Catherine Lim Poh Imm (, born 21 March 1942) is a Singaporean

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of

traditional Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...

. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collections of short stories, five novels, two poetry collections, and numerous political commentaries to date. Her social commentary in 1994, titled ''The PAP and the people - A Great Affective Divide''The PAP and the people – A Great Affective Divide
3 September 1994

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...

and published in ''

,'' criticised the ruling political party's agendas.

Career

Lim was born in

Kulim The Kulim District is a district and town in the state of Kedah, Malaysia. It is located on the southeast of Kedah, bordering Penang. The town of Kulim, a mere east of Penang's capital city, George Town, also forms part of Greater Penang, Ma ...

( Malaya) and studied in the

Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus The Sisters of the Infant Jesus, also known as the Dames of Saint Maur, are a religious institute of the Catholic Church originating from Paris, France and dedicated to teaching. History Origins In 1659 Barré, who was a respected scholar wi ...

. Early childhood reading was mainly influenced by British fiction, including

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have be ...

Richmal Crompton Richmal Crompton Lamburn (15 November 1890 – 11 January 1969) was a popular English writer, best known for her ''Just William'' series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books. Life Richmal Crompton Lambu ...

and some comics. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the

University of Malaya The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...

in 1963, moving to Singapore in 1967. In 1988, she received her PhD in

applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, communication rese ...

from the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

. Lim then attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

(1990). She also worked as a teacher and later as project director with the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore and as a specialist lecturer with the Regional English Language Centre, teaching

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

and literature. In 1992, she left her professional career to become a full-time writer. Lim was subsequently made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (France) in 2003 and an ambassador of the Hans Christian Andersen Foundation (

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

) in 2005. She received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

in literature from

Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its n ...

. Lim published her first short story collection called '' Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore'' in 1978. A succeeding collection, ''

Or Else, the Lightning God and other Stories ''Or Else, the Lightning God & Other Stories'' is a collection of eighteen short stories by Catherine Lim, first published by Heinemann in 1980 under the Writing in Asia Series. The book follows the success of '' Little Ironies: Stories of Sing ...

'', was published in 1980. The short story collection was the first Singapore book to be tested for the Cambridge International Examinations in 1989 and 1990. Another story collection that followed in this tradition was '' O Singapore!: Stories in Celebration'' from 1989, but two years earlier she published ''The Shadow of a Shadow of a Dream'', which found Lim experimenting with new techniques and extending her subject range. Her first novel, ''

The Serpent's Tooth ''The Serpent's Tooth'' is a novel by Singaporean writer Catherine Lim, first published in 1982 by Times Edition Pte Ltd. The title of the novel is taken from a quote from Shakespeare's ''King Lear'': "Sharper than a serpent’s tooth/ It is to hav ...

'', was published in 1982. Other books that have been published since then include ''

The Bondmaid ''The Bondmaid'' is 1998 novel by Catherine Lim, which tells a tragic love story of Wu, the master of a household, and Han, his maid, in 1950s Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and ...

'' (1995) and ''Following the Wrong God Home'' (2001). The major theme in her stories is the role of women in traditional Chinese society and culture. In 1998 Lim was awarded the Montblanc-NUS Centre for the Arts Literary Award and in 1999 she received the S.E.A. Write Award. In 2000, Lim worked with the now-defunct web portal Lycos Asia to write an e-novella called ''

Leap of Love ''The Leap Years'' (also known as ''Leap of Love'') is a Singapore film produced by Mediacorp Raintree Pictures, based on the novella ''Leap of Love'' by the author Catherine Lim. The production for the film started in 2005, and the film was ini ...

''. It was sold online (at 19 cents a chapter) before it was published by Horizon Books in 2003. It served as basis for the film ''

The Leap Years ''The Leap Years'' (also known as ''Leap of Love'') is a Singapore film produced by Mediacorp Raintree Pictures, based on the novella ''Leap of Love'' by the author Catherine Lim. The production for the film started in 2005, and the film was init ...

'' by

Raintree Pictures Mediacorp Raintree Pictures () was a film production company based in Singapore. The company, a division of Mediacorp Group, was established on 1 August 1998. It produced the Singaporean comedy, '' Liang Po Po: The Movie'' featuring the cross-dres ...

in 2008. Another best-selling novel was ''The Bondmaid'', which sold 75,000 copies. In 2015, '' Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore'' was selected by '' The Business Times'' as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965–2015, alongside titles by

Arthur Yap Arthur Yap Chioh Hiong (; 1943 – 19 June 2006) was a Singaporean poet, writer and painter. Biography Arthur Yap was born in Singapore, the sixth child of a carpenter and a housewife. Yap attended St Andrew's School and the University of Si ...

and

Daren Shiau Daren Shiau, BBM, PBM (Chinese: 萧维龙, born 1971), is a Singaporean novelist, poet, conservationist, and lawyer in private practice qualified in Singapore, England and Wales. He is an author of five books. Education Shiau was born in S ...

. In the same year, ''

Akshita Nanda selected '' Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore'' as one of 10 classic Singapore books. "Catherine Lim's early short, sharp fiction describes the results of such social engineering", she wrote, "a Singapore growing more cosmopolitan and Singaporeans losing touch with their roots. ''Little Ironies'' spotlights ordinary people at their best and worst, such as 'The Taximan's Story', in which a cab driver is happy to make money off sex workers while looking down on them."

