Lloyd Fernando

Hi lovely peoples!

Who is Lloyd Fernando?

Lloyd Fernando was born to a Sinhalesean's (ethnic group native to the island of Sri Lanka)  family in Sri Lanka in 1926. In 1938, his family migrated to Singapore. Mr. Fernando was educated at St Patrick’s in Singapore, with the Japanese occupation interrupting that education from 1943 to 1945. During the Japanese attack on Singapore, Mr. Fernando’s father was killed. During the Japanese occupation, Fernando worked in a variety of manual labor jobs.

Lloyd Fernando thereafter graduated from the University of Malaya in Singapore, and subsequently served as an instructor at the Singapore Polytechnic. Lloyd Fernando became an assistant lecturer at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur in 1960. Mr. Fernando was awarded a scholarship at Leeds University, UK where he received his PhD.

In 1967 Fernando was appointed to serve as a professor at the English Department of the University of Malaya, where he served until his retirement in 1978. Subsequently, Mr. Fernando studied law at City University in the United Kingdom and then at Middle Temple, returning to Malaysia with two law degrees, whereupon he was employed by a law firm, and thereafter started a separate law practice business. In 1997, Mr. Fernando had a stroke and ceased his professional activities.

(source-wikipedia)

His Literary works ;

Scorpion Orchid, 1976 

An exciting first novel set in pre-independence Singapore. Scorpion Orchid follows the lives of four young men—a Malay, an Eurasian, a Chinese and a Tamil—against a backdrop of racial violence and political factions struggling for dominance. Excerpts from classical Malay and colonial English sources appear throughout the narrative, illuminating the roots and significance of this period in history.

(source - wikipedia) 

Green is the Colour, 1993 

Lloyd Fernando's Green is the Colour is a very interesting novel. The country is still scarred by violence, vigilante groups roam the countryside, religious extremists set up camp in the hinterland, there are still sporadic outbreaks of fighting in the city, and everyone, all the time, is conscious of being watched. It comes as some surprise to find that the story is actually a contemporary (and very clever) reworking of a an episode from the Misa Melayu, an 18th century classic written by Raja Chulan.

In this climate of unease, Fernando employs a multi-racial cast of characters. At the centre of the novel there's a core of four main characters, good (if idealistic) young people who cross the racial divide to become friends, and even fall in love.

There's Dahlan, a young lawyer and activist who invites trouble by making impassioned speech on the subject of religious intolerance on the steps of a Malacca church; his friend from university days, Yun Ming, a civil servant working for the Ministry of Unity who seeks justice by working from within the government.

The most fully realised character of the novel is Siti Sara, and much of the story is told from her viewpoint. A sociologist and academic, she's newly returned from studies in America where she found life much more straightforward, and trapped in a loveless marriage to Omar, a young man much influenced by the Iranian revolution who seeks purification by joining religious commune. The hungry passion between Yun Ming and Siti - almost bordering on violence at times and breaking both social and religious taboos - is very well depicted. (Dahlan falls in love with Gita, Sara's friend and colleague, and by the end of the novel has made an honest woman of her.)

(source - http://mliegreenisthecolor.blogspot.com/2009/04/summary-of-green-is-color.html)

