Tash Aw

Tash Aw: A Biography

Task Aw is a Malaysian writer who resides in London. He was born in Taipei but was raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Among his works are 'The Harmony Silk Factory' (2005), 'Map of the Invisible World' (2009) and 'Five Star Billionaire' (2013). He had won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize (South East Asia & South Pacific Region Best First Book) since his debut in writing. The 'Five Star Billionaire' was placed on the list in Britain top literary award's Man Booker Prize. His novels have been translated in 23 languages. His short story has won the O. Henry Prize and has been published in A Public Space and the landmark Granta 100, amongst others.

Tash Aw moved to England when he was a teenage to study Law in the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick. When he was in London, he had taken various jobs. He used to be a lawyer for four years before he studied Creative Writing MA in the University of East Anglia. His first novel juxtaposes three stories of the life of Johnny Lim, a Chinese peasant in rural Malaya. The 'Map of the Invisible World' (2009) is set in Indonesia and Malaysia in 1960s.

Aw gets his influence from Faulkner, Nabokov, Conrad and Flaubert. He has used multiple narrators and non-linear narrative from Faulkner; a delight in the possibilities of language from Nabokov; an interest in the dark, nightmarish and revelatory aspects of journeys from Conrad; and a heightened, intense reality generated by deliberate and sensitive use of detail from Flaubert.

‘The Harmony Silk Factory’ takes the setting of pre and post Japanese Invasion of British-administered Malaya in 1940s. The story is about Johnny Lim, a poor son of Chinese immigrants who became a legendary textile merchant, smuggler, political activist and murderer in the Kinta Valley. The novel starts with the narration from his son, Jasper, who considers his father as 'a liar, a cheat, a traitor and a skirt-chaser'. He has devoted many years of his life to pursuit the 'True Story of the Infamous Chinamen Called Johnny'. From early on, he reveals himself to be that most familiar of figures: The unreliable narrator. For Jasper, "We all know the retelling of Harry can never be perfect especially when the piecing together of the story has been done by a person with as modest as intellect as myself'.

However, the womanising 'monster' Jasper lets us see that Johnny is quite different from his son's point of view. Johnny was displayed as a diligent worker and an inspired salesman. His gift with machines is resented by his bosses who finally set him up which leads him to build a new career in the Tiger Brand Trading Company which he is eventually to take over.

The second and final parts of the novel tell Johnny's honeymoon trip to the mysterious Seven Maiden Islands with his wife, Snow Soong, daughter of the wealthiest man in the Valley. Johnny and his wife travel there with three chaperones, Mamoru Kunichika (a Japan professor), Frederick Honey (an English mine-owner) and the effete aesthete Peter Wormwood. Johnny's wife, Snow is attracted to the professor. Part two is described from Snow's point of view through her diary about their disastrous voyage to the land and what takes place upon their arrival. Part three is described by Peter Warmwood where he recalls his meeting with Johnny Lim and the others, and his own version of what happened on the island.

‘The Harmony Silk Factory’ deals with the near impossibility of knowing someone, the deception of appearances, and the problematic nature of testimony. Jasper views his father as a man of malice; Snow displays her husband as ineffectual and naive; and Wormwood views him as a figure with an enquiring mind distinct from those around him. Their conflicting treatments tell the readers as much about their own characters and prejudices as they do to Johnny Lim. ‘The Harmony Silk Factory’ is far stronger in its truly striking opening section. Jasper Lim is a fine creation, full of false modesty and paper-thin self-deprecation. Snow and Wormwood voices do not convince in the same way and the reader cannot help but long for the return of Jasper. The gradual metamorphoses in the novel's mood and the make Emphasis is affecting. This can be seen from the dash and impudence of Jasper's mischievous pursuit of myth, to the regret and emotional pain of Peter Wormwood’s resigned confessional.

(Source: Wikipedia, Tash Aw Official Website)