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HAVE A TALE TO TELL?
Sunday Star, StarMag, Aug 28, 2005
HOW will a book of Malaysian folktales benefit the country?
“First of all, it will help parents or grandparents who want something to refer to before they transmit a story or act it out. It will help schoolchildren to read and know that there are alternatives to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. And, very importantly, it is documentation. For me, that is very important,” says Raman Krishnan, Silverfish Books owner.
With that in mind, Raman has embarked on a project to collect local folktales. He welcomes contributions from Malaysians. Raman hopes to publish a book, or two (if response is really good), on local folktales for posterity.
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Raman Krishnan: 'What I'm trying to do is collect stories.' |
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“Basically, what I’m trying to do is collect stories. (To contributors, I would say), just tell them as you would. Don’t worry if your English is not perfect. We will rewrite it. These are folktales, not your literary work.
“You can write in Malay or English. If you want to, you can illustrate it. I can put illustrations in. As long as the meaning is there, we will rewrite it in a way that can be presented. We will acknowledge your contribution.
“I would like to see what type of stories Malay parents tell their children, what Chinese parents tell their children, and Indian parents – what type of stories all the ‘tribes’ in Malaysia tell their children,” he says.
Raman says he hopes to publish the stories in English and Bahasa Malaysia. Both versions could be in the same book, or in different books. He has not yet decided on the presentation.
As these are public domain stories, Raman says he will not be paying for them. After he receives the folktales, and chooses the best version of each, the stories will still need to be rewritten.
“This is not a literary venture. It is a cultural venture. It is just a recording of the stories of our culture for posterity,” explains Raman.
At the moment this is a purely Silverfish venture. The closing date was supposed to be in June, but Raman has now decided to extend this to Merdeka Day.
Copyright Star Publications (M) Bhd
Related stories:
Death of the Local Folktale?
Stories to Grow up With
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