Writing in Asia Series was a series of books of Asian writing published from 1966 to 1996 by Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd[1] (often referred to as Heinemann Asia),[2] a subsidiary of Heinemann, London. Initiated and mainly edited by Leon Comber, the series brought attention to various Asian Anglophone writers, like Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Western writers based in Asia like Austin Coates and W. Somerset Maugham and modern and classic stories and novels in English translation from the Malay, Indonesian, Thai and more. The series is also credited with contributing prominently to creative writing and the creation of a shared regional identity amongst English-language writers of Southeast Asia.[3] [4] After publishing more than 110 titles, the series folded after Heinemann Asia was taken over by a parent group of publishers and Comber left.[5]
Inspired by the successful and pioneering African Writers Series, Leon Comber, the then Southeast Asian Representative of Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., founded the series as its general editor in 1966 in Singapore. Comber thought a similar series focussing initially on Southeast Asia was worth pursuing to "give a tremendous boost to creative writing in English...which was still regarded then as something of a cultural desert". He also wanted to publish the "tremendous body of local writers writing in their local languages" across the entire Asia in English translation "to make it available to a wider reading public" as he felt that existent publishers only focussed on their individual countries.
Buoyed by the profits made from textbook publishing, the series first published Modern Malaysian Chinese Stories in 1967. The anthology, whose stories were edited and mainly translated into English by Ly Singko with a foreword by Han Suyin, sold moderately, but Ly was to be detained without trial shortly after by the Singapore authorities under the Internal Security Act for supposed "Chinese chauvinism".
The series met with commercial success a decade later when two reprinted Austin Coates books in the series, Myself a Mandarin (1977, c.1968) and City of Broken Promises (1977, c.1960), became bestsellers. The former was also serialised by the BBC, broadcast on Radio Hong Kong and had its film rights sold, while the latter was adapted into a play at the 1978 Hong Kong Festival of Arts. Other commercially successful titles were Tan Kok Seng's autobiography Son of Singapore (1972), which sold over 25,000 copies, and Catherine Lim's short-story collection (1978), which sold 8,000 copies.[6] By 1988, about 15 titles in the series were used as supplementary textbooks in Singapore schools, guaranteeing sales in the thousands.[7] [8]
Significantly, as part of the series, Australian Harry Aveling translated Pramoedya Ananta Toer's novel The Fugitive (Perburuan) (1975, c.1950) and Iwan Simatupang's novel The Pilgrim (Ziarah) (1969) from the Indonesian to English. The Pilgrim is considered the first modern Indonesian novel and won the first ASEAN Literary Award for the novel in 1977. The series also met with critical acclaim when Shirley Geok-lin Lim's debut collection Crossing The Peninsula & Other Stories (1980) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first both for an Asian and for a woman. The series also published the debut titles of pioneering Singapore poets like Edwin Thumboo and Lee Tzu Pheng.
In 1982, however, Charles Cher, the then General Manager of Heinemann Educational Books, confirmed that the series had stopped publishing poetry because of poor sales.[9] [10] In 1985, after publishing more than 70 titles, Comber left the series after Heinemann Asia was taken over by a parent group of publishers. In retrospect, Comber notes that in business terms, Heinemann made "very little" from the series, though it neither lost much, with textbook publishing sales subsidising the series.[11] The series continued until around 1996, resuming publishing poetry and diversifying its focus beyond literary fiction to ghost stories.
