This is a post long overdue. I'm supposed to post this on the 28th of December, originally typing this post using the Blogger app on my phone.Halfway through, I realized that the app didn't save the bottom half of my post. I got lazy already and here I am, completing this blog entry more than 10 days later. And oh, Happy 2017 everyone! And this is the first post for the year 2017! I'll try to update my blog as frequently as I could to keep up with one of my New Year's Resolutions which is to blog more. Haha.
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We had just returned home in the afternoon and I was yearning to get a quick nap, having suffered from a bad sinus headache.
As I lied on my bed, I heard my mom calling my name from downstairs, and as I descended, I saw her bringing in two huge parcels with her, to which I exclaimed 'Wow, that's a lot!'.
She narrowed her eyes and said 'You ordered all of these, right?'
I smiled sheepishly and said 'Yes..'
'How much(did you spend)?'
'Err... about RM200?'
(Don't tell her it's more like almost 'RM300' instead).
She just shook her head in disbelief.
It doesn't take a genius to find out that those heavy, solid parcels contain books!
I was anticipating a smaller parcel from 'Terfaktab', of which I had relentlessly tracked the parcel from the PosLaju track and trace website since arriving home yesterday.
But oh, two big parcels arrived from MPH instead! And much earlier than I had expected!
Let's look at the books I bought from MPH Online.
Penang: 500 Early Postcards and Johor: 300 Early Postcards.
The author, an Endocrinologist who loves history and is also a collector of rare postcards had compiled and selected 500 and 300 early postcards,most of them printed in the early 19th century from the 2 states of Malaysia; Penang and Johor. He had also published books that featured the early postcards of Malaya, Singapore, Selangor and Perak.
Some of you must have known that I am a History Buff. I love visiting museums and other historical places, History is one of my favourite subjects at school, along with Geography and Chemistry, although later on, I learned that our country's history is actually not what it really appeared on our textbooks. History is written by the winners, you see. I shall explain more on this later.
However, after flipping through my youngest brother's Form 1 Buku Teks Sejarah, I must say that the History Textbook we had during our times (2003 version) was much better than the Form 1 History Textbook published in 2016. I am disappointed with the contents of the current History Textbook. No chapters talking about 'Kerajaan Awal Asia Tenggara', no chapters dedicating itself towards explaining about the histories of the states in Malaysia, like how Perak got its name, the famous traditional dances of Kelantan and so on. Perhaps they had reshuffled the whole syllabus and had chosen to include all those chapters mentioned above in Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 2 or 3.
I have to say that the Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 1 2016 edition is a strong reminiscent of the Buku Teks Kajian Tempatan Darjah 5 of which I must emphasize, is much better than the former. This Sejarah textbook has too much illustrations, it's almost like a comic book! I guess this is one of the strategies employed by the textbook writers to make Sejarah more interesting. But somehow, this type of strategy does not resonate well with my 'Sejarah' heart. In studying Sejarah, you're supposed to read a lot and visualising the things that happened in your mind instead of relying on visual aids or cartoon characters. In other words, you need to use your mind to imagine and think. Moreover, the current textbook is quite thin, meaning that they had cut quite a large portion of facts to make way for colourful cartoons spewing out Sejarah facts in their dialogue boxes.
Or maybe, people might argue that not all of us (including them 13 years olds) are readers like I am. And that's the problem. The kids nowadays are exposed to a variety of medias. Televisions, youtube, instagram, with phones and tabs used to keep them occupied and distracted whenever their parents are away or carrying out tasks. It saddens me to see the Sejarah textbook to be reduced to this state to capture the kids' interests and to cater to their presumably limited ability to read long paragraphs and staying focused while doing so. I mean, come on, they are already Form 1 students. Thirteen years old! For how long do you intend to use illustrations to grab their attentions into focusing on what you want them to know?
Anyway, just a bit of ranting there.
Eh wait, I'm supposed to talk about the books I had bought right? HAHA.
Okay, when I was a UIA student, I always spent my free time or in-between classes periods at the library, at the Leisure Section, to be precise. I found 'Malaya: 500 Early Postcards', published by the same author as the books above and I was consumed with awe as I scrutinise each postcards, reading the descriptions and the year the postcards were sent and received. I tried to visualise what really happened behind the scenes of these picture postcards and it feels like you are dwelling upon these places and living in that particular era.
