Luna Aixin on Community, the Kampung Spirit & Red Egg

Conversations With Your Chinese Auntie

What do we give up as immigrants and refugees?
What do we yearn for and can be so hard to find?

In this episode, Luna and I talk about the Kampung spirit, the concept of Gaginang, and the importance of red eggs in Chinese culture.

A kampong (kampung in Malay and Indonesian) is the term for a village.

Gaginang means (my/our) own people.

Luna's Bio:
Luna 月愛心 (They/them/their) is a multiracial, non-binary, neurodivergent, disabled settler, community planner, facilitator and artist with ties to Southeast Asia, specifically Nusantara cultures and Pacific Islanders. As someone who was born into a colonized society, Luna has been researching through imagination, learning and understanding ways of being that are decolonial and “kampong-like" - accepting, caring, inclusive, celebratory and supportive of each other. As a neurodivergent person, Luna loves multimodal ways of creative expression and experiencing the joy of witnessing others “play with imagination” on “very serious matters”. They work with local governments, non-profits, community organizations and personal projects through GaGiNang Productions (自己人创作) on ways to create equitable, just and safe systems and practises that can better serve our communities. They currently reside on the stolen and unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Luna's website

Article: Keeping the kampung spirit alive in modern Singapore