Three Malaysians Win International Manga Award

KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 (Bernama) -- Three Malaysians cartoonists were among the winners of the 5th International Manga Award -- an award established to honor Manga artists who contributed to promote the cartoon outside Japan. Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia, Shigeru Nakamura said Malaysia had submitted the second highest number of entries with 21 submissions to the award last year, which gathered a total of 145 entries from 30 countries and regions. "I am very happy to see so many Malaysians cartoonists participating in the International Manga Award and it is amazing that out of 14 winners, three of them are from Malaysia," he said at the prize-giving ceremony held at his residence here, Thursday. All three cartoonists were awarded the Bronze Award by the International Manga Award Committee chaired by Japan's Foreign Affairs Minister, Koichiro Gemba. A 37-year-old mechanical engineer, Chong Chiew Choy, said the idea to draw "A Letter to Father" came from his imagination, as through imagination it could be expressed into drawings. "I start my interest towards Manga since I was six years old. I felt shocked when I won this competition, nobody encouraged me but it come from my own heart to be involved in this kind of competition," he said when met at the ceremony. For Chang Lee Ying, 26, who won for the second time, interest in comics made her join the competition and produce a comic titled "Ice Cream Baby". "This is my second time joining the competition because before this I had join the 1st International Manga Award. I felt happy because I won it again and I will keep drawing in the future," said the cartoonist who starts drawing after finishing her secondary education. Another winner was Tan Zien Yun with his artwork "X-Venture: Terror Raptor". -- BERNAMA