Sybil Kathigasu

Hi lovely peoples,

The real Sybil, according to older daughter Olga, was of French and Penang Eurasian descent. She married AC Kathigasu, a doctor, while she was a trained nurse and together they operated a clinic in Ipoh from 1926 until Japanese troops arrived in Ma­laya on 26 December, 1942.
The couple, along with their two daughters Olga and Dawn and an adopted son William, moved to a small town called Papan.
Together with her husband, the resistance fighter opened another dispensary in Papan and secretly provided the guerrilla forces with medical treatment and supplies as well as information to the resistance forces during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya.
They were betrayed and she was caught by the Japanese in 1943 and tortured mercilessly. She underwent the “Tokyo wine treatment” whereby water was pumped into her and her torturer would stomp on her stomach and force water out of her through all her orifices.
She was beaten, burnt and kicked on the jaw in an attempt to break her. She could not walk, lost all her fingernails and had broken bones everywhere, including her skull. Her five-year-old daughter, Dawn, was dangled from a tree and her torturers threatened to roast her child alive with charcoal burning beneath her.
Despite being tortured and thrown into prison by the Japanese military police, Sybil never divulged information about the resistance movement. She survived the ordeal although her health was severely affected after the various injuries sustained during her incarceration.
When Malaya was liberated in 1945, Sybil was flown to Britain for medical treatment. She was awarded the George Medal for Gallantry, the only Malaysian woman to receive the medal for bravery.
The two-storey shophouse at 74 Main Street in Papan now belongs to a private individual and is open to tourists for viewing. The shooting of the drama was done entirely in Perak and also at the house, from last December to early February this year. Everything mentioned in her memoir No Dram of Mercy was preserved in the house, including the well-concealed hole under the staircase where the radio was hidden.

Tash Aw

Hi lovely peoples,

Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian parents. He grew up in Kuala Lumpur before moving to Britain to attend university. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, The Harmony Silk Factory (2005), Map of the Invisible World (2009) and Five Star Billionaire (2013), which have won the Whitbread First Novel Award, a regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize and twice been longlisted for the MAN Booker prize; they have also been translated into 23 languages.
His short fiction has won an O. Henry Prize and been published in A Public Space and the landmark Granta 100, amongst others.

Set in Malaysia in the 1930s and 40s, with the rumbling of the Second World War in the background and the Japanese about to invade, 'The Harmony Silk Factory' is the story of four people: Johnny, an infamous Chinaman – a salesman, a fraudster, possibly a murderer – whose shop house, The Harmony Silk Factory, he uses as a front for his illegal businesses; Snow Soong, the beautiful daughter of one of the Kinta Valley's most prominent families, who dies giving birth to one of the novel's narrators; Kunichika, a Japanese officer who loves Snow too; and an Englishman, Peter Wormwood, who went to Malaysia like many English but never came back, who also loved Snow to the end of his life. A journey the four of them take into the jungle has a devastating effect on all of them, and brilliantly exposes the cultural tensions of the era.

( source -  http://www.tash-aw.com/ )

Who is Tan Twan Eng ?

Hi lovely peoples,

Tan Twan Eng

His first novel, The Gift of Rain, published in 2007, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. It is set in Penang before and during the Japanese occupation of Malaya in World War II. The Gift of Rain has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, Czech, Serbian and French.

His second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists, was published in 2012. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and won the Man Asian Literary Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Tan has spoken at literary festivals, including the Singapore Writers Festival, the Ubud Writers' Festival in Bali, the Asia Man Booker Festival in Hong Kong, the Shanghai International Literary Festival, the Perth Writers Festival, the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, Australia, and the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa.

 

"On a mountain above the clouds, in the central highlands of Malaya lived the man who had been the gardener of the Emperor of Japan.”

Teoh Yun Ling was seventeen years old when she first heard about him, but a war would come, and a decade would pass before she travels up to the Garden of Evening Mists to see him, in 1951. A survivor of a brutal Japanese camp, she has spent the last few years helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, she asks the gardener, Nakamura Aritomo, to create a memorial garden for her sister who died in the camp. He refuses, but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice ‘until the monsoon’ so she can design a garden herself.
Staying at the home of Magnus Pretorius, the owner of Majuba Tea Estate and a veteran of the Boer War, Yun Ling begins working in the Garden of Evening Mists. But outside in the surrounding jungles another war is raging. The Malayan Emergency is entering its darkest days, the communist-terrorists murdering planters and miners and their families, seeking to take over the country by any means, while the Malayan nationalists are fighting for independence from centuries of British colonial rule.

