Tash at No Black Tie

Tash Aw last night at No Black Tie, reading from a short story set in Indonesia. He also read a tiny extract from Map of the Invisible World ... and left us hungry for more.

Earlier we heard from : Charlene Rajendran who read extracts from her new book Taxi Tales on a Crooked Bridge and her collection of poetry Mangosteen Crumble, doing a brilliant job of capturing the voices of Singaporean cabbies; Hishamuddin Rais who "cerita-ed" rather than read - was totally irreverent and at times very funny when he talked about how the Malays in this country really have it hard ("We have to go to heaven!") ; and Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize winner, Clarissa Tan, who read from short story in progress.

We left at the break since it was already nearly midnight and we had to be back, but I really wish I could have stayed to hear Farish Noor and John Krich ("one of the most original voices in the new wave of travel writing" Salon.Com). (So fill me in on what I missed, guys.)

Bernice did a great job of hosting, as always.

(Picture taken by my niece Shahnim )

CeritAku@Readings June

This month we feature a stellar lineup of Malaysian writers who will be reading and storytelling at No Black Tie, 9.30pm, Sunday 7th June :

Tash Aw
Clarissa Tan
Charlene Rajendran
Hishamuddin Rais
Zedeck Siew
and
Farish Noor

Tel: 03 2142 3737 (reservations recommended)

www.noblacktie.com.my

Cover: RM 20
Books will be sold. (20% discount for Tash's books unless you have the 25% The Star coupon.)

ceritAku@readings is hosted by Bernice Chauly.

Spread the word. See you there!

--------------------------

bernice chauly
writer/photographer/actor
www.bernicechauly.wordpress.com

hp +6 012 323 0929
fax +6 03 7493 1573
kuala lumpur, malaysia

Style Tips from Rafidah

Got some style tips from International Industry and Trade Minister, Rafidah Aziz yesterday. A woman needs big hair and lipstick and a dapper little leather suit to be successful. Certainly not a dragged through the belukah hair style. And not a scruffy tee to blend in with the arty types who came to Amir Muhammad's book launch for Politicians say the Darndest Things.

But I am proudly wearing the name tag I got as a freebie with the book. I was one of the many Nik Aziz's walking around chatting to the Samy's and Mahathir's.

For photos of other celebs (ahem!) photographed with their dolled-up role models (courtesy of Hishamuddin Rais), and a full account of the proceedings, take a look at Amir's blog.

It was a fun affair, and it was so nice to meet up with friends I feel I've been neglecting over the past few weeks ... and to make a few new ones including folks who've popped up to befriend me on Facebook, but were hitherto unknown in real life. (Yes, I've got hooked too.)

Brian Yap read an amusing piece about turning national service into reality TV (perlease don't give the politicians ideas lah!), Amir read an older essay about khinzir (politicallly correct term for piggies) from Generation, the book he co-authored with Kam Raslan and Sheryl Stoddart.

Amir's book wasn't the only one being launched: illustrator Shahril Nizam's If Only, a collection of his words and art also made it's debut. Sharanya read just one poem - but it was so beautifully delivered. (The artist was outside at the time and missed it.)

Shahril is one shy guy, but so talented, and I am so happy to have this book after hanging round his blog admiringly for so long.

I came home and had my nose in Amir's book all evening, until Abu got annoyed with me.

(Photo by Nikki Tok. Many thanks!)

Texts Alive!

We won't get more than about 30 people, I told Pang as we arranged a semi-circle of chairs in an intimate semi-circle for our Night of the Living Texts event. Fifty, tops. This was all fixed up so late, we haven't had a whole lot of publicity out, and that mainly on blogs and e-groups.

Besides, I thought, how many people will turn up mid-week for a literary gathering?

An awful lot as it turned out! I didn't take a head count, but probably around 100 people turned up, the numbers swelled even more when the Philosphy class that Hishamuddin Rais was teaching next door ended.

Many of the usual "readings" crowd (our bohemian beatnik chic Saturday afternoon arty-farties) showed up. Others were blogfriends - some materialising into physical form for the first time including Fei and Joshua. Still others were drawn in by the link with the British Council Reading across Cultures: Teaching English Through Literature conference.

Bernice Chauly (who set up the whole "readings" thing) was there, and I felt so happy to see her.

It was a very huggy kissy start to the evening, interspersed by moments of logistical panic.

And so on to the "show":

Roger Robinson was just the best opening act we could have hoped for, and he set a standard (particularly in terms of dramatising his work!). He read a very funny prose piece in which there was a character called Sharon, also known as Virgin Island (so of course, this Sharon now has a new nickname). Would have loved the opportunity to hear more and vow to track down Roger at a reading when I'm back in London.

