Stephanie Ho and the 'Samsui Girl'

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia. – Day 2, February 18, 2009.

Have you ever wanted to be a strong woman? Stephanie Ho, an educator turned historian turned writer-illustrator told us about a real-life strong woman and a girl who wanted some respect from her mother.

Stephanie is also Singaporean like Suchen Christine Lim. But unlike Suchen, Stephanie said she thought she was English when she was young. She went to the US with her parents when she was two.

She hated going back to Singapore and refused accepting her Singaporean heritage and identity for many years. She refused using her Chinese name and insisted on being called ‘Stephanie.’

Ironically, Stephanie majored in history, taught history, then became a museum curator and history researcher. Her professional training has forced her to introspect, to look inside herself as well as her heritage and identity.

While working in the museum, her boss told her to try and make history ‘not too dull’ for the children who’d come to visit for their required learning journeys. And so she started trying to view history from the eyes of children.

Stephanie said that she has always been drawing and sketching even as a student. A self-taught artist, she credits having graduated from the ‘School of Long & Boring Meetings.’ She’d amuse herself by drawing and sketching.

While she was in Australia doing her Ph.D. in Public History, she sent in her manuscript to the First-Time Writers & Illustrators Publishing Grant by the National Book Development Council of Singapore.

Needless to say, Stephanie’s manuscript was chosen and her first picture chapter book was published in 2006. She made an important decision with the publication of her first children’s book. She reclaimed her Chinese identity publicly and used her Chinese name, Lee-Ling Ho.

Putting her professional training as a historian to good use, Lee-Ling’s first book, Samsui Girl, is a historical fiction about Amber, a 10-year old girl, who makes friends with an elderly Samsui woman.

The Samsui women of Singapore are touted as the first feminists who championed equal rights between men and women. They were immigrants from China and have always been fiercely independent.

They worked as laborers in construction sites and proved that they could do what the men could. Most of them remained single. Only very few of them are still alive. It is one of the few elderly Samsui women whom Amber, the Samsui Girl, befriends.

Through their friendship, the life of a Samsui woman unfolds before the eyes of the readers. Through their friendship, Amber learns independence and hard work. The book ends happily with Amber earning her mother’s respect.

Stephanie… oops, Lee-Ling, said some of her friends thought Samsui Girl wouldn’t work because it had no magic. It’s plain historical fiction. But Lee-Ling says the book has been accepted by schoolchildren.

And so Lee-Ling published her second book, Wayang Girl, in 2008. (Wayang is Chinese opera.) She has also been commissioned to write other picture books which champion children’s rights. One of those books is The Boy with a Tree on his Head which exemplifies multiculturalism and racial harmony without being didactic.

Quite appropriately, the second day of the seminar ended with a buffet dinner and cultural show which gave me a glimpse of Malaysia’s history and heritage.

I went to bed thinking that the Samsui Girl has caught her very own star!