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	Singaporean 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

• Eyewitness (Heinamann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd, 1976)
• Lines from Batu Ferringhi (Island Press, 1978)
• Bird With One Wing (Island Press, 1982) ISBN 9971835061
• The Girl from Ermita & Selected Poems (Nightwood Editions, 1998) ISBN 0889711674
• As Though the Gods Love Us (Nightwood Editions,2000) ISBN 0889711712

Novels

• If We Dream Too Long (Island Press, 1972; Heinamann Asia Ltd, 1994; NUS Press, 2010) ISBN 997169445X
• The Immolation (Heinamann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd., 1977; Epigram Books, 2011) ISBN 9810899351
• A Dance of Moths (Select Books, 1995) ISBN 9810068662
• Dance With White Clouds: A Fable for Grown Ups (Asia 2000, 2001) ISBN 9628783033

Plays

• The Moon Is Less Bright (Singapore, 1964, 1990)
• When Smiles Are Done (Singapore, 1966; retitled Room With Paper Flowers Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1969)
• The Elder Brother (Singapore, 1967)

Short Stories

• Tall Tales and MisAdventures of a Young Westernized Oriental Gentleman (NUS Press, forthcoming) ISBN 9789971696344

Autobiographic Essays

• ‘A Star-Lovely Art’, autobiography of Patrick Kavanagh in Vol 10 No. 1 2010 issue of Moving Worlds journal, University of Leeds

Awards

• National Book Development Council Of Singapore Fiction Award, 1976
• National Book Development Council Of Singapore Fiction Award, 1996
• Cultural Medallion for Literature, 1982

References

External links

Library resources about Goh Poh Seng
Resources in your library Resources in other libraries
By Goh Poh Seng
Resources in your library Resources in other libraries

• The Official Website of Goh Poh Seng – Novelist, Poet & Playwright
• National Archives of Singapore Interview with Goh Poh Seng