Roger's Trinadadian accent just melts me, reminding me of old friends I miss so much ...

John McRae introduced our second speaker, and I appreciated his words very much. John was involved in the launch of the Skoob Pacifica series (a very important imprint which really launched local writing), and said that at the time of publication there was little interest in South-East Asian writing in Europe. And now the situation has totally changed and Malaysian writers are being published in the UK. Case in point ...


... Tan Twan Eng, whose immensely readable first novel (I know'cos I couldn't put it down!) The Gift of Rain, set in Penang, is out in hardback on March 8th, and paperback May 20th. This was Twan's first public reading. He choose the opening pages of the novel which hint at great mysteries to be unravelled. This audience should be hooked enough to buy it!

Louise Doughty read from her short story Doikitsa which appeared in New Writing 13, (also, I think she said, part of her Novel Fires in the Dark about the European Roma ) in which an elderly woman lies dying in her wagon.

Our second Malaysian author of the evening, Kam Raslan, read a couple of naughty passages from Confessions of an Old Boy and created a lot of laugher.

We took a break then, and folks wandered down to the Bau-Bau cafe which had opened specially for the night to sell us drinks. Much literary networking happening in the meantime.

Then Dina Zaman was up to read from I Am Muslim. Post-David Frost experience perhaps, this is a much more confident Dina than I've seen read before. Enjoyed the voices in her pieces, especially the piece was the possessed masseuse.

Isagani Cruz read a condensed version of one of his plays - a monologue about a zarzuela (traditional Filippino music theatre) performer. Very nice indeed! And I particularly loved the way his character has a little gossip about a certain writer called Isagani! (And we were talking only the other day about writers who put themselves into their fiction.)

Taiwanese poet Ke Hua Chen ended the evening for us with a poem in Mandarin with English translation. (And we finally got a chance to hear his version of the poem as song lyrics on CD when Pang came back from talking to friends outside to press the right button!)

To all who read, to all who came, to Pang for all his help, to the British Council for lending us their writers, to young Nic for letting himself be bullied into a whole lot of jobs, the biggest possible THANK YOU!!!!

Central Market turned out to be a great location and I am beginning to have lots of ideas about how we can make use of that space for other events of this kind ...

Postscript

Do go and read Jordan's post too. Ruby Ahmad says she had a great time and has some great pics of everyone ... except me. *sob*. BP doesn't want anyone to sell him a book ... and is the third person I've come across with a story to tell of the gents loo. (At least he only found someone smoking in there, Jordan and Nic had much worse ... or better, depending on which way you look at things.) And if you read Chinese, you can tell me what Fei and Joshua have written!

Pang's New Arts Space

Pang sent me this ad. and since it's a venue I'd like to use myself in time to come ...

17.1.7
MALAM BUKA PANGGUNG
Oh no! Not another arts centre!

But seriously:

Venue: 2nd Floor, The Annexe @ Central Market, KL
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007
Time: 8.30pm

As you might have heard, along with the upgrading of Central Market, The Annexe @ Central Market has been converted into an arts centre. Yes, an arts centre right smack in the heart of the city. About time, eh? Over the last few months, we have discovered wonderful spaces within the building that can now be shared by artists for exhibitions, performances, workshops, multidisciplinary projects, and all things practical and impractical.

17.1.7 – Malam Buka Panggung is to introduce the arts centre to the arts community of KL. We would like to invite you to come and see the possibilities at hand and to join us in celebrating... no, not just another arts centre, but a way of life!

On this special night, The Annexe @ Central Market is blessed with performances by the following artistic and spiritual guardians:

Marion D' Cruz
Hishamuddin Rais
Carburetor Dung
Lee Swee Keong
Fahmi Fadzil
Mohd Kamrulbahri Hussin
Hardesh Singh
Juliana Yasin
Ray Langenbach
and ASWARA students, under Joseph Gonzales, performing the Buka Panggung from Mak Yong

Refreshments provided. See you there!

Pang Khee Teik
Arts Programme Director,
Central Market
012 305 1135

Central Market Annexe, Jalan Hang Kasturi, 50050 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03 2031 0399 / 5399 / 7399 / 9399

Sunday Supplement

There was a lot of interesting literary-related stuff in yesterday's Starmag.

First, the interview with outside-the- box-thinker, erstwhile student-activist, ISA Detainee, film-maker and writer Hishamuddin Rais.

I bumped into Isham at Raja Ahmad's open house the other day and asked him to read on Saturday ... but he must have forgotten. I do hope we can get him another time - the last time he read (a piece from his play about being interrogated) his words came across so powerfully.

