Category Archives : Debate


DEBATE – HK Literary Festival Panel: The Help, Their Stories

Saturday saw key figures from the foreign domestic worker community gather for a discussion and Q&A session at the McAulay Studio in Wan Chai. The event formed part of the 2013 Hong Kong Literary Festival which put three helpers-turned-writers at the centre of the live debate…

“The dishes are all washed and the baby is asleep. While you have your nose buried in your favourite novel or your eyes peeled to the TV screen, do you ever wonder what your domestic helper may be doing behind her door? Penning a tome may not cross your mind. But an increasing number of them are. Three Indonesian migrant writers, Susie Utomo, Yulia Jafar Purwanto, Pandan Arum, pen short stories and full-length novels about their lonely journeys far from home, working in strangers’ homes.”