Goh Poh Seng

Goh Poh Seng
Born ca. July 1936
Kuala Lumpur, Malaya
Died 10 January 2010 (aged 73)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Cause of death
Parkinson's disease
Nationality Singapore Singaporean
Canada Canadian
Alma mater University College Dublin
Awards 1982 Cultural Medallion

Goh Poh Seng (July 1936 – 10 January 2010), Singaporean dramatist, novelist, doctor and poet, was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya in 1936.[1] He was educated at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, received his medical degree from University College Dublin, and practised medicine in Singapore for twenty-five years. His writing blossomed in Ireland, where he met writers Patrick Kavanagh and Brendan Behan, published his poetry in the university magazine, and took a year off school to write. In his time living in Singapore, Dr. Goh held many honorary positions including the Chairman of the National Theatre Trust Board between 1967 and 1972, and Vice-Chairman of the Arts Council from 1967 to 1973. He was committed to the development of Art and cultural policies of post-independent Singapore, as well as the development of cultural institutions such as the Singapore National Symphony, the Chinese Orchestra and the Singapore Dance Company. Goh also opened Singapore's first theatre disco lounge, Rainbow Lounge at Ming Arcade, and Bistro Toulouse-Lautrec at Tanglin Shopping Centre for live jazz and poetry readings, organised Singapore's first David Bowie concert, and envisioned a livelier Singapore River in the 1970s, a proposal that was only taken seriously decades later.[2]

He was a founder of the literary magazine Tumasek (which lasted for three issues)[3] and co-founded Singapore's first multi-disciplinary arts centre, Centre 65, to promote the arts. Centre 65 inspired the name of Centre 42, an institution for playwriting which opened in 2014.[4]

Goh's first novel, If We Dream Too Long (1972) won the National Book Development Council of Singapore's (NBDCS) Fiction Award in 1976 and has been translated into Russian, Japanese and Tagalog. While the novel was criticised by The Straits Times upon publication,[5] it enjoyed a first print run of 3,000 copies, is considered the first English-language Singaporean novel, and has been used as a Literature text in various universities.[6] His other books include the novels The Immolation (1977) and A Dance of Moths (1995), which received the NBDCS Fiction award in 1996, and poetry collections Eyewitness (1976), Lines from Batu Ferringhi (1978) and Bird With One Wing (1982). Goh's play When the Smiles are Done (1972) was the first to use Singlish on stage,[7] while his debut play The Moon is Less Bright (1964) was revived by TheatreWorks in 1990.[8]

In 1982, Goh received the Cultural Medallion for his contributions to Literature. Goh lived in Canada to which he emigrated in 1986. In 2007, Goh returned to Singapore for the last time to attend the Singapore Writers Festival. A 15-minute documentary about Goh, directed by Almerinda Travasoss, was released in the same year.[9] In 2009, Goh announced his plan to write a quartet of novels loosely based on his personal and family history.[10] He died on 10 January 2010 in Vancouver, after suffering from Parkinson's Disease in his later years. Paying tribute to Goh, playwright Robert Yeo said, "He is someone who not only believed in literature, but also believed in lifting the cultural aspirations of Singaporeans."[11]

In 2012, his son Kagan Goh published Who Let In The Sky?, a family memoir about Goh's struggle with Parkinson's.[12] In 2014, the Centre for Southeast Asia Research at the University of British Columbia acquired the Goh Poh Seng Collection, a set of 110 volumes from Goh's library.[13] In the same year, NUS Press was slated to publish Tall Tales and MisAdventures of a Young Westernized Oriental Gentleman, a collection of Goh's short stories based on his adventures in 1950s Ireland, but as of 2015, these plans have not materialised.[14][15] One of these short stories was previously published in Coast: A Mono-Titular Anthology in 2011.[16]

In 2015, If We Dream Too Long was selected by The Business Times as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965–2015, alongside titles by Arthur Yap, Daren Shiau and Amanda Lee Koe.[17] His play, When Smiles Are Done, was also selected as one of the "finest plays in 50 years" with productions by Michael Chiang, Kuo Pao Kun and Alfian Sa'at.[18] In the same year, The Straits Times' Akshita Nanda selected If We Dream Too Long as one of 10 classic Singapore novels. "Widely considered the first true Singaporean novel," she wrote, "it should be enjoyed for the lightness of its prose and the wit and insight of the author.[19]

Works by Goh Poh Seng

Poetry

Novels

Plays

Short Stories

Autobiographic Essays

Awards

References

  1. http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_957_2004-12-23.html
  2. "Singapore Literary Pioneers: Goh Poh Seng". National Library Board. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
  3. Yeo, Robert (Jan 20, 2010). "The writer, the dreamer, my friend", The Straits Times
  4. "A new page for playwriting". The Straits Times. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  5. "A novel that doesn't get through...". The Straits Times. 4 December 1972. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  6. "Goh Poh Seng". Infopedia. 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  7. "Freedom and Fearlessness: The 1970s Novels of Goh Poh Seng". QLRS. October 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  8. "The Moon is Less Bright". TheatreWorks. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  9. "Goh Poh Seng (Part 1/2)". Vimeo. 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  10. "Poet in 'exile' makes peace with homeland". The Straits Times. 10 Aug 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  11. "Literary pioneer Goh Poh Seng dies". my Paper. 13 Jan 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  12. "Who Let In The Sky? A Son's Tribute To His Father Goh Poh Seng's Courageous Struggle With Parkinson's Disease". Select Books. 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  13. "The Goh Poh Seng Collection at the Centre for Southeast Asian Research". Centre for Southeast Asia Research. 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  14. "NUS Press New Books Aug 2014". NUS Press. 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  15. "Tall Tales and Misadventures of a Young WOG (Westernized Oriental Gentleman)". Crazy to Sing Strange Songs. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  16. "Coast: A Mono-Titular Anthology". Goodreads. 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  17. Yusof, Helmi. "Tomes that show us how we live". The Business Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  18. Yusof, Helmi. "The finest plays in 50 years". The Business Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  19. Nanda, Akshita. "10 Singapore stories to ponder". The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 28 January 2015.

External links