Children's Books with a Malaysian Flavour?

Daphne Lee in today's Starmag highlights the dearth of local children's literature that reflects Malaysian society :

... Our children and teenagers are immersed in American and, to a lesser degree, British pop culture. ... This includes the books they read. Currently popular titles (the Twilight series, the Harry Potter books, Eragon, Wicked Lovely) may not be set in this world, and their characters may not even be human, but the cultural traditions used as references in the creation of these worlds and characters are obviously American and European.

She also reckons that writing children's book is somehow:

... looked down upon by Malaysia’s literati ...

who are more interested in trying to win Booker prizes and the like.

this isn't entirely true of course. We had Shirley Lim's Princess Shawl last year, Tinling Choong's Yuyu and the Banyan Tree will be out this year, and Shamini Flint has been writing some really excllent kids books, the latest of which is the highly readable Ten.

But there certainly could be more ... although I think it really can't happen without the active support all the way of the local publishing industry.

Voices @ Seksan

Our "Readings" event yesterday went really well. I'm always happily gobsmacked at the great support the writers get, so thanks sincerely to all who came. I always ask Reza to estimate the size of crowds because he's good at counting things, and he reckoned there were more than 40.

Azwan Ismail went first. Now here is a very sporting guy! I'd called him up just the night before to ask him to read when another reader had to pull out, and was so happy that he said yes.

Azwan, and engineer by day and a poet full-time, is a regular at open mic sessions (usually wearing his trademark fedora!) and has just published a poetry zine called Mantra, which he was kind enough to give me a copy of. (I promised to pass him a donation for it and forgot. Next time, Azwan.) He read just three poems, two in Malay and one in English. I think the first was called Ada Seseorang Terbakar (There's Someone on Fire) which mixed images of snow and blood, heat and cold. I like this one called Satan & Angel which I found on his blog.

Reza Rosli was next. His first time in front of the microphone, but he grew in confidence as he read his pieces and in the end I think was enjoying himself. Reza has only recently begun putting his writing out into the world, though I've long enjoyed his writing on his blog. He read poems In the Glass House (written from a dream) one about his lovely little blue bubble of a Smart car (almost a love poem, and I don't blame him because it is a dinky little thing that I much envy ... maybe he should sell the poem to the company for advertising? ... earlier version of it here) , and another about kayaking in Thailand with wonderful imagery of the weight of the sky.

He also read a piece of prose Eh, Saya Muslim, Tak Boleh (subtitled Or, How Being A Muslim Saved Me From Getting Buggered) that had its genesis during my writing course (Got to be a proud teacher here!) the story of how he was almost sexually assaulted by a huge fellow in a dark back alley. We were all listening breath with bated breath to hear how he managed to slide out of a potentially terrifying situation with a bit of quick thinking. You can read the piece here, but Reza improvised a little on it, I think! (Which in a sense just goes to show how valuable it is to read work aloud to see how the voice comes through and the audience responds.)


I first met Alina Rastam a couple of years ago when we both gave a talk at Silverfish about reading groups of different kinds and I was very impressed that she was running classes in literature for adult learners ... because there is very little in this country for working folks who want to further their education in a more informal context.

Alina is a freelance writer and editor, and part-time lecturer in literature at Monash and is involved with women's movement in Malaysia. She hs written on literature for various publications including the New Straits Times and Off The Edge.

She read a couple of poems from her first collection Diver & Other Poems which I reviewed a couple of days back: Prayer and Morning Song the first written for a teacher who greatly influenced her life and the second which she wrote for her partner. Both were pieces in which she had poured out her whole heart - and she read obviously feeling the full emotional impact of the poems. We're hungry for more, Alina, so come back another day.

Tinling Choong was next and read to us from her first novel FireWife the story of the extraordinarily generous Zimi who leases her forehead as advertising space. It was so nice to hear the extract read in her voice. Tinling has been nominated for a Henry Miller Award for Best Literary Sex Scene. (As they say, Malaysia boleh!) It makes all of us, I'm sure, very proud to see a local author have a publishing success overseas ... and it says, hey, it is possible after all guys.

After the break (and I always feel such a spoil sport for dragging folks back when they're so busy enjoying the drinks and the conversation) it was the lovely Jit Murad who needs no introduction. Jit wanted to illustrate just how much further a playwright needs to go developing the back story of his characters so that he/she really knows them. He read us the monologues of two of his characters which you will actually never hear in the play he's working on (Mr. Metro) - both with very different voices, the first (Chris Tong who called himself Chris because it was the nearest name he could find to Krystal Carrington). Very enjoyable.

Last ... and the youngest, but by no means least was Priya K. I first met Priya when she did my writing course some time back and was very happy that she chose to read a piece (edgy, dark, mysterious ... almost graphic fiction in words) she wrote for that course, as well as a poem about KL she wrote when she did Jacob Sam-La Rose's workshop which captures the city very well. Priya has also been writing and performing with The Oral Stage, and is a law student.

My biggest thanks ... as always ... to those who read and those who came. (By the way it was lovely to see our Glenda and I do hope she can be persuaded to read for us another day!)

