WHEN Nu Nu Yi (Inwa) was short-listed two months ago for the Asian Literary Prize with her contemporary classic novel, Smile As They Bow, Laugh As They Bow, it was as if a bubble had risen and shattered the surface of a long-stagnant pond.

While the 20th century delivered a slew of classic Myanmar novels, pickings in recent years have been slim.

Books like James Hla Kyaw’s Maung Yin Maung Ma Me Ma – the first novel ever published in the country, which came out in 1904 – opened a new chapter in Myanmar’s literary history because it was not a traditional Buddhist morality tale.

Works that followed were classed as “contemporary classic” novels, or contem-porary novels written in a classic style – they were set in the historical period in which the author lived but integrated fictional tales and characters.

Examples of these works are Dagon Taya’s May (1941) in which he wrote with a sympathetic hand about how an educated middle-class woman becomes a courtesan to the elite.

And other writers like Maung Htin followed; he portrayed the lives of downtrodden farmers in his 1947 book Nga Ba, while Thein Pe Myint depicted the country’s struggle for independence in his historical novel Asheka Naywun Htwat Thi Pama (1958).

However, by the end of the 20th century, the pool of contemporary classic Myan-mar novels had started evaporating. This issue has been a hotly debated topic since the late 1990s.

U San Oo, a writer and a publisher who runs Seikku Cho Cho Publishing, said a number of factors have caused the decline.

“In the past we’ve had many platforms to help writers present their works, such as daily newspapers and periodicals,” he said. “Avid readers looked forward to reading their serialised novels with keen interest before they were published as books.

“A few magazines focus on fiction now but most of them can’t compete in the market in the long run,” he added.

The few novelists who prospered in the 1990s reduced the number of books they were writing because the industry was not paying their bills any more. They could not risk completing new works because there were no guaranteed buyers, he said.

The third point U San Oo makes revolves around the actual definition of a “classic novel”.

“A contemporary classic novel is defined by how in-depth it investigates its period,” he said.

Nay Win Myint, a former winner of Myanmar’s National Literary Award, echoed U San Oo on this point.

“I once discussed this topic with another literary scholar, the late Takkatho Hpone Naing. He said most recently released contemporary classic novels were written in a vacuum and are dedicated only to a particular group or a generation of people, rather than a broader audience.”

Prominent fiction writer Nyo Tun Lu said amateur writers produce fewer novels because “they write only when they want to write” and must do other work to survive. But professional writers, he said, rely on new books for their income and must strike a balance between writing for money and living for the experiences that their stories draw on.

“Most of today’s writers survive on a hand-to-mouth existence,” he said.
Nyo Tun Lu also highlighted the growing influence of material comforts, meaning people – especially younger people – are not reading as much.

“In the last 15 years, information technology has transformed the whole world with computers, satellite televisions, mobile phones and the internet, which youths are seriously addicted to,” he said.

Nyo Tun Lu said people from both the city and countryside have switched from renting books to renting VCDs or DVDs for the simple fact that only one person can read at one time, while many watch a movie.

While writers and readers are facing their own challenges, publishers say the contemporary classic novel industry is in the red.

“There is no guarantee that if we publish a novel we will make a profit and most publishers are reluctant to invest in them because there will be only a few buyers,” U San Oo said.

He added there is a huge discrepancy between sales of non-fiction and fiction books. Novels – whether they are translated versions of international best-sellers or the writers’ own creations – never top the list of best-selling books in Myanmar, he said.

In such an uncertain climate, publishers have focussed on reprinting classic novels rather than risking a new work, which has led to a nasty cycle forming.

Publishers print other, more profitable, books; writers struggle to produce enough books and are put off by the lack of personal gains; and readers choose other types of novels or another enter-tainment medium entirely.

“For new classic novels to come out, we need to create opportunities,” U San Oo said. “We need more journals and magazines to act as platforms for creative literature, as well as more writers who don’t seek much profit because they probably won’t get paid for the effort they’ve put in.”