‘There’s a lot we can’t undo’: how an author’s visit to ancestral home prompted a wave of eco anxiety
Alice Mah’s book explores cultural and ecological loss through the lens of a trip to south ChinaWhen Alice Mah, a university professor, visited her family’s ancestral village for the first time in 2018, she knew it would not be a grand homecoming. Her father’s lack of interest in ever making the trip to south China had suggested that much. But what she did not know was that it would unleash waves of eco anxiety that would follow her back to the UK.As documented in her new book Red Pockets, Mah confronts her family’s past – the site where her ancestral home used to be, untended graves and the descendants of the villagers who remained. This presents her with a whole host of debts and the impossibility of ever really repaying them. Continue reading...
Alice Mah’s book explores cultural and ecological loss through the lens of a trip to south China
When Alice Mah, a university professor, visited her family’s ancestral village for the first time in 2018, she knew it would not be a grand homecoming. Her father’s lack of interest in ever making the trip to south China had suggested that much. But what she did not know was that it would unleash waves of eco anxiety that would follow her back to the UK.
As documented in her new book Red Pockets, Mah confronts her family’s past – the site where her ancestral home used to be, untended graves and the descendants of the villagers who remained. This presents her with a whole host of debts and the impossibility of ever really repaying them. Continue reading...
