Listen by Heart | Stories from Women of the South China Sea | Peacebuilding for Mental Health

Welcome to the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from Women of the South China Sea. I’m Jasmine Low and today, I will be joined by Che Puan Sarimah Ibrahim, a woman with many talents. I remember watching her present MTV music videos, emceeing events on television, she even had her own talk show. In her IMDb profile, she is an Actor, TV Host, Model, Voice Over, Emcee, Singer, Presenter, Mental Health Spokesperson, Fitness model and recently, loving wife and mother to a three-year-old (now four). In preparing for this interview, Sarimah answers some of my queries in between rehearsals to emcee a black-tie event that was attended by Malaysian royalty, key members of the industry producers, directors and casts. It’s a huge evening, she tells me, and I can imagine the nerves building up in preparation for such an amazing night. She is Muslim, Irish-Asian who is strong minded, resilient, she has a Western Asian vibe and holds tightly to her Islamic faith. She has been to mosques, churches, the bottom of the ocean to the clouds! She has seen life through a grandmother who tapped rubber at 4am in Johor to make ends meet, an Irish orphaned grandmother who was raised in a monastery and raised 8 children. Sarimah took a sabbatical from the entertainment industry having found her soulmate, getting married and starting a family. I met Sarimah thanks to a LinkedIn recommendation by a mutual friend Dina Zaman, and we connected to discuss her work in mental health advocacy. Sarimah, welcome! Connect with Sarimah via social media: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | X --- You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, an AFT Podcast production. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you'd like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com Enjoy & subscribe to Listen by Heart podcast on your favourite platform: Apple podcasts ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/listenbyheartpodcast⁠⁠, Spotify ⁠⁠spoti.fi/3yfxWNZ⁠⁠, Google podcasts ⁠⁠bit.ly/3la7C46⁠⁠, Player FM ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/listenbyheartplayerfm⁠⁠ etc. #listenbyheart Website: ⁠⁠listenbyheart.webprojx.com⁠ Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we'd love to hear from you... --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Originally released on Feb 2, 2024: AFT Podcasts present the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from Women of the South China Sea. Presenter Jasmine Low speaks with Amanda Nell Eu, a Malaysian film director and scriptwriter known for her recent body horror film Tiger Stripes - set in a Malaysian jungle in which a girl experiences a strange metamorphosis as she comes of age. The film won the Critics' Week Grand Prize (Semaine de la Critique Cannes) when it was shown at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in France in May 2023, and it was then selected as the Malaysian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. Amanda runs Ghost Grrl Pictures with a cofounder. Amanda is known for an earlier film about two teenagers and a female vampire who solely attacks men, an urban legend tale in Malaysia and Indonesia - titled, “Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu” or in English, “It's Easier to Raise Cattle" was featured at the Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2018. Connect and follow Amanda Nell Eu via Facebook, Instagram or IMDB. Read more on the official website of the Listen by Heart podcast in https://ListenbyHeart.Webprojx.com. Watch Tiger Stripes: * Australia and New Zealand theatrical release this Feb 3 - Mar 1, 2024 presented by Screenxcope. Visit https://www.gointernationalgroup.com/au/ to learn more. * Southeast Asia on Netflix this Feb 15, 2024. ---------------------------- CREDITS --------------------------------- You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, an AFT Podcasts production. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen by Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits: An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we'd love to hear from you. Enjoy & subscribe to the Listen by Heart Podcast on your favourite platform: Apple podcasts https://bit.ly/listenbyheartpodcast, Spotify spoti.fi/3yfxWNZ, Google podcasts bit.ly/3la7C46, Player FM https://bit.ly/listenbyheartplayerfm, YouTube.com/@AFT-tv etc. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

The Beauty of Death was written by Lebanese-American writer, Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931). It's presented here in a three-part series, read for a friend who is leaving our realm. Read the full text here: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com/2023/08/09/special-the-beauty-of-death/. --- The Beauty of Death by Kahlil Gibran Part One - The Calling Let me sleep, for my soul is intoxicated with love and Let me rest, for my spirit has had its bounty of days and nights; Light the candles and burn the incense around my bed, and Scatter leaves of jasmine and roses over my body; Embalm my hair with frankincense and sprinkle my feet with perfume, And read what the hand of Death has written on my forehead. Let me rest in the arms of Slumber, for my open eyes are tired; Let the silver-stringed lyre quiver and soothe my spirit; Weave from the harp and lute a veil around my withering heart. Sing of the past as you behold the dawn of hope in my eyes, for It's magic meaning is a soft bed upon which my heart rests. Dry your tears, my friends, and raise your heads as the flowers Raise their crowns