THE Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore proved to be a truly inspiring experience for me.

Held from May 6-9 at the beautiful Arts House at the Old Parliament, the festival brought together professionals from various publishing industries – from print to film to software. What these people had in common, of course, was a passion and interest in creating content specifically for children and young adults

 As you can guess, my interest was particularly in connecting with editors, publishers, writers and illustrators from near and far, many of whose work I have admired for many years, and some of whom I have had contact with through email and their blogs.

R KhanOne such woman is Rukhsana Kahn, an author and storyteller from Canada. I first heard of Kahn when I was sent the online link (tinyurl.com/37wchbu) to the paper (Freedom of Speech Versus Cultural Sensitivity: Balancing the Right to Create Freely vs. the Need of People to be Respected) that she presented at the IBBY World Congress 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark. What a great presentation! Reading it, I was struck by Kahn’s passion, her intelligence, sensitivity and sense of humour. In person, Kahn more than surpassed my expectations. She is one of the most eloquent and entertaining people I hav  e ever met, and I was deeply honoured, very grateful (and a little mortified) when she generously took the time to give me some much-needed advice on my own presentation style.

I was also thrilled when she said how much she liked the first book published by my imprint OneRedFlower Press. The book, My Mother’s Garden was launched at the festival. The author/illustrator Emila Yusof was not able to attend, but the publisher Linda Tan Lingard and I displayed the book and spoke about the imprint and our hopes to publish Malaysian children’s and YA literature, and, in time, books that celebrate other cultures too.

When I was first shown Emila’s mock-up of My Mother’s Garden, the little girl in it was dressed in jeans and a sweater. I asked Emila to dress her in a baju kurung instead, to better reflect the fact that she is a little Malaysian girl – the flowers and other plants in the garden show the local setting of the story. I didn’t think the girl would look odd in a baju kurung as many little Malay girls still wear that. And also, Malaysian girls and women of all races wear this outfit too, including as a school uniform.

My mothers garden Textwise, Emila had written a simple narrative, but also composed rhyming verses for every picture spread. It is very hard to rhyme well. Unless you’re very good at it, there’s a danger that your text will end up sounding forced, clumsy or just plain cheesy. And so I removed the rhyming text, and Emila and I worked to improve the narrative, adding more descriptive details to the text. However, as I felt that the flowers and the little girl’s appearance were enough to give this book a thoroughly Malaysian feel, I refrained from adding any pointedly Malaysian references within the narrative. However, the book ends with an illustrated glossary of the flowers and plants, with their English and Malay names.

My Mother’s Garden suffers from a slight oversight in that its spine doesn’t bear its title. This will make it hard to pick out when it’s sitting spine-out on bookshelves. Well, as Linda said to me, let’s hope it goes into second printing so we can add the title then!

The theme of the festival was Asian Content for the World’s Children and there was much discussion about ways to close the gaps between the world’s reading communities. While it’s true that a good book is able to transcend all kinds of borders, its merit isn’t the only thing that determines how wide an audience it garners. You still have to think about things like publicity and distribution rights.

It has always struck me as odd that we get so few Australian books in our stores. Australia is so close to Malaysia and so many Malaysians have emigrated to Australia, or have gone to school there, that it would just make sense for us to have more access to its literature.

I was on a panel that discussed Asian-Australian collaboration, and I mentioned how I grew up hearing jokes about Australia being a land of convicts, and remarks about how Australian indigenous people were uncivilised, lazy, and ungrateful. These views, shared with me by friends and relatives who had studied in Australian universities or emigrated to that country, show how any single story of any community can do so much damage.

The magic pudding1 I said that, to me, one of the most important reasons to promote artistic collaboration between countries is to promote access and exposure to the many stories of our countries and our peoples.

It’s also an important reason to publish Malaysian stories for Malaysians, since the stereotypes we are exposed to and have come to believe in are not just of people in other countries and of other cultures, but also of the people with whom we share neighbourhoods, study and work with; people whom we even marry and whose families and communities we become a part of.

I don’t want to see less of the wonderful books published every year in the States and Britain – our reading lives would be a lot less rich without them. We just need other stories too. Stories from India, from China and Japan and Korea, from Singapore and other ASEAN nations, from Australia, from Africa, from Polynesia and beyond. Asian content for the world, yes, but most importantly and urgently, Asian content for Asia.

Sunday January 17, 2010

Telling our tales By ROUWEN LIN

Multicultural books can open up a whole new world to children.

MALAYSIAN literature often falls far short of capturing our multiculturalism. And when it comes to children’s books on local tales, our voice is completely silent.

There’s one person who wants to change that and she’s looking for like-minded people to work with.

Daphne Lee hopes that OneRedFlower’s picture book contest will inspire authors to come up with thoroughly Malaysian tales for children. – SAMUEL ONG / The Star “Our children read books that reference American culture, British pop culture, but hardly ever Malaysian culture,” says Daphne Lee, 42.

“We lack quality literature for children reflecting our culture in all its diversity,’’ says StarMag’s Tots to Teens columnist and author of four picture books. She is also publishing editor of OneRedFlower Press, which specialises in multicultural literature for children and young adults.

