KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 ― Six book titles by Malaysian and Taiwanese authors have been translated to Malay and Mandarin in a collaborative effort between the Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books (ITBM) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Malaysia.

ITBM chairman Budiman Mohd Zohdi said the books comprised three Malaysian comics, namely, Kampung Boy, by Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid, or "Lat”; Sang Kancil and The Crocodiles (by Jaafar Taib and Rahimidin Zahari) and Entimuk and Kejuang (by Isabella Jali and Al-Zafran Hassan).

The three comic book titles have been translated to Mandarin for distribution through three publishers in Taiwan, he said.

He said the books by Taiwanese authors that were translated to Malay through ITBM were Ka Pu Lei’s Wing, Waiting and Hope and The Little Blue Dress.

"The translation and publication of the books under the 2017 Taiwan Spotlight Project  is part of a venture that is fully sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan to expand cultural networking between Malaysia and Taiwan.

"This collaboration is also a continuing effort of the previous publication of the ‘Anthology of Short Stories: Malaysia-Taiwan that was translated in Malay, English and Mandarin through ITBM,” he said in his speech during the book-launching ceremony here today.

Budiman said the collaboration was among ITBM’s effort to continuously promote local books to the international sphere through translation and publication initiatives.

"ITBM has featured light reading materials such as comic books as it is easily marketed and more popular among readers,” he said.

He noted, the sales of reading materials in Taiwan also showed a promising increase which encouraged for more translation and publication of books through ITBM to be carried out in the future. ― Bernama