...Malaysian Writers...
TAN TWAN ENG
Tan Twan Eng was born in 1972 in Penang, but lived in various places in Malaysia as a child. He studied law at the University of London and later worked as lawyer in one of Kuala Lumpur’s most reputable law firms. He also has a first-dan ranking in aikido and is a strong proponent for the conservation of heritage buildings. His first novel, The Gift of Rain, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007. He has spent the last year traveling around South Africa and currently lives in Cape Town. His second novel The Garden of Evening Mist was released in January, 2012.
The Gift of Rain (2007)
Summary
Old and sustained only by memories and regrets, Philip Hutton finds his ordered life disturbed by the unheralded arrival of a dying Japanese woman, who brings him a sword he has not seen for fifty years, and who is determined to find out the truth of his past, and of that of the man she loved. For the first time, he is able to tell his complex and painful story to someone who will both understand and forgive.
In 1939, 16-year-old Philip – the half-Chinese youngest child of Noel Hutton, head of one of Penang’s great trading families – feels alienated from both the British and Chinese communities. He discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat who rents an island from his father. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island of Penang, and Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture, and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido.
But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. The enigmatic Endo is bound by obligations of his own; and too late, as the Japanese invade Malaya, Philip realises that his sensei – to whom he owes absolute loyalty – is a Japanese spy.
Forced into collaborating with the Japanese to safeguard his family and their interests, Philip turns into the ultimate outsider, trusted by none and hated by many. Tormented by his part in events, by deaths he is powerless to prevent, he risks everything to redress his moral balance by working in secret to save as many people as he can from the savagery of the invaders, and in so doing finds out who and what he really is.
Driven by the prophetic words of an ancient soothsayer, THE GIFT OF RAIN explores the opposing ideas of predestination and self-determination, as Philip traces a perilous and sometimes unclear path through the terrible years of the war. It takes the reader from the final days of the Chinese emperors to the dying era of the British Empire, and through the magical temples, exhilarating cities and forbidding rainforests of Malaya.
THE GIFT OF RAIN is epic, haunting and unforgettable, richly shot through with themes and ideas, a novel about agonizingly divided loyalties and unbearable loss. But it is also about human courage and – ultimately – about the nature of enduring love.
The Garden of Evening (2012)
Summary
Newly retired Supreme Court Judge Yun Ling Teoh returns to the Cameron Highlands of Malaya, where she spent a few months several years earlier. Oncoming aphasia is forcing her to deal with unsettled business from her youth while she is still able to remember. She starts writing her memoires, and agrees to meet with Japanese preofessor Yoshikawa Tatsuji. Tatsuji is interested in the life and works of artist Nakamura Aritomo, who used to be the gardener of the Japanese Emperor, but moved to this area to build his own garden.
During the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Yun Ling was in a Japanese civilian internment camp with her sister, Yun Hong. Yun Hong did not make it out alive, and after the war was over, Yun Ling decided to fulfil a promise made to her sister: to build a Japanese garden in their home in Kuala Lumpur. She travelled to the highlands to visit family friend Magnus Pretorius, an ex-patriate South African tea farmer who knew Aritomo. Aritomo refused to work for Yun Ling, but agreed to take her on as an apprentice, so she could later build her own garden. In spite of her resentment against the Japanese, she agreed to work for Aritomo, and later became his lover.
During the conversations with Tatsuji, it comes out that Aritomo was involved in a covert Japanese program during the war, to hide looted treasures from occupied territories. The rumours of this so-called "Golden Lily" program were widespread, and Magnus was killed trying to save his family from the Communist guerilla, who came looking for the gold. Aritomo never talked about the treasure to Yun Ling, but gradually it becomes clear that he might have left a clue to its location. Before he disappeared into the jungle, he made a horimono tattoo on her back. It now appears this tattoo might contain a map to the location of the treasure. Yun Ling decides that, before she dies, she must make sure that no-one will be able to get their hand on her body, and the map. In the meantime, she sets out to restore Aritomo's dilapidated garden.
TASH AW
Tash Aw or his real name is Aw Ta-Shi 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.
The Harmony Silk Factory (2005)
The Harmony Silk Factory (2005) is Tash Aw's critically acclaimed first novel, set in 1940s British-ruled Malaya, which is now called Malaysia. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Whitbread Book Awards for First Novel Award.
