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NANG, a biannual magazine dedicated to Asian cinema, if simply put, is a very unique form of publication in many terms. Created through cross-cultural collaborations between guest editors, contributors and the magazine’s publisher and editor-in-chief Davide Cazzaro, NANG brings a wide array of issues in diverse parts of filmmaking, or the world of cinema itself, in Asia to light. Cazzaro tells KoBiz where NANG came from, and where it is and where it’s heading to:

NANG is an independent, English-language print magazine published twice a year and entirely dedicated to cinema in Asia. Its name derives from what I consider to be a very interesting and "layered" Thai word - nang - which has its roots in the local shadow theater tradition and is used up until today to informally refer to cinema in Thailand. For this project I wished to push further the intrinsically collaborative nature of any periodical publication: hence the choice of working with different guest editors (and their respective teams of contributors), who are granted all the creative leeway they need, for each and every issue. The magazine is "nomadic" in the way it is put together. Our design/art direction team is based in Seoul, editors and contributors come from different parts of Asia and beyond. The magazine is then printed and produced in Sweden.

My own background is in Asia-related film festivals, film criticism and research; in the past few years however I was "bitten" by the publishing bug…, a series of serendipitous encounters with the world of publishing—or, more precisely, today’s independently created print titles - gave me the ambition to try my hand at it. NANG aims to bring together these two passions of mine and stand as a celebration of both film culture and print culture. 

I like to think of NANG as a book-shaped magazine or even, perhaps, a sort of book-magazine "hybrid." I think that the "boundaries" between a book and a magazine can actually be quite fluid, and interesting possibilities can arise when these two forms and traditions are brought into contact with each other.

The mix is very much intentional. As for Issue 0, I reached out for contributors via my own network or through friends and collaborators. For Issue 1, it was guest editor Ben Slater who invited contributors—I do not interfere with such process in any way.

Is there any specific reason for setting NANG as a 10-issue magazine? What if it goes successful - meaning that it ends up triggering more extensive and in-depth discourse about Asian cinema -, do you plan to extend it?

In essence, all magazines are living organisms and have therefore a life cycle (which I think it is not only a good but also a beautiful thing). In the current shape, form and publishing model, NANG will last for "just" five years, there is no doubt about it. Then, let's see… for now, we concentrate all our efforts into making 10 unique issues (the independent nature of this project grants us this precious opportunity and we had better use it well!) 

That's of course a complex point. To simplify considerably what are hotly debated topics, we think of Asia geographically (hence the choice of "cinema in Asia" as part of the magazine's tagline)  while at the same time pushing inquiries beyond nation-states and cultural boundaries and keeping in mind that frames of reference are always matters of convenience. The kind, character and scope of NANG’s idea of cinema and cinema culture in Asia is indeed open and expanded, and I think/hope future issues will be a testament to this. 

English is the language of choice purely because of accessibility. Whether we like it or not, it is currently the language that can be read most widely, from Brazil to the Philippines, from South Africa to Iceland. (Not coincidentally, it is also the language with which we prepare the magazine in the first place.) That said, it would be interesting to publish issues also in other languages (e.g. in Korean or Chinese) but that's not something we can afford to do due to limited financial resources.

It is undoubtedly more complex to print and distribute than to make a digital file available, but that does not (and should not) deter people from doing it. In my view indeed, print is the best medium for an immersive reading experience and for a deep engagement with a given publication. In the case of NANG, moreover, we wanted to make available a physical object which is produced as carefully as it is prepared and written, something that will last for decades, something, I hope, readers will want to keep, collect, and return to for a long time.

I am afraid I can't…. The guest editors are working on it and it would be unfair of me saying something at this point. The theme for the next issue - death, scars, passion - is extremely ambitious and original, something which perhaps other publications would have turned down. I hope readers will be curious to discover it, and to engage with the deep changes that this and forthcoming issues will bring with them.