Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice this week is James Lee.

You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts

James and I first met at the House of Commons during a campaign to ratify the Istanbul Convention. Since then James' career has taken him from being a trustee at Muscular Dystrophy UK, City Bridge Trust to his current role as director at Publica, an urban design practice.

We delved into the intersectionality of race and disability, noting the rise in violence against East and Southeast Asians during COVID-19. We discussed the complexities of addressing racism, disablism, and economic inequality in London and other cities.

James shared his experiences as a parent discussing racism with his children and the challenges of accessibility within his community. We also reflected on the privileges and challenges of living in London, highlighting economic disparities and the impact of classism.

The recent announcement that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering scrapping tax breaks for Motability scheme users as part of a £1 billion budget cut is a move that could severely impact the lives of many disabled individuals in the UK. This scheme is not just about cars; it's about providing independence and accessibility to those who need it most.

Sign the petition here

As always you can keep up with my work and news here.

Please get in touch with me at [email protected] if you think I should be highlighting your ESEA organisation on Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice.

In this week's episode of Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice I was delighted to talk to the multi-hyphenate and award winning artist and author Khairani Barokka. We discussed how she first came to the UK, her book, Annah, Infinite, published by Tilted Axis Press in September and why she wrote it.

Okka's new book is an experimental work of creative non-fiction that challenges art history, confronts colonial ableism, and reclaims a stolen spirit

Catch up with the latest episodes of Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts below.

Okka is a writer, artist, arts consultant, translator and editor from Jakarta. Her work has been presented widely internationally, and centres disability justice as anticolonial praxis, environmental justice, and access as translation.

She regularly teaches, mentors, and consults for arts organisations, and has a PhD by Practice in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Among her many honours, she has been a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, a Delfina Foundation Associate Artist, an Artforum Must-See, and Associate Artist at the UK’s National Centre for Writing.

She was the first Poet-in-Residence at Modern Poetry in Translation, and later became the magazine’s first non-British Editor. In 2023, Okka was shortlisted for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in the Arts and Culture Category.

Her books include Indigenous Species (Tilted Axis), Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches, as co-editor), Rope (Nine Arches),Ultimatum Orangutan (Nine Arches), shortlisted for the 2022 Barbellion Prize, and 2024’s amuk (Nine Arches), longlisted for the Jhalak Prize.

‘Annah, Infinite is a luminous act of reclamation. It’s a text that dares to ask what lies behind a portrait, what stories are silenced when history paints over the living.

Disability activist and author Alice Wong calls it “a fascinating exploration” of how pain is written on Annah’s body and how Barokka refuses to look away. Bhanu Kapil sees it as a work staged “at the limit of portraiture,” metabolising the body into presence and absence. Anton Hur describes it as “so precise and empathetic that the reader aches with phantom pain.” And Daisy Rockwell reminds us that it heralds “the birth of a new, yet-to-be-named genre.”

‘A profoundly disturbing, intriguing, and illuminating work—Khairani Barokka is so precise and empathetic that the reader aches with phantom pain.’ — Anton Hur, author of Toward Eternity and 2025 International Booker Prize judge.

‘Through this study of a single canvas and its subject, Barokka presents a brilliant book that defies classification, one that delves into linguistics, colonial history, queer theory and memoir, and is by turns lyrical, angry, tender and pained, harking back to the pioneering work of Linda Nochlin and John Berger, but blazing a new trail that is as unexpected as it is enthralling.’

— Frank Wynne, The Irish Times

As always you can keep up with my work and news here.

Please get in touch with me at [email protected] if you think I should be highlighting your ESEA organisation on Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice.

This week I sat down with the brilliant James Olabre.

James is the Operations and Development Manager at Transport for London. We were both directors at EVR (End Violence and Racism Against ESEA Communities) now rebranded as Sesame.Over the years we have met at events but never quite managed to have a proper chat. I wanted to know more about him as a friend, and his life as a Filipino in the UK. In this episode we spoke about food, Filipino karaoke and how we navigate living in London as part of the ESEA community.

This week our conversation felt even more poignant because of Apple, an NHS worker who was assaulted and racially abused in Manor Heath Park, Halifax.

Apple is a NHS nurse from the Philippines with 15 years of service. She was racially abused and assaulted while walking with her family on 28th August.