( source -  http://www.tantwaneng.com/ )

Biography of New Malaysian Writers - The Authors

Hi lovely peoples,

1. Adibah Amin

Adibah Amin was born on February 19 1936. She is an educator, linguist , journalist, author of the Malay language and English , and also an actor in Malaysia . Seri Delima is her pen name. Her works include three novels in Malay (Classic Pure Lotus Still In The Pool, Place Fell Again Remembered) along with more than 200 drama radio ("A 10 is good," he said humbly to the magazine Asiaweek ) , and a number of short stories. In English , she wrote for the newspaper The Star , but now most remembered for his column "As I Was Passing" written while he worked for the newspaper New Straits Times . Most recently, in November 2006, Adina giving her first novel in English, "This End of the Rainbow" featuring the lives of several students from around the 50s. His novel "Still in the Lotus Pond" has been translated into Japanese with the title "No Hana wa Mada Surojya Ni Ike (1986)." Adibah has also translated several works of literary writers including No Harvest boots Malaysia A Malaysian National Laureate Thorn writing Shannon Ahmad (original title The road twists) and Jungle of Hope Malaysian National Laureate writing, Keris Mas original title, the Forest of Hope). As of 2006, Adina still actively writes mainly educational articles in the newspaper (The Star).

 As I was Passing I and II are books which I would recommend everyone to read. Put in an amusing anecdotes format, readers will be enthralled by the way the author, Adibah Amin has crafted her book with so much warmth, love and understanding. She used her family, friends and neighbors as subjects for her books to sum up the heart and soul of Malaysian lifestyle and idiosyncrasies. As I Was Passing I and II are compilations of Adibah’s column of the same name published in The New Straits Times in the 1970s and 1980s under her pen name, Sri Delima. Relevant today as it was then, Adibah prose and writings makes an interesting read. She analyzed the Malaysian culture with a humorous angle, always adding a light twist to her musings. The reader will thus realize that she is affectionately appreciative of the events and experiences that shape Malaysian life.

With such books, there is usually a moral behind the stories and here, we can find that characteristic. The reader may not quite realize it until they came to the end of the story. At this point, most will laugh heartily over it. She crafted the stories to encompass the emotions and beliefs of her subject never in a heavy-handed manner but always in a light touch, not to offend the reader.

2. Lee Su Kim

Su Kim has recently published her debut collection of short stories called Kebaya Tales : of Matriarchs, Maidens, Mistresses and Matchmakers ( 2011), inspired by real-life events from the unique Straits Chinese community. Available in all major bookstores in Malaysia and Singapore.
Dr. Lee Su Kim is Associate Professor of English at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She holds a B. Arts (Hons) degree in English, Diploma in Education (TESL) and Masters in Education from the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Houston.

She is a founder member and the first woman President of the Peranakan Baba Nyonya Association of Kuala Lumpur & Selangor. She was a columnist for The Star, a leading English newspaper in Malaysia for three years. She was an invited writer to the prestigious Ubud Writers & Readers Festival at Ubud, Bali, 2009. 

 

 

 

Kebaya Tales is a delightful collection of short stories, teeming with fascinating and interesting characters, unexpected twists and turns, cultural rituals, beliefs and superstitions and poignant events in the life stories of the Peranakans.
Lee Su Kim’s book brings you into another world, a world that many know little about—the world of the Babas and Nyonyas or the Straits Chinese, a colourful, flamboyant and unique community still in existence today in the former Straits Settlements of Malacca, Penang and Singapore. Like her previous books, Lee Su Kim’s stories in this book are laced with humour and occasional gentle satire. All the stories are based on or are inspired by real-life events which Su Kim has collected from her nyonya mother, grandmother, bibiks and nyonyas.
This is a first-ever collection of short stories of a unique cultural community, at the crossroads as to its very survival, but presently enjoying a tremendous resurgence. Su Kim’s debut collection of stories are simply stunning and heartwarming, evocative of a bygone era and a cultural community renowned for its unique multicultural legacy.
 

 

Dance by Fadzilah Amin

Hi lovely peoples,

Who is Fadzilah Amin?

Fadzilah Amin is one of the Malaysian poet. Her name was stated in Dr. Malachi Edwin Vethamani's Bibliography of Malaysian Literature in English (page 47)

One of the famous poem by Fadzilah Amin is her poem, Dance.

