Literary Works By Lloyd Fernando

Lloyd Fernando's Published Works

Novels  

Fernando, Lloyd. Scorpion Orchid. Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann, 1976. Singapore: Times Books, 1992.  

Fernando, Lloyd. Green is the Colour. Singapore: Landmark Books, 1993. Kuala Lumpur: Silverfish Books, 2004.  

Play  

Fernando, Lloyd. “Scorpion Orchid, the Play.” Petals of Hibiscus: A Representative Anthology of Malaysian Literature in English. Ed. Mohammad A. Quayum et al. Kuala Lumpur: Pearson Education, 2003.  

Short Story  

Fernando, Lloyd. “Surja Singh.” The Merlion and the Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia. Ed. Mukherjee, Dipika, Kirpal Singh and Mohammad A. Quayum. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2002.  

Edited Anthologies  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. Malaysian Poetry in English. Kuala Lumpur: English Department, University of Malaya, 1966.  

Fernando, Lloyd. ed. Twenty-Two Malaysian Stories: An Anthology of Writing in English. Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), 1968. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Maya Press, 2005.  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. New Drama One. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1972.  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. New Drama Two. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1972.  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. Malaysian Short Stories. Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia),1981. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Maya Press, 2005.  

Literary Criticism  

Fernando, Lloyd. “New Women” in Late Victorian Fiction. University Park, PA:Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.  

Fernando, Lloyd. Cultures in Conflict. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1986. 

SOURCES : 

http://myais.fsktm.um.edu.my/4582/  

Fernando, Lloyd. Green is The Colour.Kuala Lumpur: Silverfish Books,2004.Print.

Bottom of Form

Bottom of Form

Summary of Scorpion Orchid by Lloyd Fernando

The days of laughter ,of sharing ,of blunt comradeship-had they ever been? They been ,they had,Tok Said,he cried.We loved each other like brothers....
     Like children..
     No,it's not true.We believed.'

       Sabran,Santi,Guan Kheng and Peter - four young men united by the bonds of friendship,brought together in the uniquely multicultural society of Singapore.About graduate from university ,they are caught in political upheaveals of the 1950.These are uncertain times:still recovering from the Japanese Occupation,Singapore is now ready to fight for Independence from the British.
      As they watch their countrymen confront each other,tearing the country apart ,they face up to reality of their multicultural society .Against a backdrop of violence and hatred ,each embarks on an arduous journey of self discovery ,to reconcile deep -seated cultures and traditions with a new emerging sociery.In their quest for their true selves ,the bonds of their young manhood are sorely tired.
     Written in a dynamic and evocative style,Scorpion Orchid takes us back to those tumultuos days in early 50s when a nation was trying to assert its identity.

'Fernando's text energizes [Lord] Jim's story ,providing the "other words" that Jim lacked, and thereby paving the way for a more optimistic for intercultural contacts.' (-R.Kurtz in Conradiana)

Source : Fernando,Lloyd.Scorpion Orchid.Singapore,Kuala Lumpur ;Times BooksInternational,                                        1992.Print .
  

MORE TO ADD FOR ''GREEN IS THE COLOUR" by LLOYD FERNANDO

Llyod Fernando’s second novel ,Green is The Colour ,completed almost two decades after his first novel,Scorpion Orchid In Green is the colour,fresh violence erupts in the racial riots in Malaysia (13 May 2013).Again, a set of multi-racial characters is used to develop the novels ideas.Yun Ming ,the Chinese who hasn’t been absorbed into the system as the government official is beginning to question the dominant discourse ,in particular ,ideas on unity which the authorities ate touting .Dahlan ,once his university mate and now a lawyer looks with contempt on Yun Ming’s afflication with the political powers.Dahlan himself tries to bait the conscience of the authorities by speaking out on the need for religious tolerance after the members of Chinese religious sect and their leader,Ti Shuang being arrested not because of any crime they commited but because they appear to authorities to be a threat to public security .Omar the second important Malay character ,fed up with what she deems the decandence of Western ways which have tarnished the race, seeks return to spiritual protection of fundamentalist Islam. Important as these male characters are it seem to me that Fernando gives prominence to the woman character, Siti Sara.A large portion of the last segment of the novel is told in her first person narrative or seen through her concsiousness.

When the novel opens,the violence engendered by the riots has not ceased .Roadblocks necessitate detours tension is so high that is does not take much to ignite fresh eruptions. The country itself appears to have been divided into zones even as its multi-racial populace huddle into safe spaces.Against such a scenario,we are not surprised that some of the main characters (Siti Sara,Dahlan) undergo the horrors of rape,incarceration and torture.But over above this physical violence,is the more insidious violence that is done to men’s minds and their powers of clear and sincere expression. Language has been debased into counterfeit coinage in order to mask lies or purvey-half truths.as dahlan see it “I have lived all my life by words.I have seen make them do anything they wanted. That the evil I have fought.