Summary
"The Harmony Silk Factory is the textiles store run by Johnny Lim, a Chinese peasant living in a rural region of Malaya, a British colony in Southeast Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. The factory is the most impressive and truly amazing structure in the region, and to the inhabitants of the Kinta Valley Johnny Lim is a hero-a Communist who fought the Japanese when they invaded, ready to sacrifice his life for the welfare of his people. But to his son, Jasper, Johnny is a crook and a collaborator who betrayed the very people he pretended to serve, and the Harmony Silk Factory is merely a front for his father's illegal businesses. Centering on Johnny from three perspectives-those of his grown son; his wife, Snow, the most beautiful woman in the Kinta Valley (through her diary entries); and his best and only friend, an Englishman adrift named Peter Wormwood-the novel reveals the difficulty of knowing another human being, and how our assumptions about others also determine who we are. "
Map of the Invisible World (2009)
Summary
From the author of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning The Harmony Silk Factory comes an enthralling new novel that evokes an exotic yet turbulent and often frightening time and place. Map of the Invisible World is the masterly, psychologically rich tale of three lives indelibly marked by the past—their own and Indonesia's.
Sixteen-year-old Adam is an orphan three times over. He and his brother, Johan, were abandoned by their mother as children; then Adam watched as Johan was adopted and taken away by a wealthy couple; and now Adam is hiding because Karl, the man who raised him—and who is Dutch but long ago turned his back on the country of his ancestors—has been arrested by soldiers during Sukarno's drive to purge 1960s Indonesia of its colonial past.
All Adam has to guide him in his quest to find Karl are some old photos and letters, which send him to the colorful, dangerous capital, Jakarta, and to Margaret, an American whose own past is bound up with Karl's. Soon both have embarked on journeys of discovery that seem destined to turn tragic.
Woven hauntingly into this page-turning story is the voice of Johan, who is living a seemingly carefree, privileged life in Malaysia, but one that is careening out of control as he struggles to forget his long-ago betrayal of his helpless, trusting brother.
Map of the Invisible World confirms Tash Aw as one of the most exciting young voices on the international literary scene.
Five Star Billionaire (2013)
Summary
Long-listed for the Man-Booker Prize
An expansive, eye-opening novel that captures the vibrancy of China today.
Phoebe is a factory girl who has come to Shanghai with the promise of a job—but when she arrives she discovers that the job doesn’t exist. Gary is a country boy turned pop star who is spinning out of control. Justin is in Shanghai to expand his family’s real estate empire, only to find that he might not be up to the task. He has long harbored a crush on Yinghui, a poetry-loving, left-wing activist who has reinvented herself as a successful Shanghai businesswoman. Yinghui is about to make a deal with the shadowy Walter Chao, the five star billionaire of the novel, who with his secrets and his schemes has a hand in the lives of each of the characters.
All bring their dreams and hopes to Shanghai, the shining symbol of the New China, which, like the novel’s characters, is constantly in flux and which plays its own fateful role in the lives of its inhabitants.
Five Star Billionaire is a dazzling, kaleidoscopic novel that offers rare insight into the booming world of Shanghai, a city of elusive identities and ever-changing skylines, of grand ambitions and outsize dreams. Bursting with energy, contradictions, and the promise of possibility, Tash Aw’s remarkable new book is both poignant and comic, exotic and familiar, cutting-edge and classic, suspenseful and yet beautifully unhurried. (From the publisher.)
SHIVANI SIVAGURUNATHAN
Shivani Sivagurunathan is a Malaysian fiction writer and poet. Born in Kuala Lumpur and raised in Port Dickson, she spent eight years in the UK where she studied comparative literature.Her poems had been published in various UK and US publications. she was shortlisted for the Fish Publishing One-Page Story Prize in 2010. Previously she was lecturing in UPM but she is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Faculty of Arts in University Nottingham. She wrote poem titled"Chiaroscuro" and a collection of short stories titled" Wildlife on Coal Island".'Chiaroscuro' was published in 2010 whereas 'Wildlife on Coal Island" waspublished in 2011. Her thesis for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy was " Coolie Cartography: Crossing Frontiers Through Coolitude". This thesis was submitted to the Centre for Translations and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Warwick in 2007.
Poem- Chiaroscuro(2o10)
Chiaroscuro is a poetry chapbook. It was published in August 2010. At once delicate with essential sparse images, these poems bisect landscapes of lush vegetation with anatomies of unnamed muses. Think Lorine Niedecker’s lake in diffuse sunlight, or Wallace Stevens’ desk under a lamp’s spotlight; each itinerant poem offers details sulpted with light and shadow. Shivani Sivagurunathan gives us the contents of a poetic mulch composted in rich layering.
