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PaperTigers is a proud sponsor of  the 3rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) which takes place this week in Singapore. From May 26 – 29, participants from around the globe will gather ” to meet, interact, network and find common ground and business opportunities with the entire community of children’s content creators.” Last year’s AFCC  was highly successful with over 600 conference participants from 23 countries. ( Read our blog posts about the 2011 AFCC by clicking here and our website focus issue on Singapore and the Asian Festival of Children’s Content by clicking here). The 2012 AFCC is bound to break  attendance records with the introduction of new awards, a country focus (Philippines), specialized language workshops and a greater reach to communities in Asia. Be sure to check the AFCC’s Facebook page for timely updates and photos from this year’s event as well as the AFCC website . If you are lucky enough to be attending this year’s conference and will be blogging, facebooking or tweeting please leave a comment below with the relevant links so we can follow along!

The 2012 Asian Festival of Children’s Content (of which PaperTigers  is a proud sponsor!) will take place May 26 – 29 in Singapore. Programme Director Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal has just announced that “For the first time, the AFCC is launching a Regional Focus during the conference, a tradition that we hope will continue throughout the coming years. I am very happy to share that the Country of Focus this year is the Philippines.”

This week there are two exciting press events happening for the 2012 AFCC. One in Manila….

And one in Singapore…

For more details on these events and to learn more about what is being planned for the 2012 AFCC, head on over to Myra’s blog Gathering Books and read her latest post “Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore: Bigger, Bolder, and Brighter.”

The deadline for submissions to the 2012 Scholastic Asian Book Award is just under a month away, on 17 October 2011 – 5.00p.m. Singapore time.

The National Book Development Council of Singapore and Scholastic Asia have jointly launched the 2012 Scholastic Asian Book Award (SABA). The award will recognise Asians and writers in Asia who are taking the experiences of life, spirit and thinking in different parts of Asia to the world at large. SABA is awarded to an unpublished manuscript (original or translation) targeted at children of ages 6 to 12 years.

This year’s inaugural award was won by Uma Krishnaswami and we can’t wait to see the book. Former Managing Editor of PaperTigers Aline Pereira was one of the judges: read about her Personal View about the Award and the Asian Festival of Children’s Content, where the Award Announcement was made.

For more information, visit the SABA website.

Head on over to the PaperTigers website to read Mr. Rama Ramachandran’s article Writers and Illustrators Emerging on the Singapore Scene.

Mr. Rama Ramachandran is the Executive Director of the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS). Over the course of his career as a librarian, including in his role as National Librarian of Singapore, he was always actively involved in the NBDCS, serving as its Honorary Secretary and subsequently as its Chairman. Following his retirement from the National Library, he was appointed Secretary General of the International Federation of Libraries and Institutions (IFLA). In 2006, he was invited to become Executive  Director of the NBDCS, in order to bring to fruition the vision he had had for the organisation during his term as Chairman. One of the initiatives he has brought into being is the acclaimed Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC), an annual event that has now been running for two years. You can read our recent interview with Mr. Ramachandran by clicking here.

Last year in Singapore a new children’s literature conference was launched: The Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC). Organized by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and The Arts House, the mission of the AFCC was (and is) to foster excellence in the creation, production and publication of children’s materials with Asian content in all formats and to facilitate their distribution and access, first in Asia and then to children worldwide. The AFCC noted:

Over a billion children in Asia lack good resources, both for their education and entertainment. Those who have the means and the access, benefit from a wide selection of edutainment material available from the West. Asian material, even those available, is seldom promoted and is therefore left unexplored. Bringing quality Asian content to children is paramount as it would make children aware of Asia’s unique environment and cultural values, promote understanding of, and love for, the literary and visual arts. It will thereby lay the foundation for a good and all-round education. This will benefit parents, teachers, librarians and children in Asia as well as the world.

The inaugural AFCC festival was a huge success with over 400 participants from 17 countries attending, and dates were promptly set for the 2nd AFCC to be held 26 – 28 May 2011. Here at PaperTigers we were eager to attend the 2011 festival, especially when the opportunity arose to conduct an AFCC panel discussion with Tarie Sabido (Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind) and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal (Gathering Books.org). So on May 23rd I departed Vancouver, Canada and headed to Singapore, brimming with excitement and enthusiasm (and a wee bit of nervousness at the thought of my panel presentation) and eager to take part in all the AFCC had to offer.  I was thrilled at the thought of this opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals all eager to discuss Asian children’s and young adult literature.

This was my first time visiting Singapore and I was immediately struck by how perfect a spot it was to hold a festival that focused on the gathering of people from Pacific Rim and South Asia countries. Singapore’s geographical location has resulted in the the country historically being a gathering spot for people of many ethnicities and religions.  The majority of Singaporeans is of Chinese descent (74% according to the 2009 census); 13.4% are of Malay and 9.2% of Indian descent. There are four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil; and multiple religions are represented. The multicultural flavor of Singapore is represented in the distinct ethnic neighbourhoods – Chinatown, Little India and the Arab Quarter – as well as the large number of religious buildings, some of which have great historical significance. The Singapore government recognizes the importance of racial and religious harmony and, of course, this is something that we all would like to see promoted and reflected in children’s literature.

