Celebrating the female gaze

Vietnamese writer Nguyên Phan Qué Mai recalls being taken to task by a male author from her country for writing about something she had no experience of. "Why do you dare write about the war? You were not there. You were not a soldier," Nguyên was told.

"Those words are reflective of the fact that many people still don't take women's writing seriously, as if we are only capable of writing about domestic issues," Nguyên says. "I love being a woman, but when I write, I need to be more than that. I need to become a man, a child, a grandmother, a grandfather. I am an artist, a builder of imaginary worlds when I write. So it would be nice for such a label as 'woman writer' to be removed and all authors treated equally."

Hong Kong-based Republic of Korea author Mirinae Lee echoes Nguyên's sentiments. She recalls that in 1997, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling had un-gendered her name because "boys wouldn't want to read a fantasy novel written by a female author". While greater inclusivity is in evidence nowadays, "I still see that many of my male acquaintances are often reluctant to read novels with female protagonists written by female authors."

Fortunately though, the reverse is not true.