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Papaya Salad

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by Felix Cheong   War memoirs usually announce their scars, complete with bandaged words that barely conceal old wounds. Elisa Macellari’s Papaya Salad does something quieter, and perhaps more effectively. Her debut graphic biography retells the picaresque life of Sompong, her Thai great-uncle. When the young Macellari meets him at a family gathering, he regales her with his rags-to-rattled story—one so dramatic that it could only be true. Born to a humble family, Sompong applies for and lands a Thai military scholarship. But before he can be sent abroad to a military academy in Berlin, World War II breaks out,… Read More

Becoming Margaret Leng Tan: The Toy Piano Virtuoso Who Couldn’t Stop Counting

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by Felix Cheong How small can greatness get? If you’re Margaret Leng Tan, a toy piano will do very nicely, thank you very much. Tan is Singapore’s most unusual musical export, a Juilliard-trained musician who made the toy piano her calling card. For turning child’s play into serious art, she received Singapore’s National Arts Council Cultural Medallion, the Lion City’s highest arts accolade, in 2015. Now she’s the subject of a children’s picture book, Becoming Margaret Leng Tan, written by Low Lai Chow and illustrated by Dan Kuah. And here’s the twist: much of the book is not really about… Read More