Alice Wong & Simo Tse: Voices and Breaths

The project ‘VOICES AND BREATHS’ by story designer Alice Wong and artist-researcher Simo Tse follows radio host Chow Yiu-fai (b. 1961, Hong Kong) and his personal narratives surrounding Snelle Berichten Nederland-China, a Cantonese-speaking programme for Chinese-speaking migrants in the Netherlands.

Back in the 1990s. Every evening, at 7:30pm, in the kitchen of almost every Chinese restaurant in the Netherlands, the radio would tune in to 747AM: “Tchhreerrrr … SNELLE BERICHTEN NEDERLAND-CHINA: NEWS + CURRENT AFFAIRS IN CHINESE. GETTING CLOSER WITH YOU, EVERY NIGHT …”

‘VOICES AND BREATHS’ is an audiobook with subtitles that follows Chow Yiu-fai and his stories as a radio host of the only Cantonese-speaking programme for migrants in the Netherlands. Initially set up to bridge language and cultural barriers, the radio programme had become a staple for information and entertainment as well as a para-social space for the community.