Arte: Watching the French Documentaries on Maugham, on Pepper, and on Peter’s Personal Invitation.

While watching the French documentaries that Laure Michel and Richard Cloue did for the Franco-German cultural channel Arte on Somerset Maugham, on Sarawak Pepper, and on Peter John Jaban’s Personal Invitation on the upper Sarawak River, I realized that the vast majority of the footage they had shot was left unused.  There is only so much footage you can use when there is a severe time restraint.  Something has to go—often 90-95 percent!

They even cut out the jail sequence!

Of course what’s also missing are the behind-the scenes drama that I had blogged about in my five-part series Maugham and Me:  whether to shoot at Fort Margherita or the jungle; whether they could film me inside the jail; whether my house would be suitable for filming (and when and how many were coming!); whether the rain would stop so they could finish Peter cooking in bamboo at the edge of a river; or whether there was enough daylight to finish the Maugham shoot.

Then there was Michel Viet losing his drone (and could they find another before he returned to France), plus his jumping into the bloated river in a gallant effort to save the drone (plus all that great aerial footage) at great personal risk to himself.

Then came that somber, drone-less ride home in the longboat before Richard decided to liven it up with some photos of us.

          

Also missing for Laure and Richard were all the weeks, months of hard work, the advance planning, the preparations, the travelling to Malaysia and Borneo, and the post production work of putting it all together and making difficult decisions:  what to cut, what to leave in, and the sequencing to make the documentary easier to follow and entertaining for the viewers.

Of course, if this was an hour program, they could cram everything in, but all that footage from three separate venues in Sarawak (and outtakes in the jungle), plus Kuala Lumpur and Malacca, in the Maugham story alone, had to be compressed into a little more than 12 minutes!

Because the programs were in French—unless you speak French—it was difficult to follow what was being said in English since it would get drowned out once the French translation kicked in.  Still, in any language, it was visually stunning to watch and fun for those of us involved, to see how they pieced together each documentary.  In Sarawak they shot three in five days, and on one day, they worked on all three!

Naturally, I enjoyed watching myself (I come in around the 10 minute mark, but I kept wondering, did they cut me out altogether!) and then seeing my wife (the boys got cut) and others that I recognized.  Hey, that’s Bernice!  And Serge!  Then from the other films, there is Karen!  And Peter!

As I watched the Maugham story unfold, I kept looking to see how much footage they actually did use. I especially wanted to see if that sunset through the jungle on the upper Sarawak River at Kampong Git that had so mesmerized us had the same magical feeling on film or if they even included it!  They did, but the real magical part, that red glow through the jungle was too dark to film.  Richard, who was further back, did manage to shoot it above the jungle or was that the sunset from the previous evening?

Still, what a wonderful feeling to be a part of such a cross-cultural experience—from France to Borneo—that came right out of the blue and ended in that stunning sunset along the upper Sarawak River.

      —BorneoExpatWriter

Below I posted the links to all three films, though I was told that the films would only be avail­able on line until early August ’17, so if you come upon blog later than that, the links may be gone (though it might be available elsewhere will some diligent googling). For now enjoy:

Sensual Malaysia of Somerset Maugham (12.19 minutes):     

Sarawak Pepper (12 minutes): 

Peter’s Personal Invitation (4 minutes): 

Five-part Somerset Maugham and Me links: Part I,  Part II,  Part III, Part IV,
Part V

Joseph Conrad and Me 

Book orders for Trois autres Malaisie.    E-book orders. 

  

Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

Beheaded on the Road to Nation­hood—Part II 

Arte: Somerset Maugham and Me—Filmed for the Franco-German Cultural Channel: Part I

Richard Cloue, Laure Michel and Robert Raymer at Fort Margherita

Three weeks after receiving an out-of-the-blue email from France, I found myself being filmed in Borneo talking about Somerset Maugham for the Franco-German Cultural Channel Arte for a pro­gram called “The Invitation to Travel” or L’Invitation au Voyage. I was filmed in three locations (not counting outtakes in the jungle) over two days:  Fort Mar­gherita, my office, and on the riverbank at Kampung Git.

