Jinghua Qian
I Can’t Apply for Another Grant
'Arts funding is a cancer. Applying for it has become its own job, a job no one enjoys or wants. I’m not sure that anyone is even funding the arts, really — it feels more like art happens by accident as a decorative footnote to the work of endless applications, assessments, acquittals and evaluations. I’m sure some of these elements were once designed as accountability mechanisms, but they have grown monstrously out of control.'
Is there a way to fund the arts that doesn’t make artists exhausted and demoralised and that doesn’t reduce art-making to a matter of 'merit'? (Note on access: this essay is available in audio format.)
Interview with Lian Low
I recall Dorothy Tse reflecting that there’s a perception in the West that Asian writers are expected to write about identity, or about place. However, she believes that to really gain insight into another culture, readers can’t just read 'realistic stories' but also need to read stories through their form. This insight resonates deeply with me, because in terms of my current work, I don’t see a divide between literary and genre. Writing spec fic and horror connects me to a sense of who I am, my roots and psyche where the world of the real and the world of the unreal isn’t so binary.