Controversy

Lim came into conflict with the

People's Action Party The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...

(PAP) in 1994 when she wrote an article published in ''The Straits Times'' (''PAP and the People: A Great Affective Divide''). From comments made by then Prime Minister

Goh Chok Tong Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Parliament of Singapore, ...

and other cabinet ministers, especially

George Yeo George Yeo Yong-Boon ( zh, s=杨荣文, p=Yáng Róngwén; born 13 September 1954) is a Singaporean former politician and brigadier-general who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs between 2004 and 2011. Yeo served in the Singapore Army an ...

, this episode gave rise to the political "out of bounds" marker that came to be known as "boh tua boh suay" (literally, "no big, no small" in the Chinese dialect of Hokkien, to mean "no respect for rank and seniority").

Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...

dismissed Lim's views as "the popular theory that the Western press writes about". In his memoirs, Lee is quoted as saying:

Supposing Catherine Lim was writing about me and not the prime minister. She would not dare, right? Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul-de-sac. There is no other way you can govern in a Chinese society.Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas
1998, Singapore Times

Works

Novels

* ''

'' (1982, Times Books International) * ''

'' (1995, C. Lim Pub; 1997, 1998, Orion; 1997, 1998, The Overlook Press; 2011, Marshall Cavendish Editions) * ''The Teardrop Story Woman'' (1998, Orion; 2011, Marshall Cavendish Editions) * ''Following the Wrong God Home'' (2001, Orion Publishing; 2001, Allen & Unwin; 2011, Marshall Cavendish Editions) * ''A Leap of Love: A Novella'' (2003, Horizon Books) * ''The Song of Silver Frond'' (2003, Orion; 2011, Marshall Cavendish Editions) * ''Miss Seetoh in the World'' (2011, Marshall Cavendish Editions)

Short story collections

* '' Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore'' (1978, Heinemann Asia) * ''

Or Else, the Lightning God and Other Stories ''Or Else, the Lightning God & Other Stories'' is a collection of eighteen short stories by Catherine Lim, first published by Heinemann in 1980 under the Writing in Asia Series. The book follows the success of '' Little Ironies: Stories of Sing ...

'' (1980, Heinemann Asia; 1988, Federal Publications; 2012, Heinemann) * '' They Do Return...But Gently Lead Them Back'' (1983, Times Books International) * ''The Shadow of a Shadow of a Dream: Love Stories of Singapore'' (1987, Heinemann Asia; 1999, Horizon Books) * '' O Singapore! Stories in Celebration'' (1989, Times Books International) * '' Deadline for Love and Other Stories'' (1992, Heinemann Asia; 1999, Horizon Books) * ''Meet Me on the Queen Elizabeth 2!'' (1993, Heinemann Asia; 1999, Horizon Books) * ''The Best of Catherine Lim'' (1993, Heinemann Asia) * '' The Woman's Book of Superlatives'' (1993, Times Books International) * ''The Howling Silence: tales of the dead and their return'' (1999, Horizon Books) * ''The Catherine Lim Collection'' (2009, Marshall Cavendish Editions)

Poetry

* ''Love's Lonely Impulses'' (1992, Heinemann Asia) * ''Humoresque'' (2006, Horizon Books)

Non-fiction

* ''Unhurried Thoughts At My Funeral'' (2005, Horizon Books) * ''A Watershed Election: Singapore’s GE 2011'' (2011, Marshall Cavendish Editions) * ''Roll Out the Champagne, Singapore!: An Exuberant Celebration of the Nation's 50th Birthday'' (2014, Marshall Cavendish Editions) * ''An Equal Joy: Reflections on God, Death and Belonging'' (2017, Marshall Cavendish Editions)

Plays

* ''Kampong Amber'' (1994)

Anthologies

Gwee Li Sui Gwee Li Sui (; born 22 August 1970) is a poet, a graphic artist, and a literary critic from Singapore. Biography Gwee went to the now-defunct MacRitchie Primary School and then Anglo-Chinese Secondary School and Anglo-Chinese Junior College. In ...

, ed. '' Written Country: The History of Singapore through Literature'' (2016,

Landmark Publications A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

)

References

External links

Catherine Lim's blog

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070312074940/http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-525941.html?legacy=zdnn "Catherine Lim opens e-book chapter" – ZDNet Asia. 29 November, 2000
Catherine Lim interview in the Plus section of TODAY. 15 February, 2006
*https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_461_2005-01-17.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Catherine 1942 births Living people National University of Singapore alumni S.E.A. Write Award winners Singaporean atheists Singaporean people of Chinese descent Columbia University alumni Malaysian emigrants to Singapore People who lost Malaysian citizenship Naturalised citizens of Singapore Singaporean women writers Singaporean poets Singaporean non-fiction writers Singaporean novelists Singaporean women poets Women novelists Singaporean women short story writers 20th-century short story writers 21st-century short story writers 21st-century Singaporean women writers 21st-century Singaporean writers 20th-century Singaporean women writers 20th-century Singaporean writers Fulbright alumni