Arthur Yap (叶纬雄) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Arthur Yap Chioh Hiong 1943 |
| Died | (2006-06-19)19 June 2006 (aged 63) |
| Occupation | Poet,Pedagogue |
| Nationality | Singapore |
| Notable awards | 1976: Poetry award by the National Book Development Council of Singapore 1983:Cultural Medallion for Literature South-East Asian Write Award, Bangkok |
Arthur Yap Chioh Hiong (simplified Chinese:叶纬雄;traditional Chinese:葉緯雄;pinyin:Yè Wěi Xióng; 1943 – 19 June 2006) was a Singaporeanpoet, writer and painter.
Arthur Yap was born in Singapore, the sixth child of a carpenter and a housewife. Yap attendedSt Andrew's School and theUniversity of Singapore, after which he won a British Council scholarship to study at theUniversity of Leeds inEngland. At Leeds Arthur earned a master's degree in Linguistics and English Language Teaching, later obtaining hisPhD from theNational University of Singapore in the years after he returned from Leeds. He stayed on in the university's Department of English Language and Literature as a lecturer between the years 1979 and 1998. Between 1992 and 1996, Yap served as a mentor with the Creative Arts Programme run by theMinistry of Education to help inspire students and nurture young writers at local secondary schools and junior colleges. Yap was then diagnosed with lung cancer, and receivedradiotherapy treatment.[1] Yap was known to be an intensely private man.[2]
Yap's poetry is distinctive for an unusual linguistic playfulness and subtlety that is able to bridge the rhythms ofSinglish with the precision of acrolectic English. Unsurprisingly, the craft of Yap's voice has the admiration of other writers.Anthony Burgess has written that he encounteredDown the Line "with elation and occasional awe",[3] whileD. J. Enright has praised Yap's "sophisticated cosmopolitan intelligence"[citation needed]. TheOxford Companion to 20th-Century Poetry describes Yap's poems as "original, but... demanding: elliptical, dense, dry, sometimes droll. At their best, they shuttle between playfulness and sobriety and are alert to the rhythms and contours of the natural and the peopled landscape, seasoning insight with compassion."[citation needed]
His first collection of poemsOnly Lines was published in 1971, when he was 28. It had a first print run of 2,000 to 3,000 copies.[4] Its whimsical, wordplay-based humour captured the hearts of poetry lovers,[5] and it won the first poetry award from the National Book Development Council of Singapore in 1976. An analysis of the poems fromOnly Lines finds moments of both celebration and apology for the power of the written word. At times he begins his verses as if in mid-conversation with the reader:
should i also add:
here are only lines
linked by the same old story.
the same old plot
in which they are grown
The pun on the word 'plot' in this passage, denoting both a storyline and a piece of land, suggests a dimensionality in the language that belies the dismissive adjective 'only'.
Other signature features of Yap's poems include his choice of simple words, and the use of all-lowercase style favoured by American poetE. E. Cummings.
Yap's second collectionCommonplace was published in 1977. The third collection,Down The Line (1980) was acclaimed and won Yap his second Book Council Award. In 1983, Yap was honored with Singapore'sCultural Medallion for Literature and theSouth-East Asian Write Award in Bangkok. Yap described this as one of the high points in his literary career.[6] Translations of his books were published in many Asian countries, mainly in the Japanese, Mandarin and Malay languages. In 1988, Yap won his third Book Council Award forMan Snake Apple & Other Poems (1986).
One of Yap's short stories was included inSingapore Short Stories, which was used worldwide for the 'O' Levels from 1991 to 1992.[7] Yap's poems 'In Passing', about the restlessness of the modern world, and 'Old House at Ann Siang Hill' were included inThe Calling of Kindred: Poems from the English-speaking World, a poetry anthology prescribed for the 'O' Levels in Singapore from 1996 to 1997. His poems also have been included in a literature course offered byMcMaster University inOntario,Canada, and collected in anthologies likeNew Voices of the Commonwealth,The Flowering Tree andThe Second Tongue: An Anthology of Poetry from Malaysia and Singapore.[8] Selected poems of his are on the reading lists ofWest Virginia University andNew York University Sydney.[9] Yap also served as the general editor of literary magazineSinga, first published in 1981.[10][11][12]
In 1998, Yap received the Montblanc-NUS Centre for the Arts Literary Award for English.
A selection from each of Yap's previous books was compiled inThe Space of City Trees: Selected Poems published in 2000. Extracts fromThe Space of City Trees were subsequently published inThe Straits Times' Life! Books section.[1] NUS Press publishedThe collected poems of Arthur Yap[13] andNoon at five o'clock,[14] a collection of his short stories, in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Yap's paintings decorated both book covers.
In 2015,Down the Line was selected byThe Business Times as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965 to 2015, alongside titles byGoh Poh Seng andDaren Shiau.[15]
Yap was also a painter. His passion for painting began in 1967 when he was working as a Pre-University English Literature teacher at the Serangoon Gardens English School. During the weekends he would pick up the brush, expressing himself through his abstract works of art. On 13 April 1969 Arthur Yap held his first solo art exhibition featuring 44 square abstract paintings at the National Library in Stamford Road.[16] Yap went on to have a total of seven solo exhibitions in Singapore, as well as participating in group exhibitions in Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. Yap's paintings were also chosen to represent Singapore at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1972.[1]
After a two-and-half-year battle with throat cancer, Yap died in his sleep at home on 19 June 2006. He was 63. The cancer had recurred in 2004, and Yap underwent major surgery to remove his voice box.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
