Fann Wong Releasing More Children’s Books After Publishing Her First One in 2004

By
Lin Jiawen
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Did you know that apart from being one of Mediacorp’s most famous actresses, Fann Wong is also an author and illustrator?

Well, if you don’t, you know now.

Fann Wong Releasing More Children’s Books

While many of us may have spent our extra free time during the COVID-19 pandemic doing nothing but scrolling through Netflix and Instagram, Wong, 51, not only opened up her own bakery, Fanntasy Bakes, but also dived back into writing books.

Sigh. I wish I had that level of productivity.

On 4 February, she took to Instagram and Facebook to announce the upcoming release of two of her new children’s books.

In the post, she talked about how her new series was inspired by her observations as a mother and actress during this COVID-19 pandemic.

This marks the first time that Wong has published books since the release of her last book in 2004, a semi-autobiographical book titled Girl Illustrated.

She also mentioned that the series will have four books in total and that she will be revealing the other two in due time.

The series is also a bilingual one: it will be printed in both English and Traditional Chinese.

The first two books in the series will be released tomorrow (10 February), so take note if you’d like to purchase them!

The Books

According to Wong’s Instagram post, the two books that she has revealed are titled “Awesome, the Little Loud Boy” (大声的棒棒) and “Planet Virus” (病毒星球).

Image: Kinokuniya

The former, “Awesome, the Little Loud Boy”, is about how a skilled boy has one flaw: talking too loudly wherever he goes, causing those around him to feel vexed.

However, that all changes when he steps into a special ice-cream store and encounters the owner, who finds ways to get him to stop this bad habit.

According to Kinokuniya’s website, this book aims to educate children on how to better themselves through cultivating empathy and learning how to see things from different perspectives, especially since we may not be aware of the full impacts of our actions at times.

The book is available for pre-order at $29.40 here.

Image: Kinokuniya

Meanwhile, the latter, “Virus Planet”, appropriate for the pandemic situation we’re faced with right now just by its title, inculcates positive values related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plot involves the Virus King wanting to invade Earth, which prompts him to send two soldiers to test the waters first before planning a more detailed attack on Earth.

The two soldiers invade the home of a pair of brothers and compete to see who can infect their assigned brother first, with the winner being able to help the King in war planning.

The story then continues to document the journey of the soldiers trying to infect the two brothers and the competition between the duo.

According to Kinokuniya’s website, the book aims to cultivate good hygiene habits in children by allowing them to understand the fact that these habits play a crucial role in preventing illness, an extremely important lesson during this pandemic period.

The book, which also costs $29.40, is available for preorder here.

The Process

Did you know that Wong’s childhood dream was to become an illustrator?

When interviewed by Lianhe Zaobao, Wong revealed her childhood dream and also added that seeing her books get published gave her a huge sense of achievement.

She also shared that after becoming a mother, she reads to her son before bed every day. Noting that her son liked English books, she came up with the idea of releasing illustrated books with bright illustrations to attract the attention of children like him.

However, not everything along the journey was smooth-sailing.

Wong also told Zaobao that the entire process of completing the books took almost a year due to her self-doubt and self-criticism when she first started drafting them. This led to her redoing her illustrations over and over again.

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Despite the initial difficulties that she faced, Wong mentioned that this opportunity was a stellar one that provided her with a creative outlet.

Sharing her inspiration behind writing these books, Wong recalled, “I wasn’t able to fly to many places for filming due to the COVID-19 pandemic and stayed in Singapore instead. During this period of time, I had a lot of creative ideas while in Singapore.”

Being unable to fly for work and missing out on various filming opportunities, as well as not being in the same country as husband Christopher Lee were definitely less than pleasant for Wong, but writing the books offered her a way to express her ideas and pick up an old hobby for sure.

When asked about her hopes for the upcoming year, Wong also brought up how she hopes that there will be Simplified Chinese editions of her books in the near future, presumable to make them more accessible to Singaporeans since local schools teach Simplified Chinese in school.

In response to her Instagram post, many celebrities such as Dennis Chow and Quan Yi Fong left comments of encouragement and congratulations, with most of such comments praising her talents as well.

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Featured Image: Facebook (Fann Wong 范文芳)

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Lin Jiawen
Email: [email protected]