Lang Arts Year 1 Winner of S.E.A. Write Award 1996 June 09Author of Sing to the Dawn

1st Prize, Council of Interracial Books for Children, New York, 1975

Visit the library and / or surf the internet for information on the author, her family and her life experiences, and discover for yourself her passion for writing.

Begin by reading her biography and making notes of what you have learnt.Here’s a suggested source: http://members2.authorsguild.net/minfong/bio.htm

Self and Family

Her Writings

Her short stories include Two other award-winning novels written after

Sing to the Dawn are

Her works for younger children include

Sing to the Dawn was adapted as a ______________ in 1996 for the ____________ ___________ Festival.

Minfong Ho’s works in progress include:

Minfong Ho Worksheet 1 Year 1 Lang Arts / kgy

Distinctive qualities about Minfong Ho’s works(Write down some key ideas in your own words as far as possible.)

Minfong Ho does not shy away from issues such as ‘poverty and violent death’ but she also ‘weaves the theme of the stabilizing influence of family throughout her work’. While she skillfully creates ‘a world of great beauty and gentleness, with loving family relationships and ancient customs’, she is also not hesitant about portraying ‘a world of poverty, drought, dreadful injustice, starvation and death’. Her main characters have to reconcile themselves between these two visions, but in the process they discover their ‘pride, integrity and determination to love the land and overcome injustice.’ From your initial reading of Sing to the Dawn, how much of this can you find in the book?

Minfong Ho is fluent in three languages but she reveals that ‘each language rules a separate part of her’. She also says that the resulting fragmentation or ‘linguistic schizophrenia’ she suffers from is something she has to cope with. How has this very fragmentation – linguistic as well as cultural – led her into writing stories?

Minfong Ho Worksheet 1 Year 1 Lang Arts / kgy

Minfong Ho says that she ‘had never enjoyed reading stories of Asia in my own childhood …’ Why did she feel this way, and how has this affected her writing of ‘Sing to the Dawn’?

Two of Minfong Ho’s novels are set in Thailand. In what ways did her life and personal experiences contribute to the credibility of her works?

Minfong Ho has woven her stories, poems and folktales retold into a tapestry of her cross-cultural experiences. “I have grown up in Thailand and Singapore, and lived in Taiwan, Laos and the United States – and yes, sometimes it’s been a bit of a stretch, to try to absorb and adapt to different cultures, but it’s been very enriching as well,” she explains. “If my writing has helped other children become more ‘elastic’ in their appreciation of Southeast Asian cultures, then my stretching would have been truly worthwhile!” What aspects of Thailand and its people have you learnt about in ‘Sing to the Dawn’? While life in a Thai village is very different from life in urban Singapore, why might it still be possible to empathise with the characters in the story?

Minfong Ho Worksheet 1 Year 1 Lang Arts / kgy