16 Comments
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Elle Griffin's avatar

I'm so here for this shift!!!!!! Exactly the sort of newsletter I've been looking for. 😍

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Todd Brasel's avatar

This sounds great. I love reading about cultures other than mine and stories set in those cultures.

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Rachel Ooi's avatar

Hi! Fellow Chinese-Malaysian here, I plan to also explore and write about my homeland and my perspective from it, especially growing up feeling foreign. I've just launched my Substack but have yet to publish my first post (next week!), so I'm excited to also read about this theme from you :)

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Elizabeth Tai's avatar

Hey! Gong Xi Fa Cai! Nice to meet another Malaysian in this land where meeting another Malaysia is like finding gold. I'm looking forward to your words!!

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Rachel Ooi's avatar

Agree. It's like gold! :) thanks for being one of my first readers!

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Reema Baniabbasi's avatar

I’m feeling quite excited for this as someone who has visited Malaysia twice and would love to visit more and read more about it! And definitely want to read more content that questions whatever anti-Chinese propaganda I have been exposed to even if unknowingly!

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Elizabeth Tai's avatar

I'm grateful you're interested! Are there any topics you'd like me to cover? Sometimes when we live in our bubble, we don't realise what may appear curious or interesting to outsiders.

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Reema Baniabbasi's avatar

I am aware that you would likely be sharing based on your lived experience so I don’t expect you to be representing everyone who is Malaysian of Chinese heritage. But even then I am curious about people’s individual lived experience and how it may or may not reflect the larger society they are in.

In general though, I find that many people are not aware about the diverse ethnic groups in Malaysia and I only started to learn this much later in my life but barely scratched the surface. I don’t know anything about their histories and how does mainstream Malaysian society treat people across differences and how “Malaysian” identity is often defined and who is included versus excluded in that definition.

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yina's avatar

Elizabeth hi! Stumbled onto your Substack and love the concept. As a lover of both science function and exploring our own cultures, I can't wait to explore both! I'm new to Substack and also writing about Chinese culture — I'm exploring it through the roots of the Chinese language.

Separately, would love to know your favorite scifi books if you have any! Congrats on the shift and nice meeting you here!

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Jolan Hildebrandt's avatar

If you ever need help with story ideas drop me a line. I have a million story ideas

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Elizabeth Tai's avatar

Hah, thank you - but why don't you write stories then? I'm sure you can!

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M. E. Rothwell's avatar

2 substacks is the way

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Simon K Jones's avatar

I am looking forward to this. I know very little about Chinese culture (and certainly almost nothing about Malaysian culture), and, as you point out, all we tend to hear in the UK is negative political stuff. It's important to temper that with insight into the actual people of a place, rather than just what the annoying politicians are up to (I'm continually horrified at the thought of UK politicians 'representing' me on the world stage. Ugh.).

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Elizabeth Tai's avatar

Us Malaysians feel the same about our politicians, so I'm with you there. The world has so much darkness already. It seems useless to add more pain and darkness to it! I hope that you'll discover fun new things through my writing :) First essay of the pivot coming out tomorrow!

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Anne Belov's avatar

I think this is an excellent plan and I applaud you for taking this direction in your blog. While I do love reading fiction, as I've gotten older, I find that these kind of personal essays have more resonance for me. I'm excited to read things in this new direction. As someone from the US, the idea that the people of a country try are not synonymous with the government of said country.

My one experience of going to China in 2017 was full of discovery. It was a very panda centric trip (obviously) and besides getting to see more pandas than I ever thought possible, I was deeply appreciative of the kindness of the people we met there. After what we experienced during the tRump years, it's no surprise that the government is not always synonymous with the people of a country.

Best of luck with this "new" direction.

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Elizabeth Tai's avatar

Thank you for the best wishes! :) I think it's popular to hate on China, hate on the US ... but within these countries are ordinary folks like you and me, just trying to live their best life. If only we can ignore the political shenanigans of these powerful people...

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