Samples of story books narrated by my Aunt during the 1930's!
My cousin, Suan, told me that her mother was gifted in the art of telling stories. She would narrate stories she had read in Malay. Suan and her son, Chee Boon, still kept some of the books which were printed in 1931!
Suan told me how the neighbours would gather around their house after tucking in their dinner. The sun would have set, and the evening air a little cooler. There, her mother would hold the audience spellbound with her story telling. Aunty just had the flair for story telling! Wow! If Aunty had been a toastmaster, she would have won the Championship Award! Her vocal variety and body language were excellent. The audience was often mesmerised by her tales.
I note that the spelling was a little different from present day Malay. Words have been shortened, so that the vowel "e" is missing. Eg. Chrita, (story) when it should be cherita in modern Malay.
Monday, November 13, 2006
My Aunt's Flair in Telling Stories!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
There is nothing quite like telling childrens stories. I wish that I had the gift to be able to do it for my niece and nephews. It must have been great to make a story really fascinating for little ones x
Oh no, James, these are not kid's stories. They are stories on the Chinese with complicated plots and great morals.
The amazing thing is that aunt could hold both adults and children spellbound! Probably in those days, there was no TV to entertain the people. I used to love listening to stories from the radio before I learnt to read. Was only 5 years old but I could follow the adult stories!
Post a Comment