Paperback:
The Rose does not care
If someone calls it a thorn...
Ordinary Eyes classify human beings.
Pay no attention to what
so-and-so says about such-and-such,
Bow only to the essence in a person. (Rumi)
Rose Chan (née Chan Wai Chang) was Asia's undisputed Striptease Queen who took the art of shedding clothes to new heights in the 50s and 60s. She represented Malaya at an International Striptease Contest in Paris in 1957 and was invited to train strippers in Japan in 1958.
Rose was also an accomplished ballroom dancer and gourmet cook. Beyond the boards, Rose was renowned for her philanthropic work and preferred the moniker 'Charity Queen' to 'Striptease Queen'.
In 1980, Rose was diagnosed with terminal cancer and retreated to Penang, where she was introduced to the author Cecil Rajendra by her stage manager of the 50s. A unique friendship blossomed and Rose invited Cecil to write her life story which she was then negotiating to sell to publishers. Over the next five to six years, up to her demise in 1987, Rose unabashedly bared her remarkable life story which began in Soochow, China.
In No Bed of Roses (2014), Cecil Rajendra pens an account of her life her childhood in Soochow, China, and then in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, her five marriages and personal struggles, how she circumvented the colonial decency laws that forbade nudity, and finally her fight with cancer that took her life in 1987 at the age of 62.
About the author: Cecil Rajendra was born in Penang, Malaysia and spent the best part of his childhood in the then fishing village of Tanjong Tokong. He received his formal education at St Xavier's Institution, the University of Singapore and Lincoln's Inn London. While still a law student, he had his first collection of poems, Embryo. He has since authored twenty-one collections of poetry. His poems have been published in over fifty countries and translated into several languages including German, Japanese, Swahili, Tagalog, French, Chinese, Tamil, Bengali, Thai, Spanish, Malay, Dutch, Danish, Urdu and Esquimaux.
Over the years, Cecil's poems have appeared on records, cassettes, CDs, greeting cards, calendars, posters, human rights dossiers, tourist handbooks, church hymnals, environmental kits and school and university texts in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States. Such is the wide range and sweep of his poetry that they have been used by Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), INDEX (on Censorship), UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP, UNHCR, the World Wide Fund on Nature (WWF), National Geographic, TIME, OXFAM, BBC, CONCERN and the World Council of Churches (WCC).
But though long acknowledged as 'one of the finest poets writing in Asia', he has also been one of the most controversial. His work has been under constant attack by the literary and political establishment. In 1993, authorities seized his passport ostensibly for his anti-logging activities which in reality was a body of work about the destruction of rainforests. After an international outcry in five continents, culminating in a protest reading at the National Theatre in London, his passport was summarily returned.
Cecil Rajendra is a practising lawyer and has been credited as the founder of free legal aid in his country. He has helmed the Legal Aid and Human Rights committees of the Malaysian Bar Council for several terms. He is also past President of the Human Rights Society of Malaysia (HAKAM). In 2005, he received the Malaysian Lifetime Humanitarian Award for his pioneering legal aid work and inspirational poetry. In 2011, he was honoured by the Arts Council of Denmark with the prestigious DIVA (Danish International Visiting Artiste) Award.
In 2012, his work and contribution towards raising human rights consciousness was finally recognised when he was bestowed the Individual Human Rights Award by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM).
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