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was imprisoned for 3 months for being an intellectual.
I don’t know the details of it, my grandma doesn’t like talking about that time in history very much, but just that they would visit him in prison and bring him food. My parents were both born in Tianjin, my mum’s genera- tion was the first to be able to go to university after the Cultural Revolution. They both studied communications or something like that then were introduced by friends.
9. How have you found your efforts of active community- building? Has Mellow Yellow, the blog and zine, and/
or Melting Pot Massacre forged new friendships from worldwide?
MZ: Yeah totally, I’ve definitely found that zines are a great way of forging new friendships globally. A lot of activists travel and people who come visit aotearoa is one thing then going overseas and meeting other radical people is another. I think the community building efforts here have been more successful with YAFA, as a social/ support network, it just keeps growing. Mellow Yellow and MPM are ways of disseminating our message to larger audiences and getting more people involved.
10. Have you travelled much or plan to travel much? Ya gonna tour Asia :-) ?
Shasha: We have had an awesome year as a band, having the experience of performing in Sydney and several shows in Auckland. This year we are aiming to play more shows, work on recording and releasing an EP, and fundraise enough to tour. We definitely want
to play in other cities here especially Wellington and Christchurch. We are thinking towards December for Australia and then enroute to Southeast Asia, hopefully also stopover in Hong Kong if the money’s there!! Big dreams, one step at a time!
MZ: Keen as to travel and tour!
11. Are there global struggles that you want to share with readers? Or local stories?
Shasha: I would really recommend people to check out Idle No More movement in Turtle Island (“North Ameri- ca”) and act in solidarity, wherever you are.
12. Any music of reading recommendations? Website links to rad stuff?
MZ: This is something we were reading in YAFA that inspired more thinking and strategies of resistance.
It’s a critique of the privilege model which has been a dominant discourse in radical activist circles, probably in liberal ones too, but tries to posit a new way of thinking about it through ‘complicity’: http://www.ideas-idees.ca/ blog/privilege-vs-complicity-people-colour-and-settler- colonialismx
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Hey Anna thanks for the interview! We hope it hasn’t been too long! Feel free to check us out and like us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/meltingpotmassacre / Music-wise we got our first single demo on
meltingpotmassacre.bandcamp.com and more diy garage demos on reverbnation.com/meltingpotmassacre DO stay tuned through Facebook! Or write to us meltingpotmassacre@gmail.com Cheers!