By Claire Cao — 21 August, 2020
Content Warning: sexual assault, violence, sexist and racist language. This piece is the final piece in a five-part series of responses for BLEED—an online biennial festival from Arts House and Campbelltown Arts Centre. You can view the festival in its entirety here. The first thing Kim notices about the office is its clean windows….
By Claire Cao — 13 November, 2019
I. PANG Communicating with ghosts is simple in theory. Dying is like stepping off a tarmac and on to foreign soil, my parents said in Mandarin. You’ll be severed from your bed, the grocery shops you know best, the people you love—no landmark in sight, save the cloudy bulk of winter sky….
By Claire Cao — 19 September, 2019
It takes a 50-minute train ride and two buses to get from South-West Sydney to Rushcutters Bay. Trips of such length and commitment are punctuated by interesting characters: teens with bum bags talking a big game about their sexual conquests; aunties propping their callused feet up on the seats; a woman chomping on a lamb…
By Claire Cao — 5 July, 2019
The birth of Communist China heralded an explosion of life. Cocooned in the monumental shadows of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, Mao Zedong publicly avowed that a greater population meant greater power for his fledgling state. Like blood haemorrhaging from a cut, births increased—by the late ‘70s, China had a population of more than 900…