Goh Poh Seng
| Goh Poh Seng | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | 吴宝星 |
| Born | ca. July 1936 Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya |
| Died | 10 January 2010 (aged 73) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Cause of death | Parkinson's disease |
| Nationality |
Singaporean Canadian |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
| Awards | 1982 Cultural Medallion |
Goh Poh Seng (simplified Chinese: 吴宝星; traditional Chinese: 吳寶星; pinyin: Wú Bǎo Xīng; July 1936 – 10 January 2010), Singaporean dramatist, novelist, doctor and poet, was born in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya in 1936. He was educated at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, received his medical degree from University College Dublin, and practised medicine in Singapore for twenty-five years. His writing blossomed in Ireland, where he met writers Patrick Kavanagh and Brendan Behan, published his poetry in the university magazine, and took a year off school to write. In his time living in Singapore, Dr. 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 for live jazz and poetry readings, organised Singapore's first David Bowie 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, to promote the arts. Centre 65 inspired the name of Centre 42, an institution for playwriting which opened in 2014.
Goh's first novel, If We Dream Too Long (1972) 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 upon publication, it enjoyed a first print run of 3,000 copies, is considered the first English-language Singaporean novel, and 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 in 1990.
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