Categories
Jasmine H. Low

S1E5: Don’t go so busy | Written & Narrated by Jasmine H. Low

Summary

At the doorstep of BIMP-EAGA nations, China, US & Australian ships have been ‘patrolling’ the South China Sea since Easter.

“The South China Sea holds an estimated 190 trillion 👀 cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil in proved and probable reserves, with much more potentially undiscovered”

— source AMTI

I’ve often wondered about the Nanyang women who had to brave the seas, in search for a better land, a husband, a new life. I often wondered how they must have felt, their mothers, thinking they may never see their daughters again. My focus is on the women, because many of them never had their name documented. This Mother’s Day, I’d like to remember them.

— don’t go so busy —

Written and narrated by Jasmine H. Low

don’t go so busy with your phones looking to the West when Western ideals are already insipidly you,

I mean what are YOUR values today huh? Hah? Or does BTS speak to you more than your Tea’s gone Cold?

.

don’t go so busy with your serial whatsapp groups posting what you ate yesterday in the Western suburbs when so many troops are already in our open waters,

and 53 died when their old sub broke under 500-metres,

.

don’t go so busy choosing your cereal, your toothpaste while listening to that joe rogan on your airpods, washing your brains with #hashtags not even relevant to you, oh, wait, it’s now #stopasianhate

.

don’t go so busy run run running a million miles, yes miles we once were before the metre, cos you’re just feeding the big brother watching your every movement, even your fittest of bits

.

don’t go so clever posting pics of your every meal, your lunch, your dinner, your piece of keto liver, your every calorie saved, your fitness pal my fitness pal who cares

.

don’t go so crazy do research, research here, research there, wondering which vaccine won’t give you clots, when your blood is already thickened by sucralose, sorbitol and every sweetener the world has ever seen, see, those dots? Ya it’s keratosis pilaris as that tiktok md says, but why is it a new normal, doc?!

.

haiya, don’t go la, just sit back, relax, drink your teh tarik and make it kurang manis, eat your Roti dipped in dahl and sambal, but so much carbs liao ditch the koay teow, turn on the news at the mamak but WAIT cannot be…

Is that Ann Lee* on TV?!

Are we back in 1993?!

— a woke prose as there are those who are wagging dog’s tails, donno what it means ah? google la, wag the dog’s tail is mean make you so busy you look look look your teevee until you don’t see where you walk then BOOM fall into longkang lah!

thank you ah!

— ends.

America’s CNN article in reference: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/12/china/south-china-sea-taiwan-military-tensions-intl-hnk/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2nf9qelH01w54oJuPvN4xF3F4vn_cGKgCoLNGz3cOVbvYFlexOVv8cAxs

China’s CGTN article for comparison: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-09/China-urges-U-S-to-stop-provocative-acts-in-South-China-Sea-ZjXidJrpOE/index.html

VICE article about sub that broke: https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvzx84/chilling-photos-indonesian-submarine-military

*Dr Ann Lee was a former newscaster on RTM2, Malaysia and is an award-winning playwright, presenter and researcher. She’s featured in Season Two of this podcast.

#ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com

About the Listen by Heart Podcast

You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea

Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you.

Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them.

Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace.

Production Credits

An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com).
An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production.
Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com.
Website by WebPROjx.com.

#ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com

Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Seas? We’d love to hear from you…

— Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify.

Categories
Jasmine H. Low

S1E4: The Magpies by Denis Glover | Read by Jasmine H. Low

Also streaming on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

The Magpies is one of the most well-known poems, depicting the everlasting and unchanging Magpie call (nature) as life happens (passage of time). It was written in only six stanzas by New Zealand poet, printer, publisher, satirist, sailor and boxer Denis Glover (1912-1980). And here’s the most famous, benign line that seems so simple and yet time withstanding:

“And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle/The magpies said,”

The Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a black and white chesty bird native to Australia and New Guinea. Famous for their vocalisations that mimic the environment, Jasmine was targeted three consecutive times and was ‘swooped’ on her head while walking past a street in Zetland, NSW. When she recorded this from her mother’s balcony in Sydney, there was surely a commotion, magpies were congregating from one tree then to another. What a loud and busy affair it was!

The Magpies is read by Jasmine Low as a tribute to the nation, Australia, one of the luckiest countries in the world, her second home. She is neither native to the other land she calls home, Malaysia, but that is still her Motherland. The land where her mother and her mother’s mother were born, bred and lived. They were the Nanyang Chinese who immigrated at the turn of the 20th century in search of a new home. As a fourth generation Malaysian Chinese now living in Australia, IDENTITY has been a lifelong quest. No land welcomes her home except in the quiet of her heart. Even there, appears a conflict of duality where an all-serving filial piety native meets a braver Mulan-like idealistic artist. Who wins? Not her but the Magpie will keep its calling true.

Read the full poem: https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~tf/poem10.html 

Listen to a Paul Kelly version of this as a song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Xja7YEhWw

Australia’s Paul Kelly puts rhyme to popular Denis Glover poem, The Magpies

About the Listen by Heart Podcast

You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea

Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you.

Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them.

Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace.

Production Credits

An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com).
An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production.
Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com.
Website by WebPROjx.com.

#ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com

Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Seas? We’d love to hear from you…

— Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify.

