Who is Cheong Soo Pieng?

I've always been interested in art, so I was excited when I had the opportunity to research and write a book on pioneer artist Cheong Soo Pieng for the National Art Gallery, Singapore. At first I only knew Soo Pieng as the artist of the Salted Fish painting that is found on the back of our $50 bill. By the end of the project I knew much more!

This book was also interesting in that it was my first attempt at a graphic novel or rather "tovel" -- a textbook cum novel. I really liked how the illustrator Ann Gee was able to translate my suggestions into lively, colourful illustrations and appreciate the efforts of the book designers in playing with the design such that every page was interesting and a delight to the eyes! If you have the chance, check out the book. It is different from my other books but it has inspired me to do more biographies of Singapore personalities in the future.

Find out more about Soo Pieng at the Art Gallery website. This book is available at Select Books.

Samsui Girl: My first book

Samsui Girl was my first book published. It is about a cheeky 8 year old girl named Amber. She has the habit of putting her legs up on the chair, and her mother hates this. Amber's mother says that only Samsui women do this. To get her way, Amber decides to be a Samsui girl, but it is not as easy as she thinks! The inspiration for this book came from two sources. One was my own childhood habit of putting my leg up on the chair...when I ate, when I read, practically all the time! The other inspiration was the Samsui women of Singapore. These ladies came to Singapore in the early 1900s from Samsui in China. What was special about these female Chinese immigrants was that they did the man's job of working in a construction site. Many of the buildings (bridges, houses, blocks of flats) in Singapore today were built with Samsui labour. When I was very young, I remember seeing Samsui women dressed in their 'uniform' of a dark samfu and bright red headscarf. You ...

P1 & P2 Social Studies Readers

Last year I was happy to write 4 Social Studies Readers for use in Primary 1 and 2 classrooms. Classroom teaching is so different today compared to when I was in school. Children get to learn from big books with lively pictures and local content! For Primary 1 students, I wrote two stories: Siti's New Home and Don't Cross the Line! These two books feature a sister and brother team who have fun but sometimes get into trouble with each other. The first story Siti's New Home was inspired by Queenstown -- the neighbourhood I grew up when I was a child. For Primary 2 students, I wrote another two stories: New Girl in Town and We are Singapore. In the latter book, we meet a pair of twins -- Emma and Ethan. These characters were inspired by my own niece, Emma and nephew, Ethan. Like the character in We are Singapore , my niece Emma asks a lot of questions. Overall I enjoyed writing these stories and I hope students and teachers will enjoy reading them!

It was not surprising for me to read about a recent survey that found that less than 20% of Singaporean women had local female role models. Even without the survey, this was something we had known for a long time. It was also the reason for my first starting to write stories for children. I wanted Singapore children, especially girls, to have local ladies of inspiration to look up to. Being historically-minded, I thought to the past. Thus, my first book was inspired by the independent and strong Samsui Women. The inspiration for my second book, "Wayang Girl" is less obvious. While one can guess that the inspiration was the traditional Chinese opera known as "Wayang" in Singapore, there was actually a specific woman in mind. When I was working at the Singapore History Museum, I had the opportunity to meet Beijing opera singer, and Cultural Medallion winner Phan Wait Hong. Even though she was in her late 80s when I met her, she had a loud resounding voice and an energ...

Ho Lee-Ling

Search This Blog