books
Lat’s ‘Kampung Boy’ wins Japanese award
The Japanese version of “Kampung Boy” won second place in Japan's Gaiman Award for the overseas comic category.
According to a statement, the comic by Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid, popularly known as Datuk Lat, beat 14 other comics from several countries including the United Kingdom, Spain, China and South Korea.
According to the results announced on Saturday through the website www.gaiman.jp, the comic from the United States, “Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon” was accorded first place, while third place went to “Jolies Tenebres” from France.
"Generally, overseas readers love reading Kampung Boy and choose the book because it portrays the culture, harmony and unity of Malaysian society in the eye of a local village boy.
"The illustrations of real characters in a village setting draw readers close to the characters and make the comic book an easy read," the statement said.
The Japanese version of Kampung Boy was translated by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Japanese language lecturer, Hieda Natsue, edited by Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) lecturer associate professor Soda Naoki, and jointly published by the Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books and Tokyo’s TUFS Press.
Launched at the Tokyo International Book Fair in July, it is also used as a teaching aid for Southeast Asian Studies at TUFS.
Datuk Lat's works have been translated and published in 12 foreign languages including English, Arabic, Mandarin, Tamil, French, German, Indonesian and Korean. – Bernama, December 18, 2014.
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