Scenes of Malaysian Life explained

Scenes of Malaysian Life
Author:Lat
Status:Ended
First:1974
Last:2014
Altnames:Lat & Easy
Publisher:New Straits Times

Scenes of Malaysian Life (also known as Lat & Easy from 2002 to 2014) is a comic strip series by Malaysian cartoonist, Mohammad Nor Khalid, better known as Lat and published in the Malaysian English-language daily newspaper, the New Straits Times. The comic strip, which ran for 40 years, from 1974 to 2014, illustrated the common way of life of the multicultural Malaysia. Some of his cartoons in the series also compiled in his comic books.

Background

In 1973, Lat, who was then a crime reporter at the New Straits Times, submitted his comic strip for the Hong Kong-based Asia Magazine with the traditional life culture as the main subject where he drews a cartoon and provide the dialogues about a traditional Malay Muslim ritual, the circumcision. It drews attention from the-then New Straits Times editor-in-chief, Lee Siew Yee, who later offered him a permanent column cartoonist role in the newspaper. Lat then taking that position specially created for him by the newspaper's then editor, Abdul Samad Ismail. This gave birth to the Scenes of Malaysian Life series where his first job is to highlighted the daily lives of Malaysian multiracial culture and current affairs. He described it as a "something very innovative at the time".

The first cartoon that Lat drew in the series is the "Perak Wedding", which was published in March 1974. After returned to Malaysia from his 4-month study at the St Martin's School of Art in London, Lat changed the format of Scenes of Malaysian Life into an editorial cartoon series. In 1984, partly from a desire to step away from the public limelight, Lat resigned from the New Straits Times to become a freelancer, but continued to draw Scenes of Malaysian Life for the newspaper. In 1995, Scenes of Malaysian Life absent briefly from the New Straits Times as Lat decided to take a sabbatical for a year. The series resumed publication the following year until it finally ended in 2014.

Reception

The comic strip was well-received and propelled Lat's work to a greater heights. In the 2000s, the series ran three times per week in the New Straits Times. Some of his works in Scenes of Malaysian Life also have been compiled into comic books which proven to be successful and well-received.

Ilham Gallery describe the series as "a truly Malaysian narrative and perfectly pictured the life of a nation".

Bibliography

Interviews/self-introspectives
News sources
Books
Academic sources
Journalistic sources
Online sites

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