HOUSE OF THE WEEK

A Golden Valley white out

UNBEKNOWST to Myanmar’s diligent meteorological department, an extremely localised snowstorm has carpeted the interior of this two-storey Golden Valley house. more

Yangon Weather Forecast, Burma

Word on the street

U WIN NAING, also known as Aw Pi Kyeh, is one of the most famous cartoonists working in the country. Despite studying Engineering at University, and achieving a M.A. in Public Administration from Harvard, U Win Naing chose to work as an artist and has enjoyed a great deal of success over the past 40 years.

Why did you choose to be a cartoonist?

I was always very interested in cartoons and engineering since the time I was young. I did not become a cartoonist by accident, it was my aim. When I attended the Yangon Institute of Technology (YIT) I was more involved in drawing cartoons. When I was attending Harvard University I was also working there as a cartoonist, even though the degree was in Public Administration, they chose me as a cartoonist. I learned that subject because cartoonists must be knowledgeable so when I passed the exam to attend there I decided to learn that subject.

You’ve been doing a lot to raise environmental awareness through cartoons lately.

I started doing this through cartoons that educate about plastics. When I got one of the pamphlets raising awareness about use of plastics from a Christian organization, I felt it was so boring to read because they put too many words in it. I believe that when we want to spread awareness about an issue we should make the pamphlet interesting, otherwise people will not be interested in it and won’t read it to the end. We need to give them short and interesting messages.

What kind of fields are you working to educate people in?

Environmentalism, consumerism and disaster [prevention]. What I have wanted to draw for a long time is a history of cartoons. I would also would like to do a graphic novel. This is not just a comic but more of a novel. But I am not sure when I might be able to do these things as they will take me a long time.

How else are you educating people apart from cartoons?

I am holding some public lectures when requested by close friends. As I am not an expert in those subjects I can only give some basic knowledge to people. When people know the basic knowledge then they can learn more about the specific topic if they are really interested and they can also discuss with people in the specific profes-sions concerning their interest. For example, there are many reasons why every-body should know how to swim but not everybody needs to be a champion… I worry though that if we try to educate all the time then we will be weaken cartoons because real car-toons are very precious.

What do you mean by real cartoons?

Real cartoons are not focused on giving infor-mation or educating people, they are just for entertainment.

How do you find your material?

We just have to open the door of our hearts and eyes, everything that is happening around us is raw material but we have to read a lot to analyse how we should accomplish or use those raw materials correctly.

What opportunities do you see for those who want to be cartoonists?

There are many opport-unities because nowadays many magazines and journals are publishing them so they will have a forum even though they will not get much money. And they also have many opportunities to learn how to draw if they are interested. There are many books to read about how to draw cartoons.

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