Having read Trois autres Malaisie, the French translation of Lovers andStrangers Revisited, Laure Michel, French journalist and cultural documentary filmmaker contacted me with the help of Shan Iman, a Production cum Location Manager & Fixer, hired to liaise and organize their two week trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Sarawak.  Their initial goal was to film a segment on “Sensual Malaysia of Somerset Maugham” (“Sensuelle Malaisie de Somerset Maugham”) and also “The Pepper of Sarawak” since it’s venerated by the great chefs of Paris.

I knew nothing about the pepper industry, even though my neighbor recently started to grow it next door, but I am vaguely familiar with Maugham, having read a collection of 65 of his short stories more than once, his autobiography The Sum­ming Up, and numerous accounts of his life and his visits to Malaya and Bor­neo over the past several decades…

I first became intrigued with Maugham back in 1980 when I visited the old Raffles Hotel in Singapore, before it was heavily refurbished, aware that Somer­set Maugham had stayed there.

          

Then in Penang, at the old E & O Hotel, inside the 1885 Room, I once wrote, “I glanced around at the other hotel guests and patrons…the Wes­terners, in particular.  They all seemed to have a somber, yet dignified look about them like char­a­c­ters stepping out of a story by Joseph Conrad or Somer­set Maugham, both of whom had re­puted­ly stayed there.”

  

After deciding to take up the challenge, I needed to brush up on my Maugham, so I reread The Summing Up, his Borneo stories, others set in Malaya including “The Letter” and a few celebrated stories like “Rain” set elsewhere. 

Unlike Anthony Burgess who taught in Malay­sia and Rudyard Kipling and EM Forster who lived in India, Maugham was just passing through, so he had no vested interest; therefore he could be objective and critical of the British Raj, even poke fun at them.

I knew I could never be a “Maugham expert” in a few weeks, so I de­cided to focus my attention on his two visits to Sarawak in the 1920’s.  That’s when I dis­covered a gem…that back in 1921, Somerset Maugham nearly died in Sara­wak.

While paying a visit to the third White Rajah Brooke of Sarawak, Maugham traveled by boat with his friend and com­panion Gerald Haxton downstream near present day Sri Aman, when the sudden rush of the ten-foot wave from a tidal bore swamped their small craft and sent Maugham, Haxton, and the native crew into the river where they barely survived.

Had Somerset Maugham drowned in that tidal bore, he would never have written the short story “The Yellow Streak” based on that very near-death encounter.  Nor would he have written any book after The Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands.  There would be no The Painted Veil, no The Casuarina Tree, no Cakes and Ale, no The Razor’s Edge, and no Ashen­don—and possibly no James Bond since Maugham’s spy stories had inspired Ian Fleming!

Instead of living to be 91, Somerset Maugham would have died at age 47!

Suddenly I became excited by the possibilities.

Then I thought if I could write an article on Somerset Maugham in Sarawak, beginning with that near drowning episode since it was so dramatic, it would help to crystallize my thoughts and prepare me for my talk.

I Googled and read nearly two hundred pages on Maugham from dozens of interviews, book reviews of several biographies, and a few critical analyses of his Borneo stories and his writing style.  I also consulted several books on hand, including a full chapter on Maugham’s writing in the South Seas, and my set of Britannica encyclopedias (from high school)—researching not only Maugham, but also Malaya, Sarawak, Borneo and other related topics, plus I spent a full after­noon at a library…. Afterwards I had ten single-spaced typed pages of usable notes.

This was taking far more time than I had, so I decided to abort writing the actual article until later, and just focus on the task at hand—being able to talk competently about Maugham, not as an academic presenting a paper at a conference, but as a fellow writer (which was why they chose me in­stead of a historian) giving a lively account of his time here and the stories he wrote.

