Writer Profile: Mali Hku Shini

Mali Hku Shini (1988) is an ethnic Kachin born in Sumdu Ga (Nbu Baw) village, Ma Chang Baw Township in Kachin State. He learnt Ka-hprek, a traditional Kachin martial arts form whilst a teenager and trains the next generation from his gym in the Manau Cultural ground in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state …

Once a year, in the jade mining town of Hpa-Kant, he teaches Ka-hprek as a way to distract youth from drug abuse. He is assistant treasurer of the Kachin Culture and Literature Co-operation, an association that strives to preserve and develop Kachin cultural forms such as literature, language, music, traditional knowledge and textiles. He writes health and sports related articles in the Jinghpaw language for the Kachin Times journal.

*This is the sixth in a series of adapted profiles on writers taken from the 2017 anthology Hidden Words Hidden Worlds: Contemporary Short Stories from Myanmar