to greet the dawn. Look at the bride of Death standing like a column of light Between my bed and the infinite; Hold your breath and listen with me to the beckoning rustle of Her white wings. Come close and bid me farewell; touch my eyes with smiling lips. Let the children grasp my hands with soft and rosy fingers; Let the ages place their veined hands upon my head and bless me; Let the virgins come close and see the shadow of God in my eyes, And hear the echo of His will racing with my breath. Part Two - The Ascending I have passed a mountain peak and my soul is soaring in the Firmament of complete and unbound freedom; I am far, far away, my companions, and the clouds are Hiding the hills from my eyes. The valleys are becoming flooded with an ocean of silence, and the Hands of oblivion are engulfing the roads and the houses; The prairies and fields are disappearing behind a white specter That looks like the spring cloud, yellow as the candlelight And red as the twilight. The songs of the waves and the humans of the streams Are scattered, and the voices of the throngs reduced to silence; And I can hear naught but the music of Eternity In exact harmony with the spirit's desires. I am cloaked in full whiteness; I am in comfort; I am in peace. Read the full text here: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com/2023/08/09/special-the-beauty-of-death/⁠. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Australian journalist Su-Lin Tan spent her youth cross country commuting from the southernmost city in Malaysia, Johor Bahru to Singapore for a better education, just like Crazy Rich Asians actor Ronnie Chieng. Su-Lin speaks about her early life in Malaysia and Singapore and recalls family life including her Ah Ma (Grandma) who gifted her with stories from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. She is a qualified accountant and worked in investment banking and funds management both in London and Sydney before becoming a journalist. A Chartered Accountant, she is conversant in Mandarin, Bahasa Malaysia and Hokkien. Su-Lin’s experience as a business journalist can be traced back to her first job at Ernst & Young in Melbourne. Soon after the turn of the millennium, Su-Lin joined then Fairfax Media as a journalist and there, started her burgeoning career as a thought-leader in writing critical and often poignant pieces that have aroused attention from different factions of Australian political commentators. Her curriculum-vitae is clear cut. Her focus lies predominantly in business, economics and political reporting, also opinion pieces that offer a thorough insight into key issues that matter across the Asia Pacific region written from Australia to Hong Kong and now Singapore. Read more: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com/2023/05/24/s6-su-lin-tan-australian-journalist/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Sponsor an Audio Story. Our professional team will visit the Interview Subject physically in person (or via teleconferencing), research and plan the recording, record the interview and have a great yarn, edit & produce this conversation into a podcast. We take care of everything from A-Z, archiving the stories from Australia's unassuming heroes. Our all-inclusive package includes: • 1-hour research and planning • 1-hour audio recording (on-site or call-in or via Zoom from anywhere in the world) • 1-hour editing & production of 1 episode. • 1-hour distribution of the final podcast to a minimum of 3 platforms: Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Audio Stories are private podcasts that can be archived for reference and passed down as digital voiceprints in the larger scale of a family heirloom. The sponsorship amount goes towards research, recording, production and distribution costs. Value-added: • One podcast cover design (3000 x 3000px) • One video teaser (30-sec) We work remotely, wherever an unassuming hero lives, with a tale to tell. Their stories ought to be told. Learn more: https://www.webprojx.com/gift-card/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

A short story by Jasmine H. Low, Dancing to the gongs of the South China Sea is an unfinished piece that’s a work-in-progress, a culmination of works explored in an 8-week creative writing class with Sharon Bakar’s Words on Fire to “Finding the Flow”. Jasmine describes this writing process as going with the flow, and she’s putting this out there even if it’s a draft and incomplete with some flaws. There’s a story that wants to be told and I’m only an inch deep. Thank you dear Sharon and classmates of WoF Finding the Flow class of March-May 2023 for helping me get unstuck. For spoilers to the backstory, visit the website: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com/2023/05/22/a-fiction-special-dancing-to-the-gongs-of-the-south-china-sea/ to learn more. Thank you. