Goh Poh Seng ( zh, c=吴宝星, t=吳寶星, p=Wú Bǎo Xīng; July 1936 – 10 January 2010) was a

Singaporean Singaporeans are the citizens and nationals of the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is home to a people of a variety of ethno-racial-religious origins, with the city-state itself being a multi-racial, multi-cultural, m ...

dramatist, novelist, doctor and poet, was born in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, British Malaya in 1936. He was educated at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, received his medical degree from

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, and practised medicine in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

for twenty-five years.

Writing career

His writing blossomed in Ireland, where he met writers

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...

and

Brendan Behan Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely ackno ...

, published his poetry in the university magazine, and took a year off school to write. In his time living in Singapore, 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 Tanglin Shopping Centre was a shopping center on Tanglin Road in Tanglin, Tanglin, Singapore. Completed in 1972, the mall was the "first modern shopping mall to be established in the area and the second oldest in Singapore after People's Park Com ...

for live jazz and poetry readings, organised Singapore's first

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

concert in 1983, and envisioned a livelier Singapore River in the 1970s, a proposal that was only taken seriously decades later. He was a founder of the literary magazine ''Tumasek'' (which lasted for three issues) and co-founded Singapore's first multi-disciplinary arts centre, Centre 65, with Lim Kok Ann in 1965 to promote the arts. Centre 65 inspired the name of Centre 42, an institution for playwriting which opened in 2014. In 1972, Goh published his first novel, '' If We Dream Too Long''. The novel 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 ''The Straits Times'' (also known informally by its abbreviation ''ST'') is a Singaporean daily English-language newspaper owned by the SPH Media Trust. Established on 15 July 1845, it is the most-widely circulated newspaper in the country and ...

'' upon publication, it enjoyed a first print run of 3,000 copies and was considered the first English-language Singaporean novel. It was subsequently has been used as a Literature text in various universities. 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, while his debut play ''The Moon is Less Bright'' (1964) was revived by Theatreworks (dir. Ong Keng Sen) in 1990 and The Second Breakfast Company (dir. Adeeb Fazah) in 2018. In 1982, Goh received the

Cultural Medallion The Cultural Medallion () is a cultural award in Singapore conferred to those who have achieved artistic excellence in dance, theatre, Literature of Singapore, literature, Music of Singapore, music, photography, art and Cinema of Singapore, film ...

for his contributions to Literature. A 15-minute documentary about Goh, directed by Almerinda Travasoss, was released in 2007. In 2009, Goh announced his plan to write a quartet of novels loosely based on his personal and family history. In 2014, the Centre for Southeast Asia Research at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

acquired the Goh Poh Seng Collection, a set of 110 volumes from Goh's library. In 2015, a collection of Goh's short stories based on his adventures in 1950s

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, ''Tall Tales and MisAdventures of a Young Westernized Oriental Gentleman'', was posthumously published by

NUS Press NUS Press is an academic press in Singapore. It traces its origins to the Singapore University Press, which the University of Singapore established in 1971 as its publishing arm. The press specialises in books and journals that deal with topics ...

. The memoir, written in the last years of Goh's life, includes reflections of his formative encounters with Irish literary giants

and

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

. Reviewing the book in '' Quarterly Literary Review Singapore'', Zhang Ruihe called it "a valuable addition to Singapore literature, a record of a writer's coming of age in a time of global transition and revolution."

Other career

In 1983 Goh set up Singapore's first disco and live music venue, Rainbow Lounge, at the Ming Arcade. The venue was shut down by the authorities in 1986 after a complaint was made against it for a indecent remark by a member of the house band.

Personal life

As a result of the closure of his music venue, Goh emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in 1986. In 2007, Goh returned to Singapore to attend the

Singapore Writers Festival The Singapore Writers Festival is a literary event organised by the National Arts Council. Inaugurated in 1986, the festival serves a dual function of promoting new and emerging Singaporean and Asian writing to an international audience, as well ...

. Goh died on 10 January 2010 in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, after suffering from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

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." In 2012, his son, Kagan Goh, published ''Who Let In The Sky?'', a family memoir about Goh's struggle with Parkinson's.

Bibliography

Poetry

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

Novels

* '' If We Dream Too Long'' (Island Press, 1972; Heinamann Asia Ltd, 1994;

, 2010) * '' The Immolation'' (Heinamann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd., 1977;

Epigram Books Epigram Books is an independent publishing company in Singapore. It publishes works of Singapore-based writers, poets and playwrights. History Epigram was founded in 1991 by Edmund Wee as a design agency. Epigram began the publishing and d ...

, 2011) * '' A Dance of Moths'' (Select Books, 1995) * ''Dance With White Clouds: A Fable for Grown Ups'' (Asia 2000, 2001)

Plays

* ''The Moon Is Less Bright'' (Singapore, 1964, 1990, 2018) * ''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'' (

, 2015)

Autobiographical Essays

* ''‘A Star-Lovely Art’'', in Vol 10 No. 1 2010 issue of ''Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writing'', University of Leeds

Awards

* National Book Development Council Of Singapore Fiction Award, 1976 * National Book Development Council Of Singapore Fiction Award, 1996 *

for Literature, 1982

References

External links

*
National Archives of Singapore Interview with Goh Poh Seng
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goh, Poh Seng 1936 births 2010 deaths Alumni of University College Dublin 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian physicians Malaysian people of Chinese descent Malaysian emigrants to Singapore People who lost Malaysian citizenship Musicians from Vancouver Naturalised citizens of Singapore Naturalized citizens of Canada Recipients of the Cultural Medallion for literature Writers from Kuala Lumpur Singaporean emigrants to Canada Singaporean people of Chinese descent 20th-century Singaporean physicians Singaporean poets Singaporean novelists Singaporean dramatists and playwrights Poets from Vancouver Canadian male novelists Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male musicians 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Novelists from Vancouver