Teo Poh Leng (1912-1942) was a Malayan poet and teacher who lived 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, borde ...

, the then capital of the Straits Settlements. He was noted for having the first book-length publication in English by a person from

. Teo Poh Leng was a victim of the

Sook Ching Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularl ...

massacre during the

Japanese occupation of Singapore , officially , was the name for Singapore when it was occupied and ruled by the Empire of Japan, following the fall and surrender of British military forces on 15 February 1942 during World War II. Japanese military forces occupied it after ...

and died on February 28, 1942.

Biography

Teo Poh Leng was born in 1912, the youngest son of a Teochew family. He studied at St Joseph's Institution, and received a Liberal Arts degree in 1934 from

Raffles College 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 ...

. Whilst at Raffles College, he was the editor of Raffles College Magazine, and wrote many commentaries on the state of modern Malaya. He became an elementary school teacher upon completing his studies. His brother Teo Kah Leng was also a poet and teacher, and was later principal of Montfort School. During his working life, he was active in politics and his Catholic community. He was a member of the Straits Chinese British Association (SCBA), and also served as Vice President of the Catholic Young Men's Association (CYMA) of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. He was the honorary librarian of the CYMA of the Church of Sts. Peters and Paul, and served as a special correspondent for ''Malaya Catholic Leader'', a weekly newspaper. He died in the

massacre on February 28, 1942, during the

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Works

Teo published poetry in The London Mercury and ''Life and Letters Today,'' prominent literary magazines of the 1930s based in England. He also submitted work unsuccessfully to the American poet

Harriet Monroe Harriet Monroe (December 23, 1860 – September 26, 1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts. She was the founding publisher and long-time editor of ''Poetry'' magazine, first published in 1912. As a ...

for publication in Chicago. Teo's sole full-length published work, ''F.M.S.R. A Poem'', was published in the UK by the publisher

Arthur Henry Stockwell Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more ...

under the pen name "Francis P. Ng", derived from Teo's second Christian name and his mother's family name. The book-length poem describes a nine-hour train journey on the

Federated Malay States Railways The Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR) was a consolidated railway operator in British Malaya (present day Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore) during the first half of the 20th century. Named after the then recently formed Federated Malay ...

, in the style of Western

literary modernism Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...

, and is the first book-length publication in English by a person from

. His work shows the influences of

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

's ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

''. This influence may have stemmed from the Cornish modernist poet

Ronald Bottrall (Francis James) Ronald Bottrall (2 September 1906, Camborne, Cornwall – 25 June 1989) was a Cornish poet. He was praised highly by F.R. Leavis, Anthony Burgess and Martin Seymour-Smith, and deprecated by Ian Hamilton and Martin Amis. Bottral ...

, who was Teo's professor at Raffles College. F.M.S.R. is written in free verse, but contains irregular metric lines with elements of rhyme. The first lines of the poem begin: It is unique for being set entirely in Malaya, but incorporating the tropes of 1930s Western modernism and symbolism.

Rediscovery

Teo's work came to public attention again in 2015, upon the publication of a book ''Finding Francis: A Poetic Adventure'' by

Ethos Books Established in 1997, Ethos Books is an independent book publisher based in Singapore. It is an imprint of Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd, a communications and design house. Ethos Books specialises in publishing literary works of fiction, non-ficti ...

, edited by literary academic Dr Eriko Ogihara-Schuck and the poet's niece, Anne Teo. The book describes the product of two years of literary sleuthing by Dr Ogihara-Schuck to find the author of F.M.S.R. Teo had received acclaim for his work from contemporary British poets such as

Sylvia Townsend Warner Sylvia Nora Townsend Warner (6 December 1893 – 1 May 1978) was an English novelist, poet and musicologist, known for works such as ''Lolly Willowes'', '' The Corner That Held Them'', and ''Kingdoms of Elfin''. Life Sylvia Townsend Warner wa ...

, but had not published work after the 1930s. An article about Ogihara-Schuck's search for Francis P. Ng in

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 ...

led her to find Teo's real identity, and connected her with the family.

References

External links

''poetry.sg'' profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teo, Poh Leng Singaporean poets Singaporean literature Male poets 1912 births 1942 deaths Saint Joseph's Institution, Singapore alumni Raffles College alumni Civilians killed in World War II