DANCE 
By FADZILAH AMIN
We are like partners in the ronggeng,
Approaching nearer, nearer, nearer;
But just when one would think we’d meet at last,
We turn away, reverse our steps, withdraw.
And like the ronggeng too, my life seems now,
With steps mechanical, repeated, meaningless;
Arms swinging back and forth, expressing nothing,
Feet pacing up and down the floor, going nowhere.
I am tired of going through these ronggeng motions,
Long to break this impasse of reserve;
If only at one point our hands would clasp,
What rich variety of movement and gesture could be ours.

The poem describes a relationship which has broken down in some way; the two people involved are not separated, but they do not seem to be communicating with each other. They come almost to the point of confronting each other and speaking, touching each other emotionally, but then at the last moment turn away from each other.

 

New Malaysian Writers

Authors :

1 - Adibah Amin , As I Was Passing II

2 - Lee Su Kim , Kebaya Tales

Poets :

1 - Muhammad Amirul Mamat , Life just as it is

Things never turned out the way they were supposed to,dont they?
Words never came out the way they were meant to,arent they?
People never grew up the way they were expected to,wouldnt they?
And life never pan out the way we were always planned to,isnt it?

Cause if they do,or they are,or they would,and if it is..

Then,living would be so easy u will forget how to bend on ur knees,down to ur feet, crying for His Mercy..

Like a dandelion in the windy dessert u will lost---nowhere to be,
Like a blind man in the deep dark night u shall not see..

Until u embraced it for whatever it may be..
No matter how hard one would feel.

2 - Ashvini Sivasengaran , A Beggar's Life

At the end of the street,
lays a lonely beggar,
Fighting the hailstorms,
with no food nor light,
with no beds nor clothes.

He shivers in the cold,
and
burns under the sun,
There he lies...
At the end of the street.

To disembark on a journey,
A journey to his destined end.
Patiently he awaits for his life to end,
Dear oh dear,
there lies the beggar,
he waits for the scraps of food,
Fighter he is,
even a soldier too.

Yet there he is,
offering his delicacies,
to a stray with rumbling tummy too,
with a smile in his face and twinkle in his eyes,
the beggar lived his life.

At the end of the street,
was a beggar,
who's life is not worth living,
filthy and dirty he was,
yet he embraced life in a special
waiting patiently for his time,
His patience is yet to be granted.

so there he is..
At the end of the street.

3 - Muzaffar Ahmad Shah , A ghazal 

Where Should I begin from? My words are like scattered stars,
The fingers rummage for words. Pen is rent asunder. It runs away from me, in reality

I return back to nostalgia; the dead dreams are still in life their,
A castle of fantasia they have built, from broken wishes: a fool’s gold, in reality

The world turns slowly: Great illusion for eternity. Poor departed souls,
Deaf forever! No one can hear them, acceptance is essence. Longing is vain, in reality

Pain is both agony and fertility. Ah! these lessons of Philosophy
They turn my heart brave. It’s on war with divinity. Shameful truth: it stifles, in reality

My heart is an idol worshipper; bring his idols from their height
Enough! I am being cursed by the heavens. Save me. Convert this infidel, in reality

Sins are rolling down from my eyes, bring onto me, The Purity
Now I repent, after no word. Baptize me. Lest end this drama of life, in reality

The moon is imprisoned in daylight, the sun brings anarchy
Moon guides the passengers of night, with her light, not her light, in reality

The effulgence of my rheum, a mirage, for my soul
What guides my mind? Is it filth? Or pursuit for my desires, in reality

The birds on the trees with the image of dawn in their eyes
Arrival of red on the sky, Begins their life. Or counts their time, in reality

Everyone thing is dead, only my eyes alive, they pay homage to my guilt
I have been thirty for years, quench my thirst, or let me be Husain, in reality

Those dear things I lost are forever gone. They envisage my dreams
As you write this envoi Muzzaffar, try to realize what is gone, shapes life, in reality