Polyphony Student Journal’s Issue 5 is now available online!
Enjoy our creative and thoughtful works by GDP students from the link below.
Letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
Hello! How has 2024 been for you so far?
I’m Chok from Malaysia and also a soon-to-be 4th-year student who constantly laments the complexity of our worlds yet find so much solace and thrill in them (credit to Anthropology and Sociology for always lulling me into liminal spaces that aren’t quite black or white or grey). For most of my life, I found myself quite rigid. I took leaps only if I can see where it’s heading; it was sure steps and either ors – everything-everywhere-all-at-once type of chaos was never part of the manuscript.
But being here, in Okayama, GDP, Japan, (and virtually in Malaysia) all at once, at the turn of my twenties has cultivated in me, surprisingly, fun ways to engage with unexpected messiness, so much so I realized that it has become a way of life – it’s sort of a freestyle now.
Polyphony Issue 5 was strung together with this spirit and in the backdrop of global humanitarian crises – with ongoing horrors and suffering in Palestine, Myanmar, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo, and more. Let’s not forget the rising sea levels and temperatures happening right under our noses. These crises do not obey geographical borders – they influence the broader global order, which we are deeply embedded in, and asks us to question where we stand in all the terror. Inspired by the role of student journalism during campus strikes against the genocide in Gaza, we had the ambition to make this issue a more “political” one, hoping to centralize our pieces on the themes of collective survival, solidarity, and passion.
Though the pieces we collected did not explicitly address the conflicts mentioned above, they nevertheless showcase the imagination that comes with reflecting on one’s entanglement and identity-making in the faces of global changes. These changes ask for alternative ways of envisioning the future because there needs to be a rupture from the status quo to assemble a new norm. Introducing such imaginations can confound our sense of time because sometimes we must revisit the past to reinvent the present for the future, or something in between. Such entanglements should teach us a way of life in the 21st century – a theme shaped by the dialogues our contributors brought to the table.
This issue would not have been possible without the simultaneous chaos and patience our team embodies: a special shoutout to Susan Li, Myo Myat Hnin (Snow), Puspadewi Adiseputra, Hana Nagatani, Genki Hase, Kayla Guevara, Shan Min Kha, Wakaba Saito, Yui Nitta, Kha Nguyen, and Joan Silole for keeping Polyphony half-alive (if not dead!) yet breathtaking in its limbo state ❤
I sincerely hope the chaos extends to you, because it is within chaos that you learn the gift of creativity and appreciation for even what seems least insignificant.
Cheers to peace, love, people, and planet.
Jia Xuan Chok
Polyphony Editor-in-Chief
Note:
Polyphony Student Journal is the first student-run literary platform at Okayama University’s liberal arts program, Discovery Program for Global Learners (GDP).
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If you are a student of GDP or Okayama University, feel free to submit your work to be considered for publication at polyphonygdp@gmail.com.
The Polyphony 