Wildlife on Coal Island is a collection of eleven short stories. It was published in August 2011. Both "The Bat Whisperer" and "Catching Iguanas" are from her short story collection,Wildlife on Coal Island.All set on a fictional island located in present day Malaysia. Characters tell their own stories but occasionally appear in the stories of others.
TUN DR. MAHATHIR MOHAMAD
Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was born on December 20, 1925, in Alor Setar, in the state of Kedah in northern Malaysia. He was a doctor before becoming a politician with the UMNO party, and ascended quickly from Member of Parliament to prime minister. During his 22 years in office, he grew the economy and was an activist for developing nations, but also imposed harsh restrictions on civil liberties. He resigned office in 2003. His family was modest but stable, and his father was a respected teacher at an English language school. After finishing Islamic grammar schools and graduating from the local college, Mahathir attended medical school at the University of Malaya in Singapore. He was an army physician before forming a private practice at the age of 32.
Mahathir had a significant impact on the economy, culture and government of Malaysia. He won five consecutive elections and served for 22 years, longer than any other prime minister in Malaysia’s history. Under him, Malaysia experienced rapid economic growth. He began privatizing government enterprises, including airlines, utilities and telecommunications, which raised money for the government and improved working conditions for many employees, although many of the beneficiaries were UMNO supporters. One of his most significant infrastructure projects was the North-South Expressway, a highway that runs from the Thai border to Singapore.
From 1988 to 1996, Malaysia saw an 8 percent economic expansion, and Mahathir released an economic plan—The Way Forward, or Vision 2020—asserting that the country would be a fully developed nation by 2020. He helped shift the country’s economic base away from agriculture and natural resources and toward manufacturing and exporting, and the country’s per capita income doubled from 1990 to 1996. Although Malaysia’s growth has slowed and it’s unlikely the country will achieve this goal, the economy remains stable.
But in spite of these accomplishments, Mahathir leaves a mixed legacy. Although he began his first term conservatively, during the 1980s Mahathir became more authoritarian. In 1987 he instituted the Internal Security Act, which permitted him to close four newspapers and order the arrests of 106 activists, religious leaders and political opponents, including Anwar Ibrahim, his former deputy prime minister. He also altered the constitution to restrictive the interpretive power of the Supreme Court, and he forced a number of high-ranking members to resign.
Mahathir’s record on civil liberties, as well as his criticisms of Western economic policies and industrialized nations’ policies toward developing countries, made his relationships with the United States, Britain and Australia difficult. He banned The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for printing negative editorials about him, and supported a national law condemning drug smugglers to death, resulting in the execution of several Western citizens.
Mahathir retired in 2003, and remains an active and visible part of Malaysia’s political landscape. He is an ardent critic of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, whom he chose to succeed him.
A Doctor in the House: The Memoirs of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, 8 March 2011
In his twenty-two years as Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohamad transformed his country from an agricultural backwater into an industrial powerhouse that would become the seventeenth-largest trading nation in the world.
This remarkable achievement was not without controversy, and Dr Mahathir’s extraordinary vision and iron grip earned him both enemies as well as ardent admirers within and outside of Malaysia. He has been described—typically and paradoxically—as a tyrannical dictator, a bête noir, as well as inspiring, courageous and an outspoken defender of the downtrodden, the Third World, and moderate Islam.
At almost every turn Dr Mahathir rewrote the rules. This book reveals hitherto unknown aspects of this intensely private, but publicly bold, statesman. It provides a clear and compelling narrative of modern Malaysian political history as seen through the eyes of one its greatest shapers. It is neither apology nor defence, but a forceful, compelling and often exciting account of how Dr Mahathir achieved what he did in so short a time, and why.
YASMIN AHMAD
Yasmin Ahmad was born on January 7, 1958 in Bukit Treh, Muar, Johor, Malaysia. She was a film director, writer and scriptwriter from Malaysia and was also the executive creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur. A graduate in arts majoring in politics and psychology from Newcastle University in England, she worked as a trainee banker in 1982 for two weeks then working for IBM as a marketing representative while moonlighting as a blues singer and pianist by night. Yasmin began her career in advertising as a copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather and in 1993 she moved to Leo Burnett as joint creative director with Ali Mohammed, eventually rising to executive creative director at the firm's Kuala Lumpur branch. She died on July 25, 2009 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Her television commercials and films are well known in Malaysia for their humour, heart and love that crosses cross-cultural barriers, in particular her ads for Petronas, the national oil and gas company. Her works have won multiple awards both within Malaysia and internationally. However in Malaysia itself, her films are highly controversial since they depict events and relationships seen as forbidden by social conservatives, especially hard-line interpretations of Islam.
