Autograph Session at Baphomart’s Halloween Event
The Sinophagia tour continued on the 6th of October at the Satanic Flea Market at Electrowerkz among London’s purveyors and shoppers of the dark and strange.
After the queues we had experienced in Romania and at the Miskatonic, the organizers decided to put us, not with most of the other traders, among the upper floors, but in the Glasshouse on the ground floor. It wasn’t what we’d originally planned, or been told we’d be getting, being eventually shown into a darker room to the side of the Glasshouse proper. We were so glad for the help of event manager Yasmina, who helped us get a more conventional shaped table, and get the lighting turned up a little more to aid in the signing.
Our only neighbours, a spirit photography booth, came in shortly after and we busied ourselves setting up, I put the finishing touches on my Madam of the Strange outfit, consisting of a tailor-made pinstripe cheongsam, an embroidered cinch belt and a gorgeous skull fascinator made for me by a friend, while my publicist deployed their magic, turning a basic wooden table into a glamorous spotlit crimson display covered in lacy spiderwebs and held at the corners with golden dragons. Copies of Sinopticon, Sinophagia, bookmarks, postcards, fu and exclusive key rings featuring significant objects from the stories in Sinophagia, were tastefully strewn around, with a sort of enticing chaos.
The fair opened at midday, and the electronic band began to play just outside our room. As the crowd meandered around and our room began filling with people carrying drinks to tables, we realised that we were, in fact, on one side of the dining area. We realised that our two stands had offered something different from the artsy cards, and jars of bones which filled the three upper floors, but being squirreled away, natural footfall was nearly non-existent. Even two more traders in the space would have given us that critical mass to draw people in, but for the first hour or so, we were in the doldrums.
The spirit photographers, equally frustrated, moved their sign to the entrance of the room. And unable to leave the stand, I was fortunately, in the company of a very resourceful publicist and helper, who went out to find some hardbacked envelopes which we stripped down and, deploying our mini printer and some borrowed duct tape, managed to fashion into some punky and spooky-looking signs for “Chinese Sci-fi” and “Chinese Horror”, adding a finishing touch to the horror one, I decorated it in the fu style stamps I bought to enhance the signings. These, were added to the spirit photographers sign (with permission), and we did get a few more people wandering in.
Although these aren’t my usual audiences, it was hard not to feel the enthusiasm from the people who did stop at my stand. When they saw my books and realised what they were, faces lit up. It felt as if, through these books, they saw a space that was closer to their own divided and complicated identities, across the different parts of the world where they felt they belonged. Somehow, they helped them connect and made them feel heard. I had a lovely time meeting existing and new readers, who wanted to share their stories with me.
Dorian from Bristol told me that they are trying to connect more with their Chinese heritage after the passing of their grandfather, an innovative engineer, who married a western woman and started their life overseas, very unusual for 1950s Britain. Nirrhit, an artist from India who thought it was very cool that my books were channelling “Asian goth before goth was even a thing over here” and told me their project to curate lost post-punk music from south Asia. There was Kamilya, who had come laden with all my previous books, to not only purchase my new one, but to get everything signed! She told me about her minority identity as a Tartar in Russia, her progress in learning Chinese and how much she appreciated my work in this climate of rising Sinophobia.
As an author who has struggled between disparate geographical, ethnic, racial, cultural and gender and sexual identities, it meant a lot to me to be able to provide this bridge. Albeit brief, these are moments of sparks and conversations I will treasure.
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