Jinghua Qian has been performing spoken word since 2007 and producing radio and podcasts since 2012.
Radio and podcasts
Hard Read
What does it cost to be visible? Chinese and trans people shift in and out of focus in Australia’s historical records – appearing and disappearing, code-switching, oscillating. Through the lens of turn-of-the-century portrait photography, Jinghua Qian looks at the privilege and burden of representation and the luminous power of inscrutability. Produced for Powerhouse Museum’s Oscillations series by Jon Tjhia. Full credits here. Transcript here.
Chinatown, Melbourne
A broken, bite-sized history of Chinatown and its role as the epicentre of a fractured and evolving community, commissioned by Recess for Rising festival in June 2021. References and audio sample credits here.
Underfoot
Underfoot is a series of virtual audio tours by Liz Crash and Jinghua Qian uncovering the secret histories of Footscray, launched June 2020. Listen below or read the stories as formatted text, complete with maps, photographs and footnotes.
Queering the Air
From 2012 to 2015, Jinghua was a producer and presenter on Queering the Air, an hour-long Sunday afternoon talk show on 3CR Community Radio. Some of Jinghua’s guests included intersex activist Morgan Carpenter talking about the campaign for bodily autonomy and Chinese feminist Wei Tingting, who spoke to Jinghua shortly after her high-profile detention without trial.
In 2015, ey co-ordinated the We Weren’t Born Yesterday project, a four-part multilingual radio series exploring queer heritage in Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese and Hindi speaking communities in Australia. The project was a finalist in the 2015 CBAA National Community Radio Awards.
Listen to the Chinese episode of We Weren’t Born Yesterday, produced and presented by Jinghua Qian.
Read more about the We Weren’t Born Yesterday project and listen to all four episodes here.
Spoken Word
Performances include Melbourne Writers Festival, Big West Festival, Emerging Writers Festival, La Mama Poetica, Keep Left, West Word, Footscray Community Arts Centre (One Night Stanza), Overload Festival and Going Down Swinging.
Jinghua’s poems have also broadcast or performed on 3CR 855am, RRR 102.7 FM and JOY 94.9 FM.
Here is a little taste.
Other Audio
Jinghua has spoken at dozens of events at schools, universities and festivals on topics such as intersectional feminism, border violence, social change, and what difference narrative makes to justice.
In 2020, Jinghua interviewed Chinese Australian artist and activist Badiucao for ArtsHub’s podcast, ArtsHubbub.
In 2018, Jinghua co-hosted the Sixth Tone podcast. Each of the eight episodes took listeners behind the scenes of journalism from China today, with reporters sharing their insight and experiences from the field.
At Digital Writers’ Festival 2018, Jinghua joined media educator Carol Que and Feminist Voices’ founding editor 吕频 Lü Pin to discuss resistance online and the digital tactics used by the Chinese #MeToo movement in the face of restrictions and censorship.
Transcript and more information about the episode here.
In 2015, Jinghua produced Inter Views, a street-side talk show as part of Big West Festival. Ey asked artists, thinkers and activists from the western suburbs to share their insights into place, land, community, gentrification, housing and belonging.
Playlists
Music by various artists, selected by Jinghua.
Music for genderfeels, Double J, 18 October 2022.
10 tracks to get you obsessed with Chinese indie music, Double J, 11 August 2021.
Music of the Sinosphere, Peril, 24 June 2020.
Teacup in a storm, Peril, 31 May 2020.
Jinghua Qian 