Kebaya Tales: Stories from the Nyonyas

About the talk:

Lee Su Kim will share her experience of collecting and writing stories passed down from her mother, grandmother and bibiks. Her stories are uniquely Malaysian. ‘Kebaya Tales: Of matriarchs, mistresses, maidens and matchmakers’ is a best-selling collection of short stories, filled with interesting characters, unexpected twists and turns, cultural beliefs and poignant events. Her stories come from a unique cultural community, the Peranakan Babas and Nyonyas or the Straits Chinese, famed for fabulous cuisine, costume and its material culture Su Kim’s latest book stakes out a new genre – fiction, interspersed with heritage awareness and part memoir in the colourful visuals of vintage kebayas from her own personal collection and through old family photographs. The author will talk about her experiences as a woman writing in English from a multicultural perspective and a cultural activist passionate about things Peranakan. ‘Kebaya Tales’ won the First Prize for Fiction in ‘The Star – Popular Readers Choice Awards 2011’, by a nationwide popular vote.   About Dr Lee Su Kim: Dr Lee Su Kim was the first woman speaker to speak at Perak Academy’s Lectures. The author of nine books including the bestselling ‘Malaysian Flavours: Insights into Things Malaysian’ , ‘Manglish: Malaysian English at its Wackiest’ and ‘A Nyonya In Texas: Insights of a Straits Chinese Woman in the Lone Star State’, she recently published her debut collection of short stories in Kebaya Tales. Dr Lee is a nyonya with family ties to both Peranakan communities in Malacca and Penang. She is the founder member and the first woman President of the Peranakan Baba Nyonya Association of Kuala Lumpur & Selangor (2008). She was an invited speaker at The Ubud Writers Literary Festival, Bali in 2009. She was Professor Madya at the School of Language Studies & Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia where she taught and researched on language, culture and identity.