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Cartooning a happy life
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Song Yingwen
WHEN I read cartoons, I don't usually picture the author in my mind the way I do when reading other books, mostly because I was convinced that cartoonists could never resemble the characters they draw.
But when I met Heng Teik Chee, one of the most popular cartoonists in Malaysia, for the first time I realized that the phrase "like the author, like the book" can certainly be applied to this cartoonist.
Heng, like most of his cartoon heroes in his works, strikes one as being inarticulate and taciturn, but only at first. Like his simple and naive heroes who become smart and tricky when dealing with parents and teachers, when the conversation moves to his cartoons, Heng's face lit up and the words began to flow. "Actually I am a humorous guy," he mused.
Heng was in Shenzhen on Monday to promote his comics, which were recently published in China. He describes the works as an authentic depiction of school life in Malaysia: mischievous tricks on classmates and teachers, misunderstandings between parents and teachers, and secrets among youngsters. These books have been such a hit in Malaysia that they transformed Heng from a young slacker, at least in the eyes of his parents and teachers, to a popular author with a promising future.
"My success today is a total surprise to everyone who knew me before," Heng admits with a smile.
No one would dare to predict such a bright future when he left high school four years ago. He had been there for nine years, garnering an academic record that was, to put it mildly, far from dazzling. Indeed, his parents were so disappointed with him that all they had hoped for him was to find him a job that could support him for the rest of his life, like selling fish or working as a supermarket boy.
But the lad, who was also a compulsive reader despite being a lousy student, was more ambitious than his parents realized: "I want to be somebody that can bring happiness to people," Heng said, and his heart led him to the new area as a cartoonist.
Perhaps it was because Heng had spent too much time in school, he found that school life to be the best source of inspiration. "There is so much to be told in schools and there are so few channels for these things to be expressed, so I decided to be the spokesman for school kids," Heng said. And he succeeded.
"Heng has a childlike heart for innocence and happiness, that's what has made him what he is today," Zhang Xiaojuan, Heng's editor in China said.
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