“There is a need for good books depicting this, as it is really important for children to see themselves reflected in the books they read and the pictures they look at. It builds confidence and helps in developing their self-identity,” she explains.

Lee, who has three children, says that the long-term plan is to publish multicultural books from all over the world.

But what exactly are multicultural books? Do they feature characters from different countries speaking different languages? Do they eat different kinds of food? Do they sing different songs and play with different toys?

Lee says it is all of that, and more.

“When people talk about culture, the first thing that springs to mind is often race and religion. But culture is so much more than that; culture encompasses gender relations, sexuality, beliefs, history, mythologies, attitudes and behaviour of different groups of people.

“The books we publish will show the various aspects of life that different people experience. I want books that challenge stereotypes in life as well as books that reflect them.

“These books will represent more than the artificial view that there is just one kind of person, one kind of marriage, or one kind of family.

“Books like those don’t allow for any variation, but a child should be provided with literature that presents a broader perspective on life,” she says.

Lee acknowledges that all the misconceptions we have of children’s literature (low quality, over-priced, easy to write and not intellectual) need to be purged before her dream of multicultural literature can become reality.

“Many people are under the impression that children’s literature is not as important as literature for adults. They think that we can give children anything to read because they won’t know any better.

“This is really strange to me – just as you want the best for your child in terms of nutrition, you should also want provide them with well-written and beautifully illustrated books to read,” she points out.

There is also the belief that it’s easier to write a book for children than for adults, and Lee says that this has prompted many authors to venture down that road with disastrous results.

“Sadly, many of these people don’t actually read children’s books. A badly-written book will be very difficult to read out loud to a child because of the horrible flow and syntax,” she says.

“A good book – even books for adults – will stand up to the challenge of being read out loud,” says Lee, adding that OneRedFlower is hosting its first picture book contest in its effort to encourage authors and illustrators to tell Malaysian stories.

“The contest is open to Malaysian citizens and residents. We are looking for original stories with a local context and we want people who are familiar with Malaysian life and culture,” she says.

“I hope what we are doing will not only encourage writers and illustrators to write and draw for children, but also interest other publishers in publishing for them.

“There is a growing acknowledgement of the importance of children’s literature in the region and I see the imprint moving along in that direction.

“We look forward to playing a role in that, as well as being a part of the lives of children,” Lee says.

Visit 1redflower.wordpress.comfor details of the picture book contest. Closing date for submissions is April 30. OneRedFlower Press will publish the winning works.

SCBWI Malaysia: Supporting Malaysian Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

I'M taking a break from recommending Christmas gifts to write a little about the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Malaysia.

Founded in 1971 by a group of Los Angeles-based children's writers, the SCBWI now has regional chapters in other parts of the United States, as well as international chapters in countries like Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Monolia, the Netherlands, Russia Spain and Taiwan. This year, the Malaysian chapter was registered and on Nov 20, it held its first conference, at the LimKokWing University of Creative Technology.

The president of the Malaysian chapter is Linda Tan Lingard who is an avid reader and collector of children's books. Like many Malaysians with a passion for children's literature, Lingard is aware of the dearth of quality Malaysian children's lit. She ventured into publishing to address this dearth and, to date, her company, Oyez!Books, has published over a dozen titles by Malaysian and expat writers and illustrators.

Lingard decided to start the Malaysian chapter of the SCBWI because she felt that Malaysian authors and illustrators need support and would benefit the most from being part of an international and well-established organisation.

It is hoped that the SCBWI Malaysia will provide Malaysian children's book writers and illustrators with professional advice and information, as well as a platform for networking. The society hopes to hold regular conferences and organise talks and workshops for its members. The conference last week featured an exhibition of illustrations from Malaysian picture books; a talk by artist, illustrator and writer Yusof Gajah (on becoming a children's book writer and illustrator); and two panel discussions.

I moderated one of the discussions (about the importance of creating Malaysian children's literature for Malaysian children), while the other (on the use of illustrations in Malaysian children’s literature) was moderated by picture book illustrator Sarah Joan Mohktar. Panelists included graphic novelist Chin Yew; Linda Tan Lingard, providing the publisher's perspective; and Sireh Anuar, cartoonist and lecturer at University Multimedia.

The illustrations shown at the exhibition showed that Malaysia boasts illustrators of great promise. Artwork on display included award-winning pieces from [right] Yusof Gajah's Gajah Sejati (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka); Steven She's minimalist line drawings from Kindness from a Great Ape (Future Ace Publications), Emila Yusof's beautiful watercolours from Sedna the Eskimo Girl, a story in the Oyez!Books's collection Wonderful Folktales from Around the World; Chin Yew's acryllics from the graphic novel The Boy Who Loved Clouds [below left]; and Mie Mambo's comic art from his soon to be published Tapir series (Kaki Komik).

I am excited about the SCBWI as I think it's hightime we had a society that encourages, supports and nurtures those who wish to write and illustrate children's books, as well as all those involved in one way or other (directly and indirectly) in the production, promotion and distribution of Malaysian children's literature.To join the society please email lindalingard@yusofgajahlingard.com.