No real connection between people can be possible when there is so much muddle and so little willingness to be clear.Fernando skillfully evokes an atmosphere of fear and suspicion in which many prefer to be listeners rather than risk voicing deeply –felt truths .These self-imposed silences are volubly filled by other voices such as that Wan Nuruddin,the secretary General in the Department of Unity,discoursing confidently on Confusion ethics and loyalty to the government.In the post May 13^th ambience ,an artificial togetherness has been created to prevent more painful soul searching .Siti Sara admits that’s she develops and clung to the use of plural personal pronoun because it stirred feeling and love for her fellow citizens whether Malay,Chinese,Indian or Eurasian.In fact “ she had embraced a specious feeling  of togetherness with people in the abstract to cloak her unease,to disguise her semi-instinctive need not to know.”Like Yun Ming,she begins to see that official rhetoric merely covers  the facts that racial lines are clearly drawn so as to reinforce a sense of them” and “us”.in this context ,the shadowy figure of another women,Neemlambigai alias Fatimah binti Abdullah whose body neither her relatives nor the Religiuous Department would claim,haunts the reader as a sad reminder of intolerance and bigotry on all sides.Her family considers her an outsider because of her traversing of religious and racial barriers and the Religious Department will not accept her as being of the faith since there is no proof of conversion.Dahlan himself  discovers that it is not so easy to simply say, “ I don’t care for you beliefs,I will bury her.

The individual in such a society is constantly under surveillance .Nearly all the main characters have a sense of being watched. The leitmotif of eyes is skullfully manipulated  to reinforce an Orwellian sense that one’s every move known ,noted and filled away for future reference .Panglima,Political Secretary to the Minister Of Home Affairs ,whose basilisk stare unsettle even it mesmeries has files on everyone.Such an atmosphere breeds paranoia ,even madness.The more sensitive members of the society against the tension and strain having to choose one’s words before speaking.Dahlan we learn,had already had a nervous breakdown while still an undergraduate.Siti Sara,the returnee from American university ,who now lectures in a local institution  ,feels as if she is under the close scrutiny of collegues, students and even her own husband ,Omar who wants her to quit job,follow him to Tok Guru Bahauddin’s community in Jerangau. That her internal turmoil threatens to spill over is conveyed I various intances.looking at the flowers in the compound of her kampong to which she has returned to seek some respite she feels as if the hibiscus exploded in her field of vision …..One flower glowed so intensely bright that is seemed aflame and she gazed at it thunderstruck .She stood before a molten furnace door..It was inexpressibly wonderful to the point of being terrifying and steered away from the disquieting splendor,fearing madness.”

The novel‘s many scenes of violent sexual encounters.For example,between Yun Ming and Sara, and Sara and her husband show the desperate coming together of people  whose inner lives are intensely disturbed .Yun Ming violent possession of Sara is like an urgent effort to transcend loneliness and the consciousness that one has been pawn in the political games of the powers that be. Omar takes Siti Sara with unseeing eyes in narcissistic frenzy. A refusal to see other points of view propells him towards the confined space of Tok Guru Bahauddin ‘s domain where one can be away from the tarnishing contact with Western.

Source :

 Fernando,Lloyd.Green Is The Colour .Kuala Lumpur ; Silverfish Book , 2004.Print

SUMMARY OF GREEN IS THE COLOR (LLYOD FERNANDO)

                                                                           

       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.)

      Like the others, Sara is struggling to make sense of events :Nobody could get may sixty-nine right, she thought. It was hopeless to pretend you could be objective about it. speaking even to someone close to you, you were careful for fear the person might unwittingly quote you to others. if a third person was present, it was worse, you spoke for the other person's benefit. If he was Malay you spoke one way, Chinese another, Indian another. even if he wasn't listening. in the end the spun tissue, like an unsightly scab, became your vision of what happened; the wound beneath continued to run pus.

     Although the novel is narrated from a third person viewpoint, it is curious that just one chapter is narrated by Sara's father, one of the minor characters, an elderly village imam and a man of great compassion and insight. This shift in narration works so well that I'm surprised Fernando did not make wider use of it.The novel has villain, of course, the unsavoury Pangalima, a senior officer in the Department of Unity and a man of uncertain racial lineage (he looks Malay, has adopted Malay culture, so of course, that's enough to make him kosher!). He has coveted Sara for years, and is determined to win her sexual favours at any cost.

The novel is not without significant weaknesses. It isn't exactly a rollicking read, and seems rather stilted - not least because there are just too many talking heads with much of the action taking place "offstage", including the rape at the end, which is really the climax of the whole novel.

     If we're interested in Yun Ming, Dahlan and Omar it is because of the contradictory ideas they espouse, but in each case their arguments could have been explored in greater depth and the characters themselves have been more fully fleshed.

