Charles Tan

Q-1.

What country/ethnicity/culture do you identify yourself with?

A-1.

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I consider myself Filipino. I was born and raised in the Philippines my entire life, although of course I belong to the Filipino-Chinese community.
 

Q-2.
 

SF/F/Horror/Slipstream genre has always been dominated by Anglo-American language. Is Anglo-American genre fiction is your major influence?
 

A-2.

 

Yes, because as you pointed out, it's dominated by Anglo-Americans, and English was taught here.
 

Q-3.
 

Give us the ratio of your reading of Anglo-American fiction against your own or non-English literature. Currently.
 

A-3.

For me that needs to be clarified. I am an English reader for example so all the texts that I read will be in English, and save for those published in this country, they will most likely come from Anglo-American publishers. I've read the Japanese novels and collections published by Haikasoru for example but at the end of the day, Haikasoru is an Anglo-American publisher despite its parent company being Shogakukan (and Shueisha). The other problem, at least here in the Philippines, is that the output of Anglo-American publishers dwarfs that of the local publishing industry. I can count the number of locally-published SF titles in the Philippines (and read them); I can't for Anglo-American fiction. So a majority of my readings are indeed Anglo-American fiction.
 

Q-4.
 

To our dismay, a lot of so called World things are actually American ones. From Baseball's World series to our genre's Worldcon (almost) or World Fantasy Awards. How can we correct it to its real structure, into the real chaotic world?
 

A-4.

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One proposition is to change the name, but due to their tradition, that's unlikely. Worldcon and the World Fantasy Awards aren't going to change their brand name just because we suggest it. The other possibility is for those institutions to take steps to live up to their name by actually representing the world and become more inclusive, but that will significantly take more eff ort and time. There might be progress, but it's not happening soon enough. There is also the convention structure to take into consideration (majority of Worldcon attendees for example are Westerners and I don't think that population will change overnight; nor am I saying that the genre world should attend Worldcon――why would/should we when it doesn't address our needs and concerns?).

Q-5.
 

Yet, it's true that we're culturally much influenced by American pop culture. Haruki Murakami cannot write like he does now without his American literature and Jazz influence. Is it the same for your case? Can you imagine you write without that influence at all?
 

A-5.

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Yes, it's the same case for us. But I think the important distinction is that while some work is derivative of US pop culture, important texts incorporate our culture as well and make it our own.

 

Given our history, for good or for ill, the Philippines were shaped by our colonizers: Spain, the US, and Japan, and each one have had a cultural impact. They don't define us, but finding our own voice, our own history, is part of our struggle.
 

Q-6.
 

But these days a lot of young writers and editors work in English language and for American market. Do you hold any grudge against working like this? Or is it a natural reaction to that influence?
 

A-6.

 

I don't be grudge them, especially when audience and profitability is concerned. It's extremely, extremely unlikely that a writer in the Philippines will be able to live off their fiction writing income alone for example. Nor do we have a lot of markets (paying or otherwise) to submit to.
 

Q-7.
 

If and when you have to write in English, do you do that to English-American readers, or to the global readers?
 

A-7.
 

It depends on the market I submit to. There are some stories where American readers are the target audience so some adjustments must be made. At other times, it's for fellow Filipinos and the piece is written accordingly. And then there are also times when it's a non-specific, non-Filipino audience, so a different approach is applied as well. What's tricky, I think, is respecting those readers, and not write condescendingly.
 

Q-8.

Is there any works or writers from your local scene you can sincerely recommend to the world readers? And why do you recommend them? Is it because they have no equivalent works or writers in Anglo-American scene? Or is it because they perfectly fit there and have many things in common that we should share? Which do you think is important, originality, or affinity?
 

A-8.
 

One of our more prolific and talented writers is Dean Francis Alfar (disclosure: the company I work for is releasing his second collection as an eBook). His writing is polished and he tries to do different things with his fiction. One of my favorites is “The Kite of Stars”.

Originality and affinity is a separate discussion entirely. I think both are important, and they're not exclusive to each other. For some readers, originality trumps affinity, while for others, affinity trumps originality. And to a certain extent, I think the value of fiction is that we're open to different paradigms, especially not our own, so both originality and affinity come into play there. For example, one fear of the Philippines is over population, but based on reading some Japanese science fiction, a concern for Japan is under population, with the older generation outnumbering the younger one. Both insights are important and valid, but clearly we have a different approach to the subject matter.
 

Q-9.
 

Have you ever read and liked any Japanese works, in and out of our genre? What aspect of it attracted you?
 

A-9.
 

I've actually been a big fan of Japanese works for a long time, starting with anime, manga, and eventually the translated fiction. It really depends on the author as each one promises something different and unique. In fiction for example, there's this different kind of creepiness with Otsuichi. Yoko Ogawa on the other hand has this elegance. At least based on the anime adaptation, Yoshiki Tanaka's Legend of the Galactic Heroes has this scope and realism not present in US science fiction. Hajime Kanzaka's fiction caters to my D&D sensibilities while infusing it with something different (and a lot of the serialized works in Dragon Magazine is equally curious/interesting).
 

Q-10.
 

Could you please explain what you do to promote foreign literature to your readers or your own works to foreign readers?
 

A-10.

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Personally, I advocate and clarify presumptions on foreign literature, whether it's in blogs and on Twitter. Occasionally, I'm asked to contribute or write articles on the subject.