Silence is broken by a single suspended note slowly building into layers of instruments, hearing and finding each other and then—fading again. sinθ #28 “SOUND 音” swells and resonates into a rich sonic landscape, signals in the static.

This issue features the winners of our fifth annual writing contest! Thank you to Ching-In Chen and Lan Samantha Chang for serving as our poetry and fiction judges respectively.
— Urban photo series from Audrey Tian, Lily Deng, Vivian Si Zeng and an illustration from Juliette Wu draw influence from Chinese opera visuals; Luke Tan questions Lion Dance no longer in situ; audiovisual artist vicki huang pays tribute to a history of wind music.
— Web Content Assistant Noah Hrung chats with Madeline Seto on performance, textiles, and biomaterials.
— Senior Editor Yue Chen and poet Will Harris dive into how we share and process language.
— Managing Editor Chi Siegel learns how C. Pam Zhang cooked up her latest novel Land of Milk and Honey, while editorial intern Andrew Kang hits up debut novelist Ada Zhang.
— Senior Designer Caroline Mao meets artist A Liang Chan in New York to talk through Chan’s world of comics.
— Poetry from Roy Wang draws parallels between Wang’s father and Bruce Springsteen, with their shared passion for music and their struggles with love and identity.
— CONTEST WINNER Zen Ren explores memory and time, evoking the delicate flight of swallows and the echoes of unspoken emotions.
— CONTEST WINNER Trini Feng wades through the sounds of a Chinese family gathering, as the protagonist conceals her true self and contemplates her role in preserving generational bonds, expectations, and facades.
— POETRY SHORTLIST features new work by Timmy Chong, Anna Feng, Cynthia Gan, Michelle Tong.
— FICTION SHORTLIST features new work by Elizabeth Han, Wan Phang Lim, Vicki Xu, Kelvin Mak

Front cover by Luke Tan.