Ting J. Yiu | 姚 敏 婷

Writer, spearfisher, and freediver, Ting J. Yiu works at the intersection of nature and diaspora, exploring aquatic narratives and interspecies encounters in her literature. She writes about the environment and migration, urban-wilderness dichotomies, aqua poetics, liminal/leakygeographies, diaspora/hybridity, decolonial resistance, hauntological landscapes, bodies, and taboos of death/dying.

Her hybrid childhood in post-colonial Hong Kong, adolescence in New Zealand’s settler-indigenous bi-cultural society, and adulthood in a Europe of increasingly contested borders, has generated a preoccupation with navigating liminal spaces in life and creative practice. Writing, diving, and wilderness are her anchors against the fragmentary experience of diaspora.

She won the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗚𝗮𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗼 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲, was shortlisted for the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗣𝗼𝗲𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲, awarded the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗢𝘀𝗹𝗼 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁, and featured in New Zealand’s first Asian literary anthology—𝗔 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝘄𝗻: 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗭𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱—her work was selected for the book's nationwide tour. She is one of sixteen writers representing New Zealand’s literary canon—with Katherine Mansfield, Frank Sargeson, Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera—in 𝗟𝗶𝘁: 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲; the New Zealand School's Association incorporated the book into curriculum nationwide. Her works have appeared in 𝗖𝗵𝗮: 𝗔𝗻 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹, 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵, 𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗸𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗿 among others

Ting holds a MA in Transnational Creative Writing (Stockholm University); and BAs in English Literature, and Human Geography (University of Otago). She has researched Witi Ihimaera’s Māori historiographic metafiction as third-sites of identity reclamation; the use of indigenous mythology and folklore as decolonial resistance; the evolving emotional geographies of Aotearoa’s human-whale relationship (from gods to commodity); and consumption/gustatory practices as locations of hybrid-identity formation in New Zealand’s Asian diaspora literature.

She manages the European Research Council funded project—UNRULY (University of Oslo)—and is a freelance academic editor. She was previously at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Project (Swedish Academy of Sciences), overseeing interdisciplinary research & communications. A former marine and freshwater conservation educator for the Mountains To Sea Conservation Trust (NZ), she taught in remote Māori communities while submerged in oceans and rivers, restoring kelp forests by managing urchin predation. She founded The Writers' Collective (SWE), where she led creative writing workshops.

She is a board member of the Oslo Freediving Club, and sits on Norway´s Association of Spearfishers, and is one of five women—and only woman of colour—to compete at the Norwegian National Spearfishing Championships (Tromsø, 2024). She freedives whenever possible, throwing feasts of hand-caught king scallops and Atlantic cod for her friends.

Ting is writing her first book of literary non-fiction, weaving environmental criticism, folklore, and colonial history to reflect on a hybrid life traversing terrestrial and aquatic worlds.