Release date: 22 May 2023
Dancing to the gongs of the South China Sea (PDF) is an unfinished piece that’s a work-in-progress, a culmination of works explored in an 8-week creative writing class with Sharon Bakar’s Words on Fire to “Finding the Flow”. I’m immensely grateful and thankful for Sharon’s guidance and the sharing sessions from my fellow classmates. Enjoy this piece.
Spoilers – Please read this after you’ve read the piece, not before. Here’s a little backstory to how I came about to this tale. I was inspired by a series of uncannily unplanned events:
* First, I started reading the Booker Prize winner, “Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” by Sri Lankan in Singapore, Shehan Karunatilaka.
* Then for some reason, AI or what not, Netflix suggested a Japanese series for me to watch, “Why didn’t I tell you a million times?”
* I loved this picture of the two boys in Sarong and their bubu fishing traps, so selected this from Sharon’s Pinterest for a piece 2 weeks back.
* I thought I’d try a genre I’ve hardly done – Sci-fi / mystery / romance / horror.
* I was at a baby shower for my cousin’s daughter and her father-in-law Mr. Duong and his wife. They met and fell in love in Malaysia at a refugee camp. Duong told me how his boat of 25 people broke into pieces 3-hours after they left shore, and they floated on wooden boards to land in Terengganu. After many years of waiting, they were accepted to be resettled in Australia. Their resilience is unimaginable! I’m so in awe of them. After much research, I was enlightened about an island named Bidong in the East Coast of Terengganu, a.k.a. Hell Isle.
* I love sotong sumbat!!!
I’m sharing this here because amongst other things that happen in life, writing fiction is one of the hardest things to do, and it has been a personal mission to attempt, to try and never give up at that.
This is a part of a bigger project that I’m working on, one that seeks to tell a tale about wars and peace, love and mythical beings with life in-between against a backdrop of the South China Sea. Wish me luck and thank you for your support.
Much love,
Jasmine
Sydney, 21/5/2023