      The plot of Green is the Colour never really holds together as well as it might but seems to be perpetually rushing off in new directions (as actually do the characters!) without fully exploring what is set up already. (I was particularly disappointed that we don't get to spend more time with Omar in the commune.)

But the strengths of the novel more than makes up for these lapses.

There's been a lot of talk about local authors not being brave enough to write about the great mustn't-be-talked-abouts of race, religion and politics in Malaysian society. Here's one author who was brave enough to do just that. (And look, hey, the sky didn't cave in!)

      Here's an author too who was able to think himself into the skin of people of different races - how many since have been able, or prepared, to make that imaginative leap?Here too is an author who is able to convincingly evoke the landscape of Malaysia both urban and rural in carefully chosen details.

Above all, though, one feels that here is an author who says what needed to be said. Heck, what still needs to be said!Here, he's using Dahlan as his mouthpiece, but the sentiments are clearly the author's own :

All of us must make amends. Each and every one of us has to make an individual effort. Words are not enough. We must show by individual actions that we will not tolerate bigotry and race hatred.

source : http://mliegreenisthecolor.blogspot.com

Get To Know More About Lloyd Fernando

                                          LLOYD FERNANDO BIOGRAPHY

                                                                     

Lloyd Fernando is a MALAYSIAN but he was born in Sri Lanka in 1926, and in 1938, at the age of twelve, he migrated to Singapore with his family. This early migration across the Indian Ocean had an enriching influence on Fernando, the writer and scholar, as it was to plant the seeds of a transcultural, diasporic imagination in him at an impressionable age. Life was moving along at a steady pace, and Fernando continued his schooling at St Patrick’s, but the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1943 to 1945 dealt a severe blow, interrupting his formal schooling and, most tragically, costing his father’s life in one of the Japanese bombing raids. Following his father’s death, Fernando started working as a trishaw rider, construction labourer and apprentice mechanic, to support himself and the family. He also joined the Ceylon branch of the Indian National Army, not impelled by any ideology but out of a sheer necessity for self-sustenance.

After the war, Fernando completed his Cambridge School Certificate and embarked on a school teaching career. In 1955, he entered the University of Singapore, graduating in 1959 with double Honours in English and Philosophy. In 1960, he joined the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur as an assistant lecturer, and returned to the same post four years later, having obtaining a Ph.D. in English from the University of Leeds, England. In 1967, he was elevated to Professor and Head of English at the University of Malaya, posts he held until 1979. People retire at Malaysia at 55, and so when it was time for him to retire, Lloyd didn’t want to have to continue on a yearly contract, and not be certain of anything. He decided to take up law. He went to England and studied law at City University and then at Middle Temple, coming back with his law degrees. He joined a firm, and eventually started his own practice here, which he continued right up to the time he had a stroke, which was in December 1997.

 Source : http://mliegreenisthecolor.blogspot.com/2009/04/lloyd-fernando-biography.html

Lloyd Fernando’s from Other Writer’s Perpective

Sunday March 2, 2008

A scholar and a gentleman

BY KEE THUAN CHYE

   

A friend remembers a great teacher, author, editor, and the first person in the country to promote the idea that local writers could produce worthy Malaysian English language works.

LLOYD Fernando was truly a scholar and a gentleman. He was a man of grace and polish who invariably spoke well of others. He loved literature and imparted his knowledge of it to his students with such passion that it made an indelible impact on their lives.

Above all, Lloyd was a fighter. Belying his urbane and gentle demeanour was a tough and tenacious spirit. He would not buckle under a discriminatory system when he was Head of English at Universiti Malaya. He fought his cases when he subsequently became a lawyer. He fought against the official practice of categorising Malaysian literature as “national” (for Malay writing) and “sectional” or “communal” (for writing in other languages). He fought for life when he suffered a severe stroke in 1997 and survived.

 On Thursday, he eventually succumbed to atrial fibrillation. He died in the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre three months short of turning 82.

Lloyd’s inner strength was honed from an early age. In 1938, when he was 12, his family migrated from Sri Lanka to Singapore. His formal education there was disrupted when war broke out and his father died in a bombing raid.

Faced with having to fend for his mother and siblings, the teenaged Lloyd had to take on a series of menial jobs. He was a trishaw rider, construction labourer, apprentice mechanic. He even signed up for the Ceylon branch of the Indian National Army.

After the war, Lloyd was determined to continue with his studies. He passed his Cambridge School Certificate but had to be a schoolteacher for some years before he could enter university at the age of 29.

He graduated with double honours in English and Philosophy and moved to Kuala Lumpur to be an assistant lecturer in Universiti Malaya. After obtaining his PhD from Leeds University in Britain, he was made professor in 1967.

I knew Lloyd best as a fellow writer. When I first met him in the late 1970s, it was with great respect for the work he had done – and was still doing – in promoting Malaysian English-language writing.

