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4.51 AVERAGE
4.51 AVERAGE
Doskonały pomysł - opowiedzieć o historii kraju przez postać fikcyjnego komiksiarza i jego fikcyjne dzieła. Artysta Charlie Cham rozwija się rownolegle z młodym państwem. A mistyfikacja jest na tyle udana, że sam zostałem oszukany - zorientowałem się, że nie istnieje w połowie lektury, gdy chciałem opisywanego artystę zguglać.
Don't get me wrong; I know it's about Singapore. Please bear with me.
As someone grows up in China Mainland, this book really resonates with me.
Premier Lee is one of the most stubborn anti-communist, which everybody knows. But it's REALLY WEIRD that China Mainland's communist government regards Singapore as their role model. Not only so, but they also sends a lot government officials to Singapore to study its ways of running the country. Can you imagine that? Such a BIG BIG country, with over 1.3 billion people, learning from such a SMALL SMALL city, with 5.4 million people. You know how many communist party members in China Mainland? 80 million. That's 16 times of the population of Singapore.
In retrospect, it's easy to see what they want to grasp is how to implement authoritarianism combining confucianism, nothing else. How does that turn out? For them, I'd say, pretty good, except the anti-corruption part. For the ordinary people? Well... I mean yeah, many many Chinese people has more money, more freedom ( comparing to 30 years ago), but how about ruining the eco environment which will provide foods, water, even air for the children? And their children? How about brainwashing the young generation and making them provincial nationalist? How about close the Internet one step a time while other countries embracing the shared knowledges and wisdoms of human being?
By reading this book, I gradually sees where everything happens around China comes from.
And there's much more about the book: the structures are amazing, both the page structures and the underlying plot lines. Between the lines and squares, the character develops some extraordinary twists. Or should I say to Charlie sadly and pitifully: I told you so???
After having read the book from cover to cover 3 months ago, I've been keeping thinking about Velazquez's painting - Las Menias.
They all have so many layers, and so many different ways to be interpreted, while my way of course is only one of them which is shallow and transient. But I'm pretty sure that this book, as the painting is, will be one of the classics forever shining in mankind's history.
As someone grows up in China Mainland, this book really resonates with me.
Premier Lee is one of the most stubborn anti-communist, which everybody knows. But it's REALLY WEIRD that China Mainland's communist government regards Singapore as their role model. Not only so, but they also sends a lot government officials to Singapore to study its ways of running the country. Can you imagine that? Such a BIG BIG country, with over 1.3 billion people, learning from such a SMALL SMALL city, with 5.4 million people. You know how many communist party members in China Mainland? 80 million. That's 16 times of the population of Singapore.
In retrospect, it's easy to see what they want to grasp is how to implement authoritarianism combining confucianism, nothing else. How does that turn out? For them, I'd say, pretty good, except the anti-corruption part. For the ordinary people? Well... I mean yeah, many many Chinese people has more money, more freedom ( comparing to 30 years ago), but how about ruining the eco environment which will provide foods, water, even air for the children? And their children? How about brainwashing the young generation and making them provincial nationalist? How about close the Internet one step a time while other countries embracing the shared knowledges and wisdoms of human being?
By reading this book, I gradually sees where everything happens around China comes from.
And there's much more about the book: the structures are amazing, both the page structures and the underlying plot lines. Between the lines and squares, the character develops some extraordinary twists. Or should I say to Charlie sadly and pitifully: I told you so???
After having read the book from cover to cover 3 months ago, I've been keeping thinking about Velazquez's painting - Las Menias.
They all have so many layers, and so many different ways to be interpreted, while my way of course is only one of them which is shallow and transient. But I'm pretty sure that this book, as the painting is, will be one of the classics forever shining in mankind's history.
This was a really neat comic that taught me a lot about Singapore’s colonial past and transition to independence. While at times I found the government’s dealings confusing, I think there are a lot of lessons on corruption that any Western reader could learn from. Liew’s style of weaving together interviews, his own narrative, and “historical” comics was really engaging — so much so that I thought Charlie Chan Hock Chye could be a real cartoonist instead of a fictional character!
Well, you know I like graphic novels, and any novels that have to do with art and artists. This one also has great storytelling. The author managed to get me interested in a story/history that would not have held my attention if it had been told in an un-illustrated, dry manner.
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye has been on my radar for quite a while because of the awards and acclaim it has picked up along the way. All you need to know is that it’s all true and that you should go pick it up yourself. In the beginning, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect or what the story was going to be about - I knew it was going to highlight Singapore’s history, but I didn’t know how.
