Tekkatho Phone Naing was a famous Burmese writer, primarily known for lovelorn stories that were most popular in the 1950s to 1970s. His "sad" stories still represent some of the best popular Burmese story writing in the postwar era.

Overview

Tekkatho Phone Naing was the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 of Khin Maung Tint , a lifelong university professor and later Chancellor of University of Moulmein

University of Mawlamyaing

Mawlamyaing University , located in Mawlamyaing, is the largest university in Mon State, Myanmar. The university offers bachelor's and master's degree programs in liberal arts and sciences...

. He received a Master's degree

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

 in psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. During the 1988 popular uprising against the government of Burma, he called for restraint and true democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

. The military junta forced him to retire from his position as Rector of the Institute of Education, Yangon

Yangon

Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...

.

He died in 2002 at the age of 72.

Literary career

Khin Maung Tint began writing in the 1950s under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

Tekkatho Phone Naing. As with many writers of that day, he took on the title Tekkatho which means university, signifying him as a university graduate.

Most Tekkatho Phone Naing novels are love stories between a man and a woman of different social station and wealth that typically end in separation and sorrow. It would be unfair to call his stories tearjerkers however. The unhappy ending is not the only thing that makes his stories different from workaday Burmese love stories. His stories explore social issues—always ignored by escapist stories—to wrenching details.

His notable works include:

• Thu Kyun Ma Khan Byi (Never Shall We Be Enslaved) (1959). It deals with and is based on aspects of the palace intrigues and the resistance – mainly feeble and ineffective- that was offered to the invading British troops just before the fall of Mandalay (and the entire Burmese kingdom) to the British in November 1885.
• Thangègyin Lo Bè Set Ywei Khaw Myi Khaing (Will Continue to Call You as a Friend, Khaing)
• Da Byi Thu Ma Shwe Htar (Miss Htar the Foreigner)

He was also an accomplished poet.