I am saddened to see beautiful picture postcards featuring picturesque views of the beautiful old buildings and scenery that were dated before the year 1942 because in December 1942, the Japanese invaded Malaya and since then everything had changed for the worse. I feel sad looking at that picture of the man rowing his sampan in the postcard dated 1941 knowing that a year later, his whole life would change, and the country would fall under the hands of those people who claimed 'Asia untuk Orang Asia'.
I also feel a sense of melancholy, looking at the postcard featuring a young man, or a young boy in the 1940s', knowing that if he were to live now, he would have become a really old man. That's the same case with us now. We were once children, growing into teenagers and now, adults with responsibilities. Our parents were once kids too, and now they are getting older as days gone by. This teaches us to appreciate them and our lives better. And that the old memories, of what we had achieved, who we had once been, can be kept in the pictures, serving as the reminiscences of the past.
I had borrowed and renewed the book for several times. I know I must get my own copy of the book (of which I still haven't) and the other books in the series.
And so, I had managed to buy those two books above! Malaya: 500 early postcards are no longer available on MPH Online.
So, the third book bought is:
I finally got my own copy of 'Memoirs of a Geisha'!!!
Left: The Original First Edition by Knopf (belonging to my uncle)
Right: Vintage Past by Penguin Books- latest edition (MINE!)
No matter how controversial this book is, in terms of its accuracy and the 'breach of agreement' between the author and Mineko Iwasaki; the retired Geisha who provides him all those information about the Geisha world for this book, I couldn't help but to love this book!
Not that I agree with the author in this matter. I think he is being disrespectful by mentioning the name of Miss Iwasaki his his acknowledgment and that he had distorted the facts given, shaping and twisting them to his own whims and fancy.
The truth about Geishas aside, I am very much is love with his prose, his narrative descriptions that threaded seamlessly along the passages, and the dialogues, characters, almost everything depicted in this novel is so beautifully written.
Those make up the reasons why I managed to read this book not only twice, but thrice! (also the reason why I borrowed' this book from my uncle and only telling him after I had returned home, LOL).
Moving on to the fourth book.
The fourth book is somewhat darker and unpleasant. If in 'Memoirs of a Geisha', I was left enthralled by the unique cultures and traditions of the Japanese, while in this book, I am appalled by the violent crimes and bestiality shown by the Other Japanese; the Japanese Imperial Army. Again, the genre is History. I think I had gotten matured with time as my choice of books nowadays include non-fictions rather than fictions *cough*.
Oh, it took me almost a week to finish reading this book.
I was fourteen when I first read about the death of Iris Chang on the newspaper. It was alleged that 'The Rape of Nanking', the book she had written 7 years prior to her death had made her depressed, driving her to commit suicide at the age of 36. Knowing this made me curious and I had wanted to read this book since then. I was curious to know what she had written. Is it too gruesome? Too overwhelming? Too much to brain and stomach?
I had first came across this book in a bookstore in Singapore. I was 20 then. I contemplated whether I should buy it. I flipped through the books and was shocked to see a black and white photo of a woman whose body was mutilated (too much graphic, too gory ). It was horrifying. I guess that I was not yet ready to read the book.
And now, almost 13 years later from the time I heard about this book, it is now in the possession of my hands. I was happy, excited and nervous at the same time. I was in the middle of reading another book about the History of Malaysia (bought from Terfaktab) and I couldn't wait to finish reading that book and get started on this.
I read through the prologue and I now know several facts of why the Japanese behaved with such bestiality during World War II. I shall not explain more about that but one thing I could say is that they had been trained to value the life of the Emperor the most and that any lives below it (including the Chinese in this case) were considered worthless.
I kept on reading, and had moments of pauses as I tried to suppress my anger and sadness. My head literally hurts (or maybe it's just migraine, LOL) as I read through the chapters 'Six Weeks of Terror' and 'Six Weeks of Horror' as I couldn't comprehend what I had just been reading. It was too devastating.