He told me that he later took his play across the country, performing in small out of the way places for the people his words needed most to reach.

And then there was this very nice glimpse of Na'a Murad's (Jit's little brother) bookshelf. His favourites writers? Kurt Vonnegut, Umberto Eco, Salman Rushdie, Promoedya Ananta Toer, and science writers Stephen Jay Gould (I'm happy I've found another fan!) and Richard Dawkins. Who says there are no serious readers among us?

The last time in saw Na'a, he was playing one of the main characters in Animah's play.

There's a tasty little taster of Xeus' story Trashcan Child. (Now this seems to me a very good idea, The Sunday supplements in the UK and the US often have extracts from books. And what better way to promote local writing and get potential readers interested in books?)

And there was also an account by theatre director Kwong Loke of the staged reading of an extract from Kee Thuan Chye's play Swordfish and Then the Concubine at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon. The play, you will remember, won a consolation prize at the International Playwriting Festival:

Kee writes from the heart; his works consistently emphasise fair play and equality. They question the state of being of both the individual and the society he lives in. It is not agit-prop, but, as with all valued writing, it expresses what he sees as flaws in contemporary life and offers them up for debate and self-examination. ...He is not afraid to raise issues of post-colonialism and history (We Could **** You, Mr Birch), state control and multicultural co-existence (1984 Here and Now), race, class and government (The Big Purge).

You always wonder how something written in this part of the world will go down elsewhere. I found this interesting:

The reading of the extracts was received with intense absorption; funnily, for a play that is so grounded in Asian tradition, it reflects Britain’s current mood towards its prime minister, Tony Blair, and his style of leadership – a break in trust and belief between the voters and the elected. The audience appreciated the universal relevance of Kee’s play, which well deserved its place in the shortlist ... The themes of injustice, intolerance, lack of foresight resulting in political failure brought an enthralled silence to the house. A long speech detailing impalement as a form of punishment was complemented by a stunning vision of a lonely girl washing her bare arms. It brought out all the vulnerability of the oppressed.

Well done, Chye, and what a pity you could not have been there yourself.

(Pics nicked from the Star. The pic of actress Se-Rock Park as the concubine, was originally from Warehouse Theatre).

Kakiseni at Alexis

Last night Kakiseni threw a bash at Alexis for contributors. The online arts magazine is growing from strength to strength (now it gets 19,000 page views a day). It's one of my favourite places to hangout online - the articles are intelligent (have to be, I write for them, right?) and the comments readers leave spark off some great debate about the state of the arts here.

You know me, hey. I love parties. I'm happiest in a crowd of folks I can really talk to. I hunger like mad for conversation about books, about the arts in general. About the direction things are taking.

Sorry if what follows sounds like the social pages of Harper's or something!

Of course, met a lot of good friends, among them Kakiseni editor Pang, Jerome, Zedeck, and Bernice.

Kathy Rowland (who got voted sexiest kakiseni writer slightly ahead of Zedeck - snap him up for modelling, someone!) and Jenny Daneels co-founders and co-directors of Kakiseni were of course there. Chatted to that lovable eccentric Hishamuddin Rais. Nodded in the direction of Ray Langenbach (can't look at him in the same way since I read about him drinking his own blood in Hishamuddin's article). Had a long and fascinating conversation with Toni of Sisters in Islam, an organisation I very much admire. Chatted to Tony Twigg, currently artist in residence at Rimbu Dahan, and his wife Gina Fairley.

Also made the aquaintance of the very inspiring Benjamin McKay who is researching the history of the Malay film for his PhD. thesis. We were talking about the parallels between indie film-making and the local publishing scene (small presses, self-publishing). Agree with him that we need a lot of "so-so stuff" out there because that is where the potential will develop. ("But not crap, crap is worth condemning.")

Came away with tummy nicely full (hope no-one noticed me in embarrassingly close proximity to the mini-pavlovas for much of the evening!) and a heart newly inspired.

Okaylah, might even write another article!

Pitching In

Razlina at 95% The Writer's Academy invited me to be a panellist for a most interesting event called "Pitching Night".

The three of us, filmmaker/activist Hishamuddin Rais, Dhojie (Why do I never seem to be able to escape these kutu guys?) and myself were asked to listen to and judge three students from the Story Writers in Progress course who were "pitching" their stories.

Now "pitching" is a term I'd never heard until recently and made friends with a copywriter. It means making a presentation to sell an idea to a potential client, I gather. Fine with a concept for an ad, but a strange thing to do with a story, I thought.

