One early morning in old Kuching, in 1884, a severe fire swept through Carpenter Street and China Street. Traders and townspeople worked tirelessly to splash buckets of water to put it out, to little avail. The fire was too fierce. One by one, the fire consumed the wooden shophouses. Despairing citizens were planning to blow up a house to produce a fire gap.
And then, something happened — a torrential downpour. It stopped the fire from further ravaging the town. There was relief, and then, there were whispers. The heavy rain was associated with the appearance of a little boy who wore a red dudou (bellyband), waving a black flag and calling the rain and the wind.
Have you heard of that story?
The myth of the red dudou boy is one of the many stories from our elders — stories that were only told orally and may disappear as time marches by — and the inspiration for Kuan Wee Ling’s first children picture book: The Mystery of the Little Red Dudou Boy (红肚兜男孩 Hong Du Dou Nan Hai).
Kuan, an avid collector of stories, aspires to preserve these rich oral narratives. As part of her effort to share these age-old stories, she has actively conducted various voluntary storytelling activities, storytelling workshops, and reading talks, starting way back in 2011. She especially loves picture books as the images carry a lot of details and expressions that help readers immerse themselves in the story. The Mystery of the Little Red Dudou Boy was the first East Malaysia Chinese picture book ever published.
Following the first book, Kuan decided to memorialise her Hakka heritage. Delving into her own childhood memories with her grandmother, the resourceful Chinese Language teacher wrote The Taste of Grandma’s Love (阿婆的味道 A Po De Wei Dao), a picture book about the delicate, bittersweet grandmother-grandchild relationship and lei cha, a Hakka traditional cuisine.
For this second picture book, Kuan collaborated with Nur’Ain binti Nasir, a fellow colleague from the faculty, to produce a Malay version titled Kasih Sayang Nenek.
Reading, to Kuan, is a gift, one far better than endless perusing of videos. Hence, she loves the idea that the picture books will help spark children’s motivation to read and inspire them to be imaginative. She also hopes that her books can help safeguard the cultural heritage in orally narrated stories.
“I appreciate my dialect so much and I love to share with people about the unique and interesting Hakka culture, cuisine, and nursery rhymes. It is through these kinds of sharing that we can understand one another more and stand united in diversity.”
Kuan is grateful for all the support that she received in her book-writing journey, especially to her teams of publisher and illustrator, including Mr Ang Tse Chwan from Illustrato Studio, who have always believed in her and helped make her ideas come into being.
Both books, The Mystery of the Little Red Dudou Boy and The Taste of Grandma’s Love, were listed recently in “The 100 Malaysia Children’s Picture Books to Read and Love.”
Kudos, Kuan! You never know, the little boy with the red dudou might want to be on television one day…