Meeting Tan Twan Eng

Yup! That's me and our proud Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng! Lol...


 I've arrived at the event after 2pm. The set-up was ready and no one has arrived yet. Walking around while waiting, I saw two of Tan's books on display at a nearby counter. There were the regular-sized and larger-sized copies of The Garden of the Evening Mists, and some of the larger-sized copies were signed.

The event set-up

Some copies taken after the event

Just before 3pm, I saw some people were seated. One of them was the author himself.

The man himself

Unfortunately, expectedly and shamefully, the turn-out was low with the audiences included his friends that came with him and just a handful of others who came for the event.

The event was very casual, with Tan giving a brief introduction of his book and answering some questions. Afterwards, he signed some books.

I brought my copy of The Gift of Rain and bought the new book there for Tan to autograph.

I managed to chat with Tan a bit because of a mutual friend, who was an ex-colleague of mine. He's a soft-spoken man, very humble and from what I gathered, quite passionate in Aikido.

A couple of people showed up for autographs and photos. I left quite early, so I'm not sure if more people went for the event later on. I'm glad I attended and have my first autographed books.