Archive for April, 2006

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus: A documentary that is "a spiritual journey (which) explores the "Soul of the South" and a world of marginalised white people and their unique and intense home-grown culture (BBC Four summary)

The landscape of Louisiana in this film is a desolate junkyard of swamps and trailer parks, truck stops on empty roads and burnt out cars left to rust. It’s the flip side of America that we do not usually see. Alt country musician Jim White is our guide through this soul destroying world. Here, in Pentecostal country Jesus Saves from the corrugated iron roofs of warehouses and the preacher is an ex-junkie that plays country rock while his congregation weeps and speaks in tongues. It is a place of suffering and pain, murder and violence where the only hope of escape is into the next life.

And yet, there is a poetry bursting out from the people of this place - in their voices and in their music. The music, part country, part blue-grass, transcends the poverty and hopelessness of their surroundings. There is an old coal miner who plays the banjo with delicate beauty, telling us how his daddy had his hands blown off with dynamite one day in the mines. Singer Johnny Dowd, pale-faced and grim, sings of armed robbery and hanging. The language and lilt of the South has a lyricism of its own, playing with the words and images as if they were song. Harry Crews, the novelist, explains in his gravelly voice that the stories that these people tell give them a sense of themselves - when they have nothing and the world has forgotten them, their stories make them known to themselves.

Jim White drives us through a vast trailer park of dreary trailers. The trailer trash are sitting out in folding chairs, passing the time of day. He speaks our thoughts - this is the sort of place that we may snigger about. But, in every trailer, there is a person with a story.

When a person tells you their story, they become human - real. No longer just "that rapist", "that trailer trash" - or even "that rich banker". That’s one of the reasons I love listening to people’s stories and telling mine. The joy out of our daily struggles is the heart and passion that makes us create music and write poetry or even just simply tell the stories of our lives over a cup of tea. It’s like touching the light inside another person.

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I’ve been collecting notes for a memoir of my childhood growing up in Malaysia and my coming of age in England. I got to thinking about all the people who have been in my life. Some of them, like my family, are a part of me and others, like friends and my partner, have become an important part of my life. Others have come and gone or just passed through. But many have left something behind - curious legacies that, taken together, make up the fabric of who I am. In these notes, I write about some of these curious legacies. Today: My Grandmother’ Recipe for Soy Sauce Chicken

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Just after Grandma died, I was in my flat in London and trying to remember how she made crispy garlic sprinkles to go on top of fried noodles. She had a great shortcut for it - she would put the chopped garlic in a jamjar of oil and put it in the microwave. I couldn’t remember if you were meant to cover it or how long you put it in for. I was about to pick up the phone to call her when I remembered she was gone.

Grandma had grown up in a small village in China, the eldest daugher of Reverend Quek. When I learnt the phrase "poor as church mice" at school, I pictured the Quek family of mice in Swatow. She told us stories of cold winters and walking to school through the fields, drawing water from the well and sewing her own clothes. Throughout her life, even after my grandfather’s success as a doctor gave the family a comfortable home, she was prudent with money and was shocked by extravagances. She did tasty things with leftovers and nagged us not to waste our food.

But there were also the stories of being top of her class at medical school, after the Quek family moved to Singapore where my great-grandfather was sent as a Presbyterian missionary, and being the first family in Taiping, where she and grandfather lived after they married, to buy an imported washing machine from abroad. My grandfather was the love of her life and together they travelled in the West as much as they could and brought back with them to Malaysia, the latest ideas and innovations. My grandfather imported a car from America, bought a 16mm movie camera, mail-ordered books from England. Grandma, blending innovation with her sensible nature, made dresses and shirts at home for her children based on the latest patterns and designs worn in America and England. Later on in her old age, she had a microwave and non-stick wok long before any of us "kids" did.

My favourite story about Grandma, though, is the one where she is still in Swatow, aged around seven. At her little village school, her teacher was unfairly dismissed by the headmistress - the reason behind it is now lost. Grandma was upset and wanted to make her protest known. She talked about it with her father and the Reverend said to her that she must act according to her conscience. The next day, she led the whole school in a protest march to the next village. The teacher was reinstated. There is something modern, daring and powerful about this image of a little girl who had the courage to make a stand.

I used this story in THE FLAME TREE to show Jasmine’s strength of character. But I didn’t think readers would believe it if I made this happen when Jasmine was seven. So, in the fiction of the novel, I made her older!

Grandma left us many recipes for dishes that have been in the family for years. They are old-fashioned and labour intensive, involving a lot of chopping and slicing and marinading to get just the right texture and just the right taste. In truth, I don’t think I have the hours it can take to make many of them in their original form in my hectic life in London. But I can say that the most useful recipe Grandma left me is not really a dish but an attitude of mind. It’s about adapting and innovating, taking what is safe and familiar and making it your own, moving with the times but on your own terms.

So here is the recipe that is Grandma’s legacy to me:

Take pieces of chicken, chopped garlic and ginger and place in an oven proof bowl. Mix in soy sauce and ginger wine and some pepper. Cover with a lid or tin foil. Put in oven and cook at 180 degrees for 1.5 hours, opening it in the last half hour to brown the chicken.

Serve with rice and pak choi fried with garlic and a dash of soy sauce.

Human input time: 20 mins. It certainly beats doing it the old fashioned way standing at the iron wok sweatily frying for ages and stinking up my home with grease and smoke! It tastes pretty good, too.

**************

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FAQs about Yang-May Ooi, writing & publishing

ABOUT YM

What is the Malaysian-British connection?

I was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I now live in London, England. There is more biographical information on my books website at http://www.yangmayooi.co.uk/aboutym.html.

I miss Malaysia the most for the food, the wonderful weather and the friendly people. I go back every so often to visit my parents and put on a lot of weight when I am there! I love London for the vast array of cultural activities just at hand - and the food is getting better bit by bit…

How did you get your books published?

When I finished writing THE FLAME TREE, I was lucky enough to have the choice of three agents and I chose the one I clicked with the best. She submitted the manuscript to 7 publishers and Hodder & Stoughton offered me a two book contract.

Where can I find out more about your books?

You can visit my books website at www.yangmayooi.co.uk.

How can I buy a copy of THE FLAME TREE or MINDGAME?

The second edition of THE FLAME TREE is a special edition brought out by Dalgarth Press for the South East Asian Literature Course at Nanyang Technical University, Singapore. This means that the book is also available direct from Amazon.co.uk or via any other online book website, or by placing an order at your local bookshop.

ABOUT WRITING & PUBLISHING

How do I go about getting my book published?

First, finish writing it. It is very rare for agents and publishers to take on a writer with no track record without a finished product.

Then, get the latest copy of The Writers Handbook - it has an up to date guide about finding an agent and the whole publishing process. Follow their suggestions. In general for a novel, you would usually need to submit a synopsis with the first three chapters to an agent. If the agent takes you on, they will then work to find you a publisher.

It is not generally recommended for novels that you approach a publisher direct. I don’t recommend it either. I don’t know what the protocol is for non-fiction or technical books.

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