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ASIAN FESTIVAL of CHILDREN’S (BOOK) CONTENT (AFCC)
May 6th – May 9th 2010 Singapore
I was having breakfast and leisurely checking my email early one drear dull morning, December 8th 2009 to be exact, and freezing cold, when a message popped up from wordpress.com asking me to approve a comment.
It turned out to be a message from Regina Kuan from the National Book Development Council (NBDCS) of Singapore inviting me to take part in the AFCC which was being organized by the NBDCS. I would be showcased in an interview together with Jessie Wee of Singapore as pioneers of children’s literature. I would be representing Malaysia.
I lost no time in replying YES!
The NBDCS, founded in 1969, then proceeded to introduce itself as “a non-profitable, charitable organization committed to addressing the needs of publishers, book suppliers, libraries as well as the reading and the literary communities”. More interestingly, its objective is “to develop Singapore into an international centre for writers and publishers of Asian content.”
As a lover of books, an avid reader, and a minor writer of children’s books myself “of Asian content”, and to be presented with the opportunity to rub shoulders with published and internationally recognized writers and media consultants, how could I refuse?
Distance was no problem. A mere one-hour drive from the sleepy East Frisian town of Leer, Germany where I live, to Groningen in the Netherlands. From there a two-and-half hour train ride to Amsterdam Schipohl and then twelve hours’ flight to Singapore. Peanuts!
What made it the more intriguing was that the Festival was all about children’s literature. Children’s literature, in my student days, was not an academic subject!
The theme of the Festival was “local content” and “multi-cultural content” in children’s literature, and introducing “Asian content” to the world.
Needless to say, though I felt at first like Eliza Doolittle or Cinderella at the ball, I enjoyed myself tremendously. The whole Festival, the first of its kind in Asia, was an eye-opener. I had lost touch with the academic world, and this felt like being back in university again, listening to lively discussions, sharing and exchanging ideas with fellow authors. It was exciting.
I am most grateful to Mr. Ramachandran, Regina Kuan and Jade Yong (both of whom are from Sarawak) and all at the NBDCS for giving me the chance to profile myself. The Singapore National Library bought copies of PAYAH, my Sarawak Rain Forest Adventure series, giving the children in the concrete world of Singapore a glimpse into the lives of children in a rain forest community that is also slowly but surely disappearing as Malaysia becomes “modernized”.
Friends I made at the AFCC in Singapore:
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