Guest Blog: Joyce Chng tells why POC, non-US and non-white, Science Fiction matters…

When I started writing science fiction, I thought it was the best that had happened to me. I was only a child, almost at the cusp of teenage-hood.  Science fiction – in the form of Japanese cartoons (or properly termed “anime”- had opened my eyes to many worlds inhabited by different people. Likewise, I had also started reading voraciously and my worlds were dragons, spaceships and androids. 

Then when I started university and took proper creative writing modules, I realized that the writing world might not be friendly as I had thought. I felt alone and lonely. I was the only Singaporean-Chinese science fiction writer… so I thought. Dipping my toes into fanfiction seemed to reinforce that feeling: that I must be the only one.

When I came back to Singapore, I started looking around. Am I the only one? Where’s everybody? Hello? Hello?

~*~

Why am I writing this?

Because POC, non-US and non-white, science fiction matters.

Because our voices matter.

Ironically, in the midst of writing this, I had tweeted Chuck Wendig, regarding POC and non-USian science fiction. He came up with this (http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/08/26/crowdsourcing-the-essentials-non-us-poc-sci-fi-and-fantasy/) for his Monday’s Crowdsourcing The Essentials. The comments are telling because the commentators are still struggling to come up with names and recommendations.

Strange. We have been talking about POC science fiction for a while now. Where have these people been hiding under? A big rock called Ignorance?

This makes me more determined to talk about POC science fiction.

Do you?

Bio:

Joyce Chng was born and lives in Singapore. She writes science fiction, YA and UF – and in variations of the genres. Her blog is found at ttp://awolfstale.wordpress.com. Her UF series is written under J. Damask.

She promises she’s normal.