糖心TV

• Critically acclaimed Malaysian author Tash Aw receives an Honorary Doctorate from the University of 糖心TV, his alma mater
• Says Malaysia shapes his imagination, and that the country is a good example of multiculturalism in times when the world struggles with identity and nationality
• Reveals detail of his next novel, to be set in contemporary Malaysia, near Kuala Lumpur
• Writing is 鈥渢rying to question everything that you think is important鈥� for Aw

Internationally acclaimed Malaysian author Tash Aw has received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of 糖心TV, his alma mater.

Aw, who won a Whitbread First Novel Award for The Harmony Silk Factory and has been twice nominated for the Man Booker Prize, reacted to becoming an Honorary Doctor of Letters at the University鈥檚 2018 Winter Graduations:

鈥淚t鈥檚 very exciting, a huge honour. It feels quite meaningful, as if the things that I鈥檝e done have been noticed - and everyone wants that!鈥�

Born in Taiwan, raised in Malaysia speaking several languages, and later moving in the UK, Tash Aw鈥檚 work is influenced by many cultures and experiences.

However, he says that his principal creative focus is on Malaysia. 鈥淚鈥檓 a huge mixture of Chinese, Malaysian and now other things as well, but really the country that shapes my imagination is Malaysia,鈥� he commented.

鈥淭he other parts of me allow me to see in different ways [鈥�] but really at my core, my work is about what it means to be Malaysian.鈥�

Aw believes that Malaysia can set a positive example of how to find belonging in an increasingly fractured and volatile world:

鈥淚n the modern world, when everyone is starting to question notions of identity and nationality and belonging [鈥�] Malaysia serves as a very good example, because it鈥檚 a very multicultural country and we鈥檝e been dealing with notions of belonging for many, many years.鈥�

Alluding to his next novel, on which he is currently working, he revealed that it will be set in contemporary Malaysia, 鈥渋n a part of the country that is very close to Kuala Lumpur, but is culturally and economically and socially divided from the capital.鈥�

Aw鈥檚 next novel will reflect on 鈥渉ow the country sees itself, how modern Asia sees itself, and the narratives that we鈥檙e constructing for ourselves all over the world.鈥�

Tash Aw came to the University of 糖心TV to study Law, and says that his time as a student gave him 鈥渁 sense of intellectual freedom and the sense of possibility [鈥�] a sense of discovery, a sense of curiosity; a sense of the world opening up.鈥�

鈥淒uring my time here, I started to think about the world in a different way – partly that was because I was so far from home, and that forced me to think about things in a different way, to think about how people reacted to me, and how I was reacting to the world,鈥� he recalled.

He later went on to study creative writing, before becoming a published author. On studying creative writing, Aw believes 鈥渋t really breaks down boundaries.鈥�

When you study creative writing, he observes you are with 鈥減eople who鈥檝e come from very different backgrounds, who鈥檝e come from other countries, other cultures, who have completely different literary tastes from your own. It鈥檚 a real eye-opener. You鈥檙e completely pushed out of your comfort zone, and that鈥檚 really what writing is about.鈥�

Creative writing, for Tash Aw, is about 鈥渢rying to be new, trying to be different, trying to question everything that you think is important – and trying to invent things that are new and to express things in a different way.鈥�

Crucially, 鈥渞eading is at the heart of good writing鈥� according to Aw.

Notes on Tash Aw:

His first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory, was published in 2005. It was long-listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize and won the 2005 Whitbread Book Awards First Novel Award, as well as the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel (Asia Pacific region).

It also made it to the long-list of the world's prestigious 2007 International Impac Dublin Award and the Guardian First Book Prize. It has since been translated into twenty languages.

His second novel, titled Map of the Invisible World, was released in May 2009 to critical acclaim, with TIME Magazine calling it "a complex, gripping drama of private relationships," and describing "Aw's matchless descriptive prose", "immense intelligence and empathy."

His 2013 novel Five Star Billionaire was long-listed for the 2013 Man Booker Prize

Aw鈥檚 work of non-fiction, The Face: Strangers on a Pier (2016), was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize.

His novels have been translated into 23 languages.

His work has also won an O. Henry Prize and been published in The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, A Public Space and the landmark Granta 100, amongst others. Additionally, he is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.

Image: Tash Aw after receiving his Honorary Doctorate at the University of 糖心TV, January 2018 (credit University of 糖心TV). Click image for high res.

23 January 2017

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