He was really the only person at the time visibly promoting new writing in English. He edited the landmark anthology 22 Malaysian Stories (1962) that gave recognition to fiction writers, the most outstanding of whom was Lee Kok Liang. Deservedly, that volume has seen numerous reprints and been adopted as a text in literature classes. It was even reissued more than 40 years later, in 2005.

Lloyd also brought attention to Malaysian playwrights. He edited New Drama One and New Drama Two (both published in 1972), which presented the works of Lee Joo For, Edward Dorall, Syed Alwi, and others. Without these two volumes, some of the plays of our pioneering playwrights might have now been lost.

I got to know Lloyd more intimately through participating in literary events and discourses with him. He was the embodiment of moderation. Even when he spoke with passion about an issue, his voice seldom crescendoed to a bellow. He often spoke about his vision of a multicultural Malaysia transcending race and religion. That was something we had in common, together with our concern for racial integration and equality.

He dealt with these themes in his novels, Scorpion Orchid (1976) and Green Is the Colour (1993). Some have criticised his style as being too academic in its detachment, but the message shines through nonetheless.

I regard the novels as two of the most important works of Malaysian fiction in any language. They came from a writer who loved his country enough to advocate eschewing narrow tribal concerns in favour of humanism and harmony.

Lloyd once told me that one of the challenges he encountered in his writing was his constant attempt to find ways of expressing himself in English without sounding “English English”. He avoided stock epithets and turns of phrase. He strove for Malaysian inflection. Those who mistook him for a patrician professor of English – no doubt reinforced at one time by his pipe-smoking penchant – never saw the colloquial Malaysian side of Lloyd.

As a family man, Lloyd seemed to have it together too, so I once sought his advice on bringing up children. “What should we do,” I asked, “to make our children understand what’s right?”

“You just have to keep talking to them and talking to them,” he said. “There’s no other way.”

I have been privy to moments he shared with his family. They seemed like friends to one another. His daughters, Eva and Sunetra, were on a first-name basis with him. Like their mother, Marie, they affectionately addressed him as “Lloydy”.

I also admired Lloyd for his discipline. When we were in Australia at a literary conference in 1995, we would get together in the evening to savour the local delight: wine. Lloyd loved wine as much as I do, but he would never go beyond his limit of two glasses while I would guzzle like there was no tomorrow – and suffer the fallout the next day.

But no, it was not just that. Lloyd’s discipline extended, even more admirably, to non-hedonistic pursuits. Coming from a background totally devoid of Malay, he taught himself that language late in life and achieved a fluency that allowed him to discourse on literature at national conferences and among Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka stalwarts.

In his 50s, when he might have been expected to put his feet up on the desk, he opted out of academia to study Law, and subsequently set up his own practice.

Then the blow came in 1997. I don’t think I’m a softie but when I visited him in the ICU ward and saw this once spirited person on the narrow bed, unable to speak, with a tube up his nose, I broke down.

It seemed that a blood clot had encroached on 70% of his brain, and the diagnosis was dire. But Lloyd’s will, as always, was strong. He pulled through the critical stage and was soon discharged.

I looked him up at his home after that and found he had, remarkably, regained much of his ability to speak although the left side of his body was paralysed. He said he was undergoing physiotherapy and vowed he would be back to driving in due course. I said, “Let me know when you do. I’ll come along for the ride.”

He never got that far. There were some things his will could not overcome. His condition deteriorated over the years but he carried on, lovingly attended to mostly by Marie and Sunetra, who also spared no effort in ensuring that he still enjoyed the cultural life by taking him, wheelchair-bound, to movies, concerts and other events.

On hearing about his passing, I e-mailed the sad news to eminent writer Shirley Lim Geok Lin who was once his student at UM. She replied:

“If Malaysia had more like him, our history would have been very different, and as a people and a nation we would be in a much better position.”

I couldn’t agree more. Lloyd epitomised a generation that had a firm idea of what is right. Sadly, there is now one less gentleman among them.

Source :

http://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/?file=%2f2008%2f3%2f2%2flifebookshelf%2f20500565&sec=lifebookshelf

LEE KOK LIANG (RETURN TO MALAYA)

Reading material from : http://www.unz.org/Pub/Encounter-1954aug-00003?View=PDF

Another Personality That We Should Know ( Mohammad A. Quayum)

Mohammad A. Quayum is Professor of English at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law at Flinders University, Australia. He was a Visiting Professor of English and Asian Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University) in 2003-04. His previous affiliations include University Putra Malaysia (1996-2003), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (1993-96), University of Dhaka, Bangladesh (1992-93) and University of Chittagong, Bangladesh (1979-88). 

