Featured in NANG Issue 3

At long last I can finally announce that my short story, 1946, will be featured in Issue 3 of NANG magazine. NANG is a limited edition, 10-issue biannual that explores topics in Asian cinema based in South Korea. And as far as magazines go, it's one of the most beautiful-looking ones that I've seen.

Amir Muhammad served as guest editor and put out a call for submissions. The central theme of the issue is fiction, in all its forms and guises. It isn't just straight-up fan-fic, but rather, it serves as a way to explore the whole spectrum of how a viewer interprets and relates to cinema, as well as the relationships that they form with films characters, and stories.

My story was inspired by Wong Kar-Wai's 2046. In fact, his entire informal trilogy on love is featured in the pages of this issue, with stories inspired by Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love making an appearance. I admired the work that Wong put into the film: Despite how convoluted it was, and how incoherent it sometimes appeared, he explored the innermost workings of the human heart and the artifice of storytelling, nostalgia, and closure so vividly. Using the basic plot of the film as my outline, I transferred the setting to the end of Shanghai's decadent age as Communist forces began to bear down on Republican China. 1946 also serves as a love letter to Shanghai's Golden Age of film, and its star icon Ruan Lingyu, whose tragic story united a city in grief.

NANG will be at the Tokyo Art Book Fair from October 5th-8th. Do drop by!

Below are photos from NANG's website to give you an idea of what to expect. My thanks to the amazing team behind the magazine for giving me a spot in it.

   



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