Lloyd Fernando was born to a Sinhalese family in Sri Lanka in 1926. In 1938, his family migrated to Singapore. Mr. Fernando was educated at St Patrick’s in Singapore, with the Japanese occupation interrupting that education from 1943 to 1945. During the Japanese attack on Singapore, Mr. Fernando’s father was killed. During the Japanese occupation, Fernando worked in a variety of manual labor jobs.
Lloyd Fernando thereafter graduated from the University of Malaya in Singapore, and subsequently served as an instructor at the Singapore Polytechnic. Lloyd Fernando became an assistant lecturer at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur in 1960. Mr. Fernando was awarded a scholarship at Leeds University, UK where he received his PhD.
In 1967 Fernando was appointed to serve as a professor at the English Department of the University of Malaya, where he served until his retirement in 1978. Subsequently, Mr. Fernando studied law at City University in the United Kingdom and then at Middle Temple, returning to Malaysia with two law degrees, whereupon he was employed by a law firm, and thereafter started a separate law practice business. In 1997, Mr. Fernando had a stroke and ceased his professional activities. He passed away on 28th February in 2008, leaving behind his wife,Marie, two daughters and four grandchildren.
About Lloyd Fernando
Lloyd Fernando was one of the major writers of the tradition in Malaysia besides Wong Phui Nam and Lee Kok Liang. He was instrumental in instilling inspiration in many of the younger writers when he was a professor of English at the University of Malaya.His several edited anthologies also played a significant role in the formative years of the tradition. Lloyd Fernando was perhaps the best known of the Malaysian literary critics in the English language, having published numerous articles both at home and abroad. Lloyd Fernando was a trailblazer, a pathfinder in Malaysian literature and culture and for his many contributions for English writings in the country, especially during the early years of Malaysia's independence.
Lloyd Fernando's list of works
Scorpion Orchid-1976, first published by Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) in 1976. The novel is set in Singapore in the 1950s.
New Women in the late Victorian novel -1977
Cultures in Conflict-1986
Green is the Colour-1993, is a track on Pink Floyd's 1969,
Soundtrack from the Film More
Twenty-Two Malaysian Stories: an anthology of writing in English(editor)
Summary of Scorpion Orchid
The plot entwines four young men of differing ethnic make-up: Santinathan is a Tamil Guan Kheng a Chinese, Sabran a Malay and Peter D'Almeida a Eurasian. The four of them were former schoolmates and now attends the Singapore university, all in their third year. The story follows them as they become embroiled with the racial riots in Singapore during the 1950s. A distinctive feature of Scorpion Orchid lies in fourteen italicized passages of varying length, drawn from traditional Malayan texts and interwoven into the narrative.
Summary of Green Is The Colour
This novel is about racial and religious tolerance set against the shadow of the 1969 riots in Kuala Lumpur. A story of humanity struggling against the cold inhumanity of closed minds.
The central concern of this work is how people of different races face the challenges of living side by side. After the infamous May 13, an artificial togetherness has been created to prevent more such occurrence. Then, fresh violence breaks out and into this are thrown several characters of different races, religions and political affiliations, and different levels of tolerance. An uncompromising look at Malaysia's past, it articulates with keen insight some unexpressed truths about how we see each other in a multi-racial world. A Malaysian classic.
Something about Scorpion Orchid and Green Is The Colour
Green Is The Colour was set in the tumultuous,even savage aftermath of the May 1969 racial riots in Malaysia, this novels explores the issues of racial violence and political strife through its multi-racial characters, in particular, Yun Ming, Siti Sara,Omar and Dahlan. Out of an environment of paranoia and suspicion,how might a unified country emerge? Scorpion Orchid was written when English was in the doldrums and writers in the language were exposed to the deep futility of pursuing it as a creative medium,forcing many of them to either emigrate( Ee Tiang Hong and Shirley Lim),choose silence( Wong Phui Nam,who stopped writing for over two decades), or cross over to the Malay language(Muhammad Haji Salleh, who quizzically concluded,"Should I lick the hand that strangles my language and culture"{Nor Faridah and Quayum , 124}). Despite this overwhelming crisis, Fernando decided to stay the course and bring out his novel, not so much as a marker of challenge to the country's language policy,but rather out of a simple conviction that a writer is not free to choose his language but must write in one in which he "not only thinks but also feels in the depths of {his}beings".
Fernando cultivates a similar message for Scorpion Orchid and Green Is The Colour that they should view themselves first and foremost as Malaysians,only then as Malays, Chinese, Indians,or Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians. Prioritising their national identity is vital for Malaysians to overcome their narrow selfishness, prejudice and hatred and to learn to view their cultural diversity as a boon.
Works cited
Fernando, Lloyd. Green Is The
Colour. Singapore: Epigrams
Books,2012.Print.
Quayum, Mohammad A., Rosli Talif
, and Noritah Omar. Petals of Hibiscus:A Representative Anthology of Malaysian
Literature in English. Petaling Jaya: Pearson, 2003.Print.
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