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Five of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from Women of the South China Sea. I’m Jasmine Low and today, I will be joined by Shivani Sivagurunathan, an author and educator. Head of School, Assistant Professor; Research Director; Director of Postgraduate Studies; Senior Tutor, Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia and has an interest in post-colonial literature and in particular literature surrounding the topics of Indian diaspora and contemplative pedagogy. Shivani has been writing and publishing fiction and poetry for twenty years, and teaching for twelve years. Her first book, Wildlife on Coal Island, was published by UPM Press in 2011 and republished by HarperCollins India in 2012. The Indian writer Tabish Khair described the book as ‘R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi, turned into an island, meets Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book in this highly readable collection of stories by a new and distinctive voice from Malaysia’. Her second book, Yalpanam, is her first novel and it was published by Penguin Southeast Asia in September 2021. Her short stories and poems have appeared in numerous international journals and magazines including Cha: An Asian Literary Magazine, Agenda, Construction Literary Magazine and many others. Her poetry collection, Being Born, and her book of fiction, “What Has Happened to Harry Pillai?: Two Novellas” are out now and will be discussed at the George Town Literary Festival on 25 November 2022. She currently teaches English Literature and creative writing at the University of Nottingham Malaysia and is working on her next novel. Visit www.shivanisivagurunathan.com for more. You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, an AFT Podcasts production. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen by Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits: An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we'd love to hear from you... Recording includes ambient sounds of birds in trees located near an arterial road. Enjoy & subscribe to the Listen by Heart Podcast on your favourite platform: Apple podcasts https://bit.ly/listenbyheartpodcast, Spotify spoti.fi/3yfxWNZ, Google podcasts bit.ly/3la7C46, Player FM https://bit.ly/listenbyheartplayerfm etc. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Five of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from Women of the South China Sea. I’m Jasmine Low and today, I will be joined by Shivani Sivagurunathan, an author and educator. Head of School, Assistant Professor; Research Director; Director of Postgraduate Studies; Senior Tutor, Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia and has an interest in post-colonial literature and in particular literature surrounding the topics of Indian diaspora and contemplative pedagogy. Shivani has been writing and publishing fiction and poetry for twenty years, and teaching for twelve years. Her first book, Wildlife on Coal Island, was published by UPM Press in 2011 and republished by HarperCollins India in 2012. The Indian writer Tabish Khair described the book as ‘R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi, turned into an island, meets Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book in this highly readable collection of stories by a new and distinctive voice from Malaysia’. Her second book, Yalpanam, is her first novel and it was published by Penguin Southeast Asia in September 2021. Her short stories and poems have appeared in numerous international journals and magazines including Cha: An Asian Literary Magazine, Agenda, Construction Literary Magazine and many others. Her poetry collection, Being Born, and her book of fiction, “What Has Happened to Harry Pillai?: Two Novellas” are out now and will be discussed at the George Town Literary Festival on 25 November 2022. She currently teaches English Literature and creative writing at the University of Nottingham Malaysia and is working on her next novel. Visit www.shivanisivagurunathan.com for more. You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, an AFT Podcasts production. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen by Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits: An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we'd love to hear from you... Recording includes ambient sounds of birds in trees located near an arterial road. Enjoy & subscribe to the Listen by Heart Podcast on your favourite platform: Apple podcasts https://bit.ly/listenbyheartpodcast, Spotify spoti.fi/3yfxWNZ, Google podcasts bit.ly/3la7C46, Player FM https://bit.ly/listenbyheartplayerfm etc. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Four of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from Women of the South China Sea. I am your host, Jasmine Low and on this audio journey, we welcome Karina Robles Bahrin, a Malaysian author and hotelier who has picked up the 2022 Epigram Book’s Fiction Prize. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

And here we are, the fifth and final episode. "It's not about me," reminds the author, Guat. Writing Echoes of Silence, she wanted to explore that emotion of how she, like many others felt lost at one time, as the children of colonialism, an establishment that left behind their orphaned children as Malaya gained its independence. The author indulges listeners in a very personal manner, where she narrates excerpts from her first Malaysian novel about the blossoming of a love affair that was inter-ethnic and inter-geographical between Ai Lian, and her Michael Templeton. -- Dr. Chuah Guat Eng is a Malaysian novelist and professional writer who read English Literature at University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, German Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, and she has a PhD from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). Guat Eng has two novels - Echoes of Silence published in 1994 in English, and translated recently into Italian and German. Her other novel, Days of Change came out in 2010. She also has three collections of short stories. They are Tales from the Baram River (2001), The Old House and Other Stories (2008), and Dream Stuff (2014). Some of her short stories have been translated into other languages, including Malay, Chinese, Slovene, and Spanish. She’s currently working on her third novel, and occasionally teaches subjects related to literature and creative writing at a local university. *** About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Chuah Guat Eng. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you for listening. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. Official website: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com. #ListenbyHeart Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Seas? We’d love to hear from you… SEND VOICE MESSAGE — Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

