Singaporean songbird, Kit Chan has released her new book of poems, Cork Out Of My Head. We catch up with her and talk to her about her book and the 'corks out of her head'.

By Peng Wan Joo

Everyone has got a dream. For Kit Chan, this dream is to publish a book of poems of her own. "Actually, writing this book is one of my dreams which may not mean anything monetarily. I am not counting on it on being acclaimed. It is just a dream," claims the former RGS girl.

Book Sales
Her book, Cork Out Of My Head was released in Singapore in early February. As all the books available are parellel imports as she does not have a distributor here, Kit is unable to give us the exact sales figure so far. "But after the book came out in Taiwan, within a few days, it went into second print so that is very encouraging." says the level-headed Singaporean lass. With the first print being a modest 3 000 copies, the sell out phenomenon should be thought of as no mean feat for a first-time poet.

On The Different Mandarin & English Title
"Cork out of my head is a poem and the Chinese translation would be Nao dai kai le suan which the publisher didn't like. But I realized that as a writer, you have more say in what you want to do and that was great and he asked me what I wanted to call my book and I wanted to call it Cork out of my head." explained Kit.

Apparently, this name when translated in Chinese would be quite indecipherable to the Taiwanese. Thus, another more commercial and acceptable title would be needed for the chinese version of the book.

" Then I was looking through the book and there was this poem with the title, Xiang Ru Fei Fei which is called Plane Thoughts in English. I think that these two titles are somewhat related because they are all about something coming out of your head and that is what this book is all about. It is about thoughts, imaginations, fantasies, whatever and later I chose this and they liked it and that is why it is like that."

The 'F' Word
In the book, Kit uses the 'f' word to describe her frustrations and there were a lot of concerns about whether it would taint her healthy image. " I don't know if Singaporeans are ready for such books," confides Kit. "Don't think that I just put it out there without thinking. I actually had the manuscript ready in 97 and I only published it in year 2000 and I had a lot of excuses like I was too busy, I couldn't get a publisher but now on looking back, I realize that they were all excuses. Maybe I was just scared," she explained.

To Kit, the 'f' word was actually just an expression which came up in the form of 'what the fxxx'. "It's okay because I have artistic license," reasons the smiling Kit and that statement came not from Kit herself but her old and very bookish looking publisher. "I actually asked my publisher if he really didn't mind my' f' word and he told me, " What is wrong with that? In literature, you are free to express yourself in anyway you like." So he agreed that I had artistic licenses and since anything goes, I don't care."

Honesty
For many, the honesty in the book is frightfully raw. "It is such a brave thing to do, " said the Two Girls when I asked them about their opinion. While Kit is able explain why and how some of the poems were written, there are also intangible parts to the creative process which she is unable to explain.

Truth to be told, such brutal honesty of the book is indeed a rare find in the entertainment industry. While Kit declares that she would account for some of the things she has written, there are others which she will account for. "But I think after you read it, you would know. Some of it is really honest. There are even names inside. Don't ask me who the person is I will not tell you but the name is already there."

And because of such honesty, many people fear that such honesty would make her very vulnerable. "They are being kind and are worried for me but they don't have to." says the gung ho girl. "I am prepared to take whatever criticisms and compliments."

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