The Missing Archives | Translingual Writing Workshop

​What stories about our families never made it into the history books?

​The Missing Archives is a writing workshop that invites you to explore the undocumented histories we each carry. It takes its inspiration from the research method behind the documentary From Island to Island, in which a single family letter leads to the rediscovery of Taiwanese soldiers conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army who settled in Singapore after the war.

​How might our understanding of history shift when personal memories, family anecdotes and undocumented experiences are put into writing, especially for those living between cultures, languages and political contexts?

​What to Expect
We’ll begin with short writing prompts reflecting on a place, a calendar date, or a family joke. The final exercise draws on a letter by a late Taiwanese grandmother who could not read or write in any language. Written (or rather, drawn) in Japanese katakana, the letter is meant to be read aloud in Taiwanese (Tâi-oân-ōe), revealing the tangled inter-Asian histories and colonial legacies behind it.

​Through translingual writing, the Missing Archive becomes a record of global migration, one that resists the narratives written by the victors.

​Languages
The workshop is held in English. You are welcome to write in whichever language feels most natural (English, German, or your first language) and to move freely between them.

​What to Bring
A pen and notebook, or a laptop if you prefer to type. No prior writing experience needed.

​The Film
We encourage participants to attend the two-night screening of From Island to Island beforehand (Thu 26 & Fri 27 Nov, 19:00–21:30) → https://luma.com/ntx9g0rj