LOGOS And another thing... Asian writing in English: Why it fails to reach a world market Leon Comber As a publisher's representative in Asia in the '50s and '60s, I often reflected that there were Asian writers whose work deserved to be published for audiences beyond their own countries. This gener­ ally involved translation into English. In those days, some British and other publishers with offices in Asia, such as Oxford University Press in Kuala Lumpur and Charles E Turtle in Tokyo, had already A graduate in Modern Chinese of built admirable lists in English translation. Times the School of Oriental and Books International and Federal Publications in African Studies in London, Leon Singapore and New Day in the Philippines were also beginning to publish Asian literature in Comber served as an officer in English. the Indian Army in World War II My concept, on behalf of Heinemann, in India, Burma and Malaya. He was to encourage creative writing in English from then entered publishing in the whole of Asia. The first book in the "Writing in Singapore in the 1950s, and from Asia Series" was Modern Malaysian Chinese Stories (1966), translated by Ly Singko, a newspaper 1960 to 1985 was Managing reporter and part-time lecturer in Chinese drama, Director of Heinemann with some help from myself. Educated at Beijing Publishers Asia Ltd, Hong Kong, University and the Sorbonne, he fell foul of the with responsibilities from Japan Singapore authorities and spent several years in Changi Jail before he was released and allowed to to Indonesia. Recently retired as migrate to Australia. He was accused of "greater Director and Publisher of the Chinese chauvinism", i e lauding the accomplish­ Hong Kong University Press, he ments of mainland China. With a foreword by Han is now attached to the Centre of Suyin, Modern Malaysian Chinese Stories was mod­ Southeast Asian Studies at estly successful and the royalties were very welcome Monash University, Australia. to Ly's wife and ten children while he was in jail. Good novels by Asian writers were hard to find. Running Dog, published after I moved to Hong Kong in the early 1960s, was our first try. Written in English by Lee Ding Fai, it was a rags-to- riches story of a young Chinese refugee and his adventures in capitalist Hong Kong. It didn't sell very well. Our first successful Hong Kong author was Austin Coates, son of Eric Coates, the British composer famous in the 1940s for such popular hits as "Sleepy Lagoon" and "Knightsbridge March". 170 LOGOS 2/3 © WHURR PUBUSHERS 1991 And another thing... Austin had been in the colonial service in Hong seen as the forerunner of the modern Indonesian Kong and Sarawak. His two books. Myself a novel. Mandarin and City of Broken Promises, became best­ Other notable poetry titles in the series sellers. Maria Merop, the main character in City of were Gods Can Die by Edwin Thumboo, now Broken Promises, was a real person. She was sold Professor of English at the National University of into prostitution in Macau at the age of thirteen Singapore; Myths from a Wilderness by Ee Thiang and became the mistress of Thomas Merop, an offi­ Hong, a distinguished Malaysian poet who became cer of the East India Company, who was the son of viitually a political refugee in Westein Australia; the founder of Lloyd's of London and a cousin of and Crossing the Peninsula by Shirley Lim, which Jeremy Bentham. From her humble beginnings in won the Commonwealth Prize for the best first vol­ Macau (the "city" of the title) she became an inter­ ume of poetry in 1980. national trader and the most powerful and wealthy woman on the south China coast. Every time I go :}; :^ ^ ^ ^ to Macau, 1 visit the Santa Casa da Miseracordia where her portrait hangs. The Heinemann presence in Asia came Among other books which I published in to an abrupt end around 1984 with the takeover of the "Writing in Asia Series" and which made a per­ Heinemann in London by a holding company sonal impact on me was Little Ironies: Stories of which knew little about publishing. At that time, Singapore (1978) by Catherine Lim, then a teacher the series had run for twenty yeais and included of English in Singapore. Her second collection. Or wtiteis fiom China, Hong Kong, Korea, the Else, the Lightning God and Other Stories, established Philippines, Indonesia, Boineo, Singapoie, her reputation as an objective observer of everyday Malaysia, Thailand, India and Sii Lanka. Many of life in Singapore. these books ate now collectois' items. Lee Kok Liang, a lawyer in Penang, who While vety little was gained in business had studied in Australia before reading for the Bar terms, nothing was lost. The "Writing in Asia'' list in London, contributed a Kafkaesque collection of was subsidized by school book publishing. Even the short stories and a novella under the title The Mutes most successful novel would seldom sell more than in the Sun. He followed this with a short novel. 6,000 copies ovet time. Shoit stoiy anthologies Flowers in the Sky, and he undoubtedly has in him a would sell up to 4,000 copies. But I have often won- large novel waiting to be written. deied why at least some of these books did not Anthologies of short stories from Malaysia catch on outside Asia. Does Asian wiiting over­ and South East Asia represented some of the fore­ emphasize sights and sounds which are alien to most writers in the region: Mochtar Lubis and Westein audiences? Or are the local publishers not Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesia); Usman trying hard enough to promote the books outside Awang, Keris Mas and Shahnon Ahmad the region? Is there a built-in arrogance in the West (Malaysia); Nick Joaqim and Frankie Jose (Philip­ towards Asian writers in English? pines); S Kon and Catherine Lim (Singapore); and The marketing aspect is crucial. Publish­ Pensri Kiengsira (Thailand). ers in Asia do not have the intemational marketing Our best translator from Bahasa Indonesia strengths of their British and American counter­ was Harry Aveling, an Australian whom 1 knew in parts. Asian branch offices of British and Ameiican Penang before his metamorphosis into "Swami companies cannot rely on the support of theii head Anand Harida" He later became plain Harry offices. The new owneis of Heinemann consideied Aveling again and subsequently was converted to Heinemann Asia's publishing to be peiipheial. Islam. His most memorable translation was The They even hesitated over publishing mainline text­ Fugitive by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, a book entirely books in Malay and Chinese, feeling that taken up with events of 16th and 17th August 1945 Heinemann should concentrate on publishing text­ when the Japanese occupation of Indonesia ended books in English. Asian languages were seen as and the struggle for independence began. Aveling foreign ("not like French and German, which also translated Iwan Simatupang's The Pilgrim, often everyone leamed at school in England"). 171 .