dear stanley,
Jue alias Dr Tin Tin Win is the most popular writer in
present. she is a graduate of the mandalay institute of medicine,
probably graduating in 1978 or 1979.i'm sure i examined her and kyaw
swa het as an external examiner ( the chief co-examiner from IM2)
because i remember her as a petite woman without a make-up and
ornaments (jewellery), but plainly dressed and plainly spoken,
complaining about the anatomy viva and talking about the burmese
novels after her viva.her friend kyw swa htet was also a short
person, but stoutt and shabbily dressed.he could not answer my viva
questions and he said it was because he was reading a novel last
night.and i saw them in yangon in the thirtythird street where the
burmese bookshops are and in parami quarters where dr thein nyunt
and i lived.dr thein nyunt also known as nyunt wai (katha) as
pseudonym told me that the couple came to consult him for a major
ailment in tin tin win's chest.
jue came to instant fame for advocating "living together" to
the
burmese young people and there was outcry against it, headed by
htilar sitthu, the deputy minister for culture.i was also drawn into
it as htilar sitthu was a close friend of mine since 1976.i had to
write about the dangers and disgrace of "living together" from the
medical and myanmar cultural point of view and my articles on it
were quoted and printed several times over.but, jue' name continued
to rise in fame among the young people of burma.
her novelette, " leave me in the history' dustbin" was a
success.
in it a young man and a woman fell in love, lived together, but were
separated later and the man was hurt, but he still longed for the
woman he loved.its burmese prose was simple and succint, expressing
the love scenes vividly like the woman sponging the naked man's body
with her towel. i would say it was less than the description in "the
lady chatterley's lover" written by D.H.Lawrence and spoken of as a
classic pornographic literature in the English language,but later
praised as a piece of good english novel.jue continued to write
unorthodox novels and her fame spread far and wide.some of her
novels were made into motion pictures like the story based on the
algae "spirulina" industry.her asset is that she writes clean
burmese prose on a subject she has studied.she studied different
subjects for writing not only for her heroes and herorines in her
novels , but also for her self like "living together".
my two daughters when they came of age also like jue's novels and
short stories.my wife also read them.i told them that jue has a good
command of burmese and she writes well, but the subjects she covered
were previuosly not beneficial to the pubic. i have suggested jue to
write on medical matters also so as to contribute to the country's
health in my literary criticism articles.fortunately, she started
writing about the environment and its activities since the past two
or three years.she also wrote about environmental matters and her
experiences about her california travels.she has now become involved
in the prevention of HIV/AIDS in burma.i heard from a friend of mine
that jue was selecetd to study HIV/AIDS prevention programme in the
USA ona scholarship.i was thrilled.
jue is a talented writer,no dobt about that. the late writer kyaw
aung,a class mate of professor abha u hla myint of IM1, stated that
jue was a literary talent. writer aung pyayt, just recently
deceased, also wrote in the "mandalay hall magazine " that jue's
novels were so good that no body could imitate her and he was always
haunted by them whenever he tried to write similar pieces of
work.khin swe oo, the celebrated novelist, also wrote that jue's
novels and stories shine at present and would shine for ever in
burmese literature.she therfore likes to spell Jue's name as "Due"
meaning "due to shine and succeed!".
i'm not a jue's fan, but i'm glad that she is now writing on the
good topics that are beneficial to the burmese.