Show Notes
Note from Sophie: This is an episode featuring me alone - not because Rachael lost her voice or anything else, but because my guest is Qin Qin, and I published her book, Model Minority Gone Rogue: How an unfulfilled daughter of a tiger mother went way off script, so it made sense for me to do this one alone.
Model Minority Gone Rogue has been shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year and at the time of writing is shortlisted for The ACT Book of the Year, with winners announced on 24 October during the Canberra Writers Festival - and Qin Qin works at that festival, so I wanted to ask her about what it’s like to be a writer working at a writers festival.
There’s also a fair bit of discussion about what it was like for her to write her memoir - which was quite a process. We are also both yoga practitioners so there is some yoga chat as well, but it’s all in the context of writing and creativity.
Qin Qin is a writer of great power, and she’s also wonderful in conversation. I hope you enjoy this chat with her, and seek out the book if you haven’t read it already. There’s some information about it below.
*** About Model Minority Gone Rogue
We all grow up with rules. Do this, be this, don't be that. Qin Qin was all about the rules: do your homework, be good, don't rock the boat. She was the model daughter, model student and model minority.
But doing everything right? It made her lost and miserable. So she decided to take a spectacular risk and change everything.
At 23, Qin Qin was an unhappy overachiever working for a prestigious law firm. So she quit. She didn't know what else was out there, but she wanted to find out. She changed paths, changed countries, changed her entire view of what the world could be, and who she could be - with some primal screaming and tree-hugging along the way. In the process, she discovered the person she truly was, not who she thought she should be.
Model Minority Gone Rogue is a funny, sad, exhilarating and thought-provoking true story about what happens when you want to live life on your own terms, even when those terms go against everything you've ever known. It's a story of what happens when you choose love over fear and honour your authentic self: life can be bigger and brighter than anything you had ever imagined. For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com
For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com
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