Having written extensively about Malaysia and having lived in Sarawak for ten years, I now had to make this per­son­al connec­tion to Maugham and have that come across on film.

So I broke down those ten pages into five distinct parts:  Maugham Country; Maugham the traveler; Maugham’s ideas for his stories; Maugham being criticized; and Maugham’s jail-bound characters (and those that should’ve been)….I distilled these into five handwritten pages in a medium-size notebook.

Then I underlined the key phrases and quotes and tossed the rest until I got the essen­tial down to two index cards (front and back) that I could practice off camera and elabo­rate more freely while being interviewed.  I knew that, unlike a presen­tation, these five parts were not going to be in or­der—even within the same part—since I would be fielding ques­tions from an interviewer.

Plus I had to plan out which part would be most relevant to where I was be­ing filmed—still up in the air.  So I had to be extremely flexible….That was my plan.

Once it was confirmed (the day before the shooting) that we would start at Fort Margherita (and not in the jungle), I knew I needed to start with the last section first and I knew exactly where I wanted to be while being filmed—in jail.  I just had to sell that idea to Laure and her chief filming operator, Richard Cloue, to make sure it hap­pens.

In the midst of all this, I was in communication with several other writers so Laure could inter­view them in Kuching, in Kuala Lumpur, and in Malacca.  For some, the timing (and the short notice) was all wrong, so they couldn’t commit.  Jerome Bouchaud, who translated my book Trois autres Malaisie and is the author of Langkawi Style, strongly recommended a fellow Frenchman, Serge Jardin, author of Malacca Style, for Malacca.

When Laure filmed him before coming to Kuching, she was impressed that he not only read my book but had it on his shelf next to Somerset Maugham.

I also put Laure in contact with Bernice Chauly, author of Growing Up with Ghosts, for the Kuala Lumpur segment.  Like me, Bernice was reluctant to reply to that initial out-of-the-blue email, so I told Laure I’d track her down via Facebook, and then I sent a copy of Laure’s email and attachment, spelling out their filming plans.  She came on board and Laure couldn’t praise her enough.

I was relieved that both of those interviews worked out well.  They also managed to film inside the Royal Selangor Club, or “The Spotted Dog”, for their segment on cricket as part of the Maugham story and even got to meet a Prince!

For the Sarawak pepper story, I put Laure in contact with Karen Shep­herd who writes for Kino (Kuching In and Out). Another writer had suggested that her husband Peter John Jaban could be a big help, and he was!

Thus began a slew of emails between Laure and me, Karen and me, and then Laure and Karen together as I tossed about ideas, including lobbying for shooting at Fort Margherita.  Initially Laure was skeptical; she wanted to avoid Kuching town and wanted to interview me at my house and in the jungle…

I then suggested Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, a for­mer orangutan sanctuary, now more like a half-way house, only fifteen minutes from where I live.

Soon Karen took on a heavier role as part of the production team and would get paid, too, which I was glad to hear, unlike the rest of us being interviewed—we had to sign off those rights.  

Karen proved invaluable and Laure was so glad I had brought them together.  Not only would Karen be interviewed on the pepper trade, but through Peter, who was Iban, they had ar­ranged to visit some pepper plantations and even rent a longboat for a trip on the upper Sarawak River that I would get to tag along with for my jungle shot. 

My initial reaction, “An ad­ven­ture!”

Also, Laure planned to do a third film on Peter, for a segment called “A Personal Invita­tion,” a discovery of a wild place close to Peter’s heart.

Coincidentally, when Laure arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Karen and Peter were in town for a wed­ding, so they met to finalize arrangements for the various Sarawak shoots—now three pro­jects at multiple locations spread over five days.

When they couldn’t obtain a filming permit at Semenggoh, since they required a full month notice, I suggested we go there anyways for the morning feeding time; that way they could at least film the orangutans as a tourist and work that footage into their documentary.

