I am quite pleased to announce that I will be speaking about Filipino and Singaporean SF/F on two panels at Loncon 3 today. These are:
The World at Worldcon: SF/F in South and South-East Asia
Saturday 13:30 – 15:00, London Suite 2 (ExCeL)
South and South-East Asia include a huge span of nations, cultures and languages, so does it make any sense to talk of “Asian SF”? What are the traditions and touchstones of fantastical storytelling in South and South-East Asia? What is the state of genre there, and how have shared myths and a joint heritage of colonialism influenced it? A panel of writers and critics from India, Pakistan, Malaysia and The Philippines compare notes.
Mahvesh Murad (Moderator) , Zen Chow, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, Aishwarya Subramanian
Saving the World. All of It.
Saturday 20:00 – 21:00, Capital Suite 13 (ExCeL)
When aliens invade, why do they almost always hit New York? With a few partially-honourable exceptions, such as Pacific Rim and District 9, the American-led alliances of Independence Day and its ilk are still the norm for SF cinema’s supposedly global catastrophes. What is it like to watch these films outside the Anglophone world? Do attempts to move away from American exceptionalism feel real, or are they just window-dressing? And how do different countries deal with apocalypse in their own cinematic traditions?
Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (Moderator) , Yasser Bahjatt, Irena Raseta, Aishwarya Subramanian, Naomi Karmi
The Infinite Library and Other Stories 