Quayum obtained his MA in English Literature (with First Class and Distinction) from Lakehead University, Canada, in 1984 and his PhD from Flinders University (South Australia), in 1991. He is the author, editor or translator of twenty five books in the areas of American literature, Asian Literature and Postcolonial literatures, including The Essential Rokeya: Selected Works of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) (Leiden, Brill, 2013), Rabindranath Tagore: Selected Short Stories (New Delhi, Macmillan, 2011), The Poet and His World: Critical Essays on Rabindranath Tagore (New Delhi, Orient Longman, 2011), Imagined Communities Revisited: Critical Essays on Asia-Pacific Literatures and Cultures (Kuala Lumpur, IIUM Press, 2011), A Rainbow Feast: New Asian Short Stories (Singapore, Marshall Cavendish, 2010), Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature (Singapore National Library Board, in partnership with the Singapore Arts Council, 2009), One Sky, Many Horizons: Studies in Malaysian Literature in English (Kuala Lumpur, Marshall Cavendish, 2007), Peninsular Muse: Interviews with Modern Malaysian and Singaporean Poets, Novelists and Dramatists (Oxford, Peter Lang, 2007), Saul Bellow and American Transcendentalism (New York, Peter Lang, 2004), The Merlion and the Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia (New Delhi, Penguin, 2002), Colonial to Global: Malaysian Women’s Writing in English 1940s – 1990s (Kuala Lumpur, IIUM Press, 2001, 2003), Singaporean Literature in English: A Critical Reader (Kuala Lumpur, University Putra Malaysia Press, 2002), Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Reader (Pearson Malaysia, 2001), Saul Bellow: The Man and His Work (New Delhi: B.R. Publishing, 2000), and In Blue Silk Girdle: Stories from Malaysia and Singapore (Kuala Lumpur, University Putra Malaysia Press, 1998). 

Quayum is also the author of fifty-odd articles in distinguished peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, World Literature Written in English and Wasafiri in the United Kingdom; Kunapipi, New Literatures Review, CRNLE Journal, Quodlibet: The Australian Journal of Trans-national Writing and Transnational Literature in Australia; Crossroads: Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, South Asian Review, Journal of South Asian Literature, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, MELUS, Saul Bellow Journal, Studies in American Jewish Literature, Notes on Contemporary Literature and American Studies International in the US; Postcolonial Text in Canada; New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies in New Zealand; English Studies in Africa in South Africa; Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities in Taiwan; Indian Journal of American Studies, Literature and Criticism, The Aligarh Critical Miscellany, The Visvabharati Quarterly and CIEFL Bulletin in India.

Quayum’s books have been reviewed in American Studies International (USA), Ariel (Canada), Asiatic (Malaysia), Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), Diliman Humanities (Philippines), Journal of Commonwealth Literature (UK), Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies (USA/India), Journal of Postcolonial Writing (UK), Kajian Malaysia: Journal of Malaysian Studies (Malaysia), Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, RELC Journal (Singapore), RIMA (Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Association, Australia), South Asian Review (USA), Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities (Taiwan), Transnational Literature (Australia), World Literature Written in English (UK), and in many newspapers in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Quayum was a recipient of the USIS Regionalisation Fellowship in 1995; Flinders University Visiting Fellowship in 1996; IRPA Research Grant from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia in 2000 and 2002; Visiting Professorship at Flinders University in 2009, and Senior Research Fellowship at the Singapore Management University in 2009 and 2010. He received Teaching Excellence Award at University Putra Malaysia in 1997 and 1998, and Quality Research Award at International Islamic University Malaysia in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (at the Faculty Level; three years consecutively). He was co-editor of the prestigious literary journal World Literature Written in English for eight years (1992-2000; published by the Oxford University Press, Singapore), and is the Founding Editor of Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature (indexed in Elsevier’s Scopus). He is on the advisory board of four leading journals in his field: Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Routledge, UK), Transnational Literature (Australia), Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies (USA) and Diliman Humanities (the Philippines). His research interests range from 19th and 20th century American literature to contemporary Asian literature, with special focus on Indian literature, Bengali literature and Malaysian-Singaporean literature.

Quayum is a Bangladeshi citizen and an Australian Permanent Resident. He was born on June 30, 1954. He lives in Gombak, Kuala Lumpur with his wife, Natasha and daughter, Sasha.

