Transpacific Stories

Episodes

1. 8

   Christine Kim

   “When I started working on the book I realized that everybody has a story about North Korea in some ways.” Christine Kim talks to me about growing up in the working-class Toronto neighbourhood of Rexdale, how stories circulate amongst the Korean diaspora, and the inspiration behind her new book...

   Sep 4, 2026

   34m
2. 7

   Carman Fung

   A Special Pride Month Episode: An Intergenerational Conversation on Queer Asia Carman Fung and I share our experiences growing up in Hong Kong, how we first got involved with online queer communities, how we started researching on queer Asian topics, and our experience with queer Asian diasporic...

   Jun 14, 2023

   41m
3. 6

   Nguyễn Tân Hoàng

   “One is never too old to learn … and expand one’s practices beyond what we conventionally get rewarded for.” Nguyễn Tân Hoàng talks to me about his childhood in Saigon, his family’s traumatic escape from Vietnam, his experience living in a refugee camp on an island off Malaysia and finally moving...

   Jan 9, 2023

   1h 01m
4. 5

   Fran Martin

   “I feel like I have spent my whole life in a Chinese-language classroom …” Fran Martin talks to me about growing up in Melbourne as a child of practicing psychoanalysts, how she came to study Chinese in school, how as a teenager she wound up in Beijing in 1989 living through the student protests...

   Jun 3, 2022

   55m
5. 4

   Chow Yiu Fai

   "I bought a ticket and left with only one suitcase …" Chow Yiu Fai talks to me about his experience growing up in the “resettlement” housing estates in Hong Kong during the 1960s and 70s, his lonely experience at Hong Kong University, how he went from being an evangelical Christian to penning…

   more
   Nov 24, 2021

   52m
6. 3

   Gaik Cheng Khoo

   “I want to be able to change things and maybe this little vote can do something …” Gaik Cheng Khoo reflects on her childhood growing up in Penang; her early aspirations as a musician which took her to Austin, Texas; her academic career which spans Vancouver (Canada), Singapore, Canberra...

   Jun 26, 2021

   46m
7. 2

   Guy Beauregard

   “There’s another Winnipeg that I try to carry with me … as I have gone forward to different places.” Guy Beauregard chats with us about growing up in Winnipeg, leaving home to teach English in Japan, pursuing postgraduate studies in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Berkeley, settling in Taiwan for the…

   more
   Jun 26, 2021

   43m
8. 1

   Robert Diaz

   “Home is like a texture … it’s like a touch.” Robert Diaz talks to me about his childhood growing up in the Philippines, coming out while attending a Catholic high school, moving to the US and later Canada, negotiating legal residency statuses in three countries, and what home means to him...

   Jun 26, 2021

   38m
9. Tan Jia

   “I grew up in a post-socialist, post-Cold War world … in a sense the past is always in the present.” Tan Jia reflects on her childhood in post-1989 Guangdong, her intellectual ferment as an undergraduate student in Beijing, her adventures studying film in Los Angeles, and her life today in...

   Jun 26, 2021

   43m
10. Jane Park

    “I’m living within translation.” Jane Park tells lively stories about growing up as an “Asian American in the south,” her culinary memory of Korea, her experience living in different parts of the U.S. and Australia, and her embodied relation to language, race, and ethnicity. Host: Helen Leung...

    Jun 26, 2021

    30m
11. Audrey Yue

    “I am what they call a true postcolonial child.” Audrey Yue reflects on her childhood memories of social engineering campaigns, her Cantonese and Peranakan heritage, her migrant experience and encounter with racism in Canada and Australia, and her emotional return to Singapore after being away…

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    Jun 26, 2021

    37m
12. John Nguyet Erni

    “I was literally a product of the Vietnam War.” John Nguyet Erni talks about his Filipino-Vietnamese heritage, his childhood growing up in Hong Kong, his multi-generational connection to the U.S., and the moment he discovered a feeling of home. Host: Helen Leung Recorded on May 31, 2017 in...

    Jun 26, 2021

    46m