The first Australian city I visited is Sydney. I wrote about this in a previous entry. I thought I was racist to think that there should be a separate section for "Asian literature in English" in book stores but I am now taking it back.
I confided to an award-winning American writer Alex Sanchez about it and he said having such a section is more of a marketing strategy and not segregation. Obviously, there is no such market yet in Australia.
In addition, I have been looking very hard for Asian books in English here in Adelaide and have found very few selections. Apart from journals, I have never seen a Filipino book here. The absence of such literature here gives the impression that we Filipinos do not write in English.
Ironically, I have found a few Filipino books and Thai-translated Filipino books in Bangkok. Back then, I thought Thailand had the worst literary selections in the world.
Hopefully, in time, Filipino publications will be available here. I wish I would still be alive then.
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