Interview with Siang Lu
(he/him)
Interview by Mackenzie Stolp
Siang Lu (he/him) is the award-winning author of The Whitewash (UQP), and the co-creator of The Beige Index.
His work has appeared in KYD, Pedestrian, Southerly and Westerly. He has been a speaker at writers festivals around Australia, including Ubud Writers and Readers Festival Perth and Oz Asia. He holds a Master of Letters from the University of Sydney. He has written for television on Malaysia's Astro network.
Siang is based in Brisbane, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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The Whitewash is the Demure Book Club selection for November and we cannot wait to read It with everyone. We are so thankful to Siang for chatting to us and releasing this incredible book into the world.
Got any favourite spy films?
My favourite spy film without a doubt would be the Hong Kong film From Beijing With Love (1994), directed by and starring the comedy legend Stephen Chow, who would later go on to greater international box office success with Shaolin Soccer (2001) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004).
From Beijing With Love is, among other things, a 007 satire, filled with laugh-a-minute gags and the goofy slapstick that represented the best of Hong Kong's kitchen-sink-type comedy from the 80s and 90s.
In fact, it's entirely possible that my love for this movie might have been at least partially responsible for 'Brood Empire', the farcical, fictional James Bond-style film at the center of The Whitewash!
The structure of The Whitewash is incredibly unique, how did you come up with the interview/screenplay idea?
True, it's not a particularly common structure in fiction, though works like Max Brooks' World War Z (2003), Chuck Palahniuk's Rant (2007) and George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) gave me confidence in the blueprint.
Outside of fiction, I've always been drawn to those Vanity-fair type oral histories of things like Mad Men and The Sopranos, in which everyone from actors to producers and directors would chime in with their own two cents. You seemed to be hearing the story directly from the source, or several sources, and yet there could sometimes be great contradictions between the recollections of one person and another.
I found that fascinating and thought it could be a fun challenge. 'Could I write an oral history in which every character is exposed as a liar?'.
That's not how The Whitewash really played out in the finished product, although some of that chaotic, contradictory energy remains. What I leaned into the most with this structure was how it gave me a way to not only have the characters tell their own stories, and therefore quite literally be a #ownvoices story, but also to have some of those voices talk about the important and actual history of whitewashing in Hollywood in a seamless and cohesive way.
What is your writing process? Do you have a method that you stick to?
It really is just as simple as 'write every day'. An important corollary to that is to do this even when you don't want to, or don't feel like it.
You are based in both Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur—how do you think living between these two locations impacts your writing?
I think I've always felt more or less caught between two cultures. During my adolescence, growing up in Australia, this felt like a burden. All I wanted to do was fit in. That meant rejecting my Chinese heritage in my teens. It wasn't until my early twenties that I started to embrace that side of my culture and consequently started to feel like a complete person.
It's not correct to say that 'I'm the only person who could've written a book like this', but I do know it is correct to say that my experience as someone between two cultures has been absolutely instructive in the creation of this particular work, and I very much look forward to reading other works from new writers with such diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
Similarly to Hollywood, the Australian literature world is incredibly white. How have you seen your book been received by the industry?
Both my publisher, UQP, and my audiobook publisher, Wavesound, have been incredibly supportive. When I first heard that an audiobook would be produced I was immediately thrilled, then a little worried. The book has such a large cast and realistically I suspected that the budget was unlikely to allow more than a handful of narrators at the very most.
So it was beyond amazing to see Wavesound put their entire support behind the production. First, in casting a mindblowing fourteen actors for the production. And second, in advocating for a primarily Asian cast! I'm still pinching myself.
I certainly believe this, but do you think satire can evoke change? And if yes, how?
Yes, I do. I think of The Daily Show under Jon Stewart's tenure, whose subversive humour drew in a younger demographic who hadn't historically been that engaged in politics. In recent years, John Oliver has taken up that mantle, shining a humourous light on any number of dour subjects, primarily to do with hypocrisy in politics and the corporate world, resulting in a level of awareness and advocacy that these issues wouldn't ordinarily have gotten.
Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017) used the horror film template as a Trojan horse to air themes about slavery, and there's a reason why we keep coming back to it today.
It's hard to really pin down. Satire isn't for everyone. But the best works in that genre seem to stand the test of time.
What advice do you have for emerging writers?
Read a lot. Write more than you read. And, if you want something, give it.
What can we expect from you next? Are you working on another book?
Readers who enjoyed The Whitewash might enjoy The Beige Index, which I co-created with Jonathan O'Brien. We describe it as the Bechdel Test for race, exploring ethnic representation in the IMDb Top 250 films as voted by users.
There are a lot of connections between The Whitewash and The Beige Index, including humour and an obsession with diversity in film.
We've got some exciting stuff in the works for 2023, so watch this space!
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PRINT BOOK: The Whitewash by Siang Lu (UQP $32.99)
AUDIOBOOK: The Whitewash (Wavesound)
WEBSITE: THE BEIGE INDEX: A big data exploration of diversity in popular film. Co-created by SIANG LU and JONATHAN O’Brien https://thebeigeindex.com/