Sonny Liew truly is a masterful storyteller on many different levels. He celebrates the decades-long work by comic artist Charlie Chan by tying a biography of sorts of Chan with the storylines of his multiple comics that cleverly reflects what was happening in Singapore at those times. At one point, Chan transplanted the struggles for self-governance in post-Japanese Occupation Singapore into a sci-fi world called Lunar City that has been colonised by an alien race.
Many other key moments of our history like Operation Coldstore, which we often don’t hear about in mainstream media, is also being explained with a separate comic strip or commentary by Liew that runs parallel to that of Chan’s original comics, giving new dimensions to the reading experience.
You’ll get to learn how integral Chan’s work has been in the retelling of our history. This is for all Singaporeans who grew up apathetic to our past—a past that is diluted through the lens of mandatory social studies in school—and for anyone who wishes to learn about Singapore’s history.
TL;DR: It’s okay to not know anything about the book, just believe me and all the other reviews out there that this is worth pouring over.
P.S. I jotted down this review when I was two-thirds in so you know it's good when this moment happens.
Sonny Liew truly is a masterful storyteller on many different levels. He celebrates the decades-long work by comic artist Charlie Chan by tying a biography of sorts of Chan with the storylines of his multiple comics that cleverly reflects what was happening in Singapore at those times. At one point, Chan transplanted the struggles for self-governance in post-Japanese Occupation Singapore into a sci-fi world called Lunar City that has been colonised by an alien race.
Many other key moments of our history like Operation Coldstore, which we often don’t hear about in mainstream media, is also being explained with a separate comic strip or commentary by Liew that runs parallel to that of Chan’s original comics, giving new dimensions to the reading experience.
You’ll get to learn how integral Chan’s work has been in the retelling of our history. This is for all Singaporeans who grew up apathetic to our past—a past that is diluted through the lens of mandatory social studies in school—and for anyone who wishes to learn about Singapore’s history.
TL;DR: It’s okay to not know anything about the book, just believe me and all the other reviews out there that this is worth pouring over.
P.S. I jotted down this review when I was two-thirds in so you know it's good when this moment happens.
A stunning work of art; one of the most impressive comics I’ve ever read. My enjoyment sagged a bit in the middle when the story was the least personal, but the mixture of styles and approaches is amazing. Plus, I now know 100% more about Singapore than I did before.
I complain from time to time about people who pick up a book and don't get what they wanted because they were too stupid to read the description. And I thought that was happening to me here by the end of the book. But this book may be engaging in the tiniest bit of subterfuge.
Here's the Goodreads description:
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is a biography showcasing the life and work of Chan Hock Chye, a pioneering but largely forgotten comics artist in Singapore. With a career spanning more than five decades, from pre-independent Singapore through its three Prime Ministers, Chan’s work reflects the changing political and economic environment in Singapore.
Containing Chan’s original illustrations, paintings and sketches, this is a groundbreaking work and labour of love aimed at recapturing the portrait of an artist, whose deep passion for comics and country is given a fitting tribute by award-winning comics artist Sonny Liew.
Now...at any point does this synopsis point out that Sonny Liew made this and there's no such person as Charlie Hock Chye?
Because that is most definitely the case.
Here's the thing to know: This book presents a fictional character as a comics artist from Singapore who created a bunch of comics. This character did not exist, nor did his works. It's all the product of Sonny Liew. This character and his work are created for the purposes of exposition and storytelling. Which is, I guess, why ALL characters are created when you get right down to it. Even the space raptor in that Chuck Tingle book existed for this reason.
I'm not really one who balks at experimentation and different ways to tell stories. I didn't really get my nuts twisted over the James Frey thing.
Which is why, viewed from afar, the structure of this book didn't bother me, and in fact was a drawing factor. I like when books play with narrative and storytelling methods. I don't really mind having uncertainty about what's real and what isn't.
I'll also say that Sonny Liew is a fucking incredible artist. Within this book he inhabits so many different styles, and he's a master of them all. Cartoon-y robots a la Tezuka, painted portraits, MAD Magazine styles, Joe Kubert. He can do everything, and the art really is unbelievable. That one person can display mastery of so many styles is really something.
What made the book a little less enjoyable for me?
I don't know a lot about the history of Singapore. I don't know much of anything, in fact. And I wouldn't say that this book makes for a good introduction. I think that if I'd been more investigative about what I was about to read, I would have read up on politics in Singapore from the last few decades and enjoyed the book a lot more. But as it was, the book lays out the politics of the time by showing the comics of a non-existent artist and then adding in a second layer of comics to explain what the first layer of comics is doing.
I know, it's a little confusing. The best way I could sum up what was going on, there were four layers to this book. There were the comics that were created by the fictional character. Then there was the fictional autobiographical comic created by the fictional character. Then there was the fictional modern day interview biography of the fictional character. Then there was the entire book, as a whole, which contains all of these elements.
