A queer feminist anthropologist exploring the realities of culture, gender, and sexuality in contemporary Asia
I recently made a major decision that will change my life. Since then, other parts of my life have really improved. Everything around me has taken on the glisten of wonderment that I hadn’t seen there previously. So, its probably about time I told the world. Or, at least, those in it who don’t already [...]
A few days ago I came across something that further confused my already complicated relationship with make-up: this. My first reaction was amazement. I have never used nor experienced make-up being used like this before (make-up isn’t exactly my forte). Of course I’m not completely oblivious. I know it can work wonders. I realise that [...]
Burns, Baby, Burns... Last weekend I survived a bit of an ordeal. I’d been invited to an academic event hosted and attended by various people I’ve admired from afar and never met before - the kind of people I quoted in my dissertation, whose plays I studied at university, and who might be the help [...]
When I booked tickets to head home for the long Easter weekend, I was looking forward to taking a ‘breather’ – I hadn’t left the big city in over 3 months and missed the countryside. So besides baking, drinking ridiculous amounts of tea and hanging out with my family, I took a long bike ride, [...]
When it comes to hair removal, I am (to my immense irritation) unrelentingly hypocritical. It's something I've got strong views on but haven't always stuck to my beliefs in my own personal habits. On the surface, I believe it's a waste of time, money and sense. It goes right against my feminist beliefs. Knowing that [...]
"How relevant is Shakespeare?" is one of those questions that crops up a lot. Particularly during a Theatre degree. The majority of contemporary Shakespeare productions I've seen have made the story, the characters, the language somehow relevant to modern life. From Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet to Ong Keng Sen's intercultural Asian Shakespeare series [...]
Puffball really got me thinking. Here's why: CircusFest 2014: Puffball at The Roundhouse Contorted, standing on a trapeze and wrapped entirely in cling film, a scantily-clad male figure tears his way out of his plastic chrysalis with a rush of red fluid. This womb-like, visceral allusion to ‘coming out of the closet’, to forging a [...]
Seeing Headspace Dance for the first time, I was in two minds about how much I liked them. As performers, they were wonderful. But I wasn't fully convinced by some of the artistic choices made. Before The Interval made some interesting post-modernist observations about dance, and it had some entertaining moments, but I wasn't enthralled [...]
A few weeks before Easter, I was struck down with a horrible, unrelenting bout of flu. I was bed-bound for the first three days, sleeping for upwards of 18 hours of the day, only waking up when the painkillers ceased working. I drank pints upon pints of squash, all the variations of tea and honey [...]
So... this was a while ago, and I have since had a very good dating experience, but here are my initial thoughts on joining the online dating world. There's a lot to be said for it as a new way of meeting people, but it isn't quite like meeting people in person. Dating Etiquette: Virtual [...]
Zhēn de Gender 