Her first feature length film was Rabun in 2002. Mukhsin won an international children's best feature film award and special mention under the children's jury awards. Most of her commercials and films have been screened at the Berlin, San Francisco, Singapore international film festivals and the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival (not to be confused with the other Cannes Film Festival). Her films were featured in a special retrospective at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2006. An April 2007 retrospective of her feature films was sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawaii, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts. In Singapore, Yasmin is best known for the pro-family commercials she did for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Yasmin was inducted into the Malaysian Advertising Hall of Fame by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia in November 2008. Yasmin was working on her first feature film to be filmed in Singapore titled, "Go, Thaddeus!" when she died. This was to be an inspirational film for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, based on the book, "Running the full distance: Thaddeus Cheong" by Belinda Wee about Singapore's 17 year old National triathlete who died after completing the 2007 SEA Games time trial.
-Talentime
Talentime is a 2009 Malaysian drama film written and directed by Yasmin Ahmad. Yasmin, in her blog, has described it "as a story full of joy and pain, hope and despair, a host of beautifully-written songs, and rich, rich characters". A Hindu open cremation and a scene reminiscent of the Kampung Medan incident are included in the film. The film was released on March 26, 2009 in Malaysia and marks Yasmin's last feature film prior to her death on July 25, 2009.
The story about "A music teacher, who is herself a great performer is organising an inter-school talentime. Through the days of auditions, rehearsals and preparations, running up to the big day of the contest, the characters get embroiled in a world of heightened emotions - ambition, jealousy, human comedy, romance, heartbreak - all of which culminate in a day of great music and performances. Yasmin also mentioned that the idea behind Talentime was that as humans, we have to go through a lot of pain and some measure of suffering before we can reach greater heights.
A talent search competition has matched two hearts - that of Melur, a Malay-mixed girl and an Indian male student, Mahesh. Melur, with her melodious voice, singing whilst playing the piano is one of the seven finalists of the Talentime competition of her school organised by Cikgu Adibah. Likewise Hafiz, enthralling with his vocalist talent while playing the guitar, dividing his time between school and mother, who is hospitalised for brain tumor.
It all started after Mahesh, amongst the students assigned to get the finalists to school for practice, delivered the notice of successful audition to Melur's house. His handsome looks attracted the girl. Early on of their relationship, tragedy struck Mahesh's family when his uncle Ganesh who had been the care-taker of the family since the loss of Mahesh's father, was stabbed to death on his wedding day. Melur thinking that Mahesh's silence was due to his grief over the tragedy became furious when she was continuously ignored. She regretted it however after Hafiz revealed Mahesh's situation.
That changed Melur's perception of Mahesh. Likewise Mahesh, who grew comfortable with the presence of the girl who often quotes beautiful poetry. Mahesh, realizing that the relationship will be opposed, kept it hidden from his mother, still grieving over the death of Ganesh. Alas, the secret was exposed and Mahesh was assaulted before Melur's very eyes. Just a day before the competition, is Melur resilient enough to sing the poetic lyrics of her song when her heart is tormented by the thoughts of Mahesh? What about Mahesh who has found his first love? On Talentime night, everything unfolds.
Mukhsin
Mukhsin is a 2006 Malaysian film directed by Yasmin Ahmad. It is the third installment in the "Orked" trilogy. Shot in just 12 days, it won one award and one special mention at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival (2007) under the children's film category: International Jury of Generation Kplus - Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk for Best Feature Film and the Generation Kplus Children’s Jury Awards - Special Mention. Within the first 4 days of its release in Malaysia, it earned RM700,000 in box-office takings. It went on to have a final gross of RM2 million.
The story takes place in Sekinchan, Sabak Bernam in 1993, revolving around the first love of a 10-year-old Orked when a 12-year-old boy, Mukhsin, comes with his elder brother and aunt to spend the school holidays in her village.
Around this relatively simple plotline of a blossoming young romance between the film's two young protagonists, are interweaved scenes of Malaysian village life and the dynamics of different types of families. Most of the family scenes revolve around Orked and her mother (Mak Inom), father (Pak Atan), and the family's close maid who is almost like a family member (Kak Yam).
The other families which are given attention in the movie are Mukhsin's family (with his elder brother who has lost his way in life and is trying desperately to find their mother who abandoned them at a young age, and their Aunty who is trying to take care of the two boys as though they were her own), and Orked's neighbours (with the young daughter and pregnant mother who are critical of the western ways of Orked's family, while they themselves are hurt by the father who wants to abandon them to take on a second wife).
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