And that's where I got lost. Between the layers and then the complex politics of the time, I went astray at some point. There's a certain devotion to the source material (the fictional comic strips created by the fictional character) that is hard to understand when one realizes that the source material is fictional. It's all a fiction except for the events that were occurring in Singapore, so I do feel there was probably room to alter the structure for clarity.
Again, let me just say that I know fuck-all about the political scene in Singapore, so I'm not saying that this book is bad because it doesn't lay it out for us dum-dums. And after reading a few interviews, I feel safe in saying that this was originally intended for an audience in Singapore, and to dumb it down to my level would have made it sooooo slllooooowwww for them.
What I will say is that my fellow School District 6 grads, if we're being generous enough to call ourselves "grads," would be wise to read a little bit about Singapore and the characters involved in the 60's before diving into this book. While there is a lot of good in this book, I don't think it's so much an introduction to the politics of this part of the world.
It's definitely an artistic achievement, both in narrative and in its art, but I think the depth of experience you could have with it would be much greater if you knew a little bit more about Singapore.
Here's the Goodreads description:
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is a biography showcasing the life and work of Chan Hock Chye, a pioneering but largely forgotten comics artist in Singapore. With a career spanning more than five decades, from pre-independent Singapore through its three Prime Ministers, Chan’s work reflects the changing political and economic environment in Singapore.
Containing Chan’s original illustrations, paintings and sketches, this is a groundbreaking work and labour of love aimed at recapturing the portrait of an artist, whose deep passion for comics and country is given a fitting tribute by award-winning comics artist Sonny Liew.
Now...at any point does this synopsis point out that Sonny Liew made this and there's no such person as Charlie Hock Chye?
Because that is most definitely the case.
Here's the thing to know: This book presents a fictional character as a comics artist from Singapore who created a bunch of comics. This character did not exist, nor did his works. It's all the product of Sonny Liew. This character and his work are created for the purposes of exposition and storytelling. Which is, I guess, why ALL characters are created when you get right down to it. Even the space raptor in that Chuck Tingle book existed for this reason.
I'm not really one who balks at experimentation and different ways to tell stories. I didn't really get my nuts twisted over the James Frey thing.
Which is why, viewed from afar, the structure of this book didn't bother me, and in fact was a drawing factor. I like when books play with narrative and storytelling methods. I don't really mind having uncertainty about what's real and what isn't.
I'll also say that Sonny Liew is a fucking incredible artist. Within this book he inhabits so many different styles, and he's a master of them all. Cartoon-y robots a la Tezuka, painted portraits, MAD Magazine styles, Joe Kubert. He can do everything, and the art really is unbelievable. That one person can display mastery of so many styles is really something.
What made the book a little less enjoyable for me?
I don't know a lot about the history of Singapore. I don't know much of anything, in fact. And I wouldn't say that this book makes for a good introduction. I think that if I'd been more investigative about what I was about to read, I would have read up on politics in Singapore from the last few decades and enjoyed the book a lot more. But as it was, the book lays out the politics of the time by showing the comics of a non-existent artist and then adding in a second layer of comics to explain what the first layer of comics is doing.
I know, it's a little confusing. The best way I could sum up what was going on, there were four layers to this book. There were the comics that were created by the fictional character. Then there was the fictional autobiographical comic created by the fictional character. Then there was the fictional modern day interview biography of the fictional character. Then there was the entire book, as a whole, which contains all of these elements.
And that's where I got lost. Between the layers and then the complex politics of the time, I went astray at some point. There's a certain devotion to the source material (the fictional comic strips created by the fictional character) that is hard to understand when one realizes that the source material is fictional. It's all a fiction except for the events that were occurring in Singapore, so I do feel there was probably room to alter the structure for clarity.
Again, let me just say that I know fuck-all about the political scene in Singapore, so I'm not saying that this book is bad because it doesn't lay it out for us dum-dums. And after reading a few interviews, I feel safe in saying that this was originally intended for an audience in Singapore, and to dumb it down to my level would have made it sooooo slllooooowwww for them.
What I will say is that my fellow School District 6 grads, if we're being generous enough to call ourselves "grads," would be wise to read a little bit about Singapore and the characters involved in the 60's before diving into this book. While there is a lot of good in this book, I don't think it's so much an introduction to the politics of this part of the world.
It's definitely an artistic achievement, both in narrative and in its art, but I think the depth of experience you could have with it would be much greater if you knew a little bit more about Singapore.
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Phenomenal. Truly an impressive achievement. Very very highly recommended.