There were three students whose work was up for scrutiny. Each presented in turn with very nicely produced power point slides to underline their points. The first had the outline and first chapter of a self-help book cum novel. The other two were pitching film ideas. And we were three formidable judges, in a scenario reminiscent of Malaysian idol. Hishamuddin was the bad guy and gave the toughest feedback, though in every case it was spot on. And he stirred things up a bit too, much to the delight of the audience. ("Where's the sex? Come on, you must show us this guy's a wanker ...")

They all did pretty well with their presentations, though I felt that in every case they were trying to be terribly over-ambitious, with plots that were just way way too complex and not enough understanding that good stories must be primarily character driven.

The potential novelist had a good idea basic plot but I am not sure that she will be able to make her character's change of heart (on which the whole novel turns) convincing to the reader. I told her afterwards to fastwrite the whole thing and let the characters take charge of the story, because they would know better than her where to go with it.

Hishammudin spoke about hating stories with too obvious a moral purpose. ("I dislike all morality," he said. I've had a stomach full of it too, particularly after training teachers for schools here where every lesson has to have its laboured "moral value".) In fact there's no need to have novels which are overtly didactic - if the book is well written we will learn from it anyway!

The second presenter had a very nice idea for a film, I thought, with a character Hishamuddin called a Mat Rempik (a motorbike-riding excitement-seeking young Malay man, I gather). I liked his basic concept, the small guy (a pizza delivery boy) with big dreams who has to clear his name when he is wrongly accused of a murder.

The third presenter had a love story. Dhojie and Hishamuddin were quite right to keep stressing the fact that you couldn't write a film-script in a vacuum - you had to know the whole lineage of great films in that genre and understand how they work.

They pointed out too that a love-story couldn't work without some kind of obstacle to keep the lovers apart. (It was too easy for this well-heeled couple from Ampang, they didn't have to fight to win each other.) I didn't feel her characters deserved love at all, they were so anaemic and non-descript. "We have to care about them first, before we can ever believe that they might care for each other," I said.

(I think the word "love" is all too casually tossed around, anyway ... I think it should have a tax slapped on it to make people weigh its use more carefully. Miserable old cynic I've become.)

Anyway, it was a good evening with some important points about story-telling in the Malaysian context brought up for discussion.

Thanks for inviting me along, Raz. I was very happy to find out about other creative writing courses in the city and make contact with you all. And thanks for the gift of the writer's notebook.

A New Home for Words

The monthly readings have moved from Darling Muse to a new venue. I initially felt sad because I'd got so fond of Yusof and Dax's place, but Bernice has found a gem in Seksan's place 67, Jalan Tempinis 1.

Seksan, a landscape architect, has gutted the original house, leaving a clean open space below his offices. There's paintings, wire sculptures scattered around and suspended from the ceiling so that they cast a dance of shadows on the walls. What little furniture there is is made from natural materials - a rough-hewn wooden bench, bamboo stools, a charpoy bed (bringing back memories of those Sikh guards who used to guard stores and banks). The stairs up to the office are made from old railway sleepers. And the landscaping is certainly unusual ... screens made of tall cages of coloured cacti, richly patterned porcelain balls lying in the lalang grass at the side of the house, and a koi pond.

Seksan's two lovely doggies played an active part (sometimes too active!) in the afternoon's proceedings.

First up to read was Datuk SHANmugalingam. Shan dedicated this reading to the memory of Krishen Jit who had encouraged him to adapt a couple of his stories for the theatre. I think this will work well - Shan has a wonderful ear for dialogue, a lively sense of humour and his work is populated by and assortment larger than life characters. Shan read from a number of his short pieces including Victoria and her Kimono.

Next was Jit Murad, actor, comedian, playwright and all round wit. He enjoyed the irony of an assembly of pigs in the huge painting behind staring over his shoulder as he read. His story is set in a steak house (in the Jakes's, Victoria Station mould) and tells of three very different lives meeting here. A very entertaining piece.

Then a break for wine (La Bodega sponsored as usual) and chat, before writer/filmaker Feroz Merican took the floor for just a moment to say "I wrote this when i was very patriotic", leaving Bernice to read from his work-in-progress No-one Has Claimed Responsibility. Hope he does get round to finishing it soon ...

Hishamuddin Rais ("everyone's favourite ISA detainee" as someone dubbed him) read last. "I'm not an artist and I don't pretend to be," he said. He read a chunk of his play Bilik Sulit about interrogation by Special Branch police officers. The play is supposed to open on 3rd June, I believe, but the performance has just been cancelled as DBKL will not grant it a license. It was in Malay but I found it pretty easy to follow ... it was fast-paced, angry and satirical.

I think I enjoyed this fifth set of readings more than any others so far. There was a terrific atmosphere of warmth and support and good humour. Thanks again to Bernice for making things move.