''Escape from Paradise: From Third World to First'' is a 2001

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

book written by John Harding and May Chu Harding set in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

, Australia,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The book tells, from the author's perspective, of her struggle to divorce her ex-husband, Hin Chew Chung, whom she married in an arranged marriage in Singapore. She encountered difficulties with Singapore's lawyers and judges that made the divorce difficult.

Circulation restrictions

''Escape from Paradise'' was never banned in Singapore. This has been confirmed by Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA). Its distribution in Singapore bookstores and in Singapore's National Library (NLB) was restricted by a threatened lawsuit by Helen Yeo, wife of former Singapore Cabinet Minister

Yeo Cheow Tong Yeo Cheow Tong (; born 22 June 1947) is a former Singaporean politician. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he served in the Cabinet from 1990 to 2006, and was a Member of Parliament (MP) of Hong Kah SMC from 12 December 19 ...

. Consequently, twenty-five copies of the book were withdrawn from NLB and only one copy of ''Escape from Paradise'' is still in circulation as a reference book at the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant wo ...

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.escapefromparadise.com Autobiographies Singaporean literature Aw family