4/05/2006 11:22:00 PM - Meeting Mr. Wong

A few days back, I had the chance to meet Mr. Wong Pui Nam, a economist-cum-poet-cum-playwright in person. I was looking forward to meet him ever since I read his play “Anike” which is a version of Sophocles “Antigone”. I thought that he would be a man of a younger age but when I met him, I was totally wrong. Nevertheless he carried with him the air of someone educated and knowledgeable. What I noticed about Mr.Wong is that he is totally different from another local writer, Shirley Lim. His seems to be a more down to earth person and his writing certainly has a style because he refers a lot to spiritual elements. What really interested me is he even refereed to the Bible in some of his writing. He also said that he does not copy the styles of some famous poet as it would make feel not authentic. Kudos to him for being daring to develop his own style. Although some might think that he is taking unnecessary risk in developing his own, I feel that he should be supported for doing so because in my opinion, he is trying to show that Malaysians can write in good English and with their own style!

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