Winner, Bronze, 7th International MANGA Awards 2014
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Illegal bookie. Secret society member. Street hawker.
Neo Hock Seng is all these, and more. As Singapore transforms from a kampong to a cosmopolitan city, Hock Seng struggles to make sense of life and eke out a living, even as he finds his old ways and values increasingly challenged.
“Incredibly moving and rejuvenating…It has been a while since a book left me sobbing in the middle of the night.”
— Akshita Nanda, The Straits Times
“The artwork is able to convey the gravity of Hock Seng’s life and does a great job of fleshing out the changes in his face over the years...the graphic narrative is well worth reading, especially as it dovetails with the discourses of hypermodernization that have long seen associated with Singapore as one of the Asian ‘tiger’ economies. What is being lost in this relentless drive to become a global city, the narrative might seem to be elliptically asking? Hock Seng would tell us to make sure to look into the local past before we step so stridently into the global future.”
—Stephen Hong, Asian American Literature Fans
Oh Yong Hwee is the CEO and Creative Director of Patroids Creative Works, a Singapore-based creative agency. He enjoys the challenge of conceptualising ideas that blend creativity and technology, and has won awards and accolades at the local, regional and international stage.
In July 2011, Yong Hwee and comic artist Koh Hong Teng were invited by The Straits Times to imagine how a Singapore superhero would be like. Their co-creation was published in Life!.
He earned his BSc in Computing from the University of London while serving as a naval officer in the Singapore Navy.
Koh Hong Teng is a comics artist and painter based in Singapore. He published the two-volume Gone Case: A Graphic Novel, Book 1 and 2, with writer Dave Chua in 2010 and 2011 respectively. In 2011, he received the Arts Creation Fund from Singapore’s National Arts Council in support of Last Train at Tanjong Pagar.
The graphic novel Ten Sticks and One Rice, illustrated by Hong Teng and written by Oh Yong Hwee, was published by Epigram Books in November 2012 and won a Bronze Award at the 7th International MANGA Awards. Hong Teng has also produced comics and artwork for the National Library Board’s irememberSG project and Project LAVA respectively, and is an external examiner for final-year illustration projects at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. He also illustrated a colouring book, Blks & Nos.
