IMAGING OF ASIAN WOMEN IN HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Author Elaine Chiew will discuss the academic research she conducted as an early historian into the self-imaging of Chinese women in early Singapore photography as a limited exercise of agency that formed the background of her novel The Light Between Us.

This event is chaired by Dr. Xiaoning Lu, Reader in Modern Chinese Culture and Language (SOAS).

The Light Between Us is a speculative epistolary star-crossed love story between a contemporary archivist and a 1920s Chinese photographer who were able toe exchange letters through a quantum entanglement that led to a connection that transcended time and space. Midwest Book Review (U.S.) called it 'a unique and memorable novel that raises fiction up to an impressive level of literary excellence". Bestselling author Charmaine Wilkerson said, "an unusual love story that explores the power of photography, the influence of colonialism and the magic of connection."

The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Crazy Rich Asians in this speculative romance set against Singapore’s tumultuous past. Immersed in Southeast Asian history, time-travel, and an impossible love story, The Light Between Us is perfect for readers of literary historical fiction and modern romantasy fans alike.

At work one night, photography archivist Charlie Sze-Toh receives a misdirected letter from Wang Tian Wei, a 1920s colonial era Chinese photographer. Through a mysterious digital folder and photographic plates, a conversation is sparked, leading to a romance that spans lifetimes.

In his time, Tian Wei scours a turbulent Singapore for his missing friend, Aiko, leading him to the perfumed chambers of a Japanese brothel. Meanwhile, in the modern day, Charlie struggles against a family dynamic dominated by her stepmother, a manipulative matriarch who uses family secrets as bargaining chips. Communication starts to become difficult and Tian Wei’s letters are tinged by the increasing threat of Japanese Occupation. Will one last fate-defying letter from Charlie allow Tian Wei to keep their love alive?

Inspired by her research into Singaporean historical archives, Elaine Chiew weaves Chinese mythology and early 20th century colonial Singapore into this speculative epic.

This event is a collaboration between the Meridian Society and SOAS Library.

Elaine Chiew is the author of The Light Between Us (longlisted for the Cheshire Novel Prize), The Heartsick Diaspora (recommended in the Guardian, The Singapore Straits Times, BookRiot, and Esquire SG) and compiler/editor of Cooked Up: Food Fiction From Around the World.

Her stories have won prizes, notably twice in the Bridport International Short Story Prize, and been anthologised in the U.S., UK and Asia, and also with BBC Radio 4 as well as in The Best Asian Short Stories 2021.

She mentors, teaches creative writing ad hoc, writes freelance and has worked as an independent researcher in the visual arts. She has an M.A. in Asian Art History from Goldsmiths London. In a former career, she was a U.S. trained attorney with a degree from Stanford and worked in New York, London and Hong Kong.

You can find more information on www.epchiew.com and find her on X @ChiewElaine and IG @authorepchiew.

Xiaoning Lu received her BA and MA in Chinese Literature and Language from Nanjing University and Fudan University respectively.

She then earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Prior to joining SOAS in 2010, she had taught cinema and cultural studies, modern Chinese literature and popular culture at Stony Brook University and Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.

Xiaoning’s research focuses on the complex relationship between cultural production and state governance in modern China. She is the author of Moulding the Socialist Subject: Cinema and Chinese Modernity 1949-1966 (Brill, 2020) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures (OUP, 2020). Her writings on various aspects of Chinese socialist cinema and culture have appeared in journals and edited collections, including Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Journal of Contemporary China, Chinese Film Stars, Maoist Laughter, Surveillance in Asian Cinema: Under Eastern Eyes and Words and Their Stories: Essays on the Language of the Chinese Revolution. She was recently a recipient of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship through which she researched transnational film practices in the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1989.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

KLT, SOAS University of London, 10 Thornhaugh Street, London, United Kingdom