Categories
Jasmine H. Low

S1E3: Murmurs | Written and Narrated by Jasmine H. Low

Also now streaming on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

via GIPHY

The departure from colonialism.

Written and read by Jasmine Low.

About the Listen by Heart Podcast

You have been listening to an Audio Journey experience by Jasmine Low. Subscribe to the podcast on your favourite platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, you can support the production.

Purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them.

Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace.

Production Credits

An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com).

An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production.

Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com.

Website by WebPROjx.com.

#ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com

Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we’d love to hear from you…

— Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify.

Categories
Jasmine H. Low

S1E2: I am not loud by nature | Jasmine H. Low

Also now streaming on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Summary

Written & narrated by Jasmine H. Low.

Insatiable. Chasing. Knowing. 

And the letting go, when knowing is enough.

And the letting go, when knowing is enough.

This piece was originally written in 12 Jan 2009 and rewritten in March 2021 following an in-depth critique by Malaysian playwright & researcher Dr. Ann Lee who appears in Season Two. The author writes about a duality in her identity, in her love for her native country, torn by a new love for her adopted place of abode. A new country. Like two lovers courting and dancing, these two countries beckon her like a lover promising more than they can deliver. Will she go with her head or her heart?

About the Listen by Heart Podcast

You have been listening to an Audio Journey experience by Jasmine Low. Subscribe to the podcast on your favourite platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, you can support the production.

Purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them.

Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace.

Production Credits

An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com).

An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production.

Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com.

Website by WebPROjx.com.

#ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com

Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we’d love to hear from you…

— Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify.

Categories
Jasmine H. Low

S1E1: Welcome to the Listen by Heart Project | A message from Jasmine H. Low

Summary

The back story 

Wayang Kata, JasmineLow.com

From 2003-2012, I was actively writing, performing spoken word poetry and organising poetry & music gigs in the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia circuit. Together with Jerome Kugan, Sabahan singer songwriter and then editor of a lifestyle magazine KLUE, we formed Wayang Kata in collaboration with the British Council Malaysia and Apples & Snakes UK to showcase performance poetry. Those were great days of unraveling stories from so many interesting layers of society and cultures. 

Jasmine reading at an open mic organised by Sharon Bakar (blog)

I had an idea back in 2006-2007 to collect and curate stories in the form of poetry, song and short stories for an audio book titled ROOMS. I recorded two original performance poetry pieces I wrote – one was performed at The Actors’ Studio Bangsar and the other was a gig. I collected at a few recordings from women writers and poets, but never published it. That idea never left me, it was always there, just waiting for the right time and I think this year may be the right time to bring it alive.

In conjunction with International Women’s Day and their tagline #ChoosetoChallenge for spoken word poets, this one’s for all of you ladies! Read more about IWD 2021… Who has inspired all of this? A young lady by the name of Amanda Gorman at the inauguration of Joe Biden as President & Kamala Harris as Vice President of the United States of America.

This is an open call to women of Southeast Asian heritage, no matter where you’re living now. I’d love to hear your stories and if you’d like to be featured on this podcast, drop me a voice message and I’ll get back to you.

It began as a TEDx talk in 2015 and at the time, it was called Listen to Your Heart. I presented an idea about sound frequencies and how that research led me to realise what played importance in my own life.

I hope you’ll enjoy these recordings and readings as much as I have in writing, recording and producing them. I kick off the project with readings of some of my original unpublished works and recorded conversations with my mother Shirl.

Thank you and enjoy the audio journey!

Sincerely,
Jasmine Low
#ListenbyHeart
30 March 2021 in Sydney, Australia

#ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com

Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we’d love to hear from you…

— Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify.

Categories
Writers

[Trailer] Listen by Heart: Stories from Women of the South China Seas

An invitation

Listen in to conversations with women of the South China Seas in search of one common thread — life purpose… Podcast host Jasmine Low speaks with women of this region, shares their stories and narrates articles from yesteryear and delves into her 10-year research into sound frequencies and how that got her to “Listen by Heart” in finding her own purpose. Were all of the women before her in search of the same goal? It’s telling in the daily greeting by Nanyang migrants in their own dialects, “Have you eaten?”. Is this why so many people share food pics because it’s a trophy for survival?

About the Listen by Heart Podcast

You have been listening to Jasmine Low’s Audio Journey experience, presenting Listen by Heart: Voices of the Women of the South China Sea.

Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and if you’d like to encourage us on, find out how you can support the production. Thank you.

Our purpose: Listen by Heart Podcast is an audio project that sets out to record and archive stories from women of the South China Sea, an area of much interest lately. As we document and record all of these stories, we will also be digitising and creating an online presence for women of Southeast Asian heritage and honouring the women who came before them.

Our Mission: Listen By Heart Podcast aims to serve as the Sentinels of the South China Sea, keeping our region at peace.

Production Credits

An open-source project created, narrated and produced by Jasmine H. Low (jasminelow.com).
An AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcast Production.
Supported by GoInternationalGroup.com.
Website by WebPROjx.com.

#ListenbyHeart | https://listenbyheart.webprojx.com

Would you have a tale to share or know somebody who does? Do you identify as a woman with heritage from the nations encircling the contentious South China Sea? Wherever you are in the world, we’d love to hear from you…

SEND VOICE MESSAGE

— Send in a voice message requires you to set up an account with Anchor.FM, a company affiliated with Spotify.