Some Writing in Asia series titles have since been republished by other companies, like Lloyd Fernando's novel Scorpion Orchid (1976) by Epigram Books in 2014.[12]
| No. | Author | Year | Title and Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ly Singko, ed. | 1967 | Modern Malaysian Chinese Stories. Anthology translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Ly Singko and Leon Comber with a foreword by Han Suyin. |
| 2 | Lloyd Fernando, ed. | 1968 | 22 Malaysian Stories. Anthology. Contributors include Siew Yue Killingley, Goh Poh Seng and Stella Kon. |
| 3 | 1969 | The Pilgrim (Ziarah). Novel translated from the Indonesian by Harry Aveling. Winner of the ASEAN Literary Award 1977. | |
| 4 | 1969 | Maugham's Malaysian Stories. Edited and with an introduction by Anthony Burgess. | |
| 5 | Leon Comber, trans. | 1972 | |
| 6 | 1972 | Son of Singapore. First part of autobiography. Rendered into English in collaboration with Austin Coates. | |
| 7 | 1973 | The Romance of the Western Chamber. Translated and adapted by T. C. Lai and Ed Gamarekian, with a foreword by Lin Yutang. Originally published in 1200. | |
| 8 | 1974 | The Mutes in the Sun and Other Stories. Short stories and a novella. | |
| 9 | 1974 | Man of Malaysia. Second part of autobiography. Rendered into English in collaboration with Austin Coates. | |
| 10 | Jennifer Draskau, ed. | 1975 | . Translated from the Thai and with an introduction by Jennifer Draskau. |
| 11 | 1975 | The Fugitive (Perburuan). Novel translated from the Indonesian by Harry Aveling, originally published in 1950. | |
| 12 | 1975 | Eye on the World. Third and final part of autobiography. Rendered into English in collaboration with Austin Coates. | |
| 13 | Alan Ayling & Duncan Mackintosh, trans. | 1976 | . Originally published in 1974. |
| 14 | Edwin Thumboo, ed. | 1976 | . With an introduction by Edwin Thumboo. Contributors include Ee Tiang Hong, Muhammad Haji Salleh, Wong May and Arthur Yap. |
| 15 | 1976 | Maugham's Borneo Stories. Selected by G. V. de Freitas. | |
| 16 | 1976 | Scorpion Orchid. Novel. | |
| 17 | 1976 | Eyewitness. Poetry. | |
| 18 | 1976 | Letters of a Javanese Princess. Translated by Agnes Louise Symmers, edited and with an introduction by Hildred Geertz and with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt. Originally published in Dutch in 1911 and in English in 1920. | |
| 19 | 1976 | Myths for a Wilderness. Poetry. | |
| 20 | Harry Aveling, ed. | 1976 | . Translated from the Indonesian by Harry Aveling. |
| 21 | 1977 | My Country And My People. Originally published in 1935. | |
| 22 | 1977 | Myths and Legends of Indonesia | |
| 23 | 1977 | Myself a Mandarin. Memoir, originally published in 1968. | |
| 24 | 1977 | And Napalm Does Not Help. Poetry. | |
| 25 | 1977 | Gods Can Die. Poetry. | |
| 26 | 1977 | Commonplace. Poetry. | |
| 27 | 1977 | The Immolation. Novel. | |
| 28 | 1978 | Tree Without Roots. Novel. Originally published in 1948. | |
| 29 | Robert Yeo, ed. | 1978 | Singapore Short Stories. With an introduction by Robert Yeo and notes by Tan Swee Kheng. Contributors include Catherine Lim, Gopal Baratham and Goh Sin Tub. |
| 30 | 1978 | Time and Its People. Poetry. | |
| 31 | 1978 | Bones & Feathers. Poetry. | |
| 32 | 1978 | ||
| 33 | 1978 | Chemmeen: A Novel About India. Translated by Narayana Menon, with an introduction by Santha Rama Rau. Originally published in 1964. | |
| 34 | Chung Chong-Wha, ed. | 1978 | Modern Far Eastern Stories |
| 35 | 1978 | Kering (Drought). Novel translated from the Indonesian by Harry Aveling, originally published in 1972. | |
| 36 | 1978 | Abracadabra. Short stories translated from the Indonesian by Harry Aveling. | |
| 37 | 1978 | ||
| 38 | 1978 | Curfew and a Full Moon. Novel. | |
| 39 | 1979 | Ulysses by the Merlion. Poetry. | |
| 40 | Yasmine Gooneratne, ed. | 1979 | Stories from Sri Lanka. With an introduction by Yasmine Gooneratne. |
| 41 | 1979 | Srengenge. Novel translated from the Malay by Harry Aveling. Originally published in 1973. Winner of the Malaysian Novel of the Year 1970. | |
| 42 | Yasmine Gooneratne, ed. | 1979 | Poems from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore |
| 43 | 1979 | Akbar the Great. Novel. | |
