About
Born in Sarawak, Malaysia to a large third-generation Chinese Malaysian family, I largely grew up in southern California and New York City, the occupied land of the Lenape people, which is where home is. My research is focused in Sabah, East Malaysia , where I hang out with the shaman apprentices (bobolian/bobohizan) of largely Catholic indigenous peoples (Kadazandusun, specifically) on the island of Borneo.
Questions I'm currently noodling on:
What alternatives do we have beyond the 'human' -- once we let go the human/animal binary -- and how do working with animist cosmologies (in all their possibilities, limits, and risks) help get us there?
How does the body who is entered and filled with spirits (e.g. ancestors, plants, Holy Spirit) interplay with the self-possessed, sovereign, and secular self constructed and required of colonial modernity? In the moment of postcolonial independent nation-building? In this moment of accelerating climate crisis?
Hobbies:
Sports
Writing (e.g. award-winning journalist for past decade)
Board member of Transmission Ministry Collective
