YENG Pway Ngon@Kong Da Shan 英培安@孔大山
Literary Scene in Singapore (Chinese),
Accession Number 003125
- Oral History Centre
Source
- 16
Total Reels
- Lye Soo Choon 赖素春
Interviewer
- 14:00:48
Total Running Time
- Mandarin
Language
Copyright Notice
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Reel/Disc 1 of 16
Metadata
- 25 Mar 2007
Recording Date
- 00:54:06
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
*Born 1947 in Singapore. Father’s background, Chinese physician, came from China. Parents married during Japanese Occupation. Maternal grandfather was active in Red Swastika Society 红?字会. Helped in family’s coffee shop business. Mother was landlord, sublet rooms to tenants. Recall the house he stayed. Recall time spent with his father. Studied in Catholic High School, how he think about the school. Left Catholic High in secondary two. Started to draw caricature and contribute to youth magazine, used Qi Fei 齐飞 as penname. Books and literary works he read, influenced by books published by Gao Yuan publisher 高原出版社. His interest in caricature and singing. Recall first short novel 《一个工人》 (A worker) he wrote. How he got his penname.
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Reel/Disc 2 of 16
Metadata
- 25 Mar 2007
Recording Date
- 00:53:48
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
*Desired to be artist or writer when he was young. Encouragement he had in these areas. How he wrote his first short novel 《一个工人》 (A worker). Similarity of the novel compared to 《孔乙己》written by Lu Xun鲁迅. How he became interested in Taiwan style modern verse 现代诗when he was in Ngee Ann College义安学院. How his literary view was influenced by Ngee Ann College’s lecturer Li Chen Dong 李辰冬. He did not mix with other writers. Why he was interested in literary activities when he was in Ngee Ann College. His views of good literary works. Writers he liked. Had different literary views on modern verse compared to other writers. Changed to write poem in folk rhyme style in 1970s, felt not successful and stopped writing that style. How his writing style was influenced by Liang Shi Qiu 梁实秋. Involved in literary magazine Lie Hu 《猎户》. Why and how he started his own literary magazine Cha Zuo《茶座》.
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Reel/Disc 3 of 16
Metadata
- 25 Mar 2007
Recording Date
- 00:57:13
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
*Writers who contributed to interviewee’s literary magazine Cha Zuo《茶座》. Had about 300 subscribers. How and why Wu Yue Chu Ban She 五月出版社 (publishing company) was formed and registered under interviewee’s name. Recall the publishing of his first book. Why he left Wu Yue publisher. Written polemics that he had been involved. Why he was involved. Interviewee’s views on realism and modernism in literary works. Felt that Singapore literary modernism was adopted from Taiwan. Cited example using poems written by Yu Guang Zhong 余光中and Li Qing Zhao 李清照. Elaborated the style of writing vs. the spirit of modernism in literature, cited examples. How interviewee defined modernism.
Track 02
Why publishing company was named as Wu Yue 五月 (May). How he started Cha Zuo 《茶座》 (literary magazine). The subscribers of the magazine. Pricing, size and content of the magazine. Could not break even. How he acted when there was not enough articles for the magazine. Recall himself translated an article from Life Magazine to publish in Cha Zuo. No concrete plan when he started the magazine. How friends helped to increase the standard of the magazine. Recall two special issues. Used income from giving tuition to pay off expenses of the magazine. Fun part of publishing the magazine.
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Reel/Disc 5 of 16
Metadata
- 1 Apr 2007
Recording Date
- 00:55:27
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
*Local books and magazines that were sold in interviewee’s bookshop. Slump in business due to Golden Theatre stopped screening China movie. Qian Wei Bookshop was sold to Zhang Ke Run 张克润. Rented new shop at Plaza Cinema set up Grassroots Book Room草根书室, selling English books and Chinese books from China and Taiwan. Customers of Grassroots. Decreased in books sales. Income from providing photocopy services. Reasons for the drop in books sales. Reasons for him to close down Grassroots Book Room in early 1980s. Used author's remuneration that he received to pay off debts accumulated by the Book Room. How he felt before and after the Book Room was closed. Wrote radio play for Rediffusion to pay off losses of the Book Room. Bought one-room flat when he got married.