In a social media post, she shared her feelings after the attack stating, “After what happened, it only validated my decision [to leave]. I love what I do, but some people aren’t worth my time or my care.” She added, “Justice must be served.”

West Yorkshire Police reported that a white man and woman, both in their 60s, targeted Apple’s family with racist abuse. A bystander who intervened and Apple’s mother were also assaulted.

The couple demanded to know if the nurse, who has worked for the NHS for 12 years, 'came here on a rubber boat' and hurled water and grabbed her hair during the assault

The police have made two arrests.

Catch up with all episodes of Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube

Recently I went to the launch of New Tide Media, a UK-based network that aims to strengthen ESEA voices and perspectives in journalism. Their mission is to bring nuance into anglophone reporting on ESEA and push back on western-centric storytelling that flattens this rich and diverse region.

According to a 2025 report by the Reuters Institute, Asian and Asian British people make up 9 per cent of the United Kingdom’s population, but only three per cent are journalists (90 per cent of journalists are White). In the past ten years, there’s been no significant change in the percentage of journalists from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds working in the UK’s journalism industry, the report says. Journalists of Asian heritage are also underrepresented in American newsrooms. But in the US, there are established networks such as the Asian American Journalist’s Association, that support community members working in the industry and advocate for their interests.

Find New Tide Media on Instagram here

Keep up with my work and news here.

Please get in touch with me at [email protected] if you think I should be highlighting your ESEA organisation on Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice.

Very pleased to have Jasmine Thien on Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice this week. Jasmine is a fully blind, Bruneian born Chinese actor, writer, spoken word artist and stand up comedian.

Her work explores intersectionality, ableism, culture and trauma in ways that are authentic while remaining accessible to all.

Jasmine has written a semi autobiographical play called I Dream in Colour. She will be performing at the Omnibus Theatre 22nd/ 23rd July and at the Edinburgh Fringe.

We first met though a mutual friend and subsequently realised we were neighbours!

After listening to her podcast on Disability Arts Online about her intersectional experience of the performing arts as a disabled migrant to the UK and finding out she is from Brunei, I knew she had to come on the show.

We talked about her upcoming play, future plans and explored the similarity in our backgrounds and experiences as disabled people.

You can find Jasmine on instagram @ jasminethiencreative

Catch up with past episodes of Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts below.

This Week in Disability News

MPs voted through the disability benefits bill with a majority of 75 today after facing major opposition from all Disability organisations, advocates and some members of the press. A total of 335 MPs voted in favour of the bill, while 260 voted for the proposals to be dropped.

There was fierce opposition from some in the chamber who argued that the “brutal cuts would push hundreds of thousands of vulnerable, sick and disabled people into poverty”.

The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill will now go to the third stage in parliament, and will face another vote.

The government says they will wait for the outcome of the review led by Work and Pensions Minister Sir Stephen Timms - now set to include input from disabled people.

However this is simply not good enough and there will be an opportunity to fight it in the House of Lords where it will be debated further.

"Expecting disabled people of today to turn our back on disabled people of tomorrow is unreasonable and it will never happen."

Photos from the vigil outside parliament today.

DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) has said they will be making a list of MPs who vote in favour and will make sure they lose their seats at the next General Election and that their disabled constituents hound them until then.

#TakingThePIP #WelfareNotWarfare #DisabilityBenefits

Keep up with my work and news on my linktr.ee here

This week I sat down with Pierre Tran. Pierre is a Paris based reporter, who has worked for specialist websites, newspapers, international news agencies, and magazines, covering corporate news, politics and financial markets. He has also been a sub-editor.

Pierre and I first met in 2023 at the National Union of Journalists Delegates Meeting in London. We had lunch together with other union members, and since then I've followed his reporting.

When I was last in Paris, we met up and I got him to agree to record an episode of Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice. I know nothing about defence and weapons so when he came to London for this year's NUJ delegates meeting it seemed like the perfect opportunity!

Catch up with past episodes of Between Nasi Goreng and Fried Rice here.

This Week in Disability News

Lots of us gathered in Westminister this week for a mass lobby to challenge our elected representatives about the government's proposed cuts to disability benefit.

PIP (Personal Independence Payment) is a benefit to help towards some of the extra costs that come with having a long-term health condition or disability that is expected to last 12 months or longer.

Follow Disabled People Against Cuts on Instagram to keep informed.

