Book Review: The Legend of Mazu 妈祖的传说 by Koh Chin Tong

The Legend of Mazu tells the story of Lin Mo who was born in Meizhou, Putian City, China, and later went on to become a goddess and protector of the seas. This is a Chinese folklore on deities and demons.

The stories are told in old style picture book format with one drawing per page followed by Chinese and English text.

The stories are interesting and look at the trials and tribulations of Mazu and the people she helped. There's even a story of how Mian Xian, mee sua, a type of noodles popular with Chinese came about. There are even stories of how she caught bombs from WWII planes. That's like several hundreds of years after Lin Mo was born.

The illustrations by Koh Chin Tong are amazing. Koh is known for his mythical and folkloric imagery, and is one of Singapore’s few artists with an established career in temple art. The detailed artworks in this book have the very obvious Chinese influence and style. You can tell just by looking at the cover art.

This book is available from Asiapac and Kinokuniya Singapore

Check out this short animatic for the book launch:

And visit publisher Asiapac Books on Youtube and Facebook too.