To Seksan for his kindness in letting us use his lovely space.

To whoever painted the intriguing picture of terrorists in diapers which was our backdrop. (It was part of the notthatbalai art festival.)

To La Bodega for generously giving us a crate of wine.

I hope that I can arrange the next "Readings" at Seksans on 25th August when we will have Preeta Samarasan among the guests joining us. Bernice is also organising "Readings at No Black Tie" on 5th August and a special edition for our 50 years Merdeka celebrations on 31st! Details to be confirmed.

There is a poetry jam on Friday night 3rd August at Bau Bau cafe at Central Market as part of the notthatbalai art festival, and on Saturday 4th July the Maskara readings happening again at Rumah Pena.

Don't you feel that lovely buzz of good things happening?

Other Links:

Sufian has some great photos mostly of those informal moments when you did not notice him lurking! Eternal Wanderer wrote the event up for KL Weekly. (Many thanks!)

Reza (aka Madcap Machinist) has written a fantastic piece about how the whole experience of reading. It is a pretty terrifying thing to do, especially for the first timers.

Lovely quote from Glenda:

Yesterday I went to a reading by some Malaysian authors and was impressed by the level of talent. Damn, but there are some good writers out there. And courageous ones too, who aren't afraid to stand up and say: this is what I am and you can't change it with your threats or your self-righteous religiosity...

Amen! Who got the hotline to heaven better than inspired scribblers?

Tinling and Kam for Breakfast

The Litbloggers Breakfast this month featured FireWife author Tinling Choong and Kam Raslan (Confessions of an Old Boy) who both turned up to field questions about their writing and their experiences of being published.

Tinling describes herself as an author who writes:

... far from the centre of things

and says that this feeling of not quite belonging, of living between cultures, of what she describes as "multi-rootedness", is what has fuelled her writing. She is considered an Asian-American author in the States but sees herself more as a voice of the Chinese diaspora. Born in Malaysia (she is from Penang but went to a convent school in Ipoh, and then moved to the US to attend Wellesley College) she now lives in Vermont and describes herself as:

... a tropical city girl who lives among the snowy mountains.

She is now working towards a PhD in Chinese Literature at Yale as well as juggling life as a new mum and working on her second novel, Yuyu and the Banyan Tree which is due to be published by Nan Talase/Doubleday in 2009.

FireWife she says was fuelled by the image of a woman letting her naked body be used as a plate for sushi (a practice known in Japan as Nyotaimori. ... Now don't go trying this one at home!) while a group of four men sat around her with chopsticks eating the food. She says that she felt so angry that she went home and wrote the woman's story as if she were right inside her skin. The story of this woman became one of the eight in the novel.

In 1992 she got a Wellesley College Stevens Traveling Fellowship to travel to Asia to further develop the book, and went from country to country gathering material. She decided to link the stories of the different women through the character of Nin, who takes time out of her normal life to complete a personal photography project, also called FireWife.

The book is about the gap between knowing and actually living your true self, says Tinling, and there's much more about the writing of it on her website.

Kam says that he also feels that he writes from the periphery.

You can be Muslim and Malay and still outside the centre.

5,000 copies of the book havve now been sold and it is still on Kinokuniya's best selling list

Kam says that he deliberately chose to write for the Malaysian market, an audience which would get the in-jokes and references which a wider audience wouldn't. But the book certainly isn't going to make him very rich. He reckons his royalty check will be somewhere in the region of RM12, 000 which isn't a lot considering that 7 years work went into the book.

But, he says, he did find writing very enjoyable, creating:

... a world that's bigger than the one you live in.

He is, though, now looking for an overseas publisher for the book.

Tinling described the elation she felt when she heard that a publisher wanted to take on her book and said she had to pinch herself:

I got really lucky. The sun, moon, everything aligned!

The book is a bit expensive here at the moment, she says, as it is still in hardback. Her dad worked out that it costs 70 bowls of hokkien mee! (This is the kind of exchange rate I think in too!)


Postscript:

This article about Tinling appeared in the Star's northern edition (click to enlarge):

Tinling and Kam Sunny side Up

Don't forget MPH's Breakfast Club this Saturday p.m. at 11 at Bangsar Village 1. Your chance to talk to authors Tinling Choong and Kam Raslan. See you there!

Fire or Water? You Choose!

Tinling Choong's FireWife left me with somewhat mixed feelings.

There is of course the usual burst of pride. Here is a Malaysian born-author (now a US resident) who is published by one of the biggest publishers in the world (Doubleday). She's also netted The Henry Miller Award for the best literary sex scene. Those of you who are eternally crying, why do Malaysians only write historical novels should be greatly cheered by this very contemporary look at women's lives across the globe. This is not a "Malaysian" novel, but it is a novel with a strong Malaysian protagonist, and which features a multi-ethnic cast of characters.

Nin, is a Chinese Malaysian, settled in America, married an Indian guy, Mahar, and is an architect working for multinational restaurant chain Every Day is Friday which is rapidly expanding round the globe. She has planned to take a five-month break from her work to embark on a project, a photographic exploration of women in different parts of the world, an internal as an external journey. Unfortunately her project is subverted when her bosses ask her to combine business trips with her travels, mapping out for her the cities she must visit.

