The Steampunk Postcolonialist @ CONvolution 2015!

I just got my schedule for CONvolution 2015: LEGION OF FANDOM! Unfortunately I will miss the Friday, because TA duties occur then, but I'll leave Riverside as soon as possible to hie myself to Burlingame! The schedule is now live, but here are the ones specific to me:

Saturday 10:00 - 11:15, Harbor B

South East Asian SFF

Science-Fiction and Fantasy are global. Our panelists discuss the works and perspectives of South East Asia.

Panelists: Jaymee Goh, ZM Quynh, Bryan Thao Worra, Emily Jiang

Saturday 11:30 - 12:45, Sumac 

Non-European Steampunk

Pat MacEwen (M), Jaymee Goh, Bryan Thao Worra

Saturday 14:30 - 15:45, Pine

Diversity in Speculative Fiction

Gregg Castro (M), Jaymee Goh, Thaddeus Howze, Bradford Lyau, Balogun Ojetade, Sumiko Saulson

Sunday 11:30 - 12:45, Pine

Asian Ancestresses

Jaymee Goh (M), Emily Jiang, Bradford Lyau

Sunday 13:00 - 14:15, Oak

Reading 3

Kyle Aisteach, Sumiko Saulson, Ms. Amy Sterling Casil, Bryan Thao Worra, Jaymee Goh

I have no idea what I'll be reading for Sunday yet! But hopefully you'll stick around and come see me and my fellow readers anyway. I'm especially excited to be on panels with fellow steampunk POC Balogun Ojetade and Bryan Thao Worra! You will also meet zm quynh, who will be in The Sea Is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia!

Emily Jiang and I have been on Asian Ancestresses before, when it debuted at WisCon a few years ago, and  it was a blast! I am also looking forward to renewing acquaintance with Bradford Lyau, long-time fan-scholar and one of the first researchers using the Eaton Special Collection at UCR!

See you soon, Bay Area!

Some #SEAsteampunk news!

So while I get back on track with my PhD adventures (which I will definitely post more about in a bit!) I had some news to share about The SEA Is Ours: Tales Of Steampunk Southeast Asia!

Firstly, we have a Facebook page, and a blog! That is where I've been posting most of the news. You'll also find me nattering about it on Twitter under the #SEsteampunk hashtag, of course. If you go Twitter-searching, or tweeting, use the hashtag, because when you search "the sea is ours" on Twitter you get some really strange results--mostly maritime border declarations, U.S. Navy merch, and folks taking selfies on the beach. 

Secondly, ARCs have gone out! If you are a reviewer and would like to review The SEA is Ours for your media site, please fire me an email! I will have you know that this anthology is built to appeal to all sorts of audiences. Except for racist white people who can't handle stories that are not about white people. (We don't have very many stories with white people in them.) 

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, you can pre-order The SEA Is Ours on Amazon now! 

Fourthly, the fundraiser will be in September! I'll post more details when I can. Save some money for us! And keep with us--Joyce and I recorded some goofy videos when I last went to Singapore to see her. You'll get to see and hear us in all our accented glory.

PhD Adventures: Inscrutably Oriental--Some Sartorial Observations on Intention and Reaction

Some of you readers may be familiar with my steampunk magistrate outfit that I've worn to conventions across North America:

This is not me; this is the designer, Jeanette Ng.
I look like this, as well you know, or should.

I commissioned this in 2010 from the Costume Mercenary, a history-graduate-student-moonlighting-as-designer for Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) outfits. The idea was this: the character I was gestating would be a magistrate for one of China’s colonies in Maritime Southeast Asia, most likely one of the Malay sultanates (present-time Malaysia, where I am from). Chinese traders had established their own port communities since the 1400s at least, and until China closed its borders after the Zheng He expeditions, clearly had imperialist ambitions abroad. The character would be a lead in a LARP game Ay-Leen the Peacemaker and I had thought up. 

The game would involve my character accusing Ay-leen’s partner of smuggling opium into the colony, and Ay-leen would lead the players through the game, collecting clues to both clear her partner’s name, and educate the players about the extent of the Opium Wars that led to the establishment of a British colony in what is now Hong Kong. 

Although the LARP Game never happened (I'm still holding out that it will, though), I still wore the outfit to steampunk conventions across Canada and the United States, firstly out of a sense of satisfaction with how fantastic the whole outfit is, secondly to kickstart conversation in which I talk about the Opium Wars and of Chinese diaspora communities, and thirdly to embody what steampunk could look like when divorced from the Victorian aesthetic. 

Now, if you read this blog, you presumably know a bit about steampunk, so you know that roleplaying a steampunk persona, or a “steamsona,” is very popular, because it gives newcomers a thematic idea around which to start building their costume. One goes in or out of character to steampunk events, and theoretically, if all else fails in finding things in common to talk about, we can always ask each other about our steamsonas. 

Theoretically.