The ASM/Flying Islands Story – Macao as Unofficial Poetry Translation Hub

 

This paper gives a potted history of English-language creative writing at the University of Macau, as this pedagogic practice has evolved since the millennium. The institutional story is told alongside that of the community publisher, ASM/Flying Islands, the activities of which have been closely related and roughly co-extensive. How do the official and unofficial stories relate to each other? Where does the teaching and learning of creative practice fit in with the bureaucratic modes, methods and goal setting of the academy? The story, in either case, is about art as a social event and learning process, as a reflexive means of finding self and of understanding others through purposive dialogue. Kit Kelen here on the practice and teaching of creative processes across the arts and across cultures. Employing principles of Freirean Pedagogy in Foreign Language teaching contexts engages a problem posing approach to practical questions of empowerment, and in particular the question of how best to skill people to express their cultural presence and meaning in their own and in other languages. The goal of the work is the empowerment that comes from developing the ability to tell one’s story – so as to join in a conversation across cultures.