| 44 | Stanley R. Munro, ed. | 1979 | . Translated from the Chinese by Stanley R. Munro. Contributors include Ba, J., Bing, X. and Ding, L. |
| 45 | 1979 | Three Sisters of Sz. Novel. Rendered into English in collaboration with Austin Coates. | |
| 46 | 1980 | The Stars and Other Korean Short Stories. Translated from the Korean and with an introduction by Edward W. Poitras. | |
| 47 | 1980 | A Nine Cloud Dream. Translated from the Korean by Richard Rutt. | |
| 48 | 1980 | Down the Line. Poetry. | |
| 49 | Ly Singko, trans. | 1980 | Reunion & Other Stories |
| 50 | 1980 | The Third Notch and Other Stories. Translated from the Malay by Harry Aveling. | |
| 51 | 1980 | Sri Sumarah and Other Stories. Translated from the Indonesian by Harry Aveling. | |
| 52 | 1980 | Beyond the Heights. Novel. | |
| 53 | 1980 | The Prince of Mount Tahan (Putera Gunung Tahan). Translated from the Malay by Harry Aveling. | |
| 54 | 1980 | ||
| 55 | 1980 | Malay Myths and Legends | |
| 56 | 1980 | Prospect Of A Drowning. Poetry. Winner of the National Book Development Council of Singapore's Book Award for English Poetry 1982. | |
| 57 | Chung Chong-Wha, ed. | 1980 | Modern Korean Short Stories |
| 58 | 1980 | Dread Empire. Novella. | |
| 59 | 1980 | Or Else, the Lightning God & Other Stories | |
| 60 | 1980 | Crossing The Peninsula & Other Stories. Poetry. Winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. | |
| 61 | 1981 | Early Buddhist Mythology. With a foreword by C. Sircar. | |
| 62 | Robert Yeo, ed. | 1981 | ASEAN Short Stories. Anthology. Contributors include Gopal Baratham, Stella Kon and Rebecca Chua. |
| 63 | Lloyd Fernando, ed. | 1981 | Malaysian Short Stories. Anthology with an introduction by Lloyd Fernando. |
| 64 | 1981 | Lazy River (Sungai Mengalir Lesu). Novel translated from the Malay by Harry Aveling. Originally published in 1967. | |
| 65 | 1981 | Flowers in the Sky. Novel. | |
| 66 | 1981 | A Son of a Mother. Originally published in 1973. | |
| 67 | 1981 | The Newspaper Editor and Other Stories | |
| 68 | 1981 | Running Dog | |
| 69 | 1981 | The Return. Novel. | |
| 70 | 1981 | A Wisp of Bliss and Other Stories | |
| 71 | 1981 | ||
| 72 | 1982 | Shadow Play and Other Stories | |
| 73 | 1985 | . Translated from the Korean by Marshall R. Pihl. | |
| 74 | 1985 | ||
| 75 | 1985 | The Phoenix and Other Stories | |
| 76 | 1986 | Web of Tradition. Novel. | |
| 77 | 1986 | Man Snake Apple & Other Poems | |
| 78 | 1986 | The Adventures Of Holden Heng. Novel. | |
| 79 | 1987 | Honour and Other Stories. Originally published in 1986 as The Battle of the Bands. | |
| 80 | 1987 | ||
| 81 | 1987 | The Ghost Lover Of Emerald Hill And Other Stories | |
| 82 | 1987 | . Novel. | |
| 83 | 1989 | Hearts & Crosses. Short stories. | |
| 84 | 1989 | The Nan-Mei-Su Girls of Emerald Hill. Novel. | |
| 85 | 1989 | Encounter and Other Stories | |
| 86 | 1990 | Love Notes | |
| 87 | 1990 | Ghosts of Singapore!. Short stories. | |
| 88 | 1991 | ||
| 89 | 1991 | Winds of Change. Novel. | |
| 90 | 1991 | A Dying Breed. Short stories. | |
| 91 | 1991 | More Ghosts of Singapore!. Short stories. | |
| 92 | 1991 | ||
| 93 | 1992 | The Importance of Living. Originally published in 1937. | |
| 94 | 1992 | Ollie's Search For Golden Hope & Other Stories | |
| 95 | 1992 | Daughters of an Ancient Race. Originally published in 1974. | |
| 96 | 1992 | Tales of the Hungry Ghosts | |
| 97 | Helen Lee, ed. | 1992 | . Contributors include Gopal Baratham, Arthur Yap and Nalla Tan. |
| 98 | 1992 | Deadline for Love and Other Stories | |
| 99 | 1992 | Love's Lonely Impulses. Poetry. | |
| 100 | 1993 | ||
| 101 | 1993 | Goh's 12 Best Singapore Stories | |
| 102 | 1993 | ||
| 103 | 1993 | The Best Of Catherine Lim. Short stories. | |
| 104 | 1993 | Lovers and Strangers. Short stories. | |
| 105 | 1993 | ||
| 106 | 1993 | The Crocodile Fury. Novel. Originally published in 1992. | |
| 107 | 1994 | If We Dream Too Long. Novel originally published in 1972. Winner of the National Book Development Council of Singapore's Fiction Book Award 1976. | |
| 108 | 1994 | Silent Cries from the Dark. Short stories. | |
| 109 | 1994 | ||
| 110 | 1994 | The Road To Chandibole. Novel. | |
| 111 | 1994 | A Rose Has Thorns. Novel. | |
| 112 | 1994 | Reincarnation and Other Short Stories | |
| 113 | 1995 | Junos. Novel. | |
| 114 | 1996 | ||