A Provocative Author in His Own Right - Kee Thuan Chye

The Real Deal – Meeting the Author

Kee Thuan Chye, the name would not be an alien in local arts scene. Talented in many ways, he had involved in many television series such as Kopitiam and some other famous series. In this course, one of the interesting yet complex plays we have to study on was from his very own hands – Swordfish, Then The Concubine. We were told since we were very child in drama that eventually, we’ll get the chance to meet one of the authors whose play will be our material of study for this semester. There are several plays we have to study on, starts with Oedipus Rex, Swordfish, King Lear and Streetcar Name Desires. Everyone was very excited to see him for not only he is a public figure that we had seen so many times on tv, but also for the fact that he is also a literature people if I may say, like us! This meeting will definitely broaden our perspective towards drama and play.

It is not a secret that Kee Thuan Chye is indeed one of the controversial writers in this nation, he had tackled certain issue that others were not brave enough to discuss, he is also brave enough to provoke thought in the readers through his masterpieces on certain issue pertaining the political structure and inequality that took place. However, certain issues especially politics, there will always be different side of story or different point of view that will in the end, contradicts each other.

As for me, I’m not taking side on any party, not because I didn’t care, but simply because I feel that there is no need for me to voice out loud yet especially when I’m still under government scholarship for the degree program. Others might disagree, but this is my point of view and I’m entitled of it, right? Besides that, I profoundly believes that there are just so much more happenings that we didn’t get or exposed to by reading the newspapers or watching the news on television. So, who am I to strongly criticize and condemn somebody just by the hearsays that most of the times turn out to be a strategy to gain popularity? Hey, don’t get me wrong, sure I know that we must choose the best component to lead our government, but now? Really? Let me worry about the acne and the puppy love that I’m having first, and then maybe I could starts to worry about the whole nation as I’m a decade older and should have been wiser!

I was extremely surprised upon meeting Kee Thuan Chye at the first time and even more amazed with his uses of language. At first, in our own imagination, we were so much into the notion of believing that Kee Thuan Chye would have been more arrogant in his speaking for he is actually somebody with names that people recognize and not to mention in the rich and famous line up.

He was very unselfish and very insightful in his speech. All that he had mentioned eventually appeal to the senses of a true literary movement.