A distinguished writer and storyteller at heart with a passion for port cities, Kennie Ting is the outgoing director of the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) and Peranakan Museum in Singapore. Over his eight-year tenure, he is credited for making the ACM more relevant to Singapore’s heritage and context by transforming it from an ethnographically- and geographically-themed museum to one with a cross-cultural and global outlook centered on the port cities narrative. The “Manila Galleon: From Asia to the Americas” exhibition that concluded in March this year was Ting’s final project before taking time to focus on promoting this new book. For his contributions to the arts and culture, Kennie was conferred the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France in 2021.