I also contacted Liza Sedini, the manager of the Brooke Gallery@FortMargherita.  I had done a tiny piece on the gallery for Silk Air for their March ‘17 issue.  Years before, I had visited Fort Margherita twice, so when this Maugham project came up, I asked Liza if she had anything on Maugham’s meeting the Third White Rajah.  She suggested that I contact Jason Brooke, the sixth generation of the Rajah Brookes, in London, so I sent him an email.

Then I found out from Liza, while making plans to visit the gallery to brush up on my White Rajah history, Jason Brooke was flying into Kuching that same weekend for another event.  I im­me­diate­ly lobbied both Laure and Karen that they should arrange an interview with Jason Brooke at Fort Mar­gher­ita—imagine meeting a descendant of the White Rajahs at the Fort!

Karen thought this was a great idea; like me, she was skeptical of the jungle shoot since neither of us could visualize Somerset Maugham in the jungle.  Besides, they would have plenty of jungle on the pepper story, and they would need some town shots of the various pepper mid­dle­men and traders.

Between the two of us, on the day before the shooting, we finally got Laure to a­gree on Fort Margherita and also Jason Brooke to agree on being inter­viewed on the pepper trade.  Liza and I had been keeping him on standby since we knew this would be great publicity for the Brooke Gallery, which had just opened in September 2016.

Since Jason’s flight back to London was Sunday afternoon, it was agreed that we would meet at Fort Margherita after Liza had volunteered to open the fort two hours early, at 8am for us.

—BorneoExpatWriter

Continue to Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, 

On watching the three films.

Book orders for Trois autres Malaisie.    E-book orders. 

  

Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

The ARTE TV report will be broadcasted on June 5th: http://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/071100-062-A/invitation-au-voyage. It will be available online until August 4th!

 

          Joseph Conrad and Me 

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part II

Interview (English version) for Lettres-de-Malaisie by Jerome Bouchaud

Jerome Bouchaud, who translated Lovers and Strangers Revisited, now Trois autres Malaisie, interviewed me for Lettres-de-Malaisie.  Here is the English version.

First, about your writing habits: Long-hand or computer? What is your daily writing routine?

I started out writing the first draft of my fiction in long hand, including most of the stories in Lovers and Strangers Revisited and several novels.  Now I use a computer—it’s easier to work with, cleaner, faster, too.  In looking back, some of my best stories began in long hand.  There’s a special connec­tion that you make with the page.  Working with a computer the writing is faster but not necessarily better.   It’s also rife with distractions a click away.  Perhaps for my next novel, I should seriously look at writing the first draft in long hand.  Many writers swear by it. 

I like to write first thing in the morning, after my children go to school, before I get distracted with email requests or attention grabbing headlines—the writer’s worst enemy; it steals your time and kills your momentum.  If I get my work locked in early, my whole day goes smoother.  If not, it’s all catch-up and I kick myself for not sticking to my plans and letting my limited writing time get away.

When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?

While backpacking through Europe after college, I met several people writing books and that fascinated me.  Then I met a writer copying his manuscript about India, and thought, perhaps, I could write about my own travelling experiences.  Later, I married a lady from Malaysia and while travelling there to meet her family, I knew I had to write this story, which became “Mat Salleh” from Lovers and Strangers Revisited, my first published short story.

Lovers & Strangers was first released in 1993 (Heinemann), then revised a first and a second time, to be re-published in 2008 with the title Lovers & Strangers Revisited (MPH). What changes did you bring to your stories? Why did you feel the need to revisit them?

The book was going to be taught in a course on Malaysia and Singapore Literature; since I had been revising the stories to sell them as individual stories, I didn’t want to republish that old version.  So I saw an opportunity to revisit my stories.  I went back to the original inspiration, even revisited several of the settings.  I also worked with an American editor familiar with my stories and asked her to “rip them apart” from an international perspective (what may make sense to Malaysians may not make sense to Americans unfamiliar with Malaysia—I experienced this again with the French translation.) 

