Stories in the Spotlight 2025 - Federation of Asian Storytellers

HomeStories in the Spotlight 2025

We are delighted to shine a spotlight on a story told by one of our members.

Our selection reflects the three main audience streams that our programmes cater to - kids/family, adults and Mother Tongue (and/or Multilingual). In the process, we hope to demonstrate something of the diversity of our membership, of the stories we tell and the way that individual tellers can tell a tale.

We are grateful to all these tellers kindly agreeing to share a story with a wider audience on this platform.

We changed (January 2025) the name of this video library to align with its sister page, Member in the Spotlight. Click the buttons below to view the stories of the previous years!

Stories of the Month 2024 Stories of the Month 2023 Stories of the Month 2022

Kiran Shah

April 2025

About the Story - Gecko can't sleep
Kiran says.." I have a special fondness for this story. When Margaret conducted a workshop in Singapore in the early 2000's, she chose me to be the headman, telling me what to say while she played all the other roles. It has stayed with me all these years as I have retold it so many times to various audiences around the world. I love the message of inter-connectedness that comes through so clearly in this Balinese story. When Jeff Gere in Hawaii put together this story using multiple languages from other storytellers a few years ago, I took up the challenge of doing this story in my mother tongue with help from family members for words not usually used in everyday conversation!

About Kiran Shah

Kiran, of Indian heritage who grew up in Singapore, loves to tell folktales, especially ones from Asia. Her storytelling journey since 1999 has taken her to many parts of the world to perform and conduct workshops in conferences and festivals. Kiran moved to Australia in 2008 and as a multicultural storyteller, thinks storytelling is a wonderful way to build connections with all people. She's a facilitator with Together for Humanity, an organisation that promotes interfaith and intercultural understanding in schools. She's also involved with the Australian Storytelling Guild NSW, Inc., hosting a monthly story circle online from her home in the Blue Mountains.

Kiran contributes internationally through her association with FEAST, the Federation of Asian Storytellers, with training, mentoring and in a new role as one of its Directors.

Email:kiranstoryteller@gmail.com

Alice Bianchi Clark

March 2025

About the Story
A Calabash of Wine is a West African folktale. I feel drawn to it because it is a helpful reminder that stinginess whether in terms of financial resources, time or energy seldom bears fruit and, more often than not, can lead to embarrassment. Sometimes, it's tricky to be generous, especially when you are strapped for time, energy and finances, but when in doubt, err towards the side of generosity. Generosity seldom leads to regret. And for most things in life, you get out what you put in.

About Alice

Alice is a multilingual storyteller (English, French, Italian, Spanish) with festival experience in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Korea. She loves to tap into her collection of props and fairytale costumes as well as to weave in elements of music, dance and puppetry to bring out the magic in the stories she tells pre schoolers, special needs children, junior school children and teens. Alice is also comfortable leading workshops in storytelling techniques to enhance magical creative story experiences by adding song, rhythm, movement and improvising backdrops, props and puppets. Alice is a freelance journalist, children’s educator, and writes short stories for reviews and anthologies for children, young adults, adults and storytellers. She is the picture book author of WINDOWS TO THE WORLD, Marshall Cavendish 2023; A SPOT OF KINDNESS, Marshall Cavendish 2024; and A GARDEN OF TREASURES, Marshall Cavendish 2024.She currently divides her time between Singapore and London.

Email: alice@wherestoriesgrow.world

Website: https://wherestoriesgrow.world

Bowen Lyam Lee

February 2025

About the story - "The Feather Cloak of One Hundred Birds"

This story from China was collected by Juwen Zhang from Northern China near the Korean border. Bowen loved the characters in "The Feather Cloak of One Hundred Birds", their forthright personalities and their strong, compassionate values. Whenever she hears disturbing and disheartening news, she remembers this story and feels uplifted.

About Bowen Lee

Bowen Lyam Lee lives in Washington state in the United States. She has been on the stage of regional and national storytelling events, conducts workshops for educators, and performs virtually with national, international, and regional programs. Bowen Lyam Lee is a fifth generation Chinese American with a great deal of family history in California. She descended from pioneer Chinese from the Gold Rush, the railroads, and the Chinese fishing villages of Monterey. Bowen specializes in traditional tales, personal narrative, historical stories, and stories for the environment.

Roger Jenkins

January 2025

About the story: The King & the Mask provided by Roger

This telling of the story was originally recorded for STORIES FOR HEALING, curated by Jim Brule, in 2021. It is long, but I am proud of it and I think it captures a lot of who I am as a teller

Before I became a storyteller, I was a drama teacher and theatre practitioner and I have long been fascinated by, and performed with, Masks, both in the Italian commedia dell’arte and here in S.E. Asia where masks are part of the performance tradition.

So I love this story because it is about the transformative power of a mask – in the story a real one, but as in so many folktales, what we see is but a metaphor for a hidden psychology. I use three masks in the story, which were carved by the wonderful Pak Ledjar from Yogyakarta. I had the good fortune to discover his tiny shop/home on my first visit there in 1979 and I returned many times acquiring his wonderfully expressive, unpainted masks, which I have used in workshops and performances ever since.

I have two versions of this story: THE KING AND THE MASK is the one for adults. For the tens to teens, I tell it with a Master Thief as the protagonist. He goes to the Palace Ball intending to steal the crown jewels, wearing a honest-faced mask to avoid detection - only to be seen by the Princess who falls for his kind, honest (and admittedly handsome) face – unaware it is a mask. She says she wants to marry him. The thief asks for a year before giving her his answer. Fearing that her father will send guards to check on him, the thief is forced to wear the mask, and just like the King in this story, in the process his character is transformed. He confesses to the Princess he cannot marry her because he is nothing but a thief, but when he removes the mask to prove it, there is a happy surprise for them both!

You can view the full Stories for Healing recording here with my introduction as well as our post-telling chat about the merits of the story (and why Jim likes my version - the fact that the King sees the masks and knows it is smiling) - over other versions.