This week, our writers bring you news from Palestine, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. In Palestine, the world has been remembering the renowned writer Mourid Barghouti, who passed away this month; in Hong Kong, Dorothy Tse’s first novel to appear in English, Owlish, will be released by Fitzcarraldo Editions and Graywolf Press; and in Malaysia, two new anthologies celebrate Malaysian writing. Read on to find out more!
Carol Khoury, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Palestine
If it weren’t for COVID-19, the narrow streets of Deir Ghassana would have been jammed with mourners on Valentine’s day. Just like many other villages around the world, Deir Ghassana—the small serene village to the north of Ramallah in the central hills of Palestine— usually celebrates Valentine’s day, but not this year: for Mourid Barghouti passed away.
Born on a hot day in July 1944 in one of the village’s old houses, Barghouti grew to become a beloved Palestinian poet, performer, public speaker, and memoirist, albeit living most of his life in exile. He wrote the popular memoir I Saw Ramallah, which chronicled his return to the West Bank in 1996 and was translated by novelist Ahdaf Soueif. He also wrote a follow-up memoir, I Was Born There, I Was Born Here, which tells his story from 1998 to 2010, translated by Humphrey Davies. He published more than a dozen collections of poems, and a collection of his work, Midnight and Other Poems, was translated by his life partner, the great Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour (1946–2014).
In his foreword to the English version of I Saw Ramallah, Edward Said wrote of Barghouti’s treatment of loss experienced in exile that, “it is Barghouti’s extended rebuttal and resistance against the reasons for that loss that endows his poetry with substance and gives this narrative its positive valence.” The loss of such a writer is great, but Barghouti will always be remembered. His legacy is extremely rich, not only because he was one of the most articulate defenders of the Palestinian cause, but because his writing has encapsulated the collective agony and sumoud (steadfastness) of the Palestinian people everywhere.
In his memoir, Mourid writes about the loss of his private days—his birthday and his anniversary—as author Ghassan Kanafani was assassinated on the date of the first, and cartoonist Naji al-Ali on the second. It seems life is only determined to keep the legacy alive. Sadly for Mourid and Radwa’s only son, the poet Tamim Barghouti (b. 1977), February 14 will be a different celebration from now on.
To get a taste of his writings, a collection of his translated works is published on ArabLit and a wide-ranging interview by Maya Jaggi, published in The Guardian (2008).
Jacqueline Leung, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Hong Kong
As Hong Kong literature continues to receive more representation in the English language, the announcement of Dorothy Tse’s upcoming novel Owlish (her first to be translated into English), is a cause for celebration. A project with Tse’s long-time collaborator Natascha Bruce, Owlish is due to be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions and Graywolf Press in 2023 after a fierce seven-way auction. Released in Chinese last year, the novel is set in an alternate Hong Kong facing sinister oppression that recalls the city’s ongoing political turmoil. The protagonist is Professor Q, middle-aged and dissatisfied with his life, who falls fruitlessly in love with a doll, ignoring the changes in his surroundings until he himself becomes endangered. As the synopsis reads: “Owlish is a boldly inventive wake-up call, forcing readers to confront the perils of apathy, complacency and indifference.”
For readers interested in Tse’s fiction, some of her short stories are available in English, including her collection Snow and Shadow translated by Nicky Harman, as well as more recent pieces translated by Bruce, such as “Cloth Birds,” “Head Start,” and “Sour Meat.” “Sour Meat” was part of That We May Live, an anthology of Chinese speculative fiction reviewed by Ysabelle Cheung in our July 2020 issue. Preceding news of Owlish’s publication, Tse and Bruce were winners of the 2019 Poems in Translation Prize by Words Without Borders and the Academy of American Poets, and of the 2020 translator and writer in residence at the Leeds Centre for Chinese Writing.
As March approaches, we also look forward to the release of Besiege Me, Nicholas Wong’s new poetry collection six years after Crevasse, which won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry (Wong is the first Asian poet to win the prize). Like Owlish, Besiege Me confronts the political tension in Hong Kong since its pro-democracy social movement from 2019, touching upon higher powers who refuse to be criticized and the effects of violence on the multicultural, multilingual city. Aside from his poetry, Wong also works in literary translation; his English renditions of the poetry by Sun Tzu-Ping, Eric Lui, and Wong Leung-wo can be revisited in Asymptote’s archives.
Kwan Ann Tan, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Malaysia
This February sees not one, but two anthologies being published that are based on Malaysian writing. The first was recently released by the Penang-branch of the Malaysian Writers’ Society as part of NutMag, an annual publication. This anthology is titled “Home Groan” and is edited by Anna Tan. Collecting writing by twenty-two Penang-based authors, the anthology deals with modern-day Penang in all its forms. Among some of the authors are Wan Phing Lim, whose work has been recognized by journals such as Catapult and Kyoto Journal. One of my personal favourites from the anthology is “Saturday Morning Bak Kut Teh,” a poem by Yong-Yu Huang, which perfectly sums up a lazy weekend and carries all of the flavour and excitement that the food represents! Mandy Chee’s essay “Growing Up and Setting Down Roots in Penang” is also particularly noteworthy, as it traces points through a trek from one end to the next, looking at each area of the island from a different viewpoint.
The second forthcoming anthology is “Malaysian Millennial Voices,” centred around Malaysian writers below the age of thirty-five. The anthology aims to showcase new poetry by young Malaysians and is edited by Malachi Edwin Vethamani. Reviews for this anthology seem particularly promising, with blurbs from many of Malaysia’s literary elites singing its praises. In particular, American Book Prize winner Shirley Geok-Lin Lim notes that it is “enterprising” and “makes Malaysia new again.”
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