Soaring High On Words With Allison Jong
By Alexandria Chew
published on 23 November, 2018
Sarawakian Allison Jong developed a love of literature at an early age when she first read Heidi by Johanna Spyri. (Image source: Allison Jong)
Behind every strong woman is a story worth telling.
Meet Sarawakian Allison Jong Chia Ning, more commonly known as “Allie” by close friends and company. Just 23 years old, her feet is already deeply rooted in the Kuala Lumpur poetry scene. “It’s amazing how poetry has brought me to exciting places to meet different poets all over Asia,” she smiles, then adds, “Literature has always bonded us no matter the distance.”
In 2016, this English Literature graduate was the curator of Word of Mouth: Diary. In 2017, she was an invited spoken word artist for Poetically Correct, a spoken word showcase at Publika held in conjunction with The Cooler Lumpur Festival. She was also featured on a BFM Speakeasy interview with Elaine Foster on “Minority Voices” as a guest poet in the same year, allowing her the opportunity to perform her poetry on air for the listeners tuning in.
This year was the peak of her career - she was the invited spoken word artist for Onde-Onde Open Mic Session 5: Gegaran Ekspresi 2018, an event hosted by local book distributor, Gerakbudaya, as well as being the invited Malaysian delegate cum spoken word artist for Lit Up Festival Asia Pacific 2018, Singapore.
As a woman of multiple talents, she is currently employed at the Malaysian Institute of Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP) as their 1st Semester Poetry and Literature teacher. She also holds the Programmes and Development Manager position at the social enterprise.
To get to where she is today was no easy feat.
At the tender age of 8, Allison’s passion for literature was sparked when she read Heidi by Johanna Spyri, a fictional story about a young girl in the Swiss Alps who was cared for by her paternal grandfather.
“I knew, in the moment, that I wanted a personal library filled with books,” she says.
Allison started writing shorts at the age of 14 and currently has three unfinished novels pending. Her stories explore romance, sorrow, proses and personal diaries. “I have collected over 20 notebooks of my writing and I am proud of the random things written,” she boasts.
"Literature has always bonded us no matter the distance."
- Allison Jong
Allison collaborated with a group of poets to form Wordsmiths of Kuching (WOK), which became one of the biggest poets collective in her home state. (Image source: Allison Jong)
Literature would soon become a permanent presence in her future; it is her bread and butter, yin and yang. As a teenager, she immediately set course to pursue it academically, and took the English Literature subject for her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) examinations. Her love for literature was further cultivated during tertiary education at a prestigious local university, Universiti Malaya (UM).
Her parents were supportive of her pursuit, despite the indirect protests from relatives. “My mother would save money from her earnings to buy books for me to read,” she recalls. “My father took some time to convince, but eventually he became supportive and happy for me.”
When Allison was 18, a group of poets invited her to collaborate and form the biggest poets collective in Kuching. They named their entourage The Wordsmiths of Kuching (WOK) and were first featured at Shades of Art, an annual art showcase featuring local fashion, visual artists, and music performers.
Subsequently over the years, WOK built their own platform for local budding poets, performing and organising their own shows. However, Allison set sights to further her studies in Kuala Lumpur and eventually left her beloved hometown.
In a city full of promising opportunities, Allison immediately dove into various poetry gigs and shows in search of belonging. “The scene here is active and saturated, I really like that,” she says.
In Kuching, there would be little to none of these events, hence budding poets had no stage to voice their craft. Upon realising this, Allison tried to start a collective coined the Inkwell Poets Society, but was hindered by the lack of time and resources to fully commit to the cause.
“In Kuching five to six years back, the only poets who were writing were for the local newspaper and the crowd was a lot older. There was no proper platform for young poets like me,” she comments, “it is important that all poets get to the stage and shout their heart out. WOK made the literature scene lit.”
Eventually, her hard work paid off as new doors opened. “My most memorable performance was at If Walls Could Talk, where I spoke about the plundering of Sarawak and the disenfranchisement we faced as a state,” she says. The crowd was electrifying and reacted positively to the political poem. “It landed me an interview with BFM, it was remarkable,” she laughs. Since then, Allison’s name became a staple in the local indie literature community because she made it up there.
Allison’s wish is to develop the local poetry scene to be more accomodating for young poets and foster literature appreciation. “What we do need is a bit more funding and more governmental support,” she suggests. “Awareness on art and culture is still kept to a very exclusive crowd, art galleries are too cold and posh. We need to open up and make art more relatable to the common man and give platforms to more people to write, perform, sing.”
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