Myo Min ( my, မျိုးမင်း, ; 7 April 1910 – 21 September 1995) was a Burmese academic, journalist and writer, who wrote under the pen names of Nwe Soe (, ), U Myo Min and Myint Win. He was one of the founders of the ''

Khit-San Sarpay ''Khit San Sarpay'' ( my, ခေတ်စမ်းစာပေ, ; lit. "Testing the Age Literature") was a literary movement that emerged in the 1930s British Burma, and is considered the first modern literary movement in the history of Burmese lite ...

'' movement, the first modern literary movement in the history of

Burmese literature The literature of Burma (or Myanmar) spans over a millennium. Burmese literature was historically influenced by Indian and Thai cultures, as seen in many works, such as the '' Ramayana''. The Burmese language, unlike other Southeast Asian lan ...

. He was the longtime Professor of English at

Rangoon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

and later at

Yangon Institute of Education The Yangon University of Education (formerly the Yangon Institute of Education; my, ရန်ကုန် ပညာရေး တက္ကသိုလ် ; abbreviated YUOE), located in Kamayut, Yangon, is the premier university of education in ...

. He also served in several academic and research organizations, including the Burma Historical Commission, the

Burma Research Society The Burma Research Society ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ သုတေသန အသင်း ) was an academic society devoted to historical research of Burma (Myanmar). Its aims were "the investigation and encouragement of Art, Sci ...

, and the Burma Translation Society. For his services to the country, he was awarded the honorary titles of ''

Wunna Kyawhtin This article considers the religious, military and civil orders, decorations and medals of Union of Myanmar. Religious honorary orders Before and after Myanmar's independence, governments presented two religious orders, Abhidhaja Maha Ratht ...

'' in 1954 and ''

Thiri Pyanchi This article considers the religious, military and civil orders, decorations and medals of Union of Myanmar. Religious honorary orders Before and after Myanmar's independence, governments presented two religious orders, Abhidhaja Maha Ratht ...

'' in 1961 by the government.

Brief

Myo Min was born on 7 April 1910 in Rangoon (Yangon) to Saw Nu () and her husband Po Min (), a senior civil servant in the British colonial administration. He was the youngest of four children. In his youth, his family constantly moved around the

Irrawaddy delta The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mouth of the ...

, following the postings of the father, who would later retire as a Deputy Commissioner. Myo Min attended primary school in

Hlegu Hlegu ( my, လှည်းကူး, ) is a small city in Yangon Division, Burma (Myanmar) about 45 km north-east of Yangon. It is located on both sides of the Ngamoyeik River (Ngamoyeik Chaung).Kyaiklat,

Myaungmya Myaungmya ( my, မြောင်းမြမြို့ ) is a town in Myaungmya Township, Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. The town is home to the Myanmar Union Adventist Seminary, a Seventh-day Adventist seminary and Myaungmya Education College. ...

and

Ma-ubin Maubin ( my, မအူပင် ) is a town in the Ayeyarwady Division of south-west Myanmar. It is the seat of the Maubin Township in the Maubin District. The population as of 2021 was 51,542. The inhabitants of the town, as well as the district a ...

. From 5th Standard onward, he attended Rangoon's elite St. John's High School, and passed the university entrance examination with honors in five subjects in 1926.Nwe Soe 2010: 5 He enrolled in Rangoon University, where he was a classmate of

U Thant Thant (; ; January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974), known honorifically as U Thant (), was a Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position. He held t ...

,Bingham 1966: 89 and graduated in 1931 with a BA in English with honors. He went on to read law at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, and received a BL in 1936. He returned to the university after the war and received an MA in 1947. Myo Min started as an adjunct lecturer in English at Rangoon University in the late 1930s, and rose to be the Professor of English—the Department Chair—at the university in the early 1950s.(Allott 2004: 23): He was already Professor of English in March 1954 when he and Virginia Geiger, cultural attache at the US Embassy, organized a 3-day linguistics seminar in Rangoon. After the University Education Act of 1964, which broke up Rangoon University into several independent universities and institutes, Prof Myo Min became the chair of the Department of English at

.JBRS 1968: 37 As an extension of his academic career, he served in several prominent academic and research organizations. He was the secretary of the

Bernard Free Library The Bernard Free Library was the first free public library in Burma (now Myanmar), and a direct predecessor to the National Library of Myanmar. History The Bernard Free Library was established on 21 February 1883 when the Commissioner of Lower ...

