittany grinds some beans to give us the perks of drinking the joe. Health care benefits are expanding through President Obama's Affordable Care Act. This month every state will have a health insurance marketplace where consumers can shop for coverage. AARP magazine provided an inside look at the possibilities, which Cynthia Brian recaps in this segment.
Madeleine Thien wanted to be a writer at a very young age. The daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants, she has published short stories and novels about the immigrant experience in Canada. Her latest novel is "Dogs at the Perimeter".