May the fourth conversation with Dr. Chuah Guat Eng guide you. A teacher, Mr. V. K. Arumugam was one such man who opened the windows of her mind. Guat shares her experience about being a woman in a man's world, and her opinion on gender equality. She believes that everyone deserves equal opportunities yet we should never strive to be equal because we are not born equal. Not letting fate be the decider, Guat's proposition is that we are given equal opportunities, make use of those opportunities and become what we are supposed to be, and how we are supposed to be is dictated by our genes, our education, background, language we speak and so on. The invention of robots will make us more human, she says. She also discusses tall poppy syndrome amongst people and even countries like the United States and China. Even twins are not equal, how can we all strive for equality? -- Dr. Chuah Guat Eng is a Malaysian novelist and professional writer who read English Literature at University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, German Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, and she has a PhD from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). Guat Eng has two novels - Echoes of Silence published in 1994 in English, and translated recently into Italian and German. Her other novel, Days of Change came out in 2010. She also has three collections of short stories. They are Tales from the Baram River (2001), The Old House and Other Stories (2008), and Dream Stuff (2014). Some of her short stories have been translated into other languages, including Malay, Chinese, Slovene, and Spanish. She’s currently working on her third novel, and occasionally teaches subjects related to literature and creative writing at a local university. *** About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Chuah Guat Eng. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. Official website: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com. #ListenbyHeart Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Seas? We’d love to hear from you… SEND VOICE MESSAGE — Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

In this third episode, Dr. Chuah Guat Eng details her PhD Thesis: A Zen Approach to Reading Fiction is a reading procedure originally proposed as her Masters thesis proposal submitted to the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). She cites an example of how many literary critics have approached the works by Joseph Conrad. In multi-ethnic Malaysia, Guat wanted to explore the use of a Buddhist inspired, Zen-based method to approach works by fiction authors, without imposing one's own culture or values on the text. She poses the question on how one is able to gain deeper insights into an author's text when the approach is Zen-based. -- Dr. Chuah Guat Eng is a Malaysian novelist and professional writer who read English Literature at University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, German Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, and she has a PhD from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). Guat Eng has two novels - Echoes of Silence published in 1994 in English, and translated recently into Italian and German. Her other novel, Days of Change came out in 2010. She also has three collections of short stories. They are Tales from the Baram River (2001), The Old House and Other Stories (2008), and Dream Stuff (2014). Some of her short stories have been translated into other languages, including Malay, Chinese, Slovene, and Spanish. She’s currently working on her third novel, and occasionally teaches subjects related to literature and creative writing at a local university. *** About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Chuah Guat Eng. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. Official website: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com. #ListenbyHeart Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Seas? We’d love to hear from you… SEND VOICE MESSAGE — Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

In this second episode, Chuah Guat Eng shares about competitiveness, her mother Wee Siew Lan and how one can tell from surnames of the Nanyang Chinese, if they are from Singapore or the northern states of Perlis, Kedah or Penang in Malaysia, the naming of Guat Eng and her sisters, finding her cultural identity inspired by an old school teacher, Mr. V. K. Arumugam, who passed her a copy of Lin YuTang's "The Importance of Living". An awakening had Guat realising what it meant to be Chinese, and that it wasn't just about Pearl S. Buck. Guat also speaks about her time studying in Germany. -- Dr. Chuah Guat Eng is a Malaysian novelist and professional writer who read English Literature at University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, German Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, and she has a PhD from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). Guat Eng has two novels - Echoes of Silence published in 1994 in English, and translated recently into Italian and German. Her other novel, Days of Change came out in 2010. She also has three collections of short stories. They are Tales from the Baram River (2001), The Old House and Other Stories (2008), and Dream Stuff (2014). Some of her short stories have been translated into other languages, including Malay, Chinese, Slovene, and Spanish. She’s currently working on her third novel, and occasionally teaches subjects related to literature and creative writing at a local university. *** About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Chuah Guat Eng. