Universal Cultures

This piece was created by interviewing a student of social work and through the interview I have created a piece of fiction inspired by their answers.  I. Relationship I never wanted a relationship in the first place, I’m young, I’m studying, I’m not really looking for someone. But then he came along, the man of my dreams … at least that’s the crap they tell you and what you should be looking for. I thought he was perfect, you know? As perfect as one could be. Dark hair, tanned and dark eyes, average height so he wasn’t the conventional ‘dark, tall and handsome’ but he was good enough for me! He made me happy, he bought me flowers and treated me with respect like the way I deserved.  Of course, things fuck up, and things always fuck up. He left me with nothing but a post-it note. This is why I never wanted to date, this is why I never wanted to be with another man. Woman who lies with another man, that is an abomination. Though who knows if that’ll change. Who knows i...

Think of a character from your own cultural background. Figure out their basic characteristics: age, gender, education, marital status, social values. Write a creative piece (fiction/poem) in their voice. How do they sound? How does their 'background’ manifest in their voice?  I set out a little descriptor for this character for myself as well as what it had above.  Name: Meliton Tailor Age: 20 Gender: male Education: current University student (science)  Marital status: single Social values: socially liberal (women have rights, LGBTQ+ people have rights, immigrants have rights, etc.) Economically conservative (wants there to be lower taxes, no big government spending, etc.) University When they said that they were going to go to University, so many people had an opinion “Why are you just now enrolling into University?”  “You won't be with people your age” “You'll be stuck in school your whole life!”  These are people that did...

When you write, what do you consider 'pure’ or 'authentic’ about your cultural background (including 'Aussie’ culture, mixed heritage, hybrid backgrounds etc.) That need explanation? How do you think ‘cultural contamination’ has informed your writing practice?  This piece is a look at my grandpa and how he has shaped my cultural background. A rough draft as it is, it's at 988 words a bit over the 500 - 800-word count.  My grandpa is a weird guy, he's honestly a trooper I tell you. Every year he'll tell us it's his last year with us that he’ll die sometime this year, but each year he comes back and he says the same thing. He'll tell random people his life story, anyone who'll listen to him really. But he's strong on tradition and I think that's where I get it from, he's quite Australian, as Australian you can get. Of course, he's not dressed up head to toe in gear of the flag or the fact that he's a white Australian (s...

What's your understanding of Hong Kong? What has been your explore to it? Food? Language? Movies? Is it China? Is it NOT China? I don't have much experience of Hong Kong, though when I think of this, I actually do - more specifically regarding media. My first love (maybe bang it down a few notches after writing, video games and my partner) is movies. I've always loved the stories that movies can tell, and if you want my top 5 movies, well let me know (Snowpiercer, The Winter Soldier, I Killed My Mother, Big Hero 6 and Train to Busan - not in that order). Looking at Wikipedia's article "List of films set in Hong Kong", I realise how many films I've seen that are set in Hong Kong. Of course, these films are made by foreign markets but somehow relate to Hong Kong. They all are:  Rush Hour series (a childhood favourite) (1998 - 2007) Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) The Dark Knight  ...

What kind of research do you think is necessary if you're to write outside your experience? Everything. You should research everything that you can. Even if it's something you already know, RESEARCH! Research every small tiny thing, because what happens if you fuck up? Or there's a major plot hole in the situation or the person? Just research! I mean it's simple enough said, right? Research. That's it, and yeah maybe you can live by that ideology for as long as you want but I don't think it's that simple. I mean, research something you don't know but want to know. I do that even if I'm not writing about it, I mean, the amount of Wikipedia articles in my history is amazing (I usually go into fixations of things at a certain time, a lot of the time its school shootings and it's not because I want to do one, (I'm very anti-gun if that helps my case) but the psychology of the killers are interesting).  Though I believe that if you wr...