It was a humbling process, since all of the stories except one had been published; several, several times.  But I had grown as a writer, thanks to all the writing I had done, all the teaching as a creative writing instructor, and all the line editing of my students’ works (and exchanging stories with other writers).  

Some stories doubled in length, having whole new endings added on or back-story added in.  Mostly the writing style, the descriptions and the details became more precise, more vivid.  The challenge was to make these stories resonate with readers around the world.  So far the 17 stories have been published 81 times in 12 countries (18 countries when I include the French translation). The MPH version won the 2009 Popular-Star Reader’s Choice Award, validating my efforts, as did the French translation.

On your blog, you write about the story behind each story of Lovers & Strangers. Does it help you reflect on the challenges writers need to overcome when putting together a story?

Sometimes we forget that our published story may have been rewritten numerous times, and that our first draft barely resembles the finished product, so it‘s easy to become frustrated with poor uninspiring writing.  When I began the Story Behind the Story blog series,  I compared the first published versions of my stories to the Heinemann Asia (1993) version and then the Lovers and Strangers Revisited version.  It was the same “story” but the contrast was quite stark.  The writing and the story itself had under­gone a major transformation, so I began to document the significant changes that led to publication, first locally in Malaysia/Singapore and then overseas in the US or Europe.   

I thought other writers could learn about the writing process by comparing each story to the story behind the story.  The blogs are now being taught in universities and private colleges alongside the stories as a teaching aid and for the student’s benefit. 

Your stories have been praised by Malaysians themselves for truly reflecting the Malaysian way of life. Some are told from a foreigner’s point of view, some others through the voice of a local. Was it difficult to achieve authenticity when speaking as a young Indian girl, an old Chinese man or a blind Malay lady? How did you go about it? Is there a lot of research involved, or mostly personal experience and imagination?

Being married into a Malay family, when I first moved here, gave me a unique perspective, especially on kampong life.  Most of the Malay characters were based on my relatives, including my late mother-in-law.  She didn’t speak English, so I had to imagine myself being her and get inside her head based on my observations, talking with my ex-wife, and doing some research.  Also my Chinese and Indian friends and neighbors served as models as to how my characters should act, talk, think.  It’s important as a writer to be really observant when writing about others.  You can’t make assumptions based on your own culture—that will quickly get you into trouble!  Basically, you got to ask a lot of questions and follow it up with some research.

How would you describe the writing scene in Malaysia? As a writing facilitator, do you sometimes come across truly talented youths? Do you see potential in the new generation?

In KL, all kinds of readings, book launches, and workshops take place on a weekly or monthly basis.  Penang has some, too.  Plus there are plenty of local writers and expat writers who come and go.  I used to exchange novels with two expat novelists, one of whom had her novel published in the US this year.  Being around other writers who are doing what you’re doing is extremely helpful and encouraging.

The talent is here, but not necessarily the discipline; too many young writers seem to hate rewriting, not appreciating that this is a necessary step to improve the story, especially when writing fiction.  They seem to feel that’s the editor’s job after it gets accepted for publication.  They’ll do two or three drafts, enter it into a contest and then move onto the next story.  When I tell new writers that some of my published stories have been rewritten about twenty times, they look at me with horror!   

Writers who have studied writing overseas get it.  They see the potential and that it’s going to involve a lot of work.  They are willing to work with and even hire editors so they can improve their writing ability.

Do you read any of the local writers? Which one(s) would you recommend?

When I first moved here, I met writers like KS Maniam, Lee Kok Liang, Kee Thuan Chye and Rehman Rashid, and read their work, which I strongly recommend.  I have also met and worked with many upcoming writers when I was the Editor for Silverfish New Writing 4, a judge for some short story competitions, and through my workshops.   

