The Open Door UK

S01E16: Sue Cheung is an award-winning children's author with her debut novel, Chinglish, winning the Diverse Book Awards. 

In this episode we talk about her relationship with illustration and writing, an exploration of a childhood in the takeaway, and the difficult choices she made in her early adulthood. 

Timestamps: 

(1:18) Sue’s new book, Maddie Yip: A Guide to Life

(5:21) Why illustrate and write children’s literature?

(7:16) Process of children’s literature creation

(8:09) Where do quality characters come from? Imagination vs. Reality?

(9:26) Journey since the launch of debut novel, Chinglish

(15:19) Relating to dilemmas in literature

(16:03) Attitude towards initial reluctance to tell personal story

(19:10) Chinglish excerpt

(19:55) Parents’ negligence towards children’s education

(24:24) Parents’ reaction to pregnancy

(29:52) Doubt about decision to move away from son

(31:40) The Chinese takeaway being passed down

(37:38) Relationship with Hong Kong

(43:39) Immigrant parents influencing own parenting

(49:38) Advice to her son that she never got growing up

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Our Socials:

S01E14: Chloe Kwok is a multi-instrumentalist composer working at a video game company, Rare Ltd. She has composed soundtracks for the game Sea of Thieves, a first-person multiplayer action-adventure game. She is incredibly down to earth and had us laughing throughout the episode!

S01E13: This is a conversation with Dr Hanifi Baris, a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen with a Kurdish Armenian identity. He practised as a Lawyer in Istanbul, Turkey, for around 8 years working closely with Human Rights. And before his current post as a researcher he worked at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as a legislative consultant.

In this episode we talk about his childhood growing up in Turkey, a place hostile to the Kurdish identity and undermining its right to exist. We also discuss the Kurdish Political Philosophy as the population does not have a permanent state of its own. As a person from a cultural group that straddles four countries - a minority everywhere - I ask him at the end what “Home” and “belonging” means to him personally.

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Timestamps 

(1:09) Childhood relationship with Kurdish Armenian Identity

(8:38) Thoughts on modern Kurdistan

(22:45) Accepting identity at university

(28:39) "Identity becomes salient when attacked"

(32:27) Subtle cultural signifiers that betray “otherness”

(41:08) Relationship between different Kurdish minorities

(45:03) Movement of people between the Kurdish Borders

(50:59) Kurdistan’s deliberate and reactive statelessness

(1:04:11) Where is “home” for you?

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Dr. Hanifi's paper on Kurdish deliberate and reactive statelessness: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348634497_THE_KURDS_A_HISTORY_OF_DELIBERATE_AND_REACTIVE_STATELESSNESS_1

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Our Socials:

S01E12: Tayo Rockson still remembers what happened on Aug 22nd 2012.

He was dissatisfied with his job in a city he didn’t want to live in. Driving to work another car cut him off, forcing him to swerve into the road guard, and flipping his car onto its side.

He was left with no serious injuries. But this brush with harm or death stirred up an existential crisis, “Who am I? What have I done with my life?”

Now, nine years on, he is the CEO of UYD Management, a cross-cultural consultancy firm. He is the host of a successful cultural podcast, As Told By Nomads, where it’s on its 570th episode. And, he’s also been invited to do three TED Talks… in one year!

As a Nigerian, he has lived in four continents, five countries. He is now based in New York.

S01E11: "The ultimate sense of belonging is to yourself", says Jasmine Lo, an advertising/marketing strategist. 

S01E010: Kyle Yip is nearing the end of sixth form with his eye on studying Politics and Philosophy at Cardiff University. His aspirations are to become a politician and journalist in the future, breaking the cycle by representing British Chinese in these areas. 

He took part in the 2019 BBC Young Reporters Competition where he submitted a report investigating on exactly that: Why the British Chinese are underrepresented in Politics? It was broadcasted on BBC Radio 5 where he also got a chance to interview MP Alan Mak, the first person of Cantonese and East Asian origin to be elected to the House of Commons.  

In this episode, we explore the politics and journalism as well as Kyle's relationship with his own cultural identity. 

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Timestamps

(00:55) Project for BBC 2019 Young Reporters Competition

(4:33) Reason for not doing Politics at A-Level

(20:03) Negative judgement for wanting to be journalist/politician

(22:52) Motivation for starting a political career

(23:41) What policies would you change if in power?

(25:34) Unaware of HK’s WW2 perspective

(27:09) Interest in war reporting

(31:04) Cultural conflict and identity crisis

(38:20) Identity make-up – values and principles

(40:25) Personal goals to achieve before one dies?

