As one of the best Singapore-related things to come out of the sickening fever-pitch of the SG50 celebrations last year, Sonny Liew’s graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye deserves all the accolades it can get.
And they’ve indeed done so yesterday night when it brought home the Book of the Year title at the Singapore Book Awards. This, in spite of the National Arts Council (NAC)’s decision to ditch their initial promise of support for the book when they withdrew their $8,000 publishing grant on the eve of its launch a year ago.
The very meta novel features a (fictional) local artist who recounts the past 60 years of history through his comics where politicians like Lee Kuan Yew and Lim Chin Siong are part of the narrative. Citing “sensitive content”, NAC took issue with the confrontational tone of Liew’s book as well as the political critique peppered throughout by its main character.
A year on, and Liew seems to be on the winning side of things. It’s been sold out many times since the launch while making it to bestseller lists here as well as on Amazon and The New York Times. Reviews have been fiercely positive too.
Thanking some of the folks who were behind his book, Liew said that the award gave him some encouragement to keep on in “this sometimes uncertain road of a freelance career in comics”.
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