Stan BH Tan Tangbau Life Stories as Empowerment

Born in Singapore, I grew up in the heartlands of Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio before moving to Hougang. As a kid, I never imagined a life beyond Singapore. As fate would have it, I ended up spending a significant portion of my adult life since 1997 carrying out research in Vietnam, and later, China (Yunnan), often in the rural and mountainous areas; and finally, moving to Japan in 2011. Having invested much of my time in Vietnam and China, I also never imagined doing any work about Myanmar or any other places. My fateful encounter with the Kachin community in Singapore would change my life and career forever; and as it turns out, I found my true calling in life!I devoted all my time and effort since 2010 to developing a nuanced model of knowledge ecology in contrast to the usual practices and conventions of "Research" as we know it; I call it a “World Catcher” model. Conceptualisation of the World Catcher model came about in the process of organising a rather modest and earnest project to develop a public autoethnography, or as I prefer, Life Stories, knowledge base of the Kachin. You can see the ongoing efforts of this model at http://www.kachinlifestoriesworld.com . Commitment to the Kachin Life Stories public project expanded my research into Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore (my home country), China, India, and Japan (my resident country). Consequently, I also began to develop an interest in the Life Stories of Global Asian Migrant Communities, especially communities originating from the Southeast Asian Massif. I continue to maintain my research interest in Vietnam through a very personal project, namely, the biography of Quyen Van Minh, the eminent Jazz musician in Vietnam.