Chapter 7 is up and running!

Chapter 7. Starfang fans unite!

Languages Matter: Some Thoughts on Language and Dialect

Where I talked about dialect and how it matters in SFF!

The Skiffy and Fanty Show

I want to expand on what I have written in my essay, “Languages, Dialects and Accents:  Why Our Voices Matter.” Much has been said about the use of dialect in science fiction and the outcry that follows. I would like to see more of such discussions because we have been shying away from issues that really matter to us. Perhaps, it is the shift from white Anglo science fiction to a more international/world science fiction that has started the ball rolling. For a long time, the world has been white, male and painfully Anglo-centric, not to mention US-centric. Now we have new voices coming into the song, and some are naturally reacting rather angrily, I would say.

Why are we fixating on English – and for that matter, proper grammatical English English? Let’s not bring in the American versus British spelling argument. Let’s talk about English. Why do…

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I am in a dilemma, of sorts.

If you have been reading the Amazon/Hachette dispute. I am not sure if you have taken sides, but Amazon has put us hybrid and independent authors in a very difficult position. All the posturing, saber-rattling and yelling aside, where do we stand?

My books, unfortunately, have been published under their direct kindle publishing. But I know that there are also folks who hate Amazon. So I have also uploaded my books on alternative platforms like Smashwords, Wattpad and Gumroad. The unfortunate thing is that I cannot live on free giveaways all the time – an author has to eat it (and that’s why I still have a day job!).

The question I want to ask people is that will you even bother with non-Amazon sites? Will you even care?

Please think about this for a moment.

Rider by Joyce Chng

Intellectus Speculativus

Li-Fang has a way with nature. So she is sent against her will to train as an Agri-Seer, though she dreams one day of joining the Rider Corps like her sister Lixi. Partnered with an arrogant Rider, Daniel Kelso, Lifang must forget the wild Hunter Quetz she met by a hidden waterfall near her home, and accept who she is.

Until, that is, a wild Quetz is captured. Lifang discovers she can communicate with a creature, a skill no Rider has ever demonstrated, and must now confront her destiny all over again. Will going against convention be worth the cost?
~~~~~
Chng’s novel is the first in a series, and whilst Rider does have more to it than the blurb above, it honestly doesn’t have that much more; it’s a slim volume with a serious inclusivity policy that is on the whole carried out well, but sadly, that doesn’t make…

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DARK CLAW

Smashwords link

That handsome young man is Jason Godfrey, a talented actor and model. Gabriel Sutherland would look like him. 🙂

Only on Smashwords for a limited time only!

Oh yeah.

If you are curious, WOLF AT THE DOOR is also available at Book Depository and Powells.

Book Depository: here.
Powells: here.

My YA books RIDER and SPEAKER are available at Gumroad: here. They are also available at Books Actually: Rider and Speaker. Books Actually will ship the books to you! 🙂

Other YA books and short stories are available at Smashwords and Wattpad: Smashwords and Wattpad.

Languages, dialects and accents: why our voices matter

You see then, macam difficult you know. Skarly you fail then how?

Zou ye da lan ye. Aiyah, why you so clumsy?

Ni hao, wo shi Zhuang Xiao Wei.

You must be scratching your head at these sentences. Spoken, these words would probably confound you. Singaporeans will call the first sentence “Singlish”, while the other two are a) a mixture of Cantonese and English, and b) Mandarin Chinese. I hear the second a lot when I was younger, when I tried helping my mom in the kitchen. I tended to break things, like a lot. My mom is Shanghainese, but grew up in a Cantonese-speaking household, because of my Popo (maternal grandmother). I grew up using Cantonese more reflexively than Hokkien, my dad’s dialect. So, as a result, I found myself unable to communicate with my ah-ma, my dad’s mother and my paternal grandmother. I could understand basic Hokkien words, but ask me to hold a full conversation and I would scramble for a translator.

Now, why am I writing this?

As any observer in the SFF community, you will notice the powerful discussion/conversation/dialogue that has arisen after the Strange Horizon’s review on Long Hidden, an anthology edited by Daniel Jose Older and Rose Fox. The reviewer commented that the use of dialect in Troy L Wiggins’s story was a “literary trick”. Indeed we needed this discussion, painful as it is, as a whole plethora of essays arose from it. Sofia Samatar spoke eloquently about it. Troy L Wiggins also spoke about it. Likewise, the thought-provoking editorial by Tonya Liburd and the poignant “Name Calling” by Celeste Rita Baker triggered further conversation.

You see, by saying that using dialect is a “literary trick”, you are telling a marginalized person not to use his or her dialect. Dialects are a lie. Dialects detract from the purity that is English. You shouldn’t use dialect. Many marginalized people use dialect, because it is how we speak in daily life and we try to tone it down because – you know – English and its standards. Many of us end up code-switching, mainly because we have to and in our surroundings, a must, to survive. Many end up being told that using dialect is wrong. An example can be seen in Singapore’s context. The Speak Mandarin campaigns have had effectively destroyed the use of ‘dialects’ and dialects themselves were frowned upon. A few generations of Singaporean Chinese grew up not understanding their dialects, myself included. Instead, we adopted Mandarin Chinese and spoke it. Fortunately now, there is a new generation reclaiming what is lost and speaking their dialects again, because they are rightfully theirs.

As SFF writers, we have language(s) at our finger tips. However, the language imposed on Anglo-centric writers is after all an artificial tool. English is used as a medium by many writers, because well, the Anglo-centric SFF community understands it. Yet, SFF is also written in other languages too: Mandarin Chinese, Finnish, French, Italian, Bahasa, Tagalog. To restrict SFF to English is narrow-minded and macam stupid you know. Sorry, there I go… slipping into colloquial.

Of course, not to ignore the faction that is going “It’s my preference, so nyah nyah nyah!”, reading is a choice. Reading in the dominant language is a choice. By choosing not to read something because it is thick with colloquialism or slang or dialect is your choice. But never restrict a writer when he or she wants to write in his or her own language. For people who readily consume and speak Klingon, Rihannsu and Dothraki, we are strangely quite fussy when it comes to our own dialects and regional languages.

So, don’t anyhow blame people for using dialect hor? We speak like that because we speak like that lor.

Starfang chapter 6

“We didn’t take part in the hunt until we reached fourteen, the age where most youth experienced their first turning. By then, we had spent so much time together, my aunt having sent April to study at the school before entering the academy.

April gave me a rose agate pebble with smooth edges when I turned thirteen. It fit in the center of my palm. She said that she found it while she scoured the beach. She loved beaches. I loved her for that. When we were twelve, we realized our relationship was different. We were cousins, but we felt something stronger than that. Young as we were, we couldn’t describe how we felt.

I had the pebble made into a pendant. I didn’t wear it though. Instead I kept it in the main drawer of my desk on board the ship, to remind myself of what was real and tangible.”

Red alert, red alert!

Oysters, Pearls and Magic free online

A couple of year ago, I wrote a YA web serial set on a faraway Earth-like planet, colonized by descendants of Earth colonists. I called it Of Oysters, Pearls and Magic.

You can read it now for free on Wattpad: here or on the webserial’s site: http://jolantru.wordpress.com.

Have fun!

Guest post on Diversity In YA

Because it IS important.

A Wolf's Tale

…where I talk about Rider, the Singapore publishing industry/market and stuff .

Also : here.

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