Chris Tse | Curator Asia

The act of writing can be an excavation – it allows us to uncover and examine the what and why of how we got to where we are. This isn’t always an easy exercise, particularly when forces beyond our control have done their best to bury our lives and stories as deep as possible.

For this series, which borrows its name from the xúngēn movement in contemporary Chinese literature, I wanted to give Asian writers and creatives a space to talk openly about our joy and anger on our own terms, without being asked to do the heavy lifting that is so often expected of us in predominantly white spaces. This is our radical act of celebrating our narratives, of ensuring that the roots we have put down allow future generations to prosper.

Please note that this is an introduction for our 2023 curators - not an event.