Afterwork Readings is an anthology of migrant and domestic worker literature, edited by Para Site (Hong Kong) and KUNCI Cultural Studies Centre (Indonesia).

This volume is about and by migrant workers contains short stories, poems, and excerpts from novels and plays, written by classical literary figures of the region, established con- temporary authors, as well as domestic workers themselves. We hope Afterwork Readings will help the encounter and exchange through literature between the different migrant worker communities and Hong Kong society at large. It also aims to bring together a relevant selection of texts on this important issue written in our region over the past century, as well as to promote the work of the most promising writers from the domestic worker community.

The idea for Afterwork Readings grew from discussions started during KUNCI’s participation in Para Site’s International Art Residency in January 2015, and the subsequent collaborative project A Room of Their Own. As part of this project, the Afterwork Reading Club/Klub Baca Selepas Kerja was devised as a reading group of six sessions that ran through August and September of the same year, and included a group made up of members of the Indonesian migrant domestic worker community. At the end of the planned six sessions, a suitcase of books was donated to the community with a commitment from Para Site to continue supporting the rental of space necessary for the mobile library. Afterwork Readings is also seen as a support for continuing reading groups that would include different migrant and domestic worker groups, irrespective of their native or main language. Translated from four different languages (Chinese, English, Indonesian, and Tagalog) into the first three, the book hopes to create a shared cultural space between the often insular groups of Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers or the more isolated groups of other migrant workers.

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COLOPHON

Edited by Para Site and KUNCI Cultural Studies Center
Designed by Maxim Spivakov
Published by Para Site and KUNCI Cultural Studies Center

Language: Multilingual (English, Bahasa, Chinese)
Format: Hardcover, 576 pages
Edition: First
ISBN-13: 9789881987501
Full Title: Afterwork Readings / Babasahin Matapos ang Trabaho / Bacaan Selepas Kerja / 工餘
Publication Date: 2016