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. Official website: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com. #ListenbyHeart Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Seas? We’d love to hear from you… SEND VOICE MESSAGE — Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Three of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from Women of the South China Sea. Host Jasmine Low will be joined by Dr. Chuah Guat Eng, a Malaysian fiction writer who read English Literature at University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, German Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, and she has a PhD from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). Guat Eng has two novels - Echoes of Silence published in 1994 in English, and translated recently into Italian and German. Her other novel, Days of Change came out in 2010. She also has three collections of short stories. They are Tales from the Baram River (2001), The Old House and Other Stories (2008), and Dream Stuff (2014). Some of her short stories have been translated into other languages, including Malay, Chinese, Slovene, and Spanish. She’s currently working on her third novel, and occasionally teaches subjects related to literature and creative writing at a local university. *** About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Chuah Guat Eng. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Seas? We’d love to hear from you… SEND VOICE MESSAGE — Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to a special edition of Listen by Heart, narrated by Jasmine H. Low. 🖤 On August 9th 2021, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples themed ‘Leaving No One Behind’ left me thinking of our future, and of the concept of freedom. 💛 It's August 30th, Malaysia's Merdeka Day. A quick dip into historical events would show the timeline from when the British East India Company made a deal in 1786 with the Sultanate of Kedah, a state bordering Malaya and Thailand, to form the first of what would be the Straits Settlement, comprising of Malacca and Singapore later on. And that is history, as told by text books. Blindsided in school textbooks are stories about the indigenous peoples, like the Orang Aslis and Orang Asals, leaving generations of children growing up without much knowledge or understanding for the cultures of the first people. Where were they in history? What happened? Didn’t they also fight for peace during WWII? They make up 13.8% of Malaysia’s 32 million population so it’s a good question to raise and a strong reason to lobby for indigenous peoples and their stories to be told in schools, at the workplace and local community programs. 💙 Voice from the heartland. Coming from migrant stock, I’m sensitive to this topic and have been all in for First Nations appreciation since my arrival to Australia as a teenager when it celebrated its bicentenary. Australia is my heartland. It’s a second home and it always has a place in my heart. Imagine arriving at a celebration of 200 years since the first British settler set foot in Australia. I quickly learned at that impressionable young age, that one man’s meat is indeed another’s poison and that there were two events in the one same city; Sorry Day in La Perouse south of Sydney and Australia Day in the harbour front of Gadigal Land. How can one celebrate when another is somber? This juxtaposition of thought camps remains the crux of January 26th for me personally. ❤️ A dedication to all Malaysians, especially Malaysia's indigenous communities. As a Malaysian-born, I've been conscious of its long dumbed-down history of land rights among the aboriginal native orang asli and orang asal. I've seen friends tell through personal experiences, through documentaries they'd shoot, horrendous tales of blockades in the centre of the Earth as termed by the Temiars in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, blocking tree loggers from pulling roots out from their earth, their land, which was licensed out to commercial loggers. These brave individuals would set up blockades ala man versus tractor. The song by Paul Kelly, remade by Ziggy Ramo and Electric Fields keeps the fire burning for the other people fighting land rights and there needs to be fires burning long through the nights for this fight to be fought. On the eve of this 64th Independence Merdeka Day in Malaysia, I've had this song translated into Bahasa Malaysia, and written this short piece to show respect to a culture if not protected, will be forever lost. It's really baby steps forward but giant strides backwards if we allow our last remaining forests, ancestral land for the first peoples of Malaysia, what's left of it, to be plummaged with no recourse. There is no turning back if we let it happen. We must not let it happen. Protect it at all costs just like how the tree huggers, Chipko activists in the 1970s in India did. Read the full article here: https://www.jasminelow.com/merdeka-from-little-things-big-things-grow/ Learn more about Listen by Heart Podcast: https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com. Thank you. Written and produced by Jasmine H. Low Bahasa Malaysia translation by Syuhada Adam. