Changing and being stuck, at the same time. Of both leaving and staying behind.
Through the eyes of poetry, the recent George Town Literary Festival (GTLF) 2020 explored the “in betweens” of emotion, space and states of being.
A Mandarin-speaking German poet, exploring a new realm, was one of the highlights at this year’s 10th edition of the festival, which was a virtual affair.
Lea Schneider, 31, was still in school the first time she stepped foot on mainland China. After learning Mandarin as a subject (lazily, she says), she was offered a place on a six-week student exchange programme.
“I was young and I wanted to see the world. When I arrived, I had all those cliches and stereotypes in my head, even though I had been learning the language, (albeit) quite badly, for two years.