Drawn in Satire: Sketches by a Singaporean Cartoonist
Written by CT Lim and Ko Hong Teng
Creative Nonfiction/Pose Narrative/Softcover/144 pages/$27/Major bookstores
3 stars
It’s a great idea to give some love to our country’s long-neglected manga artists.
Drawn To Satire is a long-awaited film about the lives of eight Singaporean cartoonists. But while the intentions may be good, the execution is shaky, reflecting the pitfalls of attempting to record the history of pop culture in a country with poor memory and respect for art history.
Writer CT Lim and artist Koh Hong Teng have teamed up to present a series of creative non-fiction loosely based on the cartoonist’s biography.
Lim is a long-time pop culture fan who has written extensively about Singapore’s comics scene, and Koh co-authored volumes 1 and 2 of Gone Case: A Graphic Novel with author Dave Chua in 2010 and 2010 respectively. Published in 2011.
And these, as the title declares, are sketches. Literally, details are presented in graphic form as comic strips, but figuratively because biographical details are short at best and non-existent at worst.
In this reader’s view, creative nonfiction is a sometimes questionable genre in which practitioners play fast and loose with facts or lack thereof. In the worst examples of this genre, there is a sneaking suspicion that writers rely on it as a way to write about a lack of research or sources.
The book begins promisingly enough with the introduction of Chinese-born artist and teacher Zhang Ju Qi. Mr. Chan’s life was tragically short-lived, disappearing at the age of 38 during the infamous Operation Sukjin, a massacre of Chinese men by the Japanese military in Singapore in 1942.
Before World War II, Zhang was active in the mass media of newspapers, editing and illustrating the Chinese daily newspaper Xinchu Good News. His print career provides more material traces on which to base his life story.
Renowned Chinese artist Xu Beihong made a cameo appearance, painting portraits of Zhang’s wife and daughter.
We are also introduced here to a shadowy comic figure, a recurring motif throughout the book, perhaps meant as a unifying element that ties together a series of different chapters.
This tactic is more effective in sections with more biographical information, which serves to stabilize the ghost’s imaginary musings.
There are some names that will appeal to art lovers.
For example, Nanyang’s pioneering artist Liu Kang lived to the ripe old age of 93, long enough to be recognized for his artistic achievements. His little-known comic book work is limited to Chop Suey, a book published in 1946 that depicts the horrors of the Japanese occupation of Malaya.
Similarly, works by second-generation artists Koe Sia Yong (86) and Lim Mu Hue (1936-2008) can be seen at the National Gallery of Singapore. Mr. Koh, like Mr. Liu, is better known for his art than his comics. He drew political cartoons for the Chinese newspaper “Nanyang Xianpau” in his 1970s.