Singapore - The Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) returns for the sixth iteration this year with an expanded programme engaging creators, producers, distributors, and end-users of children's content under one roof.
This year's AFCC will host a total of 111 speakers, including 57 local speakers and 54 international speakers from 14 different countries around the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Hong Kong, France, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Syria, Korea and Japan. Luminaries such as Rosemary Johnston, Professor of Education and Culture from University of Technology in Sydney, Australia and Dylan Yamada-Rice, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education from University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom will be presenting at the AFCC Teachers Congress, one of the festival's regular tracks.
All the regular AFCC features such as the AFCC Writers & Illustrators Conference (ACWIC), the AFCC Media Mart & Book Fair, the AFCC Parents Forum, and the AFCC Teachers Congress are back again this year, but AFCC will also be offering several public and ticketed programmes for the first time. One of such programmes is Fun with Languages, which has been especially curated to enhance children's learning of their mother tongues. This free-for-public, family-oriented programme features interactive activities in Singapore's four official languages, English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, in the form of performances, skits, story-telling and cross talks.
In a bid to extend AFCC activities to more members of the public, some public workshops and language programmes will be made available at regional libraries for the first time since it began in 2009. For the latest updates on the free public programmes, please visit www.afcc.com.sg and click on the "PUBLIC" tab followed by "Just for Libraries". The website will be updated regularly.
One of the highlights of this year's AFCC Writers and Illustrators Conference is the comic track on 5 June, which offers topics such as "Comic Books: Social Media Marketing and Creative Entrepreneurship" by Evangeline Neo and Elbert Or from evaworks and Ateneo de Manila University respectively, which examines the features of a successful comic strip that enable their creators to earn a living from their art. Alison Norrington, the CEO and founder of storycentral will be presenting "Creating Epic Storyworlds" which takes writers through the process of considering mythology and genre in expanding their storyworlds in a way that appeals to their audiences.
China is AFCC's country of focus this year, with 10 Chinese speakers including Wang Quangen, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature School at the Beijing Normal University, author Wang Yimei, and Zhao Wuping, Vice President of the Shanghai Translation Publishing House who have been invited to present topics as varied as "Integration and Development in Children's Literature in Asia", "Cultural Differences Between Chinese and Western Children's Stories" and "Publication and Translation of Children's Literature in China". For the first time, the NBDCS will also be facilitating the collaboration between Singapore English authors and mainland Chinese authors by publishing a bilingual anthology of 16 of their short stories. Another first is a translation masterclass which will cover some of the finer points of translating English texts to Chinese and vice versa.
Says R Ramachandran, Executive Director of NBDCS, "In the 21st century, children’s content is about more than just books, so we are always on the lookout for relevant and innovative content to engage with the public as well as children's content professionals. With the current emphasis on mother tongue languages, developing mother tongue and bilingual programmes such as Fun with Languages and translation master classes is a natural progression for AFCC."
A regular speaker at AFCC, the Singapore-based, Dr Myra Garces-Bacsal will be presenting "Celebrating Diversity in Children's Literature" at the Parents' Forum which will look into socially inclusive books which tackle difficult topics, highlighting the presence of "the others" in society such as those with special needs, migrants and non-traditional families. Dr George Jacobs from James Cook University Singapore, will also be presenting a talk to help parents assist their sons to read better. This session "Don't Leave the Boys Behind: Motivating Boys to Read” explores the reading gap between boys and girls and presents ideas for motivating boys to read more.
Dr Myra Garces-Bacsal and Dr George Jacobs will join a stable of 20 local and international speakers at the Parents Forum which is expected to hit record attendance this year.
For more information and the latest updates on the AFCC programme, including ticketing details, speakers' talks synopses and biographies, please visit www.afcc.com.sg
Asian Festival of Children's Content's
Sixth Iteration Sees Many Firsts
Date: 30 May to 6 June 2015
Time: 9am to 6pm
Main venue: Central Library (NLB) Plaza, Victoria Street
Website: www.afcc.com.sg
About the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS)
NBDCS is a non-profit, charitable organisation in Singapore that promotes storytelling, reading, writing, and publishing through a variety of programmes and festivals, including the Asian Festival of Children’s Content, the Singapore International Storytelling Festival, and the All In! Young Writers Media Festival. NBDCS also presents many annual and biennial awards, including the Singapore Literature Prize, the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award for published works, the Scholastic Asian Book Award, and the Scholastic Picture Book Award for unpublished works. Their training arm, the Academy of Literary Arts and Publishing (ALAP) runs publishing-related and literary arts-focused courses and workshops throughout the year.
For more information about NBDCS, please visit www.bookcouncil.sg
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