Heh, yeah Sam is hard to pin down. Like the PG Wodehouse joke goes, he’s the sort of person who enters a revolving door after you but still exits it before you.
Southeast asia is special. The porosity of the region, the connection but resistance to domination with the major powers of the world. 1000s of years of history.
Seapunk also seems optimistic in just the right ways.
This post got me fired up. I feel like movements that start in meandering ways can yield infinite possibilities. Also, it's probably that I'm excited about SE Asia and solarpunk, so to see them together blows my mind in the best way
It was great having you join us, Paul! Really appreciated the group and 1:1 convos, especially around writing, the nature of work, and futures. Keen to see where this goes.
The spirit of being receptive to encounters, ideas, and “middle-out” experiments in Southeast Asia is aptly captured. Your observation about the fluidity of identity and borders in the region resonated. In the nation-state-dominated world, it’s rare to hear someone highlight the porosity and draw real inspiration from it.
In Kuala Lumpur, that cultural fluidity is something I actually feel on my own skin. Daily life flows across languages, ethnicities, and traditions—sitting at a street food table or moving through different neighborhoods—those porous boundaries aren’t abstract concepts. They're part of what makes me return and reimagine what community can be.
Are there aspects of “Seapunk” you think could influence institutional or city-scale systems, or does its value mostly come from remaining small, loose, and difficult to pin down?
Really interesting post, don't have recommendations but that "global travel" angle is something I've been poking at recently, it's a topic that I find really intriguing and that I feel is very much "contemporary era", and I feel like SEA is one of the places that's underdiscussed compared to how much it's been impacted by it (and how much impact is coming)
I'd love to read or watch something that gave a global (or perhaps region by region) overview on how airlines and airports developed, private vs public initiative and each countries' role in it, as well as impact
For example, this is outside SEA but still in Asia, I was surprised to see how the most populated air corridor in the world is between Seoul and Jeju island, a popular vacation place for Koreans. The next 3 biggest air routes are still in Asia, one of them in SEA (Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh). I've read and watched a little bit on that particular Seoul-Jeju route but I'd like to see something that explored similar impacts or that drew some wider conclusions etc.
yeah in Thailand for example, they are dependent on it both culturally (people pursue this as a livelihood) and economically - but 5-10x travel is going to put a ton of strain on the country
i suspect the viable path is basically medium and long-term immigration. raising taxes on short-term tourism, nudging toward longer stay/more investment
the air thing is interesting, if you find anything send it my way
Appreciate the optimistic nudges towards a "freer" kind of exploration here. Also what you say about SEA reminds me of Epeli Hau'ofa's idea of the "Sea of Islands", the narrative reframing of Oceania around deep connectivity rather than isolation, with a different (and more culturally accurate) understanding of what the ocean and borders mean in practice. (I wrote a bit about it here, though the original is much better!! https://open.substack.com/pub/thinkingthingsthrough/p/oceania-and-the-sea-of-islands?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=mz1xj )
wow that was great - I think this line really captures the tension alive in so many places: "For these communities, ultimately, being fixed to an island that is being ravaged by tropical storms and drought diminishes their resilience; a greater sense of freedom, innovation and opportunity would likely serve them well. That's not impossible to imagine, although it would require a fundamental recalibration of local and national identities; of both aspiration and action; and a very different response from the international community, which unfortunately looks unlikely in the face of tightening international attitudes to migration."
Heh, yeah Sam is hard to pin down. Like the PG Wodehouse joke goes, he’s the sort of person who enters a revolving door after you but still exits it before you.
😅 might just add this to my linkedin or something
🤣 perfect
There is quite a bit of newer sci-fi and fantasy set in Southeast Asia, some of it historical in nature (Yangsze Choo's work, for example, which I admittedly haven't read yet). Personally I love Ken Liu's book The Paper Menagerie, which is more generally Asian and imagines a number of different futures (and pasts). I also found this Spicepunk Manifesto which might be adjacent to your conception of Seapunk: http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/a-spicepunk-manifesto-towards-a-critical-movement-of-southeast-asian-heritage-based-sff/
I read ghost bride recently...was a bit meandering but very interesting
Nice, I’ll have to check this out. Also just realized there’s a Netflix series now!
ooh these are really cool recs!
Southeast asia is special. The porosity of the region, the connection but resistance to domination with the major powers of the world. 1000s of years of history.
Seapunk also seems optimistic in just the right ways.
This post got me fired up. I feel like movements that start in meandering ways can yield infinite possibilities. Also, it's probably that I'm excited about SE Asia and solarpunk, so to see them together blows my mind in the best way
It was great having you join us, Paul! Really appreciated the group and 1:1 convos, especially around writing, the nature of work, and futures. Keen to see where this goes.
The spirit of being receptive to encounters, ideas, and “middle-out” experiments in Southeast Asia is aptly captured. Your observation about the fluidity of identity and borders in the region resonated. In the nation-state-dominated world, it’s rare to hear someone highlight the porosity and draw real inspiration from it.
In Kuala Lumpur, that cultural fluidity is something I actually feel on my own skin. Daily life flows across languages, ethnicities, and traditions—sitting at a street food table or moving through different neighborhoods—those porous boundaries aren’t abstract concepts. They're part of what makes me return and reimagine what community can be.
Are there aspects of “Seapunk” you think could influence institutional or city-scale systems, or does its value mostly come from remaining small, loose, and difficult to pin down?
Really interesting post, don't have recommendations but that "global travel" angle is something I've been poking at recently, it's a topic that I find really intriguing and that I feel is very much "contemporary era", and I feel like SEA is one of the places that's underdiscussed compared to how much it's been impacted by it (and how much impact is coming)
I'd love to read or watch something that gave a global (or perhaps region by region) overview on how airlines and airports developed, private vs public initiative and each countries' role in it, as well as impact
For example, this is outside SEA but still in Asia, I was surprised to see how the most populated air corridor in the world is between Seoul and Jeju island, a popular vacation place for Koreans. The next 3 biggest air routes are still in Asia, one of them in SEA (Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh). I've read and watched a little bit on that particular Seoul-Jeju route but I'd like to see something that explored similar impacts or that drew some wider conclusions etc.
yeah in Thailand for example, they are dependent on it both culturally (people pursue this as a livelihood) and economically - but 5-10x travel is going to put a ton of strain on the country
i suspect the viable path is basically medium and long-term immigration. raising taxes on short-term tourism, nudging toward longer stay/more investment
the air thing is interesting, if you find anything send it my way
Appreciate the optimistic nudges towards a "freer" kind of exploration here. Also what you say about SEA reminds me of Epeli Hau'ofa's idea of the "Sea of Islands", the narrative reframing of Oceania around deep connectivity rather than isolation, with a different (and more culturally accurate) understanding of what the ocean and borders mean in practice. (I wrote a bit about it here, though the original is much better!! https://open.substack.com/pub/thinkingthingsthrough/p/oceania-and-the-sea-of-islands?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=mz1xj )
wow that was great - I think this line really captures the tension alive in so many places: "For these communities, ultimately, being fixed to an island that is being ravaged by tropical storms and drought diminishes their resilience; a greater sense of freedom, innovation and opportunity would likely serve them well. That's not impossible to imagine, although it would require a fundamental recalibration of local and national identities; of both aspiration and action; and a very different response from the international community, which unfortunately looks unlikely in the face of tightening international attitudes to migration."
Oh I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading. Yes we are all sadly stuck in our narratives too much of the time, but that's not inevitable!
will read!