Track 02
Internal Security Department (ISD) went to his house and arrested him at 2am. Recall the arrest. Could not figure what had he done wrong. Officers from ISD arrested interviewee from his house and brought him to Grassroots Book Room草根书室. Searched the Book Room, blind fold him and brought him to ISD. Described the cell. Locked up for many days before he was being interrogated. Described the interrogation. Daily life in the cell. His passed time was singing, walking around in that small area with imagination.
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Reel/Disc 8 of 16
Metadata
- 6 May 2007
Recording Date
- 00:55:13
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
*Continued to talk about his first book Shou Su Tai Shang《手术台上》 (poetry). Started publishing books as he stopped his magazine Cha Zuo 《茶座》in 1970s. Compare differences between publishing book and magazine. Elaborate on differences in writing style between him and other modernist writers. Interviewee definition of modernist literature. First three books were poetry, fourth book was collection of his Za Wen 杂文 (satirical essay). Felt that his Za Wen in his fourth book had similar writing style as writer Liang Shi Qiu梁实秋. Wrote more when he was released by Internal Security Department (ISD). How Wen Xue Shu Wu 文学书屋 published three books for him, why he withdrew the cooperation with this publisher. Published Jie Chu《接触》 (cultural magazine), received limited attention and few readers due to the content. Why he published such magazine, what did he hope to achieve. Why his column Ren Zai Jiang Hu《人在江湖》was stopped. Talk about the content of the article which led to the problem. Talk about his short novels in his book Ji Cuo De You Jian《寄错的邮件》. Felt that those short novels were experimental, influenced by writers Ya Xian痖弦 and Liu Yi Chang 刘以鬯. Elaborate on the short novels he wrote.
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Reel/Disc 9 of 16
Metadata
- 6 May 2007
Recording Date
- 00:55:50
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
*Differences between psychological novel心理小说 and Yi Shi Liu 意识流 (stream-of-consciousness) novel. How he was influenced by Jiu Tu 《酒徒》, novel written by Liu Yi Chang 刘以鬯. Compared the differences in content expressed in poem and novel. Why he re-printed two books in 1987. How he started to write his first long novel 长篇小说 《一个像我这样的男人》. First contacted Lianhe Zaobao《联合早报》to use his novel, not successful. Shin Min Daily News 《新明日报》published his novel. Had structured content before he wrote first long novel. Why he wanted to write such novel. How he created and wrote about the characters in the novel. Feedbacks that he heard about the novel. The novel won NBDCS (National Book Development Council of Singapore) Book Award.
Gave up writing column to concentrate in reading and writing novels. First Chinese long novel was translated by his wife Goh Beng Choo into English fiction A Man Like Me. Received publication grant from National Arts Council (NAC) to published the book. Things in the novel that could not be translated. His wife met tenses problems during translation. Compared differences between his first and second novel. Second novel wrote about a Chinese educated person 华校生. Wrote in exquisite way. How interviewee used ‘you’ (second person第二人称), ‘me’ (first person 第一人称) and ‘him’ (third person 第三人称) in writing his second novel to create sense of differences in time, distance and happenings. Interviewee’s definition of being ‘Chinese Educated’.
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Reel/Disc 10 of 16
Metadata
- 20 May 2007
Recording Date
- 00:56:02
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
*Characteristics of a person who was Chinese educated. Impression of an English educated person. Cite example on how he used second person 第二人称 in his second book. Had main idea when he wrote, but changes were made while he was writing. Did not worry about reader, focus was on the novel literary standard. Give a description of his target readers. Why he did not use much technique on writing Za Wen杂文 (satirical essay). Long interval before his actually wrote third novel though he had planned it for long time. Tied up by work, resigned in order to concentrate in writing third novel Sao Dong 《骚动》. Aimed not to repeat his style of writing. Difficulties he met when he was doing research, how he recreated the information he had gathered. His novel was about how people reacted during events, did not want to write history.
His views on the changes in values that people had since early 20th century. Felt that literary work was not a promotion tools, it reflected writer’s thinking. Elaborate on special writing techniques that he used in Sao Dong. Cite examples on how he arranged plot. Published in newspapers in Thailand and Indonesia. Attempts that he made to contact newspapers and magazines in Taiwan to publish his third novel.
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