How The Little Prince became Singlish

Singlish, the well-loved patois of Singaporean, mixes English with the other major languages and dialects spoken on the island. In 2019, publisher Edition Tintenfaß brought out The Leeter Tunku—the world's first Singlish translation, of not just Le Petit Prince, but also of a literary classic!

Its translator, Gwee Li Sui, is an acclaimed Singaporean writer and lover of Singlish. 
Gwee will be at Alliance Française to share about this feat in translation, including his thought process and the various challenges he faced.

Do join us for a very French-Singaporean afternoon!

Presentation at 3pm, followed by book sale & signing onsite. In English.

About the author

Gwee Li Sui is a poet, an artist, a critic, and a translator. He has seven volumes of verse to date, the latest being This Floating World. He wrote and illustrated Singapore’s first long-form English graphic novel Myth of the Stone back in 1993. His best-selling non-fiction titles include a poetry guide FEAR NO POETRY! and a language companion Spiaking Singlish. Other than Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (The Leeter Tunku), Gwee has also translated Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit (The Tale of Peter Labbit), fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm (Grimm’s Fairy Tales in Singlish), and A. A. Milne’s Winner-the-Pooh (Winnie-da-Pooh).