** spoiler alert ** [This was written originally for an 'article' I submitted to rookiemag.com, but it was not used.]
Growing up in Singapore, everyone knew about Mat, the kampung boy. The word ‘kampung’ in Malaysian means village. Kampung Boy is not really an extraordinary story by any means; it’s really just a memoir of Mat and his life in a rural village in Malaysia in the 50s. How he goes fishing, gets in trouble with his mum, helping his dad run errands and going to Sunday school. Meanwhile the traditional way of life of the village is gradually disappearing with farm holders and rubber plantations being replaced with tin mines and factory jobs. Eventually Mat leaves for boarding school, and when he does he has the same worry that all of us do when we leave home: Will you still be here when I come back? It’s an interesting view on a world that is almost all but gone and even more interesting if you’ve never been to South-East Asia.