Books

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. and trans., The Essential Rokeya: Selected Works of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932). Leiden, New York: Brill, 2013. (240 pages; ISBN 13: 9789004255852)

http://www.brill.com/essential-rokeya

Mohammad A. Quayum, trans and introduced. Rabindranath Tagore: Selected Short Stories. New Delhi: Macmillan, 2011) (216 pages; ISBN 023-033-277-3)

http://www.macmillanindia.com/book-details.asp?bookid=4010&from=gr&broadid=44&detailedid=78

 

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. The Poet and His World: Critical Essays on Rabindranath Tagore. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2011 (316 pages; 978-81-250-4319-5)

http://www.orientblackswan.com/display.asp?categoryID=19&isbn=978-81-250-4319-5&detail=2

Nor Faridah A. Manaf and Mohammad A. Quayum, eds. Imagined Communities Revisited: Critical Essays on Asia-Pacific Literatures and Cultures. Kuala Lumpur: IIUM Press, 2011 (246pages; ISBN 978-967-418-215-1; with a Foreword by Benedict Anderson)

http://rms.research.iium.edu.my/bookstore/Products/485-wwwgooglecom.aspx

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. A Rainbow Feast: New Asian Short Stories. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2010 (330pages; ISBN 13: 978-981-4302-71-5)

http://www.marshallcavendish.com/marshallcavendish/genref/A-Rainbow-Feast-B24174_Singapore.aspx

Mohammad A. Quayum and Wong Phui Nam, eds. Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature. Singapore: National Library Board, in partnership with Singapore Arts Council, 2009. (267 pages; ISBN 978-981-08-3910-9) http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=239

Mohammad A. Quayum and Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf, eds. Writing a Nation: Essays on Malaysian Literature. Kuala Lumpur: IIUM Press, 2008. (305 pages; ISBN 978-983-3855-94-0)

http://rms.research.iium.edu.my/bookstore/Products/223-wwwgooglecom.aspx

Mohammad A. Quayum. One Sky, Many Horizons: Studies in Malaysian Literature in English. Kuala Lumpur: Marshall Cavendish, 2007. (345 pages; ISBN 978 9833-845-41-4)

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4230502

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. Peninsular Muse: Interviews with Modern Malaysian and Singaporean Poets, Novelists and Dramatists. Oxford, Bern: Peter Lang, 2007. (305 pages; ISBN 978-3-03911-061-2)

http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.cst.ebooks.datasheet&id=13651

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. Chuah Guat Eng: The Old House and Other Stories. Kuala Lumpur: Holograms, 2007. (160 pages; ISBN 987-983-43778-0-9)

Mohammad A. Quayum. Saul Bellow and American Transcendentalism. New York: Peter Lang, 2004. (288 pages; ISBN 0-8204-3652-6)

http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=44247&cid=690

Mohammad A. Quayum et al, eds. Petals of Hibiscus: A Representative Anthology of Malaysian Literature in English. Kuala Lumpur: Pearson Education, 2003. (Chief Editor; 345 pages; ISBN 983-74-3045-1)

Dina Zaman and Mohammad A. Quayum, eds. Silverfish New Writing 3. Kuala Lumpur: Silverfish Books (in association with the Australian High Commission, KL), 2003. (208 pages; ISBN 983-40816-5-0)

Rosli Talif and Mohammad A. Quayum, eds. Diverse Voices 2. Malaysia: University Putra Malaysia Press, 2003. (337 pages)

Dipika Mukherjee, Kirpal Singh and Mohammad A. Quayum, eds. The Merlion and the Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia. Penguin Books, 2002. (240 pages; ISBN 0-14-302812-X)

Mohammad A. Quayum and Peter Wicks, eds. Singaporean Literature in English: A Critical Reader. Malaysia: University Putra Malaysia Press, 2002. (447 pages; ISBN 983-2373-50-6)

Mohammad A. Quayum and Peter Wicks, eds. Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Reader. Kuala Lumpur: Pearson Education, 2001. (338 pages; ISBN 983-74-1956-3)

Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf and Mohammad A. Quayum. Colonial to Global: Malaysian Women’s Writing in English 1940s – 1990s. Malaysia: IIUM Press, 2001. (486 pages; ISBN 983-9727-38-9; Reprinted in 2003)

http://rms.research.iium.edu.my/bookstore/Products/247-wwwgooglecom.aspx

Chan Swee Heng, Mohammad A. Quayum and Rosli Talif, eds. Diverse Voices: Readings in Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Malaysia: University Putra Malaysia Press, 2000. (248 pages; ISBN 983-9319-84-1)

Mohammad A. Quayum and Sukhbir Singh, eds. Saul Bellow: The Man and His Work. India: B.R. Publishing, 2000. (594 pages; ISBN 81-7646-167-9)

      

Mohammad A. Quayum and Rosli Talif. Dictionary of Literary Terms. Revised Edition. Kuala Lumpur: Prentice‑Hall, 2000. (343 pages; ISBN 983-9236-51-2)

Mohammad A. Quayum and Rosli Talif. Dictionary of Literary Terms. Kuala Lumpur: Prentice‑Hall, 1999. (265 pages; ISBN 983-9236-41-5)

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. In Blue Silk Girdle: Stories from Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia: University Putra Malaysia Press, 1998. (224 pages; ISBN 983-9319-45-0)

http://www.silverfishbooks.com/buybooks/index.php?main_page=product_book_info&products_id=941

Mohammad A. Quayum and Rosli Talif. A Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Malaysia: University Putra Malaysia Press, 1997. (82 pages; ISBN 983-9319-17-5)

