Ludu U Hla

A library of 43 volumes of folk tales, a total of 1597 stories, that he collected between 1962 and 1977 from most of the ethnic minorities of Burma was a truly Herculean undertaking.

Many of these have been translated into several languages.

There are 5 other volumes of folktales from around the world to his credit.

During the U Nu era of parliamentary democracy, he spent over three years in Rangoon Central Jail as a political prisoner after publishing a controversial news story in his Mandalay newspaper Ludu (The People).

Ludu U Hla (လူထုဦးလှ; ; 19 January 1910 – 7 August 1982) was a Burmese journalist, publisher, chronicler, folklorist and social reformer whose prolific writings include a considerable number of path-breaking nonfiction works.

He was married to fellow writer and journalist Ludu Daw Amar.

He collected oral histories from people in a diverse range of occupations which included a boatmaster on the Irrawaddy, a bamboo raftsman on the Salween, the keeper of a logging elephant, a broker for Steele Bros. (a large trading company during the colonial period), a gambler on horses, a bureaucrat and a reporter.

These were published in a series of books titled "I the --".

He joined the Lungemya Kyipwayay Athin (Progress for Youth Club) which started as the Friendly Correspondence Club cum debating society among high school students in 1926, and his high-minded reformist zeal for all-round betterment of the country's youth had remained a lifelong passion since.

He lived over the shop in Scott's Market (renamed Bogyoke Market after independence) as a boarder, doubling as librarian, and taught night classes to children from poor families in the neighbourhood.

A keen sportsman, he played football for the Municipal team, exercised regularly and remained a teetotaller all his life.

In 1932 he managed to take over the publication of the Kyipwayay (Progress/Growth) magazine after a false start by the chairman U Thein.

He had wanted to be a writer and publisher and grabbed the opportunity.

The magazine was a success with most of the day's famous writers on board and with an editorial remit of educating young people in self-improvement, health and moral discipline in the struggle for independence and for building a new united Burma.

Regular columns such as Maha Swe's Nei Thu Yein's Fearless Doctrine and Theippan Maung Wa's Letter from Maung Than Gyaung attracted a large readership.

The Kyipwayay became the vehicle for a new style and content in Burmese literature known as Hkit san (Testing the Age), a movement started most notably by Theippan Maung Wa, Nwe Soe, Zawgyi, Min Thu Wun, Maung Thuta, Maung Htin and Mya Kaytu.

He also wrote articles assuming the pen names Kyipwayay Maung Hla and Maung Kan Kaung.

A devout Buddhist and non-violent reformist at heart, he made friends with and his home became a favourite haunt of many politicians such as Aung San, Thakin Than Tun, Thakin Zin and Thakin Ba Koe as well as writers such as Maha Swe, Dagon Taya, Zawana, P Moe Nin, Thukha, Maung Htin and Dr Maung Hpyuu, journalists such as Thuriya U Thein Maung, cartoonists U Ba Galay, U Hein Soon and U Ba Gyan, artist U Ohn Lwin and weightlifters Ka-ya bala U Shein, U Zaw Weik and U Ne Win.

The Thuriya (Sun) newspaper was where he had started as a budding writer and where he appeared to have learnt the rudiments of journalism and publishing.

U Hla was tall, fair and handsome (Hla incidentally means handsome), and known for his friendly smile, gentle soft-spoken manner, even temper, clean living and generosity.

When the second university students strike in history broke out in 1936, he became friendly with one of the best known women student leaders, Amar from Mandalay, whose Burmese translation of Trials in Burma by Maurice Collis he had published among her other writings in his magazine.

They married in 1939 and he moved to Mandalay where he continued to publish the Kyipwayay.

He invited on board upcountry writers such as Shwe Kaingtha (a monk from Sagaing and former archaeologist who was already one of the Kyipwayay regulars under the name Yadanabon Hpo Hmatsu) and Marla, an old school friend of Amar, in addition to the usual stable of writers such as Maha Swe, Zawgyi, Min Thu Wun, Theippan Maung Wa, Zawana, Maung Hpyuu and Maung Htin.

During the Japanese Occupation (1942–1945), the Kyipwayay continued to come out even though the whole extended family had fled the war to the countryside north of Mandalay.

It featured as before cultural essays, literary reviews, and articles on travel, rural development and health education.

U Hla and Daw Amar translated into Burmese and published all three best-selling wartime novels of the Japanese soldier writer Hino Ashihei:

Both U Hla and Daw Amar became involved in the Resistance movement; they formed the Asha Lu Nge (Asia Youth) in Mandalay, ostensibly to collaborate with the Japanese, and engaged mainly in rescue and sanitation operations, but it became a ready source of young Resistance fighters for Bohmu Ba Htoo in Upper Burma.

U Hla was aware that his young members were in contact with both the Communist Party and the People's Revolutionary Party (later the Socialist Party) and tried to protect them by advising the inclusion of an interpreter, who worked for the Japanese, on the executive committee of the organisation as a safeguard against the Kempeitai.

When the Allies returned U Hla wasted no time in co-founding the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) in Mandalay with Rakhine U Kyaw Yin, who parachuted into Burma with the help of the Allies, and Thakin Tun Yin, while Rangoon was still under the Japanese.

A popular wartime song titled Ludu sit (People's War) by A-1 Saya Hnya was co-written by U Hla and U Kyaw Yin.

U Hla was arrested and interrogated by the British after they had recaptured Mandalay.

During the period of post-war austerity, U Hla continued to publish using any kind of paper that he could get hold of including coloured matchbox packing paper and used office paper with printing on one side.

He would also still manage to send his new books as gifts, about 200 on each occasion, to all his friends in Rangoon at a time when communication lines and road and rail transportation had all but broken down.

It was in 1945 that he launched the fortnightly Ludu (The People) Journal with his wife as assistant editor.

The following year saw the launch of the Ludu Daily newspaper and subsequently the couple came to be known as Ludu U Hla and Ludu Daw Amar.

Their incisive political commentaries and analyses made a significant contribution to the country's yearning for independence and unified struggle against colonial rule.

Their publications had never carried advertisements for alcohol, drugs to enhance sexual performance or gambling, nor racing tips, salacious affairs and gossip.

U Hla had to be persuaded to make an exception of film advertisements for the survival of the paper.

Whilst in prison he interviewed several inmates and wrote their life stories as told in the first person narrative, the best known collection of which was published in The Caged Ones; it won the UNESCO award for literature in 1958, and has been translated into English.

Born in Pazun Myaung village near Nyaunglebin in Lower Burma, and educated at the Rangoon Government High School, by the age of 20, U Hla had secured a valuer's position with the Rangoon Municipal Corporation; the Depression had hit Burma culminating in a peasant uprising and the founding of the nationalist Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association).