5 Questions with Leanne Yong
Leanne Yong is an Asian-Australian author of Singaporean and Malaysian heritage who loves writing the diaspora experience into contemporary and fantasy YA fiction. She started her career as an IT business analyst (boring) and is now an escape room creator (much more interesting). She has designed internationally recognised games with her partner that weave unique puzzle mechanics with narrative.
She currently resides in Sydney for work, but Brisbane is where her home, family and heart (i.e. her cat) are. Two Can Play That Game is her debut novel.
No.1
Two Can Play That Game is such a sharp and refreshing YA novel. How did the idea for it come about and what did the writing process for it look like?
Thank you! I first came up with the idea while watching Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist where two teens bond over indie music while chasing a secretive band through a city all night, and two thoughts occurred to me. First, that I had no idea about indie music but wouldn’t it be amazing to have teens bonding over indie video games, which I think really push the envelope for gaming. And second, that no self-respecting Asian parents would EVER let their teens run around town like that on their own all night.
From that grew the idea of two Australian-Malaysian teens bonding over games while dealing with romance from an Asian perspective—dodging aunties and uncles around town to avoid being the subject of gossip, dealing with parents who are eager to match them up to another eligible partner within the community, but also trying to balance cultural expectations with their own wants.
No.2
You’re currently an escape room creator, and have designed internationally recognised games with your partner. Can you speak more to this? How did these experiences inform the games-centric world that your characters inhabit in Two Can Play That Game?
I came into the creation side of the escape room world entirely by accident and not by design! I was burned out on my corporate job and I didn’t know what I was going to do next or what my life would look like after I’d handed in my resignation. By sheer coincidence, the small escape room review site my friend and I started ended up getting me involved with Next Level Escape—the company which I now co-own with my business partner. It just goes to show that life can be so surprising sometimes, and despite all your plans and expectations you might still end up somewhere you’d never thought about before!
Funnily enough, I’ve found that it was actually my gaming experiences that informed a lot of the designs for the escape rooms. There’s a lot of overlap, especially between puzzle games and escape room design—which without saying too much, comes into play in the book.
No.3
In an article for the Australian Financial Review, you say that you wrote this book essentially to help teenagers navigate the problems of being pulled apart by two cultures. You write that you were born in Singapore and raised in Australia yet don’t feel fully connected to either culture—which is a common experience amongst many Asian Australians and those of other diasporas. How do you think the novel addresses this tension, and did you find that your feelings of disconnection were bridged after writing it?
With the novel, I didn’t want it to have a message of ‘And then everything was great, there was a perfect solution and here it is.’ I don’t think that’s true to life, because life is messy, life is complex with a lot of nuances, and I personally don’t think there is an easy, one-size-fits-all solution to that disconnect.
So, my goal was to explore different facets of that disconnection through the main character Sam and her sister Eva, who are coming at it from both sides—one who leans more toward her Malaysian heritage and the associated expectations, and one who leans more toward their adopted Australian culture. It doesn’t hold up either as a correct answer (I have a lot to say about books portraying the Western experience as ‘saving’ characters from a restrictive culture), but instead looks at how each of them finds a balance that works for them. The tension never truly goes away, but they find ways to deal with it and temper the aspects that cause the most grief. Or, at least, parse it with the support of those around them.
I feel this is true to life. I don’t think that the sense of disconnection from your original culture fully disappears. You’ve already been touched by another world, as it were, and the marks still remain. But writing the novel reminded me of all the different ways we meld the two into something new in our day-to-day lives, something that wouldn’t exist without that tension. Treading a new path beyond what we know.
No.4
The YA genre is often associated with a certain literalness and as such becomes assigned with a ‘non-literary’ quality, which is a shame as the genre can be such a powerful vehicle to explore complex issues while managing to be compelling as well. How much do you think about your audience when you write? Do you make a conscious effort to write Two Can Play That Game in a way that can be appreciated on multiple levels?
When I write, I try not to focus too much on ‘What does my audience want?’; instead I think, ‘What things are resonating with me, where I am now in my life?’. I’ve found it can be too easy to fall into the trap of writing what I think others want instead of something that feels true to me, and I’m learning to trust my ability as a writer, to make the things I care about resonate with others as well.
If I’m being very honest, I simply set out to write a light, funny story about two teens bonding over games, avoiding the Asian Gossip Network and engaging in a lot of banter. But I know that a lot of my own diaspora feels, uncertainty over my future, struggles with my creative life, and roadbumps in relationships with those around me permeated the book as I was writing and editing. I don’t consciously put them in, but sometimes as I’m layering I’ll realise that bringing in a specific element can, say, bring more depth to a character that feels flat.
That said, now the book is out in the world, it belongs to the readers. How they view it, the interpretations they bring to it from their own life experiences, is out of my hands and it’s not my place to tell them if it’s right or wrong. If someone wants to write an essay about the deep meaning behind Sam’s gaming chair, then who am I to say that she has one because I was sitting in one at the time?
No.5
Who are your favourite YA authors in Australia?
First off I have to say, major respect to all the Asian-Australian YA authors paving the way for us to be able to write more and showcase more breadth of experiences. Alice Pung, Rebecca Lim, Wai Chim, Ahn Do, Ann Liang and others I’m sure I’ve missed. They all write so beautifully and in different ways, and I love that we have this variety. Of course, I’m always hoping for more!
I fell head over heels for Kathryn Baker after reading Waking Romeo, because it dealt with all the ways love looks like in a really nuanced way—not only romantically, but between blood family and found family and friends and even with our selves. Sarah Ayoub writes about the diasporic experience of being torn between two cultures so beautifully. I’m also loving everything by Tobias Madden (look, my video game and musical loving heart wants what it wants), and of course Amie Kaufman’s books always hit me in the feels with full force.
(Credit: Myles Kalus)
Find out more
Funny and romantic, an upbeat YA novel about gaming, goals and getting even from a fresh new voice in contemporary fiction.
Sam Khoo has one goal in life: create cool indie games. She's willing to do anything to make her dream come true – even throw away a scholarship to university. All she needs is a super-rare ticket to a game design workshop and she can kickstart her career.
So when Jay Chua, aka Jerky McJerkface, sneakily grabs the last ticket, it's war. Knowing how their Australian-Malaysian community works, Sam issues him an ultimatum: put the ticket on the line in a 1v1 competition of classic video games, or she'll broadcast his duplicity to everyone. Thank you, Asian Gossip Network.
Meeting in neutral locations, away from the eyes and ears of nosy aunties and uncles, Sam and Jay connect despite themselves. It's a puzzle that Sam's not sure she wants to solve. But when her dream is under threat, will she discover that there is more than one way to win?
Get it from Allen & Unwin here, or at all good bookstores.