What makes Asian stories 'Asian'?

I was asked this question 2 days ago at a panel discussion during the Singapore International Storytelling Festival.

The rest of the panel were professional AND renowned storytellers and authors from all over the world (Linda Fang, Arif Choudhury, Alton Chung, Jeeva Raghunath & Nury Vittachi)... and then there was... me.

Somebody must have gotten desperate and invited me.

But enough insecurity.

My point is, I was stumped by this question. And the first thing that popped into my head about 'Asian' stories (I'm quite disturbed by this label for some reason) are flavours - sweet, tangy, salty, spicy, bitter...

Because for as long as I can remember, when I think of stories close to home - home being Singapore - these stories always come with an explosion of flavours, colours, smells, etc.

When I was writing What Sallamah Didn't Know, I not only saw in my head the kampung that Sallamah grew up in (not that difficult to do since I grew up in the very kampung myself), but I could remember what it smelt like in the kampung.

The crispy, delicious smell of goreng pisang (banana fritters) frying in a huge black wok over an outdoor stove from a neighbour's house at 4pm everyday - she sold these as tea time treats to the kids and her neighbours.

And the pungent smell of the salty petis (black prawn paste) from the rojak (a typical Malay salad) sauce that she made to accompany the goreng pisang... (Maybe this isn't such an appropriate memory during the fasting month. Sorry, fellow fasters!)

The smell of wet sand after the rain - slightly chalky and earthy clean.

The smell of bouganvilla leaves pounded into a pulp when we played masak masak - till this day, that's what 'green' smells like to me.

And the smell of the freezing sticky sweet grape-flavoured ice-lollies, hand-mixed-and-poured into sausage-slim plastic bags from Nek Timah who lived two houses down the street - it's artificially-scented of course, but I loved it.

These memories are what made my story. I just never realised that they made our stories 'Asian'.