Lloyd Fernado

About him

Lloyd Fernando was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka in 1926, and migrated to Singapore with his family in 1938. After obtaining his PhD in Literature in English from Leeds University, he served as Head of the English Department at the University of Malaya from 1967 to 1978, then took an early retirement at 52 to study Law in London. Fernando was admitted as Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 1980, at the age of 54.

Fernando is best known in the literary world for his novel Scorpion Orchid. His other novel, Green is the Colour, also explores the issues of identity and cultures in a multi-ethnic society. For his contribution to the University of Malaya, he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus in 2005. Fernando passed away in 2008, leaving behind his wife, Marie, two daughters and four grandchildren.

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/804502.Lloyd_Fernando 

His works

v  Green Is The Colour

v  Scorpion Orchid

v  Twenty-Two Malaysian Stories

v  Malaysian Short Stories

v  "New Women" in the Late Victorian Novel

v  Cultures in Conflict

\

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/804502.Lloyd_Fernando

Green is The Colour

This novel by Lloyd Fernando is about racial and religious tolerance set against the shadow of the 1969 riots in Kuala Lumpur. A story of humanity struggling against the cold inhumanity of closed minds.

The central concern of this work is how people of different races face the challenges of living side by side. After the infamous May 13, an artificial togetherness has been created to prevent more such occurrence. Then, fresh violence breaks out and into this are thrown several characters of different races, religions and political affiliations, and different levels of tolerance. An uncompromising look at Malaysia's past, it articulates with keen insight some unexpressed truths about how we see each other in a multi-racial world. A Malaysian classic.

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5975995-green-is-the-colour

Scorpion Orchid

About this novel

-Malaysian novel to address race as the major social issue challenging Malaysia/ Singapore.

•Fernando states, "I believe no Malaysian writer can claim to be writing with truth if he does not carry, woven into his fiction, the reality of relationships between the races, and its unavoidable undertow of threatened violence.”

SETTING & THEME

•Set in 1950’s Singapore – a time of racial tension and nationalistic uprising

•Theme of national birth and the anxieties present regarding racial conflict and ethnic self interest

SYNOPSIS

An exciting first novel set in pre-independence Singapore. Scorpion Orchid follows the lives of four young men—a Malay, an Eurasian, a Chinese and a Tamil—against a backdrop of racial violence and political factions struggling for dominance. Excerpts from classical Malay and colonial English sources appear throughout the narrative, illuminating the roots and significance of this period in history.

THE TEXT AS METAPHOR

•Text is a metaphor for growth of a new nation •The four young men gain a new awareness of their ethnic identities as the negotiate the race riots that destroy their complacent sense of camaraderie •The new awareness is central to their transition from adolescence to adult life •Represents the Malayan society and the transition between former tolerance and present assertiveness

•Scorpion Orchid generally preserves an allegorical distance between the personal and the political. • The personal and the political develop along parallel lines and mirror one another, and when they do intersect they remain clearly defined

CHARACTERS

•Santi, a Tamil Indian, Sabran, a Malay, Guan Kheng, a Chinese, and Peter, a Eurasian.

•Santinathan – Indian, refuses to observe conventions of university life, gets expelled – ends up as village schoolteacher

•Sabran – Malay, involved in politics, gets arrested and his future prospects somewhat set back considerably 

•Sabran reflects on his family in the kampung (village) that has sacrificed for his education and which exerts a strong emotional pull on him, but is in no position to offer him either comfort or advice.

•Guan Kheng – Chinese, comes from wealthy family, feels betrayed by the Malays who suddenly consider him a foreigner. Peter D’Almeida – Eurasian, confused about his identity, loses faith in ‘new’ Singapore, emigrates to England after he is beaten up in a riot (comes back at the end)

•Sally – uncertain ethnic background and origin, works at a hawker stall, part time prostitute, has an ambiguous relationship with all four men involving sex, money and love, although they pay her for sex she is treated as a friend

Source: http://www.shvoong.com/humanities/theory-criticism/2327783-scorpion-orchid/#ixzz2xRG6eE8i