Now I see a trend of writers rushing their work into print both here and in Singapore, especially fiction, without having any of their stories previously published.  Sudden­ly they’re having book launches and being paraded around as published authors, some still in their teens!  But where is the quality of their work; okay, it might be acceptable on a local level in a small publication, but on a national or international level?

I attended a book launch of one young writer who had received heaps of praise from the press and good reviews, too, but then it was discovered that she had plagiarized at least one of the stories from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul!  She was coy about doing it!  For me, all of her stories are now (and forever) suspect.  Ideally, writers should have a publishing track record or are winning contests before they publish a collection of short stories like Shih-Li Kow’s Ripples and Other Stories, which was short-listed for the 2009 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.   

For novels, it’s different, and Malaysia is producing some fine writers that are making an international splash, such as Tash Aw, Tan Twan Eng, and Preeta Samarasan.  Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists being shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize (with a chance to win) speaks volumes.  These three, by the way, live abroad as expats.  Their own expectations as writers are much higher and Malaysia is richer for it.

Can you tell us more about your ongoing projects?

I’ve spend most of 2012 rewriting two Penang novels, both finalist in the 2012Faulkner-Wisdom Award, A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit, for novel, and The Girl in the Bathtub, for novel-in-progress.  This gives me hope.  Both novels are part of a series; I have plans for novels set in Sarawak, Singapore and Thailand.  I had a chance to publish the first one in Singapore many years ago, but novels published locally rarely get out of this region, so I backed out. I’m glad since the novel has evolved. 

I also have a third novel, set in the US that was a short-list finalist for the 2012 Faulkner-Wisdom Award for the second year in a row (also a Quarterfinalist in 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award).  A fourth novel was a short-list finalist in 2009 Faulkner-Wisdom.  I am considering the e-book option to see if I can develop a track record that will interest a mainstream publisher.  The rules to publishing is in a huge state of flux; creating new opportunities for writers.

   

I’m excited that “Home for Hari Raya” from Lovers and Strangers Revisited is being filmed by Ohio University by Frederick Lewis, professor of film/video, who will lead a team of 13 students to Malaysia in December 2012.  I find it fascinating that a short story I wrote twenty years ago about three Malay sisters has attracted a film maker in the US.   It’s not Hollywood calling, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.  The story that initially grabbed his attention was “Mat Salleh.”  Maybe it’s time for me to dig out my screenplays and see what I can do with them.  You just never know unless you try. 

20 over years have passed since you first settled down in Malaysia. Do you feel like you finally belong here after so long?

As an expat who has spend half of his life in Malaysia, I’m not so sure where I belong, especially after recently spending five weeks in the US following the death of my father.  I felt pretty comfortable there; there’s a lot that I miss, like people going out of their way to be polite and helpful.  Cars actually waited for you to cross the street or back out of a parking spot.  But then I don’t miss winter.

A piece of advice for aspiring writers?

Believe in your story and never compare your writing with others.  Every writer began full of doubts about their abilities, yet they stuck with their story and completed it.  That’s the key, complete your work.  Then keep going over it to make it better.  The writing is in the rewriting, so finish the first draft!  Later, when you’re done the best you can, get some perspective on your writing by working with an editor with lots of writing experience.  This is what I did at two critical junctures in my writing career.  Then learn from it so you’re not repeating the same stylistic or grammar mistakes over and over.  If you do that, your writing will go to the next level.  That’s what we all want—get to the next level and get your work published.

             

*Update, the 20th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, my collection of short stories set in Malaysia

**Update: Book orders for Trois autres Malaisie.   E-book orders.  Or recommend it to your friends, especially those who would like to know more about Malaysia or have an interest in Southeast Asia.

  

Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

***Here’s an update to the French blog about Trois autres Malaisie and my meeting the French translator Jerome Bouchaud in Kuching, and my involvement in a French documentary for Arte (June 2017) on The Sensual Malaysia of Somerset Maugham.

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I