Fun at the Opera

"People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic; they either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul."  Edward Lewis as played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, 1990.


Art and Opera has always been part Susanna Goho-Quek's soul;  now it's the subject of her fifth children's book,  "Fun at the Opera", which is based on a child's magical night at the Chinese opera.

As a child, Chinese opera was a big part of Auntie Susanna's life. Her mother managed an opera troupe and her older brother was the star of the show.  

She had such a great time watching the performances that she wanted to write about it for the new generation of children who have not even heard of Chinese opera. To ensure an even wider audience, she has written the book in English and Chinese and plans to translate the book into French, Russian, Tamil, Malay, Dutch, German Japanese and many more languages.

I've had many conversations with Auntie Susanna about the opera and she fears that the opera, which dates back to the 10th century, is  a disappearing art form and she wants to do all she can to prevent its extinction from the world stage.

To that end, she has made it one of her primary objectives to collect and preserve as many Chinese opera items as she can. She has amassed an amazing array of costumes and she's still collecting more for her private treasure trove of artifacts.

She eventually hopes to hold an exhibition some time in the near future. (Calling all sponsors!)  

In addition to writing and illustrating her book about the opera, Auntie Susanna paints exquisite portraits of both male and female opera stars. The a selection of these art pieces are available for sale at her gallery, The House of Suzie Wong at Lot 10 in Kuala Lumpur. 

Chinese opera is considered such a cultural treasure that it even has a prime spot on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list. 

Fun at the Opera is available from Closetful of Books now.

Auntie Susanna with Dr M.M. Pallam Raju, Minister of Human Resources
 Development, India, at the launch of "Fun at the Opera" at the New Delhi
World Book Fair

Printing.............

Sorry I haven't updated for a while, it's been a busy few weeks. Ok, about two weeks ago, my editor Sheri invited me to tour the printing offices and watch At the Night Safari go to print.  So I jumped at the chance to watch the birth of my literary baby.  I'd also finally get to meet illustraror Soefara Jafney who did such an amazing job with the illustrations. To say that I love them would be an understatement.

Sheri and Soefara at the printers.

Anxious to get to the printers on time, I left home extra early, thinking I'd be the first one there. But  Sheri beat me to it, Soefara arrived after negotiating the maze-like industrial park and after our introduction I asked why immediately she hadn't added me responded to my facebook email that I had sent months earlier. The strategy is to ask potentially awkward questions before a person has time to come up with an adequate excuse. Ok, truth be told I  probably sent it to the wrong Soefara. The rest of the Epigram team arrived and our tour began.

Printing, printing, printing.

First off, we went to the printing section, where we saw them print the pages of At the Night Safari-So exciting. It was like being in the delivery room of a hospital, waiting for your child to be born.
Well, except for the paper, the printing equipment, and the chemicals. OK, so it was nothing like being in a delivery room at all, but it was exciting nevertheless.

The prints.

Simon showed us the different contrasts on the sample prints and explained what the colours on the final print would look like.  After that we toured the rest of the printing factory, where we saw the production of product boxes, magazines and the printing plates. It was all very fascinating but of course you know what the highlight of the visit was for me! Now I only had to sit and wait patiently for the books to be delivered to Epigram the following week. And as we, all know I'm not exactly the most patient of people. Thanks, Sheri, Simon and Epigram for arranging the visit and thanks for illustrating the book Soefara!!

Blow A Kiss Excerpt

Here is an excerpt from my book Blow A Kiss, which was a finalist for the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award last year and which has been selected as one of ten books from Singapore to be displayed at the ILFA Congress in Helsinki. If you would like to download the ebook version please click on this link: Ilovebooks.com

More green variations for the cover.

 As you can see, YT  is a very talented artist. He's done several different tones of green for the cover.  What do you think? It's a hard decision between white, orange and green. It's time to make a decision. Help!