Mali Hpungtsi
Mali Hpungtsi Breeze over the Irrawaddy is the longest running Jinghpaw language literary journal from Kachin State, in the far north of Myanmar …
An informal group made up of 11 core members, all ethnic Jinghpaw, have been publishing their journal for a decade, half of that without an official licence from the government. The annual, secular journal features poems, articles, short stories, cartoons and interviews. 1000 copies are printed in Yangon and distributed, through churches and general stores across Kachin State. While other Jinghpaw language journals have existed despite the military governments suppression of ethnic language publications, none have survived as long as the Mali Hpungtsi.
To read more about the Kachin, their censored literature and my travels with them, take a look at my award-shortlisted political travel book, The People Elsewhere: Unbound Journeys with the Storytellers of Myanmar.