The biggest issue Nin must come to terms with is her guilt over her sister's death who drown in her grandmother's tapioca house when both were small kids living in "Kinta".

Nin's story is interspersed with words of the women she photographs, among them Laksmi, an Indian woman burned to death by her in-laws; Zimi in Taipei who sells advertising space on her forehead; Ut a child prostitute talking to a fly in the window of a brothel in Bangkok; Table who allows her body to be used as a sushi-platter in Tokyo; and Marie in Amsterdam, whose conflicted feelings about childhood sexual abuse are replayed in a dialogue between her breasts. Although most of the women have been exploited or damaged by men, there is a monologue by a radiantly happy Wing in Singapore, in love and ready to follow her dreams.

I was fascinated by all these women and their relationships to their bodies and would actually have liked more of them: the book succeeds best for me when it is most rooted. All women speak with the same voice - perhaps the stories are Nin's spun when she looks at the photographs. Certainly her own story is echoed by theirs in places.

While the theme of the book and the Asian-American focus might remind readers of authors like Amy Tan, the writing has an energy and playfulness which makes one think of Rushdie and Kiran Desai. The language is also richly sensual as you can see for yourself in this extract and the passage that won the award.

Now I am a sucker for poetic-prose as I've probably said before, and I did generally like the stream-of-consciousness breathlessness of the narration ... but there were times when I felt the style could have been pared down so the author could just, please, get on with the storytelling.

Choong uses fable to bind the stories together and give the book its central theme. The image of fire love (representing passion, sexual energy, spontaneity) vs water love (steady, comfortable, sensible) works well as a metaphor which helps us to understand Nin's unrest and decisions, although I wasn't sure how it meshed with all the stories.

The creation myth at the end (in a section tongue-in-cheekly called Prologue Misplaced) seemed a little forced to me, as if the author were thinking Oh my God how on earth do I tie all this together?? Bitty and disjointed, the novel never manages to be a sum of all its parts and I'm left feeling confused and unsatisfied.

Tinling will be in KL at the end of the month and you will have a chance to meet her. There's more about her and her book on her website.

Other reviews: Yale Daily News, TheDartmouth.com and on Msiagirl's blog.

Hairdressing Reads

A favourite place to read ... at the hairdressersand many of my books have snips of hair between the pages to prove it.This is Felix of Cut Above, by the way, a guy who is eternally patient with my hair.

Have just finished reading Hari Kunzru's new novel My Revolutions for review. It isn't out until end August, so I was very happy to get my mitts on it ahead of time thanks to Abby of Kinokuniya. It is very good indeed but that's all I can tell you for now.

Just started reading Tinling Choong's FireWife since the author will be here end of the month and is kind enough to volunteer to do a reading for us at Seksan's. Forty pages in I'm still not sure what to make of it. What is the centre of it? What holds it together? I like the energy and the humour of the writing, but the language is a little self-conscious ...

Anyway what book's in your hands this week?

Don't miss me too much Wednesday as I will be in Kota Bahru again and then hurrying back to go see Alias Grace with Animah. So where got time for blogging??

Pascakolonialisma in Pink

The latest issue of Quill is yours for free if you flash your MPH card, and a mere RM8 if not.

It's crammed with so much good stuff I don't know where to begin.

I loved Eric Forbes' article on the short story, chock full of excellent reading recommendations which I would love to see the bookstore promoting! He also gives sterling advice about how to submit your manuscript.

It's a Long way to the Floor author David Byck explains about how he got started. Tan Twan Eng talks about the writing of The Gift of Rain, and FireWife author Tinling Choong (who will be visiting Malaysia in July) is interviewed at length.

Dina Zaman and Tunku Halim debate about whether you would take a look at the book a person reads before you decide to get married to them. Pragmatists both. (I think books are windows to the soul ... should have thought twice when I found only war stories on my beloved's bookshelves!)

The Ambassador for Mexico, H.E. Alfredo Perez-Bravo reveals his love for Octavio Paz, Marques, Vargos Llosa and Carlos Fuentes (good for him!) and talks about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose as the ultimate airport novel (CSI Medieval Italy!).

There's a long interview with Farish Noor, and Dr. Faridah Manaf writes a very interesting piece about gender, race and nationalism in post-colonial Malaysia. Am most impressed that the Malay word for post-colonial is pascakolonial, which I will now slip into conversation with the gardener.

Yours truly writes about why Writers Need Friends which I dedicate to my scribbling running mates. (Saras, Mercy, Soo Choon, Leah - you're famous now!). My pics of the Night of the Living Text event are in there too.

But as I told you, my article on book banning ironically got censored out.

That doesn't surprise when the PM himself graces the cover, holding the book of tributes for his wife Datin Paduka Seri Endon who died of cancer in October 2005. The book A Bouquet of Jasmines. (Yes, "jasmines" with an "s"! - a big fat grammar blooper in the title!) was launched at a grand gala evening where everyone who is anyone wore pink and drank pink drinks (think Barbie!).

(Sorry, sorry ... I don't know where such cynicism comes from.)