Theippan Maung Wa

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Theippan Maung Wa (Burmese: သိပ္ပံမောင္‌ဝ; IPA: [θḛɪpʰàn màʊn wa̰]) (1899 - 1942), born in Mawlamyine and real name U Sein Tin, was a Burmese writer who pioneered the movement of Hkit san (Testing the Age) that searched for a new style and content in Burmese literature before the Second World War starting with Hkit san pon byin (experimental tales, 1934, 1938).^[1] He started writing newspaper articles whilst still in high school assuming the pen name Waziya Tint. Soon after he began his studies in Rangoon College in 1920, the first university students strike in the history of Burma broke out, and he left university to teach at the first of the National Schools that came into being, as an act of defiance against the colonial education system, until 1923. U Sein Tin resumed his studies later and graduated B. A. Hons. with distinctions in Burmese in 1927, the first student in history to do so.^[2]

Theippan kyaungtha Maung Mya Thwin (College student Maung Mya Thwin)^[2] was the pen name he used in the Campus magazine and in the Ganda Lawka (World of Books) magazine established by J. S. Furnivall where the Hkit san movement began to take shape.He then started to write under the name Theippan Maung Wa in the Dagon magazine published by Ledi pandita U Maung Gyi and the Kyipwa Yay (Progress) magazine published by U Hla; both of these became a platform for the Hkit san movement. He also wrote plays in the Kyipwa Yay assuming a woman's name, Tint Tint, besides literary critiques and other articles.^[3]

U Sein Tin went on to Oxford University to study for the Indian Civil Service exam and ,on his return from Britain in 1929, served as a district officer in rural Burma during the colonial period.^[2] He wrote a series of small sketches based on his observations of rural life, many of which were critical of political and economic institutions, both colonial and indigenous, such as the following examples.

Pyissandarit (The Backwaters or Limbo 1933 Ganda Lawka) was a glimpse at life in a small Burmese fishing village before World War II. It depicts the harsh circumstances in the village and the petty feuds that arose among its inhabitants.

Leilan pwè (The Auction, 1933 Ganda Lawka) took place during the colonial period. The story is a depiction and implicit critique of a fishery auction, a Western economic institution not particularly well-suited to the Burmese as the story shows.

Ma-yway mi (Eve of Election, 1932) took place before World War II during the colonial period. It describes the political factionalism that was arising among Burmese politicians even at this early date and which would only increase in post-independence Burma.

A collection of 36 of these short stories, published between 1929 and 1941 mostly in the Ganda Lawka, became prescribed school text in the 1960s published by the Sapei Beikman Books.^[2] His letters to Kyipwa Yay U Hla between 1933 and 1942 were published by the latter, subsequently known as Ludu U Hla, 3 decades later. U Hla also published Tint Tint Pyazat (Plays by Tint Tint); he had been instrumental in the search for and the eventual publication of Theippan Maung Wa's War Diary (Sit atwin neizin hmattaan) in 1966.^[4]

Sadly Theippan Maung Wa met an untimely death at the hands of dacoits (armed robbers) near Shwebo soon after the Japanese invasion in 1942.^[2] Many writers subsequently took over his mantle which established the new form of literature after the War, portraying in semifictional sketches the day to day life of ordinary people in simple language eschewing verbosity and rhetoric.

[edit] References

^ Anna J. Allot, Ed. (1988). Far Eastern Literatures in the 20th Century. England: Oldcastle Books, 2.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Theippan Maung Wa wuttu saungba mya (1965) in Burmese. Rangoon: Sapei Beikman Books, 285-286.
^ Maung Swan Yi (2002). "Chewing the West":The Development of Modern Burmese Literature under the Influence of Western Literature 4,11. Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
^ Ludu chit tha hmya Ludu U Hla vol.2 (2000) in Burmese inc. a small English section. Mandalay: Kyipwa Yay Books, 200-202.