PETALING JAYA: Chuah Guat Eng is the first Malaysian female English novelist whose debut novel, ‘Echoes of Silence’, was released in 1994.

This murder mystery cum romance takes place after the 1969 racial riots in a fictional small town in Malaysia, seen through the eyes of Lim Ai Lian.

“In the early 90s I fell into a deep depression. It had to do with the political upheaval in Malaysia. I had to either write or go mad,” the 77-year-old, who comes from a Peranakan background, tells FMT during a recent interview.

Born in Rembau in 1943, Chuah read English Literature at University of Malaya and German Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. At the age of 65, she received her PhD from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

The first draft of her novel was written in just three months. “I suppose it’s because I had been carrying these ideas in my head for a very long time,” she says, adding that her background in advertising in her younger years, helped with the discipline and planning required to write the novel.

Chuah’s novel shows the interconnectedness of lives through shared histories

“I wanted to write about somebody like me but not quite me. Ai Lian is of Chinese ethnicity and she was educated in English medium schools, just like me. But unlike me, she felt detached from her country.” Chuah has always loved Malaysia and cannot imagine making her home elsewhere.

“I wanted to write a novel that people would read,” she says, explaining that she decided on murder and romance because it was extremely popular themes at the time.

In the novel, Ai Lian learns about love through the much older Johnathan Templeton, who has experienced his share of heartaches in his lifetime. However, her love for him borders on worship. “Ai Lian can see no fault in him even though he is an orientalist as her mind has been colonised,” says Chuah.

“Love is not just about hankering for something. It is about getting up in the morning and doing something for someone.”

The characters in the novel are extremely nuanced as Chuah deftly blurs commonplace dichotomies. Instead of an action being viewed as simply right or wrong, it is regarded with empathy, love and compassion.

“However upset I may be with people’s behaviour, I can never condemn them as there has to be reasons behind their actions, and this novel was an exploration of that.”

‘Days of Change’, the sequel to ‘Echoes of Silence’ made the longlist of the 2012 Dublin Literary Awards

“We yearn for a Malaysia that never existed. We keep saying we could all be so wonderfully interracial. But we never were. We were always trying to cope with the diversity. We never settled into an easy diversity.

“It’s part of having been colonised, and being a country which has been visited by people from all over the world throughout history because of our geographical location,” Chuah says.

The sequel, ‘Days of Change’, which touches on corruption and the destruction of nature, is written from the point of view of a Malay man, Hafiz.

“My daughter said to me, there’s more of you in Hafiz than in Ai Lian,” Chuah says, laughing, admitting that she’s always felt more Malay than Chinese anyway and as such does not have any particular “identity”.

“In real life, I take on the character of my interlocutors, the people I deal with, so I don’t have an identity. As a fiction writer, I can dream myself into anything, even an alien, and I’ve written that story too,” she quips.

Chuah self-published her book as no local publisher at the time was interested in English books.

“I found it so enjoyable and fulfilling to see through the process from beginning to end. At the end of the day, I have no one to blame but myself. I’m accountable for the mistakes; it’s liberating in a way,” she muses.

In 2019, ‘Echoes of Silence’ was translated into Italian. Funded by Goethe Institute Malaysia, the novel is currently being translated into German by prize-winning German novelist, Michael Kleeberg.

At the moment, Chuah is working on the third instalment of the book, which is told from the point of view of Ai Lian’s daughter, Anna.

Ultimately, Chuah remains hopeful of the country’s future in matters regarding race, religion and corruption, believing wholeheartedly that “there’s a generation of young Malaysians who are more rooted in the country”.

Chuah’s sentiments are reflected in this quote from the book: “The purpose is not, Ai Lian, to cast blame and seek retribution, but to help the next generation to grow, reach a higher level of self-awareness and make better use of their time on earth.”

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



From the V.I. archives

Chuah Guat Eng
V.I. 1961-1962



As Tola (right) in the 1961 VI production of 'Jonah and the Whale'


As Queen Jocasta (left) in the 1962 VI production of 'La Machine Infernale'

<<<>>>

---