Title: Red Sun Over Malaya: John Man’s Ordeal. The Japanese Occupation seen through tears and laughter, irony and pity, frustration and faith.
Author: Ooi Cheng-Teik
Publisher: Self-published, printed by the Caxton Press. Kuala Lumpur, 1948.
Condition: Paperback. Very good. A scarce book Minor foxing, name inscription on cover. No other defect.
About the book:
This is a strange collection of anti-Japanese, pro-British poems written by a Malaysian Chinese from Klang and self-published in 1948. The author terms it a satire. Here is an excerpt:
The Monkey’s Way to Power
Around an axis turns the globe. Does it
Imply the axis spins it every bit?
The Ape in Chinese lore, whirlwinding round,
Ruler of Heaven and Earth asked to be crowned
As he had might magic, but no whit
Beyond the Buddha’s fingers could be found,
Around himself both earth and heaven he thought
To spin – the Axis that Dark Wisdom taught,
But in the toils of his own wiles was caught.
It takes more than a monkey mind to spin
The world around itself as axis-pin
Without a slip, breakdown or utter ruin.
If jackanapish wits be let to swing
Affairs for their own gain, indeed they’ll bring
More of their kind our necks to choke and wring.
Corrective fillet and Buddha’s Lotus Flower
Will edify the Monkey’s Way to Power.
The ronin Ape and Nazi Pig and Fascist Sand
With Spirit the Master should pilgrim to the Enlightened land.