Teo Poh Leng (1912 – 28 February 1942) was a Malayan poet and teacher who lived in Singapore, the then capital of the Straits Settlements. He was noted for having the first book-length publication in English by a person from Singapore. Teo Poh Leng was a victim of the Sook Ching massacre during the Japanese occupation of Singapore and died on February 28, 1942.[1]
Teo Poh Leng | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1912 Straits Settlements (present-day Singapore) |
| Died | 28 February 1942 (aged 30) Syonan, Empire of Japan (present-day Singapore) |
| Pen name | Ng, Francis P. |
| Occupation |
|
| Nationality | Singaporean |
Biography
edit
Teo Poh Leng was born in 1912, the youngest son of a Teochew family.[3] He studied at St Joseph's Institution, and received a Liberal Arts degree in 1934 from Raffles College.[4] Whilst at Raffles College, he was the editor of Raffles College Magazine, and wrote many commentaries on the state of modern Malaya.[3] 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.[5]
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.[3] 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.[3] He died in the Sook Ching massacre on February 28, 1942, during the Japanese occupation of Singapore during World War II.[1]
Works
editTeo 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 for publication in Chicago.[6]
Teo's sole full-length published work, F.M.S.R. A Poem, was published in the UK by the publisher Arthur Henry Stockwell[5] under the pen name "Francis P. Ng", derived from Teo's second Christian name and his mother's family name.[4] The book-length poem describes a nine-hour train journey on the Federated Malay States Railways, in the style of Western literary modernism,[7] and is the first book-length publication in English by a person from Singapore. His work shows the influences of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.[1] This influence may have stemmed from the Cornish modernist poet Ronald Bottrall, who was Teo's professor at Raffles College.[8]
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:[3]
Millionaires from the New World with nothing else to do
Wander the Old World like wandering Jews;
Call here to buy wooden shoes.
It is unique for being set entirely in Malaya, but incorporating the tropes of 1930s Western modernism and symbolism.[3]
Rediscovery
editTeo's work came to public attention again in 2015, upon the publication of a book Finding Francis: A Poetic Adventure by Ethos Books, 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, but had not published work after the 1930s. An article about Ogihara-Schuck's search for Francis P. Ng in The Straits Times led her to find Teo's real identity, and connected her with the family.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Ties that Bind: The Story of Two Brother Poets – BiblioAsia". www.nlb.gov.sg. Archived from the original on 2018-12-01. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
- ^ "Building Community Through Shared Stories". Public Libraries Singapore. 22 July 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "Browse - Teo Poh Leng". Archived from the original on 2018-12-01. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
- ^ a b gregoryp@st (22 February 2015). "Do you know Teo Poh Leng?". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 2018-12-01. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
- ^ a b hermesauto (12 October 2015). "Work of lost Malayan poet Teo Poh Leng republished after 78 years thanks to ST article". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 2018-12-01. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
- ^ "Browse - Teo Poh Leng". Archived from the original on 2018-12-01. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
- ^ "Global Modernism in Colonial Malayan and Singaporean Literature: The Poetry and Prose of Teo Poh Leng and Sinnathamby Rajaratnam". Archived from the original on 3 December 2017.
- ^ Angelia Mui Cheng Poon; Angus Whitehead (3 March 2017). Singapore Literature and Culture: Current Directions in Local and Global Contexts. Taylor & Francis. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-1-315-30773-2.