As Shenzhen prepares to host the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, the region's ties have long extended beyond trade, carried by people on the move, stories that cross borders and cultures that mix in everyday life.
At the 2026 Southern China Book Fair in Guangzhou, an APEC Cultural Pavilion was established for the first time, bringing the cultures and literary traditions of APEC economies into the spotlight.
The APEC Cultural Pavilion at the 2026 Southern China Book Fair
Writers, designers and cultural practitioners from across the Asia-Pacific came together to share ideas, creative works and—most importantly—their own experiences of living across cultures.
Their stories reveal another side of Asia-Pacific cooperation, one built not only through business, but through people.
Cross-border mobility generates new perspectives and stories
Across the Asia-Pacific, people have long been moving for work, study and opportunity. For creators, those journeys can become a source of inspiration.
Singaporean travel writer Yap Seow Choong spent years as a journalist in Singapore before moving to Beijing and Shanghai to oversee publishing projects for Lonely Planet. While Singapore provided order, China offered a larger market and greater cultural complexity.
Yap Seow Choong introduces the cultural presence and memory of Singapore's Chinese community at the 2026 Southern China Book Fair.
"In a small country, your scope can feel limited," Yap recalls. "A larger market brings complexity, which makes the projects far more interesting."
His work has taken him to different parts of China, where he encountered people with diverse backgrounds, ways of thinking and work styles.
"Working in diverse environments teaches you flexibility," he says. "You learn that there isn't just one way to solve a problem, which makes you far more open-minded."
While Yap sought fresh perspectives by moving abroad, Malaysian author Chong Lee Choo operates from a city where diverse cultures have mixed for centuries.
Chong is based in George Town, Penang, a UNESCO World Heritage site home to Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan communities.
"Penang itself is a cultural melting pot, where different ethnic groups and heritage streams exist together," Chong says.
She points to the Cantonese word Cham (掺), meaning "mixed" or "blended," as the defining characteristic of Penang life. "Our language, our food, our habits, everything is Cham," she explains.
Chong Lee Choo shares her insights into Southeast Asian languages at the 2026 Southern China Book Fair.
In 2014, Chong co-founded Penang City Eye, a magazine documenting local life and culture, with Penang's rich cultural diversity naturally becoming part of the stories it tells.
Exchanges that began long ago and live on everywhere
The recent popularity of the Chinese film Dear You, which tells stories connected to overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, has brought some of these cross-cultural connections to a wider audience.
But Yap sees the film as part of a much longer story.
Chinese communities have lived in Southeast Asia for centuries. Chinese performing arts groups have regularly toured Singapore, while Chinese films and literature have found audiences there. As more Chinese people have moved to Singapore for work and study, they have also brought their food and culinary traditions with them.
Hong Kong designer Kent Wong has spent 25 years working on the Chinese mainland. Through his work with the Hong Kong Design Centre, he has helped connect international designers and creative projects with opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
One example is Amitofo, a Thai art-toy IP inspired by Buddhist imagery and reinterpreted through the lighthearted, "chill" mindset popular among young Chinese consumers. Its design originated in Thailand, while the GBA's manufacturing ecosystem helped turn it into physical products for the Chinese market.
Amitofo toys
For Wong, this is where cultural exchange and economic cooperation converge in the Asia-Pacific.
"A good cultural or creative work needs to be commercialized to reach a wider audience," he says. "Turning it into products people can use, buy and love is a good way to do that."
Looking to Shenzhen: What cultural practitioners expect from an economic meeting
As Shenzhen prepares to put Asia-Pacific economic cooperation in the spotlight, cultural creators hope the meeting will also open up more opportunities for cross-border exchange.
Malaysian food creator Echo Chen (Malaimui) hopes greater regional exchange can introduce Chinese people to more of Malaysia's culinary culture.
Malaimui introduces the culinary culture of Malaysia at the 2026 Southern China Book Fair.
She has noticed that Malaysian food in China is often represented by a relatively small group of familiar dishes, such as bak kut teh and roti canai, while the country's culinary traditions are far more diverse.
As Shenzhen prepares to welcome visitors from across the Asia-Pacific, she hopes food can become part of that dialogue, offering people an opportunity to discover culinary traditions from different cultures they may know little about.
Thai-Chinese writer Pattadon Kijchainukul has a similar hope for literature. He wants more Thai works to be translated into Chinese and introduced to Chinese readers, believing that greater regional cooperation could create more opportunities for writers and publishers to collaborate across borders.
For Yap, the opportunity is even broader: to create together. He hopes the APEC gathering can encourage more cross-cultural projects, whether in film, publishing or other creative fields, where people bring their own stories and co‑create new works.
Reporter | Chen Siyuan, Li Muzi, Xie Maishi
Photos | Li Muzi
Sun Lulu (intern) also contributed to the work.
