An Evening with Phil Wang: ESEA Lit Fest Finale
At the closing night of ESEA Lit Fest, writer and actor Phil Wang talks about his memoir Sidesplitter and what it means to be torn between two continents.
British-Malaysian stand-up comedian, writer and actor Phil Wang talks to Zing Tsjeng about using comedy and storytelling as a way of skewering the cultural narratives and tropes around diasporic identity.
Phil Wang released his first Netflix special, Philly Philly Wang Wang, in 2021 and has since performed stand-up on Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC), been interviewed by chat show royalty on That’s My Time with David Letterman (Netflix), and his first book Sidesplitter: How to be from Two Worlds at Once was named a Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year. His second Netflix special, Wang in There, Baby!, lands in September.
Zing Tsjeng is a journalist, editor, writer and presenter. She is the former editor-in-chief of VICE and presents the BBC podcast Good Bad Billionaire. In 2023, Brazen reissued her four-book series Forgotten Women, which explores the untold stories of inspiring women who have been marginalised from history.
Marking the UK’s fifth ESEA Heritage Month this September, ESEA Lit Fest is a joyful, thought-provoking celebration of East and South East Asian literature and culture that’s open to all. It was launched in 2023 to sell-out success by Maria Garbutt-Lucero and Joanna Lee, co-founders of the ESEA Publishing Network, in partnership with Foyles. The festival is supported by Hachette UK and their employee network THRIVE, Paper Literary and the Bagri Foundation.
Need to know
Access
This event is Speech-to-Text transcribed (STT).
You can join our free Access Scheme through your online Southbank Centre account or via email.
Find out more about our Access Scheme
All our Access & facilities information
For your visit
This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is home to both our second-largest auditorium and the Purcell Room.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.