Famous People: The Cartoonist, LAT

Read the following passage on LAT, the famous cartoonist and try to do the exercise that follows:

Lat, Malaysia’s kampong boy cartoonist and Malaysia’s son, is well-known to millions of Malaysians and Singaporeans. Since the appearance of his first drawings in the late 1960s, Lat has been honoured as a national treasure, cultural hero and a Malaysian institution.

Lat’s cartoon characters have always been ordinary people – a villager in his checkered sarung, a money lender in his white dhoti, and a Malay government servant in his bush jacket. Sometimes, he features himself: a character with a flat, round face, nose slightly off centre, the untidy mop of dark, curly hair and constant toothy grin.

His cartoons show the everyday life of the community he lives in. In other words, he shows all the best qualities of a kampong boy with an open, cosmopolitan mind. Lat relates naturally to the Malaysia man in the street. But, he has not forgotten the other nationalities living in Malaysia and they are portrayed with joyful appeal in a highly individual style. Lat believes strongly in originality as this strengthens the cartoonist’s identity.

Fill in the blanks with the words found in the passage or your own words.

1. Lat is popular among_____________________________.

2. The characters in Lat's cartoons are normally portrayed as___________________such as___________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________.


3. At times, the character would be himself: a boy with_______________________

______________________________________________________________________________.

4. To Lat, ___________________enhances____________________________.