Arthur Yap

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Arthur Yap (叶纬雄)

Born Arthur Yap Chior Hiong
1943
Singapore
Died June 19, 2006 (aged 63)
Occupation Poet, Pedagogue
Nationality Singapore
Notable award(s) 1976: Poetry award by the National Book Development Council of Singapore
1983:Cultural Medallion for Literature
South-East Asian Write Award, Bangkok
Influenced

Arthur Yap (simplified Chinese: 叶纬雄; pinyin: Yè WěiXióng) is a poet and a painter. He was born in Singapore, the sixth child of a carpenter and a housewife. Yap attended St Andrew's School and the University of Singapore, after which he won a British Council scholarship to study in the University of Leeds in England. In Leeds Arthur earned a Master's degree in Linguistics and English Language Teaching, and further obtaining his PhD from the National University of Singapore in the years after he returned from Leeds. He also stayed on in the University's Department of English Language and Literature as a lecturer between the years 1979 and 1998. Between 1992 and 1996, Arthur served as a mentor with the Creative Arts Programme run by the [[Ministry of Education (Singapore) |Ministry of Education]] to help inspire students and nurture young writers at local secondary schools and junior colleges. Arthur was then diagnosed with lung cancer, and received radiotherapy treatment.[1]

Contents

[edit] Arthur's Poems

Yap’s poetry is distinctive for an unusual linguistic playfulness and subtlety that is able to bridge the rhythms of Singlish with the precision of acrolectic English. Unsurprisingly, the craft of Yap’s voice has the admiration of other writers. Anthony Burgess has written that he encountered Down the Line "with elation and occasional awe", while D. J. Enright has praised Yap’s "sophisticated cosmopolitan intelligence". The Oxford Companion to 20th-Century Poetry describes Yap’s poems as "original, but... demanding: elliptical, dense, dry, sometimes droll. At their best, they shuttle between playfulness and sobriety and are alert to the rhythms and contours of the natural and the peopled landscape, seasoning insight with compassion."

His first collection of poems Only Lines published in 1971, and published when he was 28. It was his with its whimsical, wordplay-based humour that captured the hearts of poetry lovers, and won the first poetry award from the National Book Development Council of Singapore in 1976. Yap's analysis of the poems from Only Lines, found that Arthur's style in writing followed in the tradition of poets who alternately apologise for and celebrate the power of the written word. By beginning his verses as if in mid-conversation with the reader:

should i also add:
here are only lines
linked by the same old story.
the same old plot
in which they are grown

he led readers towards the definitions of 'one' as in a storyline, and 'one' as in a piece of land. By doing so he sends the message to 'Watch out for words, they are tricky things which possess hidden dimensions'.[1]

The other things signature in Arthur's poems are in his simple choice of words in his poems, and the penchant for all-lowercase style favoured by American poet E. E. Cummings. This is in contrast to the austereness commanded by the capitalised-letter casings that is symbolic to Arthur's poem titles. His second collection Commonplace was published in the following year. The third collection in Down The Line (1980) received acclamation and had once again won the Book Council Award. In 1983 Arthur was honored with the the Cultural Medallion for Literature, and the South-East Asian Write Award in Bangkok. His collections of poems were translated and published in many Asian countries, mainly in Japanese, Mandarin and Malay languages. This popularity with Arthur's poems with the greater Asian readers probably came from the fact that his poems tend to avoid featuring specifics, resulting in its quality of timeless, and its ability to lead one beyond and boundaries and into a boundless landscape filled with stillness and profundity of ancient ruins.

Yet at the same time, Arthur's dichotomy between the unspecified and the labels found in some of the works, like in the poem In One Road, sturs intense emotions with readers. While at one hand names of places or things are generally omitted, Arthur loved to introspect himself on a road trip in Malaysia in the verses, capturing the sense of promise inherent in such a journey.

if we can be sure
that the road running hundreds of miles
would not bring along its periphery,
that here and there
when it is twelve o'clock
the sun has not risen nor set
then everything else could well wait

A tribute to Arthur's lifetime of poetic works was compiled in the titled The Space of City Trees: Selected Poems published in 2000. He also wrote some vignettes extracted from City Trees and had them published in The Straits Times' Life! Books section.[1]


[edit] Arthur, the painter

Arthur inspired not only through his writing, but also in his accomplishment as a painter. His passion for painting began in 1967 when he was working as a Pre-University English Literature teacher at the Serangoon Gardens English School. During the weekends he would pick up the brush, expressing himself through his abstract works of art. On April 13, 1969 Arthur held his first solo art exhibition featuring 44 squared abstract paintings at the National Library in Stamford Road.[2] Since then Arthur went on to have a total of seven solo exhibitions in Singapore, as well as participating in group exhibitions in Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. In fact, Arthur's paintings had also been chosen to represent Singapore at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1972.[1]


Unfortunately his cancer which went into remission had recurred in 2004. Arthur had once again fought for his life, underwent major surgery to remove his voice box. On the night of 19 June 2006, Arthur died died in his sleep at home after a two-and-half year battle with throat cancer. He was 63.


[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Yap, Stephanie. "Poet of the interior", Singapore: Straits Times, April 6, 2008. 
  2. ^ "One-man show by 'weekend artist'", Singapore: Straits Times, April 14, 1969, p. 4. 


[edit] Works

[edit] External links

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