Joan Wong worked at Penguin Random House in New York for the past five years as a book cover designer. Among her well-known work are the paperback covers of the Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan, Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists. She could easily have stayed at her job indefinitely and followed a fairly predictable path of success as a designer.

However, in evaluating her next steps, this plan sounded a little too safe. She decided to leave her full time job in order to embark on a year long trip around the world that began in October 2017.

Production & Narration by Charis Poon
Illustration by Joan Wong
Audio by Elphick Wo

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Bohan Phoenix was born in Hubei, China and moved to the United States when he was eleven. Fast forward to his first forays into producing music full time after graduating from NYU, Bohan found himself wondering what his persona should be as an entertainer. He looked up to Eminem, Tupac, and Jin—but their paths weren’t directly applicable to his trajectory. Not until Bohan took ownership of his heritage and put that into his work was he able to find the kind of success he could get excited about. Now, the blend of cultures that makes up Bohan’s personality and music is putting him at the forefront of the Chinese hip-hop scene.

Production & Narration by Elphick Wo
Audio by Elphick Wo
Photos by Cheuk-Yin To

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In our latest MAEKAN Session, we moved the show to London and discussed the topic of “Authenticity in Media.”

London has been an inspiration to the team for some time. The city has been an important driver of globally-relevant subcultures with a keen understanding of the world of media. This relationship has always been a delicate balance that they seem to understand.

Moderated by Eugene Kan
Panelists featuring Tom Brandhorst, Ari Stein, and Iona Goulder
Audio by Elphick Wo
Photos by Giles Smith

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What is MAEKAN?

Sara Aiko founded Curated Kyoto, a travel boutique based in Kyoto, Japan, in March 2017 on her birthday. She had previously worked at a media company promoting Kyoto, but knew that there was so much more to the city than what they were in the business of advertising. Sara wants to share aspects of her city that aren’t as well known as Kyoto’s famous landmarks. Landmarks like Fushimi Inari Shrine with its iconic vermillion torii gates and Ginkaku-ji, a Zen temple known as the Silver Pavilion, receive many visitors all year round, and they are beautiful symbolic sites, but Sara believes more attention should be paid to other parts of the city too. Curated Kyoto introduces a new way for travelers to enjoy Kyoto from a creative perspective.

Production & narration by Charis Poon
Audio by Elphick Wo
Photos by Mi

In our first Sights & Sounds of 2018, we hear from Melbourne-based Jean-Paul McAllan, better known as ThirdCulture.

Born in the States but raised in Japan and Hong Kong, he has never felt inseparably linked to a specific location, but rather carries a mix of curiosity and readiness wherever his travels take him. He treats his craft as meditation, pract

There’s been a bit of excitement around MAEKAN with Alex opening his first-ever photo exhibition, “Flower,” at McNamara Art Projects. The show, as the name suggests, revolves around still life botanical photos that may or may not be of the illicit variety. “Flower” is not meant to be any sort of hard-stanced commentary on cannabis in a region of the world where it’s frowned upon. Instead, for Alex it was about bringing friends together to work together on a passion project. It drew in the likes of Mike Cherman of Chinatown Market, and Ariel Stark-Benz of

Photography can mean a lot of different things today. Is it more ephemeral and about capturing the trivial parts of life? Is it about something more artful and considered? Is it about documenting and providing memories that will certainly outlive us?

You could say that most of the photography we experience is largely forgettable and disposable. Random selfies and product placements dominate much of our feeds. For photographer Brian Kelley, his initial start in professional photography focused more on the world of streetwear and skateboarding. However, it was the process of still life photography that pulled him into a unique genre that flies in the face of what’s expected in modern times.

Text & Narration by Eugene Kan
Audio

When you've spent most of your life writing for eyes, the transition to scripts written for podcasts and audio stories can sometimes be a bit challenging. But with the right resources and a bit of practice, you eventually find yourself developing a writing voice you didn't know you had. In this Building the Brand, Charis and Nate discuss some of the challenges of writing for the ear and about some of the best practices they've learned writing for MAEKAN's listeners since inception.

Hosted by Charis Poon & Nate Kan
Audio by Elphick Wo
Photos by Alex Maeland

What is MAEKAN?

MAEKAN is a membership-based publication and community focused on the sights and sounds of creative culture. We

The mention of Japanese culture calls to mind any number of things, ranging from Pokémon and Nintendo to kimonos and Noh theatre. Japan is full of niche cultural products that are often specific to certain prefectures and certain eras, but to an outsider located elsewhere, only the more popular exports make it through. Even with the best intentions of a person seeking to learn more, the lack of translated Japanese-English websites and media can prevent deeper understanding.

Hikaru Komura, who prefers to go by Hiki, started a blog in 2009 to practice her English after she returned to Tokyo from her overseas studies. The blog quickly gained a global following and Hiki started fielding comments and questions about Japan and Japanese products. At the time, Hiki dreamed up an online store as a quick solution for her readers looking to acquire hard-to-find things from Japanes

When trap music is highlighted in the context of China and especially in English, the discussion often wanders into focusing on the showy garish side, before writing off the burgeoning scene as a shallow imitation of the popular North American genre.

But in this story, Eugene sits down with David Zhou and Lucas Farrar, who set the record straight on the Chinese hip hop scene, specifically as it pertains to Chengdu and Chongqing, the two rival cities building the scene from the ground up and laying claim to the title of China’s hip-hop capital.

Hosted by Eugene Kan, David Zhou & Lucas Farrar
Audio by Elphick Wo
Photos by Lucas Farrar

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What is MAEKAN?</