The ‘First Report of the Work and Pensions Committee, Safeguarding vulnerable claimant’ has been published. One witness said they felt as if "a system that is meant to wrap its arms around us is strangling us”.

“Having choice is only valid if it’s a meaningful choice, and for many disabled people we strongly fear it won’t be.”

A disabled MP has dropped his support for the assisted suicide bill, largely because of concerns that “broken” social care and palliative care services could push terminally-ill people into seeking an assisted death.

Steve Darling MP told Disability News Service (DNS) this week that he had not yet decided how he would vote on the bill’s third reading, which is likely to take place next month, but he said he had moved from being “marginally in favour” of the bill at its second reading last November, to now being “marginally against”.

Keep up with my work and news on my linktr.ee here

I first met Anthony Leung when I was hotdesking at the Design district. Anthony is the founder of Mean Write Hook, a media and marketing company with vision. He moved from Hong Kong to Canada and then to London.

In our conversation, he talks about the impact living in such different places has had on him - he feels as much Canadian as he does being from Hong Kong. We also talked about cultural influences from food to music to sport. We talked about his work, what he does and future plans.

ICYMI catch up on my conversation with Dr. Ahneez Abdul Hameed last week here

This month in Disability News

A petition has been launched to protect disabled people who cannot work from planned cuts to benefits.

The pandemic widened the gap between current financial support and the extra cost of living for Disabled people; the government’s proposed cuts will worsen this. Forcing people to work will strain the fragile NHS. Disabled people should not be punished for being unable to work.

Sign the petition here. The government must respond to all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures. At 100,000 signatures, Parliament should debate their proposed changes.

David*, from Salisbury, was found dead in his home in February, just weeks after his personal independence payment (PIP) had been stopped when he failed to return a review form.

Conservative councillors responsible for housing, social care, public health and safeguarding have all refused to comment on *David's death after he was found in distressing conditions after the wrongful removal of his disability benefits. Full story here.

Leading disabled people’s organisations (DPO) have written to work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall to express “serious concerns” about the human rights implications of her “incredibly dangerous” plans to cut spending on disability benefits.

They say in the letter that her consultation on the Pathways to Work green paper, launched officially this week after the long-awaited publication of accessible versions of the document, is a “sham”.

And they have called on her to withdraw the consultation, postpone imminent legislation – due within weeks – until all the proposed measures can be subjected to proper and accessible consultation, and provide accessible versions of all documents relating to the proposals.

Read more at Disability News Service

Keep up with my work and news on my linktr.ee here

Dr. Ahneez Abdul Hameed is a Malaysian medical doctor specialising in clinical microbiology.

She's also my friend and classmates' daughter from back home in Malaysia. I met her as a child when her mother, Begum came to the UK to do her postgraduate studies.

We caught up recently when Ahneez came here to do some exchange work. I asked her to make some time to do a podcast with me, and she graciously agreed.

By day, Ahneez is unraveling the mysteries of microbes, and by evening—or on her days outside the hospital—she is a cafe-hopping, globe-trotting foodie with a love for pretty skies, lush gardens, vibrant flowers, Michael Jackson’s timeless beats, the magic of musicals, and the purr-fect company of cats.

It was wonderful to hear about her professional life in Malaysia as a medical doctor since I had no idea of the work she does there.

In 2022 I did an interview for the Royal Society of Arts about the social model of disability. Here's an excerpt.

Social model of disability: five decades on:

I was not in the UK half a century ago. I was born and bred in Malaysia, so I did not learn about the social model until I came back to the UK in the early 2000s.

What changed for me is the realisation that I can demand reasonable adjustments and access was not my individual responsibility. I became part of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and protested disability and benefit cuts and demanded disabled people’s rights and independent living. It started me and others on the route to what is now disability justice.

The social model has also included an international understanding of intersectionality. We are not isolated in what oppresses us, be it discrimination and oppression due to being disabled, poor, working class, lack of status, citizenship, qualifications, age, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. We can have mixed identities. In our fight for human rights for disabled people, we cannot ignore those compounded oppressions are also in structural inequalities. What about rights for refugees or BIPOC (black, indigenous and other people of colour)– many of whom are also disabled? Or women?

Sisters of Frida was formed with the understanding that disabled women’s struggles were not included in mainstream disability discussions. But we also pick up voices from the disabled community with an intersectional perspective.

