Links to mull over.
May. 9th, 2009 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jolantruhere.
Quotes:
"The problems facing female sff&h writers in south-east Asia are, however, much bigger than one of gender balance. The major problem is one of relevance. How relevant is sff&h perceived to be, to the life of the average Asian? At the moment, the answer is — I'm afraid to say — not at all. And just to finish off back in my local neck of the woods, Malaysia and Indonesia are both predominantly Muslim countries (total population close to 250 million), with a Muslim distaste for anything that detracts from a religious and pious life, coupled with a less than enlightened attitude to women (regardless of what the Koran may actually say). It is no surprise that I have found a fatwa against both reading and writing fiction of any kind. The region has a long way to go."
"There are several writing classes on offer in Singapore, but they concentrate on memoir-type writing. Malaysia, suffering from decades of neglect of the English language, doesn't even get that far. Fantasy and science-fiction are considered frivolous, except in the realm of
children's books."
China Mountain Zhang.
Philippines Speculative Fiction.
Quotes:
"The problems facing female sff&h writers in south-east Asia are, however, much bigger than one of gender balance. The major problem is one of relevance. How relevant is sff&h perceived to be, to the life of the average Asian? At the moment, the answer is — I'm afraid to say — not at all. And just to finish off back in my local neck of the woods, Malaysia and Indonesia are both predominantly Muslim countries (total population close to 250 million), with a Muslim distaste for anything that detracts from a religious and pious life, coupled with a less than enlightened attitude to women (regardless of what the Koran may actually say). It is no surprise that I have found a fatwa against both reading and writing fiction of any kind. The region has a long way to go."
"There are several writing classes on offer in Singapore, but they concentrate on memoir-type writing. Malaysia, suffering from decades of neglect of the English language, doesn't even get that far. Fantasy and science-fiction are considered frivolous, except in the realm of
children's books."
China Mountain Zhang.
Philippines Speculative Fiction.
