Chapunk at Pulse & Pickle

Yen with attendees Sheyna Zaid Lam, Eileen Chiew, and Zhui Ning showing off their fans.

EAGG members and Aunties Danbee “Tauntaun” Kim and Yen Ooi launched their ESEA speculative fiction project Chapunk last month at Pulse & Pickle with their first Chapunk Hour event. “Chapunk” is a term coined by Danbee and Yen to express their desire to create and experience more stories that project Asian mentalities, languages, and cultures into the future. More broadly, they share the dream of fostering a vibrant community enthusiastically engaged with the politics of speculative storytelling, and ready to challenge the status quo by acknowledging how the stories we tell of our own futures – and the people and ideas we see thriving in the future – can powerfully impact our lives in the here and now. 

Guest moderated by Eric Huang, the event opened as an interview with Danbee and Yen on how Chapunk was born and what they hope it to be. The crowd joined in with the lively discussions while everyone shared lemon balm and sage tea, sharing favourite speculative fictions, projects, and more. The next Chapunk event is on kimchi in space!