Joanne Tan

Age: 40
Ethnicity: Chinese
Occupation and/or Company: Housewife

Personal & professional philosophy:
‘Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.’ – Joan Didion

Upcoming performances/ project:
Currently working on a novel based on the lives of a mother and her daughters and how the choices they have and make are affected by the roles they occupy as mother, wife, daughter and sister.

What is the highlight of your work?
My writing centres around female identity, particularly the conflicts and ambivalence of motherhood arising from cultural and class divides.

Future goals:
Publish my first novel, master my late grandmother’s life-changing ngoh-hiang and sit through a PTA meeting without rolling my eyes (ranked in order of difficulty).

Project brief / teaser:
“Mei Mei” is a narrative account of a ‘tiger mother’ with early onset Alzheimer’s, struggling to keep her place as the matriarch of the household and grappling with the reality of losing both her children and her mind.