I learned that several historians had disputed several facts from her book. But there is one thing that I know for sure, that the Japanese Imperial Army did kill people (including civilians) during their occupations of the Asian countries. How many? Is it 1000? 10,000? 100,000? Amount doesn't matter. whether it's just 1 or 10. Someone's life matters. Innocent lives matter. And that the pictures taken during the atrocities stood as witnesses and evidences. Pictures don't lie. They don't have Photoshop back then, LOL. Right? I'm not kidding.
That's the sad thing about wars. The world knew what was happening in China back then and yet no one really took actions. The same goes with the current situations in Syria and Rohingya. The world knows. Most had chosen to ignore. No adequate actions had been taken yet.
So, done with the four books bought from MPH.
About 10 minutes after I had gleefully unwrapped the packages from MPH, I heard someone honking in front of my gate. AGAIN.
I went down and this time, it was my brother who received the parcel on my behalf. Well, well. TWO parcels of books in one day? This is too good to be true! It must be the books I ordered from Terfaktab.
I forgot to mention that I had been completely cured of the headache I experienced earlier. Therefore, I would like to suggest that in cases of headaches; either it is migraine, cluster headache, sinus headache, the best and effective, fast-onset cure is for you to buy books. No need to take Naproxen or Mefenamic Acid, Aspirin, Ibuprofen or any painkillers/NSAIDs . Trust me, I'm a Pharmacist. HAHA.
And as I went into my room, bringing my books together, I came across my mother who just went out of her room. She asked me
'Did you buy books again?' uh-oh. She must have probably heard the postman honking just now.
'Yes, but those are all history books!" I said proudly and rather defensively.
She shook her head and said "Now where are you going to put all those books?"
Clearly, she's referring to my overloaded bookshelf. I no longer have space to put books and I just stacked them up on the table and on every surface available. I even slept with my books at night. :P
I told her "Well, I can claim my income tax,". Hey, it's true what. You couldn't claim income tax when you bought clothes or make ups. Wait, 'claim income tax'. Is that even a correct term? *shrugs*
That reminds me, I had been constantly buying books. My wardrobe on the other hand, dates from about a year ago. Hmmm....
The books from Terfaktab:
I was actually triggered to read these books after I had read this recently nation-famous confessions by Mus, who wrote 4 parts of 'Peninggalan Arwah'. His story made everyone marvelled at the ingenuity demonstrated by our forefathers; in his case, in the production of weapons and other defence machinery.
I had followed several pages that talk and promote the history of our country and the ancient history of the Malay kingdom. Those pages are: 'The Patriots' and 'Srikandi'. The books above were written by Cik Srikandi, whom someone had compared her to 'Lara Croft'. She's the Malay version of Lara Croft it seems, haha.
Anyway, I learned a lot about the forgotten history of the Malay kingdom. The establishment of the Malay kingdom does not start from the famous, glorious era of the Malaccan Sultanate. It had started way earlier than that, dating to several hundred years BC, from the Kingdom of Srivijaya whose governance encompasses most of the countries in the Malay archipelago. Reading her books had made me recalled my rusty knowledge of the Malay history, and of the chapters from Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 1.
I love 'Baiduri Segala Permaisuri' better than her first book 'Emas Para Dapunta dan Maharaja'. I had learned new things about how the Malaccan empire fell to the hands of the Portuguese and once I had finished reading the last chapter, I was overcame with emotion. If only the Portuguese didn't invade Melaka. If only this, and that. But everything happened for a reason. And history serves as life's lessons to us the new generations. We shall not commit the same mistakes like what the people who lived before us did. But looking at the current state of our country and our people now, it feels like history is deemed to be repeating itself, slowly and painfully. I had written a lengthy review about this book in my reading journal which includes my personal thoughts that some people might question or do not like. I don't think I should post my thoughts here as they are quite controversial.
'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,' George Santayana.
In conclusion, here are the books that arrived on the same day!
I hope to buy and read more good books in 2017!!!
Next on my list: 'The Malay Annals' by Dr John Leyden and 'The Kedah Annals- Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa' by James Low. Of course, those are the English translations. I couldn't seem to find the Malay translations. :((
That's all for now. I'll try my best to force myself to turn on the laptop, to log in to blogger and to write more posts. I actually had a lot to write but of course, laziness kills all ideas. LOL.
Kudos to you if you are still reading up till here. :)