What do I culturally take for granted in my writing? In my writing, I don't think about the different gestures or the different ways that one character might act depending on where they're from. My character from my novel Leaving Limbo  Mathias Laurent (who I previously spoke about in ' Writing people who aren't you ' blog post) is French, like I mentioned in the post, but I write him as I feel like he would act and I don't think about how different French people are from me. But he's also lived in America since he was 14 (he's 27 now) so he would still have American tendencies. I also have a character in the same novel named Hana Rhee, who is Korean, specifically from South Korea, and she's lived there until she died (at the age of 21) of course unlike Mathias, Hana lived in the future so her mannerisms may or may not be different to the Koreans of the 21st century. Much like another character I have in this novel who is from 19th century Austr...

Mother " Two will do grab your keys find your peace if you will allow, make a single sound - out with it. " I never knew how much of an impact Mum would have on me. She died when I was 33, a woman born of English culture but survived a journey here to Australia. It's been over ten years since she's been gone and I can't even remember much of her. I do imagine how she could see me now, what she'd say or how she'd react to certain things in my life. Would she react to my two failed marriages in shame or would she be happy? I was able to do something, twice, that she wasn't able to do once. It's been peaceful. But the sense of peace recedes as I fish the keys out from the box and open up the door to her old house. Renters have been in it for years and I've had no reason to go back. There is a new doormat and the front door creaks even more than it used to but it still feels all too familiar. It still feels like her house. I need the...

Polyglot /ˈpɒlɪɡlɒt/ adjective               1.  knowing or using several languages. noun                 1.  a person who knows and is able to use several languages. Polyglot is a person who knows more than one language. Which is what I believe I am, maybe not a fluent polyglot but I know words. I'm currently studying Italian, I don't have any familia who are Italian, I myself come from a mostly Anglo-Saxon background (Mum is British/Australian with her family from England but she's a first generation Australian, Dad is Australian with his family from Australia, Grandpa likes to tell me that I'm part French, German, Irish and Scottish. Basically, I'm white).  It's not like I wanted to learn Italian to connect with my Nonna, I began learning in year seven at my first high school and I picked up the language quite easily compared to Indonesian, a language I could only count u...

Let me first say I am a white person. So my opinion may or may not be valid, I personally believe that people should write about anyone if there isn't malicious intent behind it. I'm 100% behind the notion that if you only write about people like yourself (i.e. the characters in your world are ethnically, sexually, gender-ally (not a word but okay) etc. all the same, but more so if your character showcases majority groups and no minority groups), your works would be boring. We wouldn't have a lot of great works if it wasn't for people writing outside their race and gender, hell even our species! A.A. Milne wrote about fictional stuffed toys that have spanned for generations in film, tv, books and video games.  Though, the one place where I will say 'no you shouldn't write about this' is if there is a malicious intent behind it - that's where I will draw the line because it's not cool. Many writers aren't doing it with that intent, but s...

Differences between people are important in surviving. Today's politics tend to showcase that anyone is different  is an enemy of the state. Australia is widely influenced by American culture, our current political standard is often trying to relate itself to Americanism, where our political leaders want many American policies in effect, as well as many of the white nationalists who have come up to rise due to the rise in American politics. People are different. And we all view people differently, it's in human nature. Regarding politics, the idea of someone from another culture often relies on the alien and often relies on the idea that because they're not from the same religious, cultural or national group as us, then they must be weird, stupid or something worst (this usually refers to the realm of discriminatory slurs). The main man of the world, Donald Trump, spoke about the 2017 Charlottesville riots and mentioned that there were "some very fine people on b...

In collaboration with Carynn Lai, I created a piece of fiction from interviewing her and gaining inspiration from her answers.  Word count: 779 “Why are you a dolphin trainer if you want to be a chef?” Delphinus, my friend, asks me. I finish pulling all the fish into the barrel for the dolphins to eat. I shrug my shoulders not really knowing how else to answer that. He rolls his eyes and moves off of the blue plastic chair we have out back. He walks up to me and puts his arm around my shoulder. “This place doesn’t offer anything you want, you need to go out there and grab it by the balls!” he says. I look at him with a roll of my eyes. “If I wanted to be a chef, you think I’d stay here this long?” I ask him. “Oh come on Maeen, you know as much as I do how much you want to be a chef. Why are you here in this place of all places, if you want to be a chef?” He asks. “Because Delph,” I begin my onslaught onto my friend, “I need money. Being a dolphin trainer ranks in that mo...