To be in such a multicultural city and then to have even more cultures represented, as attendees arrived for t

Aline Pereira is an independent writer, editor and media consultant specializing in multicultural children’s books, and until January this year, she was Managing Editor of PaperTigers, a post she had held since 2004. So we are very happy to welcome her back with a Personal View she wrote following her attendance of the Asian Festival of Asian Content in Singapore in May.

Aline had a special part to play in the Festival as she was one of the judges for the inaugural Scholastic Asian Book Award, along with “Chief Judge Nury Vittachi, journalist and Hong Kong’s best-selling English language author; Anushka Ravishankar, award-winning children’s poet and author (India); John McKenzie, principal lecturer at the School of Literacies and Arts in Education at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand); and literary agent Kelly Sonnack (Kelly grew up in Singapore), from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency (US).”

In her article, Aline shares with us her impressions of the Festival as a whole, and gives us a peek behind the scenes of the award. You can read the whole article here - and here are a couple of extracts to whet your appetite.

The big picture

A consistent thread seemed to run through a good number of the panels and sessions, as well as through informal conversations: “There are plenty of valid ways to produce and deliver a book”. This naturally led to discussions about the enormous changes the publishing world has gone through in the last decade or so, and all the things that have played a part in these changes. And to think that there was a time, not long ago, when people believed the Internet was a passing fad… Now one can only ignore the internet, social media and digital platforms at one’s peril. Without a doubt, these new technologies have affected the way children’s books are acquired, published and marketed, but one of the many things I came away with from those sessions and conversations was that having these new tools, platforms and processes is simply a means, not the end goal. Without losing sight of readers’ needs, the end goal continues to be finding ways to foster the creation, reception, and dissemination of a diverse children’s literature in all genres, mediums and platforms. When it comes to bringing children and books together, it should never be an either/or scenario, but a “the more, the better” one. After all, why get territorial and deaf to voices (platforms, devices) that are not our own? With regards to Asian content, AFCC was a call to join forces in that effort.

One of my favorite sessions was presented by US publisher Neal Porter (Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press) on which types of books travel well to other countries, which don’t, and why. He calls himself an “intuitive publisher”, meaning he publishes what he loves, without worrying too much about the marketability of a project – a privilege most publishers these days don’t have, and one he’s earned after decades of hard work and a successful track record. I have always admired Neal’s imprint, so it was wonderful to learn about which of his books have traveled successfully to/from other countries, even if the majority of the examples given were of books that have traveled between the US and

0 Comments on The 2011 Asian Festival of Children’s Content and its Bounties by Aline Pereira as of 1/1/1900

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Last month I was fortunate to attend the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) in Singapore. Each day of the Festival was jam-packed with activities and it was truly an incredible experience to be surrounded by people from all over the globe who shared such a passion for children’s literature. You can read my previous posts about the Festival by clicking here and if you click here on the Gathering Books blog Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal has compiled a list of  links to blog posts about the AFCC.

One presentation that I haven’t blogged about yet but want to share with you was entitled  “The Asian Children’s Publishing Symposium Parallel: Asian Markets and Experiences”. I almost missed this session as I lost track of time while perusing and purchasing books in the Media Mart but thank goodness I arrived in time to get a seat as this presentation was a highlight for me. The three panelists: Le Phuong Lien, Head of Children’s Literature at the Vietnamese Writer’s Association; Sayoni Basu, Publishing Director at Scholastic India; and Linda Tan Lingard, Managing Partner of Yusof Gagah Lingard Literary Agency Malaysia, each gave an overview of the history and current state of children’s publishing in their respective countries. Each of these ladies is definitely an expert in their field and I certainly learned a lot. Children’s literature published in Vietnam is a subject I have been eager to learn more about but have had difficulty finding information on so it was a great pleasure in particular to listen to Mrs. Le Phuong accompanied by her lovely daughter who acted as a translator.

Mrs. Le Phuong  discussed three pieces of literature for Vietnamese children, from three different time eras, that highlighted the efforts of  “the Vietnamese writer in the expression of Vietnamese culture for children”.  She noted that  “the trend of searching, realizing and praising the original beauty with strong local characteristics is now being emphasized more and more in the writing for children in Vietnam”.  She also shared her thoughts on the impact of global development and harmonization with respect to Vietnamese children’s literature and also why conferences such as the AFCC are important.  You can downloaded Mrs. Le Phuong’s presentation here and view her power point slides 0 Comments on The Asian Children’s Publishing Symposium Parallel: Asian Markets and Experiences ~ Day 2 at the AFCC as of 1/1/1900