It is good that the disabled community seems to be also picking up on this need to include different identities against dis/ableism.

Stay connected with my social media and work here.

Naziaty Mohd Yaacob is an architectural educator, entrepreneur and artist. She is a former associate professor and architectural design practitioner.

Naziaty (Naz) and I first met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when I was there on a family visit. I’ve always admired her work as a disabled activist and her work as a lecturer. She fights for both accessibility and access.

In this episode we talked about her work, her passions and her life. We also discussed the intersection of being disabled and Malaysian and her work with inclusive and universal design and accessibility.

We discussed the difference in access and legislation in London and Kuala Lumpur. Plus disabled activism in Malaysia and the importance of mental health when getting older.

Go here to learn more about Naziaty’s work and listen to her podcast Talk Architecture.

On Wednesday I joined thousands of others as we protested against the cuts that have been proposed by the government.

Here's some coverage of the Welfare Not Warfare demos in the Disability News Service:

DPAC says ‘this is just the start’, after protest over ‘vile and cruel’ benefit cuts outside Downing Street

Disabled people have spoken of their anger, frustration and fear – and sense of betrayal by the Labour government – over plans to cut billions of pounds from disability benefits, as they protested outside Downing Street on Wednesday.

Estimates suggest more than 1,000 disabled people and allies chanted outside the Downing Street gates or listened to speeches across the road, on the other side of Whitehall.

They later marched down Whitehall and past the Houses of Parliament, just as chancellor Rachel Reeves was delivering a spring statement that confirmed more than £4.5 billion in cuts to personal independence payment (PIP) and £3 billion in cuts to the health element of universal credit.

Read more here

Daniel York Loh is a phenomenon in the cultural scene. An actor, writer, playwright, director but also a social activist.

Forgotten 遗忘, 2018

He is also an activist. In this podcast we discussed his works and his philosophy and our interest in Wuxia (Chinese martial) films.

But most of all I appreciated the opportunity to chat about novelist and co-founder of Ming Pao, Jin Yong's work.

Daniel’s reading of A Hero Born: Legends of the Condor Heroes, Volume I is available to listen to on Audible.

We also talked about being ESEA and mixed race, intersectionality and representation. How do those work in film and media? Being disabled and being represented.

Do successful actors such as Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheong represent us? We also talked about the films, A Touch of Zen, Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger and Chinese dramas, including Nirvana in Fire1m.

Daniel is a writer, filmmaker, actor and musician. His first stage-play, The Fu Manchu Complex was produced at Ovalhouse. His second play, Forgotten 遗忘, was performed at Arcola and Plymouth Theatre Royal in 2018.

He is one of 21 “writers of colour” featured in the best-selling award-winning essay collection The Good Immigrant. His most recent play was The Dao of Unrepresentative British Chinese Experience at Soho Thetare, London.

You can find him on Instagram and Twitter/X.

Here is an art piece that I created in 2024.

It's part of Culture Access’ Pan-Disability exhibition. The exhibition is open until the 31st March at Woolwich Centre Library.

Please do come along!

I have known *Lin for a few years but didnt know much about her life before she moved to the UK.

Today's episode was an opportunity to delve into that - her leaving Vietnam as part of the boat people in her mother's stomach. Moving from Hong Kong to the UK, and to the U.S. Coming back to London as a single mother. It was not easy.

*Lin's decision to study acupuncture for the next stage of her life and her journey up until now highlights that there are many East and South East Asian disapora who have stories just like this. However we seldom get a chance to meet or encounter their stories.

In Other News..

Many thanks to Woolwich Centre Library for hosting the launch of Culture Access’ Pan-Disability exhibition on Friday. Thanks also to Tatayana D'Souza for her patience and support. She's in costume here for #WorldBookDay .

One of the artists in the exhibition is @dimmodessa who is working with a Deaf group in Bali. He sent these great photos to share with us with best wishes for the launch.

The exhibition is open until the until 31st March. Please do come along.

Episode 4 Show Notes

Lin* recounts her story of when she was a baby in her mother's stomach as they left Vietnam as part of the 'boat people'. They settled in the UK in an area with no other people from the ESEA community. She left for the Mid West USA with her husband and baby daughter before returning back to London as a single mum. Part of the conversation is also about being a PA (personal assistant} and her future plans.

*Not her real name