Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival has announced well-known Chinese Australian writer, comedian, and MC Jennifer Wong as curator of the 2022 In Other Words program, which features new writing and ideas from Asian and Asian Australian writers.
“We extend a warm welcome to Jennifer as she assists us to continue to build the focus on ideas and writing about Asian-Australian engagement, which has always been central to the aims of OzAsia Festival,” said Adelaide Festival Centre CEO and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM.
A food enthusiast with a love of wordplay, Jennifer is known to many as the presenter of Chopsticks or Fork? – a six-part ABC series about Chinese restaurants in regional Australia.
As a writer, her work on mental health, food, and cultural identity has been published by ABC Everyday, ABC News, Broadsheet, Monocle, and SBS News. She currently writes a column for SBS Food called The Mostest.
As a comedian, she has performed in both solo and group shows at arts and comedy festivals in Australia, Edinburgh, and China. For OzAsia Festival in 2021, she created and hosted The Special Comedy Comedy Special, which showcased a stellar line-up of Asian Australian comedians, and took part in the Closing Night Debate.
Jennifer will also host and appear in the comedy special again for OzAsia Festival in 2022. More details to be announced soon.
In Other Words was first presented in 2021 under curator Laura Kroetsch, and attracted nearly 3000 attendances, both in-person and online, in more than 20 free sessions featuring 40 leading contemporary writers and thinkers covering a variety of political, cultural, racial, and lifestyle topics.
“I’m so excited to work with our guest curators, Marc Fennell and Beverley Wang, to present Adelaide with a massive weekend of unforgettable stories and big ideas about Asia and Australia’s relationship with Asia,” said Jennifer Wong.
“As a book-loving former Asian Studies student who’s been involved in Asian-Australian performance since 2011, I’m delighted that In Other Words will be the place-to-be to celebrate and bring together the incredible range of Asian talent in Australia.”
Whether it’s music or journalism, science or literature, cooking or pop culture, we’ve got you covered… We’re bringing together thinkers and writers from all walks of life who’ll inspire, provoke, and comfort. I can’t wait for everyone to see the full program in September,” said Wong.
“I’m thrilled to have another strong team of curators for In Other Words in 2022,” said OzAsia Festival Artistic Director Annette Shun Wah.
“After Laura set us up with such a great start last year, Jennifer Wong and guest curators Marc Fennell and Beverley Wang will further evolve this unique program with vibrant, fresh, and provocative ideas to put a diverse range of thinkers and writers at the centre of the important conversations we need to have,” said Shun Wah.
The 2022 OzAsia Festival will run from 20 October – 6 November Program details will be announced on 2 August. The lineup for In Other Words will be announced in September. For more information, visit: www.ozasiafestival.com.au for details.
Image: Jennifer Wong – photo by Teresa Tan