Source : http.profquayum.blogspot

EXPLORING ABOUT ADIBAH AMIN

Adibah Amin still a ‘cikgu’ to students

BY NURBAITI HAMDAN 
Saturday July 24, 2010

NURBAITI@THESTAR.COM.MY

PETALING JAYA: She may have left the classroom years ago, but the “cikgu” in Adibah Amin continues to reach out to students all over the country through her books on Bahasa Malaysia for public examinations.
Her commitment to those she taught was such that she would fret over the students who were less proficient and give them extra classes to ensure they did sufficiently well in their exams.And now, this 74-year-old novelist and award winning journalist plans to take on a new “project”.
When asked what subject would she write about once she regains the full strength of her right hand – she suffered from a stroke three years ago – she said: “Racism, because it is still (out) there.”

                    Adibah at her sister's home in Damansara Jaya on Friday

“It’s very bad,” added the soft-spoken Adibah in an interview at her sister’s home here shortly after she was given a cheque for RM50,000 from the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti) on Tuesday for her medical treatment.
Adibah, whose real name is Khalidah Adibah Amin, used to teach at secondary schools and language institutions.“I was a teacher when I met a journalist and thought I could try my hand in journalism.
“My mentor was A. Samad Ismail, who gave me the greatest advice that I still hold on to this day and that is to treat children like adults,” she said.On her recovery from stroke, Adibah said she derived strength from her faith to overcome her condition and the support of her sister, Fadzilah, 71.
And she continues to indulge in one of her favourite activities – tackling crossword puzzles – as well as keep in touch with friends.“Some friends do call to chat or find out how I’m keeping; some would come over for a visit,” said Adibah, who is recovering well and is able to walk slowly.It may be a while before the talented actress and “pretty good singer” (quipped Fadzilah) is able to dance to the tunes of her favourite singers Eartha Kitt and Frank Sinatra, but anyone who knows Adibah knows that she will not sit still for long.

 SOURCE : http://www.thestar.com.my

Drama Series of No Dram of Mercy

Elaine gets personal in role of grand-aunt Sybil Kathigasu

Dec 10, 2009

IPOH: Former Miss Malaysia-Universe Elaine Daly gets personal when playing World War Two heroine Sybil Kathigasu in a drama series because she is retracing the bravery of a loved one.

“The producer had no prior knowledge that Sybil is my grand-aunt.

“It is a real honour and a rarity for me to play the role of a nation’s heroine,” she said in an interview while taking a break during filming in Papan.

When she was a child, Elaine’s father used to tell her that Sybil was a tough woman who opposed the Japanese invaders and helped the resistance fighters during the war.

Portrayal of a heroine: Elaine playing the part of Sybil in a scene from the drama series that is being filmed in Papan.

“My dad said my grand-aunt was tortured by the Japanese.

“I later learnt more about Sybil when I read her book No Dram of Mercy,” she added.

To be able to film the eight-part series for Astro Suatu Ketika series on the actual site where Sybil had once lived was also a huge deal for Elaine.

“It makes the acting more real when done in the original site rather than in a make-believe location,” she said.

Sybil was the wife of Ipoh DR. Abdon Clement Kathigasu. Both of them were repeatedly tortured by the Kempetai.

She was also made to witness the brutality of her husband being beaten and later, the horror of seeing her six-year-old daughter Dawn being strung upside down from a tree.

For her courage and sacrifices, Sybil was awarded the George Medal, the highest British civilian award for bravery by King George VI

She died in 1948 from acute septicaemia due to a jaw fractured by the kick of a Japanese boot.

The role of Dr Kathigasu is played by Paraneetharan Damodaran, a project manager of a Telco Company In Kuala Lumpur.

Paraneetharan said it was his first screen role and it was tough.

He had not heard of Sybil as a student as she did not appear in the history books he had read.

“Her story should be in our history books. Only then would people become more aware of how our nation was built,” he said.

Playing Dawn in the series is eight-year-old Venus Beals while Sharon Alaina Stephen, a final year student from Segi College, plays her elder sister Olga.

The series, directed by Bernard Chauly, is expected to be shown on Astro Citra next month.

Source :www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp

Sybil's Clinic as the Perak Heritage at Papan

The Kinta Valley, Perak State, Malaysia

Sybil Kathigasu's Clinic: 74 Main Road, Old Papan

 

Photos by Julie

Photos by Adrian

In the history of the Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, Sybil Kathigasu stands out as a heroine of the Malayan resistance.

Sybil Daly, an Eurasian, was born in Medan. A devout Catholic and a vegetarian, she spoke fluent Cantonese. As a non-Chinese midwife, she had some freedom of movement to visit her patients living in the outlying areas. A group of mainly English speakers, both in Papan and further afield, gravitated towards Sybil for she had access to overseas news via a hidden short-wave radio, codenamed 'Josephine'. ...

