Dr Michelle Aung Thin reveals how Gordon Luce’s Burmese collection is helping her imaginatively recreate the vanished world of the wealthy, cosmopolitan and colonial city of Rangoon for her new semi-autobiographical novel.
My grandparents had stayed behind. I never met them. In fact none of my family has ever been allowed back. I was the first one to return. So why did I go? I was quite reluctant to go for a really long time, but really I was so keen to know about the place where I had been born. And what I found was society in total transition.
Public Seminar Series: Narrating my story as a member of multicultural society
Narrating one’s own experience is a significant act of empowerment for a person with multicultural backgrounds. However such narrative is often listened to as a story of ‘ethnic minorities’, not as that of fellow citizens co-dwelling in society. Featuring three acclaimed creative writers, this seminar discusses the ways in which migrant or diasporic stories are addressed as a member of society and received without being reduced to ‘their’ stories.