(41:45) Outro

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Our Socials:

Email: opendoorpodcastuk@googlemail.com

S01E09: Journalist and writer, Lu-Hai Liang, joins us for this conversation!

He has written for The Guardian, BBC News, New Statesman, The Atlantic, and many more. And in 2014, without securing an editorial commission, he travelled anyway to the hermetic and dangerous North Korea, to search for a story.

We explore his journalism background and, also, break down the concept of cultural identity.

Lu-Hai's writing: https://theluhai.com

Here is Lu-Hai's book recommendation: https://www.waterstones.com/book/nothing-to-envy/barbara-demick/9781847081414

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Timestamps: 

(00:45) North Korean Trip

(6:22) Any dangers of returning to North Korea?

(11:27) Reflection of his own North Korean report

(13:46) Writing about Cultural Identity in the public and private sphere

(18:51) People asking us where we are from in our homes abroad

(28:17) “I travel to find myself” – our views towards this platitude of self-discovery

(32:30) Getting into Journalism

(40:49) Advice for aspiring journalists and writers

(44:13) Outro

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Our Socials:

Email: opendoorpodcastuk@googlemail.com

S01E08: Dr. Danlu Wang joins us for the eighth episode! For her PhD thesis she took her research to another level: she became her young British Chinese participants' Chinese teacher to not only gain access to the school she needed, but to bond with them on a deeper level to understand their lives and perspectives.  In this episode, we talk about how her cultural research and motherhood changed her own view of cultural identity.  

Timestamps:  (00:51) Western Media portrayal of China and its influence on identity (6:50) Defence mechanisms in school to avoid discrimination (10:03) School’s strategies to comfort ethnic minority children (14:38) Her children opening up (16:51) Motherhood and doctoral research: influences on Identity (25:47) The end goal of having an Identity (34:12) Differing factors in Identity formation (36:32) British Chinese subculture’s existence (49:26) Advice for younger British Chinese finding identity (51:01) Reflection 

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S01E07: We are joined by Dan Parsons. A British-Japanese composer that studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with Anthony. Since then he has moved to Osaka to teach English. He compares living in Japan with visiting there as a tourist, as well as making Japanese friends and his university experience.

Timestamps:

(00:37) Moving to Japan

(05:43) Sense of belonging in Japan

(10:08) Discrimination in the UK as mixed race

(14:24) How do you see your cultural identity? 

(23:54) The value of a university degree

(38:52) Wishing your parents pushed you harder 

(43:05) Moving back to the UK

(43:46) Advice for people emigrating to study or live

(45:17) Reflection

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S01E06: We are joined by Emma Yee - a British-born Chinese architectural studies student at UCL. She tells us about her childhood growing up above a takeaway, her experience moving to Hong Kong and her dissertation which discusses the difference between a domestic place and a business place - what factors separate the two and why are they needed?

Timestamps:

(2:08) Emma fitting in in Hong Kong

(5:21) Anthony fitting in in Korea

(9:01) Not having to pretend to be something we’re not

(11:52) Responsibility of passing down culture to future generations

(16:06) Emma’s architectural studies project

(23:13) Chinese takeaway/Fish & Chip Shop

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Emma’s Socials:

S01E05: This week, we speak to Johnny Luk - a British-Chinese political advisor. In 2019, he campaigned for the conservative seats at the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency. Currently, he’s the governor of the University for Creative Arts.

Johnny has given two TEDx Talks before which you can watch here:

S01E04: Joining us is Tracy Yunting Truong - a British-born Chinese-Vietnamese English teacher in Japan. Her project, @abritishasianstory on Instagram, hosts a lot of very colourful and intricate artworks that illustrate stories and experiences of multicultural people growing up in the UK. She has created a platform where British Asians can connect with each other and strengthen our identities - something we are also trying to accomplish with this podcast.

If you want to read more about her, her medium page is at:

S01E01: Joining us for the first ever episode of the Open Door podcast is Reverend Mark Nam - one of the first British-born Chinese priests in the Church of England. Originally a lawyer, he was recently ordained at Bristol cathedral in late 2020.

We discuss the following topics:

00:01:10 - Being one of the first British Born Chinese priests in the Church of England

00:13:02 - Theology Degree

00:19:30 - Experience in a Religious Role

00:23:37 - Transition from Law to Religion

00:34:05 - On Bible Interpretation

00:40:33 - Dealing with cultural identity throughout life

00:49:18 - What did your calling feel like?

00:53:25 - CARG (COVID-19 Anti-Racism Group)

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