Myanmar town’s secret: the setting for George Orwell’s anti-colonial first novel

Small town promotes Orwell-related tourism for region that was the setting of English writer’s first novel, the vehemently anti-colonial Burmese Days

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Amateur George Orwell scholar Nyo Ko Naing, centre, leaves the house of the former British commissioner in Katha with the caretaker, right, and Kyal Ni, member of the local office of the National League for Democracy, in Katha, Myanmar. Many of the places depicted in George Orwell's novel Burmese Days remain standing in a sleepy Myanmar town, nearly 90 years after he left it. Now residents of Katha are working to make the most of that heritage, including by renovating a historic house to be a museum. Photo: AP

Published: 1:40pm, 12 Dec 2016Updated: 10:54pm, 12 Dec 2016

In the 1990s, Nyo Ko Naing noticed that the handful of foreign tourists who made it to his remote hometown were carrying their own maps and looked like they were searching for something. Someone, it turns out, by the name of George Orwell.

Katha was Eric Blair’s last posting in the Imperial Police before he sailed back to England in 1927, adopted the nom de plume Orwell and launched a writing career that would produce powerful novels and commentary. Seven years after leaving the sleepy town on the Irrawaddy River, he immortalised it as the setting of his first novel, the vehemently anti-colonial Burmese Days, though he called it not Katha but “Kyauktada.”

The British Club, where much of the novel’s scheming, fighting, drinking and sweating takes place, still stands, as do other sites mentioned including a tennis court, a pagoda and a prison. A house believed to have been Orwell’s home in Katha remains in use.

Nyo Ko Naing, a graphic designer and cartoonist, didn’t know much about Burmese Days at first, but soon grasped how important it was to the future of the town.

Amateur George Orwell scholar Nyo Ko Naing points to a portrait of a former British colonial official inside a planned museum in Katha, Myanmar. Many of the places depicted in George Orwell's novel Burmese Days remain standing in a sleepy Myanmar town, nearly 90 years after he left it. Now residents of Katha are working to make the most of that heritage, including by renovating a historic house to be a museum. Photo: AP

He has since become the town’s preservationist, in-house historian, amateur Orwell scholar and literary tour guide, keen to market Katha as a tourist destination. He’s helping to renovate the 19th-century house of the former British commissioner for use as a museum that is expected to open next year.