Jinghua Qian

Liminal’s latest anthology brings together 20 searing new essays by First Nations writers and writers of colour. What jumps out at me is the out-of-body text: footnotes appear liberally in several essays, including Kasumi Borczyk’s, which engineers …

You’ve probably seen the memes. Developed half a century ago by psychologists John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, attachment theory has found renewed interest online in the past few years, thanks to our apparent collective need to typecast ourselves via …

The mess and tenderness of care work drives this thoughtful and underappreciated Canadian sitcom.

There’s a warmth to the short stories in Choi Eunyoung’s celebrated collection, Shoko’s Smile, that I haven’t encountered enough lately. It feels a little unfashionable, and very welcome. Yet her measured prose and granular, almost fastidious …

I was only a few pages into this book when I realised I was gritting my teeth, despite admiring the author’s sharp observations of teen angst, existentialism and desire. That’s because the prevailing mood of this slim novel is dread. The protagonist …

“It seems difficult here for anything to become permissible without becoming compulsory,” wrote child psychologist Martha Wolfenstein in 1951. She was writing about parenting and how softening attitudes towards playtime soon transformed into a new …

I grew up thinking there were seven fundamental flavours: suān, tián, kǔ, là, xián, xiān, má. The first five translate easily – sour, sweet, bitter, hot, salty – but the other two don’t own a home on the English tongue. It was a shock to …

Newsroom simulation Not For Broadcast gives an insight into the farce of producing media under a repressive regime.

After almost six distinguished decades in a notoriously fickle industry, Nancye Hayes is still captivating Australian theatre audiences with her indomitable mix of sass and charm. “Some people can’t stand musicals, but they’re joyful and moving. Music is very emotional and touches people.”

Malthouse Theatre’s skilful audio adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’s Loaded epitomises 2020 – yet somehow it feels dislocated from its time and place.

S. L. Lim’s second novel is a vicious delight – a lit fuse that means to burn the whole house down. We first meet the protagonist, Yannie, as a clever young girl. She learns early that the world is not only violent but also senseless: reality changes …

“I tried to grieve, / I tried not to cough. I couldn’t sleep or I slept too much. / I tried to believe that words were enough, but I wore / them through. There was nothing to do, or everything to do / and no one to touch. It was a communal crisis of …”