{"product_id":"finding-francis-a-poetic-adventure","title":"Finding Francis: A Poetic Adventure","description":"\u003ch2 style=\"background-color: #6ba292; color: #ffffff; padding: 8px 12px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold;\"\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWho is Francis P. Ng?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis question consumed the mind of Japanese scholar Eriko Ogihara-Schuck as she read \u003cem\u003eF.M.S.R. A Poem\u003c\/em\u003e by Francis P. Ng in her study of how the poet T. S. Eliot had influenced Asia with his modernist masterpiece, \u003cem\u003eThe Waste Land.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEriko had found \u003cem\u003eF.M.S.R. A Poem\u003c\/em\u003e (published in 1937) which describes a train journey from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur on the Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR), and which had been claimed to be the first published book-length English poem by a Singapore author. It had also been described as “a pastiche of T.S. Eliot.” At its heart, Eriko says that F.M.S.R. “… clearly inherits from \u003cem\u003eThe Waste Land\u003c\/em\u003e its post-World War I pessimism about human deeds and progress …”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe trouble was that the author had disappeared at the outset of the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1942. And even as Eriko sought to locate the poet, she stumbled across the astonishing fact that Francis P. Ng was the pseudonym for Teo Poh Leng.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the story of Eriko’s search and her efforts to resurface one of Singapore’s lost literary treasures. A Singapore poet who had been published alongside the likes of Robert Frost and W.B Yeats. A poet whose poems had won the approval of British poet Silvia Townsend Warner and Cornish poet Ronald Bottrall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Eriko finally decided that this search had to be made public, \u003cem\u003eThe Straits Times\u003c\/em\u003e very helpfully put out a call for Teo Poh Leng’s next-of-kin. And Anne Teo answered that call, adding another interesting layer to this poetic adventure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEriko’s persistent detective work has now uncovered not just a Singapore poet lost in the chaos of the Japanese Occupation, but an incredibly moving story of brother-poets and a family bound by love and literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSingapore owes a debt of gratitude to Eriko and all who assisted in her search to resurface a formidable pre-war Singapore poet, and in the process uncovered a rich literary trail for others to follow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch2 style=\"background-color: #6ba292; color: #ffffff; padding: 8px 12px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold;\"\u003eAbout The Author\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDr. Eriko Ogihara-Schuck\u003c\/strong\u003e, originally from Japan, is a lecturer in American Studies at Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShe is the author of Miyazaki‘s Animism Abroad: The Reception of Japanese Religious Themes by American and German Audiences (2014). She spent her teenage years in Singapore before continuing her studies in Japan, the United States, and Germany.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ethos Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49662836834563,"sku":null,"price":57.0,"currency_code":"MYR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0777\/3146\/3427\/files\/finding-francis-1.webp?v=1789896408","url":"https:\/\/grassrootsbookroom.com\/products\/finding-francis-a-poetic-adventure","provider":"草根书室","version":"1.0","type":"link"}