Teen poet wins 2nd global prize

Amanda Chong's piece on starving kids wins top British award; she clinched Commonwealth essay prize last year

MOST of us have heard this meal-time mantra: 'Finish your food. Children are starving in Africa.' But Amanda Chong, 16, not only finished her food, she also wrote an award-winning poem about the hungry children as well.

She is one of 15 winners and the only one from Asia to win this year's Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, Britain's most prestigious poetry prize for young writers between the ages of 11 and 17.

The winners were chosen from almost 6,000 entries worldwide.

'The awards ceremony was great because I got to meet the other winners from different parts of the world and many of them like the same poets as I do,' said Amanda, of the Oct 9 event in London.

Winning international awards is not new to the Secondary 4 student of Raffles Girls' School.
Last year, she won the annual Commonwealth Essay Competition with a short story: What The Modern Woman Wants. It focused on the conflict in values between an old woman and her independent-minded daughter.

Her poem, How To Watch A Child Die, is about 'our apathy towards global problems, and the strange ability of people in developed countries (like ours), to dismiss these issues after a cursory glance', she told The Sunday Times.

Poet George Szirtes, one of the two judges in this year's competition, said Amanda's poem was picked because 'it seemed to us a passionate, yet controlled, precise and impressively mature work.' He added: 'A point of view, however sympathetic, does not constitute a poem. Language does, and here, we felt, language, music, intelligence and feeling had come together most productively.'

The poem was partially inspired by pictures of hungry children in Africa as well as a school trip to Britain and France, where Amanda learnt about the Industrial Revolution.

'There was a strong sense of apathy during the Industrial Revolution towards child labour and that sort of apathy remains till today,' she said.

Human rights, fair trade and the environment are among Amanda's pet causes. Her interest in world issues and her love for reading and writing were nurtured at a young age by her lawyer father. 'My dad would tell us stories. He would also summarise world events for us so we knew what was going on,' said the second of four children.

'I started writing fantasy stories at age six, before I could even spell properly,' she added. Her favourite authors and poets include Victor Hugo, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

Her mother, housewife Alison Chong, 44, admits some of her daughter's poetry are, on the first reading, Greek to her. 'If I ask her what she means, she rolls her eyes,' said Mrs Chong.

Her English and literature teacher, Miss Ng Siew Luan, 30, said: 'She's very socially aware and her simple style belies a deeper message that is able to strike at the heart of her readers.'

As for her future, Amanda wants to read law at Oxford or Cambridge University in England. 'I want to work with an international organisation like the United Nations. Hopefully, through policy-making, I can help make a difference.'



HOW TO WATCH A CHILD DIE
- By Amanda Chong

Avert your gaze from his eyes,
even if they plead for you to be drawn to their depths.
Instead focus on his sallow complexion the sun crawling on his aged skin,
the colour of the well-trodden carpet in your living room;
the spot where your son once threw his football boots
and you missed bleachingfor the past few years.

Do not try to guess his age
or say he is older than he looks as you study his brittle bones,
too-large headand the empty basket of his ribcage.
Think instead of the sound they may make when his body is thrown into a ditch;
the sound of rain whipping through branches, the crackling of a creek before thaw
or your antique vase crashing into smithereens from its place on the mantelpiece.

Turn away from the blank faces of your own children
and make no associations.
Pretend you do not notice how your teenager leaves her food uneaten on her plate.
(Convince yourself you are not an escapist) After all,
this skeletal child is merely a marionette in a macabre fairytale.

Now, ignore the queasy feeling in your stomach
as you get up to dish out the dessert.
Resolve to write to the authorities to complain
for showing such disturbing footage during dinner.
Be blind to the broken birds of the child's hands as they reach out pleading to be held,
the rolling whites of his eyes, the bruised animals of his lips, parting, as he takes his last...

Turn off the television set.
Children should not know that (in some very remote parts of the world)
they may die before their mothers.

Melissa Sim
The Sunday Times @ The Straits Times Interactive, 30 October 2005