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Written and narrated by Dr. Ann Lee, this story was published amongst 16 others in Malaysian Folk Tales: Retold & Remixed, edited by Daphne Lee, published by ZI Publications (2011). Su and her natural love for swimming is based on the folktale about a girl who was kidnapped by an orangutan. The irony is that her abductor reveals its bubbly and very loving character. About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Ann Lee. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you'd like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we'd love to hear from you... SEND VOICE MESSAGE --- Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Two of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from the Women of the South China Sea. In episode five, podcast host Jasmine Low speaks to Dr. Ann Lee about gender and sexuality and if her grandmother may have known anyone who was queer. Ann talks about her university days in London, attending a writer’s workshop with Hanif Kureishi and being around “people like us”. About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Ann Lee. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you'd like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Two of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from the Women of the South China Sea. It's episode four and podcast host Jasmine Low speaks to Dr. Ann Lee about her family. Born of mixed parentage, Dr. Ann recalls stories of her family: her maternal side in North Borneo and Sabah, Malaysia, as well as her paternal side from Salford, Manchester in England. For example, her maternal great-grandmother, a Hakka Chinese known as Madam Voo Hock Liam, was born in 1882 and became renowned as a fierce and determined character. She later married Chan Yau Lam, originally a stonemason in Papar, North Borneo. He became a respected leader (kapitan cina), and set up an English language school at a time when this was unpopular. (There is a photo of him shaking hands with England’s Duchess of Kent on her visit to ‘British North Borneo’.) On the other hand, little is known of her paternal great-grandmother but her paternal great-grandfather did not believe in education for girls. Ann’s paternal grandmother did not continue school beyond her early teens, though she went on to qualify as a swimmer for the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Ann Lee. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you'd like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Two of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from the Women of the South China Seas. Podcast host Jasmine Low has a conversation with Dr. Ann Lee about BOH Cameronian award-winning play Tarap Man featured in Southeast Asian Plays (Aurora Metro), plays and their mobility. Keyword mentions: Tarap Man, Kadazan, Telegu, Hakka, Hang Li Poh, Mahi Ramakrishnan (filmmaker), Dr. Grace Chin (Universiti Sains Malaysia), New York International Fringe Festival, Leow Puay Tin, Huzir Sulaiman, Jit Murad, Shahimah Idris, Apartheid, Critique, Translations of Plays, Booker Prize, South Pacific, Upin & Ipin... Producer's note: Dear listeners, Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, South Pacific, as mentioned in this podcast was based on Tales of the South Pacific, a Pulitzer Prize-winner by James A. Michener who was a US Navy officer stationed at the New Hebrides Islands (now known as Vanuatu). The story was adapted and produced into the popular 1958 movie and filmed on Kauai. Not the South China Seas nor Marshall Islands as intimated. Thank you. About the Listen by Heart Podcast You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Ann Lee. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you'd like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. Production Credits An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message

Welcome to Season Two of the Listen by Heart Podcast, where we feature Stories from the Women of the South China Seas. In this episode, podcast host Jasmine Low has a conversation with Dr. Ann Lee, and we establish that it was in September 1994 when Kuali Works, an all-women arts company specialising in theatre, TV and publications in Malaysia was founded. Ann Lee, Karen Quah, Goh Soon Siew, Anita Zafina Mat Fadzil, and Shahimah (Charmaine W) Idris took the name of ‘Kuali Works’ from a household product that can be found in most, if not all Malaysian households, irrespective of colour or creed: the kuali or wok. We liked the tastiness of ‘creating food for thought’, reads a paragraph in Sex, Stage & State: Kuali Works plays and this is what we explore in this episode - what went on behind the creation of food for thought. Subscribe to this podcast & visit our website (https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com) for more. -- About the Listen by Heart Podcast -- You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Season Two of Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea with Dr. Ann Lee. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you'd like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you. Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them. Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace. --- Production Credits ---- An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com). An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production. Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com. Website by WebPROjx.com. #ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/listenbyheart/message