It was Thean Fook who approached Sybil and asked her to provide treatment and medical supplies to the MPAJA (Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army) guerrillas. Sybil, who had long anticipated a role in the resistance, realised that 'the time has come.' She nicknamed her new assistant 'Moru' due to his fondness for Indian sour milk. - Kinta Valley, Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development.
The Japanese Occupation of Malaya lasted from December 1941 to August 1945. Sybil helped hundreds of people before she was arrested, detained and interrogated by the Japanese secret police for two years. In order to extract information, they tortured Sybil and dangled her daughter from a tree over a fire. With her iron will Sybil defied her tormentors.

Three weeks after the Japanese surrender, Sybil was released. For her courage and loyalty, she was summoned to Buckingham Palace to receive the George Medal. Though treated for her injuries in a London hospital, she succumbed on 12 June 1948

Published posthumously in 1954, Sybil's book No Dram of Mercy is one of the great books of the Malayan war years. Fifty years later, her protégé Ho Thean Fook, alias Moru, wrote two books on Papan -- Tainted Glory and God of the Earth -- before passing away in August 2004.

The approach to Papan is strangely scenic -- giant rain trees growing along a winding stream, limpid mining ponds, a hill slope dotted with Chinese graves, a Kuan Yin Temple, then suddenly in the middle of nowhere, a brick and mortar streetscape.

A nineteenth century mining town petrified in time. Two seemingly desolate rows of shophouses, some barely standing, along a street simply called 'Main Road'. The remains of a boomtown that once stood in the midst of tin-fields as far as the eye could see. Remarkably, Papan begins to show signs of life towards sunset, when children come out to play and residents get home from work. Old friends hang out and chatter in the town's only two coffee-shops.

Just off the Main Road is the house of Raja Bilah (died 1911), the headman of Papan. The Sumatran nobleman's remarkable career as miner-trader-adventurer and leader of his people has inspired a book Raja Bilah and the Mandailings of Perak: 1875-1911 described by an American historian as 'the most exciting book on Malaysian history' she has ever read. The great house was restored by the National Museum several years ago.

Papan town and Raja Bilah's house have been used as film set, most notably by Oscar-winning production designer Luciana Arrighi for the movie Anna and the King (1999). Luciana was fascinated with Papan -- a near ghost town on the edge of large mining lakes, set in a mysterious cul-de-sac, shrouded and surrounded by dark, forested hills.

The hills around Papan belong to the Hijau range. Once they were not so peaceful, but reverberated with the sound of gunfire. Sinuous jungle trails, now popular with nature-lovers, used to lead to guerrilla hide-outs. They were first used by hill rat miners, then by the Papan armed resistance and finally by Communist insurgents during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960).

Half a century after her death, Sybil's clinic at 74 Main Road was turned into a gallery interpreting the story of Papan town. This was done through the private effort of Law Siak Hong, currently President of the Perak Heritage Society. At the back of the house, one finds, unexpectedly, a bright and beckoning stone-and-bamboo garden.Sybil's last wish was to have her clinic in Papan serve the poor even after her death, but state medical services have filled the need. Instead, Hong's history gallery, obviously put up with much thought, performs other important functions.

It pays tribute to human integrity and courage in the face of adversity. It strengthens Papan's appeal as a place of history and memory. 
For visitors, 74 Main Road offers a quiet space to be touched by small town of old Malaya and, hopefully, to rethink its future.

To visit Sybil Kathigasu's clinic,
or for tours of Papan and Ipoh, contact:
Law Siak Hong
hp (+6) 017- 5061875
siakhongstudio@yahoo.com

 

 

Text © Khoo Salma Nasution

References:

---

Sybil Kathigasu, No Dram of Mercy with an introdcution by Sir Richard Winstedt, London: Neville Spearman. 1954.

Sybil Kathigasu, No Dram of Mercy, preface by Cheah Boon Kheng, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Sybil Kathigasu, No Dram of Merch, The Story of a Woman's Courage during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur: Promentheus Enterprise, 2006.

Faces of courage: incorporating No Dram of Mercy, The Papan Guerillas and Mrs K by Chin Peng and Exploring the Legend by Norma Miraflor & Ian Ward: a revealing historical appreciation of colonial Malaya's legendary Kathigasu family, Singapore: Media Masters, 2006.

Ho Thean Fook, God of the Earth, Ipoh: Perak Academy. December, 2000.

Ho Thean Fook, Tainted Glory, Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 2000.

Khoo Salma Nasution & Abdur-Razzaq Lubis, Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development, Perak Academy, 2005.

Abdur-Razzaq Lubis & Khoo Salma Nasution, Raja Bilah and the Mandailings of Perak (1875-1911), Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS), 2003.

Souces : http://www.lestariheritage.net/perak/webpages/papan01.html