Beth Yahp Beth Yahp i(A22146 works by) (a.k.a. Beth Yap)
Born: Established: 1964
c
Malaysia,
c
Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1984
Heritage: Malaysian Chinese
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 Ten Thoughts on Fiction That Slays : Reading Satire in a Post-Truth Pandemic Beth Yahp , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Like an Australian Writer 2021;
1 Dogs in Love Beth Yahp , 2017 single work short story
— Appears in: The Red Pearl and Other Stories 2017; (p. 195-211)
1 Time and Again Beth Yahp , 2017 single work short story
— Appears in: The Red Pearl and Other Stories 2017; (p. 172-194)
1 1 y separately published work icon The Red Pearl and Other Stories Beth Yahp , Newtown : Vagabond Press , 2017 11681093 2017 selected work short story

'The Red Pearl and Other Stories is an invitation from an idiosyncratic but endearing bunch of misfits and outsiders to travel to emotional sites just beyond our GPS coordinates. Welcome to Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Namche Bazaar - but also to unnamed, weirdly recognizable spaces of desire, anxiety or nightmare. Here, race riots unfold in 1960s Malaysia; an 'Asian' student faces 'Go home' graffiti on incessant train rides around Sydney; dogs in love twirl and tumble in the high mountains of Nepal. Here, too, is the parallel Gothic world of the Shanghai Bar, where an Orientalist seductress bites back; and the concrete world of expatriate Kuala Lumpur where Dragon Princes and spirit travellers can also be found. Here is a vision of Sydney at its mythical best: golden, shaded in jacaranda blossoms and offering benevolent asylum to an array of newcomers and old hands. Moving between genres and cultures, the stories in this collection capture moments of intensity and yearning, points of turbulence or rest in the lives of characters who inhabit a globalised world. Their quest is for new arrangements of family, home, friendship and workplaces; new ways of living and loving in a rapidly changing world. The Red Pearl and Other Stories is award-winning novelist Beth Yahp's first collection of short stories.' (Publication summary)

1 4 y separately published work icon Eat First, Talk Later : A Memoir of Food, Family and Home Beth Yahp , North Sydney : Vintage Australia , 2015 8640674 2015 single work biography

'In this riveting memoir Beth persuades her ageing parents on a road trip around their former home, Malaysia. She intends to retrace their honeymoon of 45 years before, but their journey doesn't quite work out as she planned. Only the family mantra, ‘Eat first, talk later' keeps them (and perhaps the country) from falling apart. Around them, corruption, censorship of the media, detentions without trial and deaths in custody continue. Protests are put down, violently, by riot police.

Her parents argue, while, lovelorn after a failed relationship in Paris, Beth tries to turn their story into a Technicolor love story. Meanwhile, she's embroiled in a turbulent relationship with an opposition activist, Jing, who is at the forefront of the democratic struggle for change; and in Australia, Beth's second home, she is dismayed to see politicians on all sides focus on turning back the boats, stopping queue jumpers, controlling the borders of 'the lucky country'.

Eat First, Talk Later is a beautifully written, absorbing memoir of a country considered one of the multi-racial success stories of South-East Asia, with many fascinating but deeply troubling sides to it. It's a book about how we tell family and national stories; about love and betrayal; home and belonging; and about the joys of food.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 The Journeying Self: Traveller as Gleaner, Writer as Anemone Beth Yahp , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine , April/May no. 184 2009; (p. 19)
1 Point of No Return Beth Yahp , 2007 single work short story
— Appears in: Heat , no. 14 (New Series) 2007; (p. 7-40) The Red Pearl and Other Stories 2017; (p. 75-115)
1 The Pursuit of Happiness Beth Yahp , 2003 single work short story young adult
— Appears in: Hunger and Other Stories 2003; (p. 92-107) The Red Pearl and Other Stories 2017; (p. 55-74)

Based on the idea of happiness as a fundamental, constitutional right, and the effect this pursuit might have on others.

1 Special Feature : Hunger and Other Stories Ian Bone , Michael Hyde , Val Kent , Alexis Wright , Lauren Williams , Cate Kennedy , Jenny Pausacker , Catherine Bateson , Jaclyn Moriarty , Beth Yahp , Archimede Fusillo , Brian Matthews , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: English in Australia , Winter no. 137 2003; (p. 66-70)
This work is a reproduction of the editors' Introduction and the introductory comments of each author about their work, that appear in Hunger and Other Stories
1 Thursdays Beth Yahp , 2002 single work short story
— Appears in: Salt , vol. 16 no. 2002; (p. 26-33) The Red Pearl and Other Stories 2017; (p. 116-128)
1 y separately published work icon Yue Ling Jie : Ritual Street-opera in Seven Partsfor Three Singers and Nine Instrumentalists and Electronics Moon Spirit Feasting : a ritual street-opera in seven parts for three singers and nine instrumentalists and electronics Beth Yahp , Liza Lim (composer), Milan : Ricordi , 1999 Z1505715 1999 single work musical theatre opera
1 Scene 6. Chang-O: Chang-O Flies to the Moon : Transformation Song i "She is the moon-heart's furnace, brooding.", Beth Yahp , 1999 single work poetry
— Appears in: Westerly , Summer vol. 44 no. 4 1999; (p. 30-32)
1 Change Beth Yahp , 1998 single work
— Appears in: Writing the City : Part One 1998; (p. [18])
1 The Beautiful Hour Beth Yahp , 1998 extract novel
— Appears in: A Sea Change : Australian Writing and Photography 1998; (p. 74-88) Australian Women's Stories : An Oxford Anthology 1999; (p. 325-338) The Red Pearl and Other Stories 2017; (p. 129-147)
1 4 y separately published work icon Picador New Writing 4 Nicholas Jose (editor), Beth Yahp (editor), Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 1997 Z416224 1997 anthology short story poetry extract prose
1 The Other Asia Beth Yahp , 1997 single work prose biography
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 19-20 July 1997; (p. 18)
1 My Mother's Kitchen Beth Yahp , 1997 single work prose biography
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 30-31 August 1997; (p. 12)
1 My Hard Heart Beth Yahp , 1996 single work short story
— Appears in: Nothing Interesting About Cross Street : A Collection of Girls' Voices 1996; (p. 94-107) Home and Away : Australian Stories of Belonging and Alienation 2000; (p. 103-113)
1 6 y separately published work icon Nothing Interesting About Cross Street : A Collection of Girls' Voices Beth Yahp (editor), Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1996 Z429855 1996 anthology short story prose autobiography young adult 'Cross Street - a place where stories intersect. A place of T-junctions, intersections, and one roundabout. A place where stories are allowed to rasp against each other, and occasionally collide.

'Acclaimed author Beth Yahp has collected a powerful group of stories from young women today. Their passionate and raw tales tell of their fears, thoughts, dreams, and hopes as they cross into adulthood. Accompanying these young voices are stories from some of Australia's finest women writers exploring the same fears and dreams'. (Source: back cover blurb).
1 Place Perfect and the Other Asia Beth Yahp , 1996 single work prose biography
— Appears in: Westerly , Autumn vol. 41 no. 1 1996; (p. 61-71)
X