LAUREN ROULSTON • SEPT 24, 2024
The new Thai publication of Anne of Green Gables (Paujee Akarasewi/CHUO)
Last month, the Sukhothai restaurant in Nepean saw the performance of a rare instrument from Thailand, known as a krachappi. It’s said to have been the first time it was played in North America.
The krachappi performed at the Sukhothai restaurant (Parujee Akarasewi/CHUO)
This significant performance comes as a major celebration bridging the relationship between Canada and Thailand. It comes as Varavadi Monaghan completed the Thai translation of all the books in the Anne of Green Gables series.
Members of the community gathered at the restaurant for this celebration of Canadian and Thai culture. There, they saw a lineup of performances and speeches from historians, artists and politicians marking the end of years of work for Varavadi and her publisher.
At this event, she presented a completed set of the books to her MP, Anita Vandenbeld.
Varavadi Monaghan presents her translated books to MP Anita Vandenbeld (Parujee Akarasewi/CHUO)
“I feel like I’m climbing up to the top of the mountain now,” says Varavadi. “I’ve been trying, like you said, trying to climb up, and up, and up and sometimes got blown away by the storm and this and that, nearly couldn’t finish it and I feel like I’m, I’m there.”
She and her publisher were also preparing to travel to Cavendish, P.E.I., the site that inspired L. M. Montgomery’s classic books.
Varavadi says she read Anne of Green Gables for the first time in 1992, a suggestion from the man who became her husband. She admired Anne’s imagination for all the ways it helped her carry on through life.
“I even learn from her, sometimes I had some difficulties and try to look at it in a positive way, just like Anne,” says Varavadi.
Anne of Green Gables is the most translated Canadian book at 40+ languages, reaching a wide and diverse audience.
On the right, Nattakorn Vuttichaipornkul at the Sukhothai Restaurant celebration (Parujee Akarasewi/CHUO)
Nattakorn Vuttichaipornkul will be publishing the eight books in Thai. He’s the owner and managing director of Worlds Wonder Publishing in Thailand.
“I know that these books have been loved all over the world,” he says. “I know a friend from Japan that saw the book and was so excited for me to do [it].”
“I’m so happy to be part of it, it’s so important that the Thai people can experience this,” Nattakorn adds.
A big part of the translating process involves fact-checking and thorough explanations for the Thai audience, according to both Nattakorn and Varavadi. To help with this, she read from Dr. Ed Whitcomb’s A Short History of P.E.I.
At the Sukhothai restaurant celebration, Whitcomb wore a straw hat with red braids attached to it, affectionately earning him the nickname ‘Ed of Green Gables.’
On the left, Ed Whitcomb presents A Short History of PEI to the MP (Parujee Akarasewi/CHUO)
Dr. Lesley Clement of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute offered some words on the author’s work.
“When Lucy Maud Montgomery opened a hat box in her closet and unearthed a manuscript that had received more rejections than she wanted to remember, little did she know how the decision she was about to make would impact her life and the world,” she began.
Clement went on to explain the history of the L. M. Montgomery’s classic.
“Anne of Green Gables began to win the hearts of one reader at a time, beginning in 1908. First in North America, and then with its first translation which was a Swedish translation that came out the following year in 1909,” says Clement.
The event wrapped up with a performance from Kai Whitcomb, founder of the Thai Dance Troupe of Ottawa. She danced alongside Benjamin Tardif, a Canadian and the first and only foreigner to become a professional Thai Khon dancer.
Benjamin Tardif and Kai Whitcomb before their performance (Parujee Akarasewi/CHUO)
Varavadi’s translation of these classic Canadian books comes as a part of her project called The Canada Thailand Culture Bridge. She hopes to implement the translated versions of Anne of Green Gables into school curriculums in Thailand.