, and a member of the

Burma Education Extension Association The Burma Education Extension Association ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ပညာ ပြန့်ပွားရေး အသင်း) was a Rangoon (Yangon)-based educational organization founded by JS Furnivall to promote "the ...

, the Burma Historical Commission, the

, and the Burma Translation Society. He was a longtime editor of the ''

Journal of the Burma Research Society The ''Journal of the Burma Research Society'' ( my , မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသုတေသနအသင်းဂျာနယ်) was an academic journal covering Burma studies that was published by the Burma Research Society betwee ...

''. He also served in the Office of the Prime Minister in the administration of Prime Minister

U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pr ...

.Butwell 1969: 142–143 For his services to the country, Prof Myo Min was awarded the honorary titles of ''

'' in 1954 and ''

'' in 1961 by the government. He was married to Khin Thin Nwe (, ), a lecturer and fellow academic, and they had four children, Khin Swe Min, Min Thet Mon, Kyaw Myo and Min Khin Myo. He died on 21 September 1995 in Yangon.

Literary career

His literary career began while he was a student at Rangoon University. Starting in 1927, he began writing in the publications of ''Lungemya Kyipwayay Athin'' (, "Growth for Youth Association"). He came of age at a time when Burmese literature was experiencing its first modern literary movement, called ''

'' (, lit. "Testing the Age Literature"). The movement was heavily influenced by modern English literature, and started by young Burmese writers, many of whom like Myo Min were educated in Christian missionary schools.Swan Yi : 4 Starting in 1935, under the pen name of Nwe Soe, he wrote several short stories and articles, as well as a few poems, in magazines associated with the ''Khit-San'' movement—''

Kyipwayay ''Kyipwayay'' ( my, ကြီးပွားရေး, , lit. "Growth") was a pre-World War II Burmese language monthly magazine, closely identified with the ''Khit-San Sarpay'' movement, the first modern literary movement in the history of Burmes ...

'' (, "Growth") Magazine by

Ludu U Hla Ludu U Hla ( my, လူထုဦးလှ; ; 19 January 1910 – 7 August 1982) was a Burmese journalist, publisher, chronicler, folklorist and social reformer whose prolific writings include a considerable number of path-breaking nonfiction ...

and ''

Ganda Lawka ''Ganda Lawka'' ( my, ဂန္တလောက, , lit. "World of Books") was a Burmese language monthly magazine published by the Burma Education Extension Association The Burma Education Extension Association ( my, မြန်မာနို� ...

'' (, "World of Books") Magazine by JS Furnivall. He later became an editor at ''Ganda Lawka''. He wrote several articles and short stories in magazines. Some of the notable works are:Nwe Soe 2010: 9 * ''Ma-ubin'' (''Kyipwayay'' Magazine, December 1935) * ''Kutho Hset'' (''Ganda Lawka'' Magazine, March 1936) * ''Sein-lan-thaw Taung-gon'' (''Ganda Lawka'', September 1936) * ''Naing-ngan-yay'' (''Ganda Lawka'', December 1937) * ''A-chit Lay-ba'' (''Ganda Lawka'', (month?) 1937) * ''Set-hmu Kariya'' (''Ganda Lawka'', August 1937) * ''Anya-Gyaik'' (''Ngwetaryi'' Magazine, August 1960) * ''Kan...Kan'' (''Ngwetaryi'', September 1960) * ''Sedana Shin'' (''Ngwetaryi'', November 1963) He also wrote books and articles under the name U Myo Min: * ''Archway English Course'' (1957) * ''Learning English'' (1959) * ''Old Burma'' (?)
''Burmese Entertainment''
(''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', February 1958)

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Myo Min Burmese writers 1910 births 1995 deaths University of Yangon alumni Academic staff of the University of Yangon Recipients of the Wunna Kyawhtin Recipients of the Thiri Pyanchi