ABOUT STELLA KON

 

Stella was born in Edinburgh in 1944. Stella Kon is descended from two long-established Peranakan families.  Both her parents were born in the heartland of old Peranakan society, in Emerald Hill Road. Her mother, Rosie Seow Guat Kheng, was a great-grand- daughter of Tan Tock Seng, and her father, Dr Lim Kok Ann, is a grand-son of Lim Boon Keng. Her brothers are Lim Su Min, Su Chong and Su Hui, her sister is Sing Lim of Jitterbugs Swingapore. She has two sons with their own wonderful families, in Sydney, Australia, and Harrogate, UK.

 

Her great – grandfather was Dr Lim Boon Keng. Fluent in Malay, educated in Britain, studying classical Chinese late in life, he epitomised in himself the various strands that make up the Peranakan heritage. Reformer, educator and legislator, he was one of the most influential men in Singapore’s history. He served for over twenty years on the Legislative Assembly of the colonial Government of Singapore.  He was co-founder of the Straits Chinese Association – the grouping of the ”loyal Queen’s Chinese”, which was the forerunner of the Peranakan Association. He tried to foster ties between Singapore and China, and held a post from the last Emperor of China. He founded the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School in the premises of his house at 2 Emerald Hill Road.  Stella’s father, Lim Kok Ann, was born in this house.

 

Stella’s maternal grandmother, Polly Tan, came from a family which has lived in Malaya and Singapore for 7 generations.  Philanthropist Tan Tock Seng was among her ancestors.  Polly married a banker, Seow Poh Leng.  He was an amateur actor, a romantic who named his houses with titles from Shakespeare – “Titania” for his Siglap property, and “Oberon” for his house  at 117 Emerald Hill Road.   His love for the theatre was transmitted to Stella’s mother, Kheng Lim, who was a noted actress in Singapore in the 1950’s.

 

Kheng Lim married Kok Ann in Scotland.  Kok Ann, like his grandfather Lim Boon Keng, had been studying medicine there as a Queen’s Scholar when the Japanese invasion of Malaya began.  Kheng’s family fled Singapore to go to Australia, but she boarded a boat to join her fiance in Britain.   Stella was born in sight of the crags and castle of Edinburgh, and named Sing Po (Stars & Ripples)  in remembrance of distant, war-ravaged Singapore.

 

After the war her parents returned to Singapore, to the secluded enclave which was Emerald Hill Road.  Stella grew up in Oberon, in what she remembers as an idyll of space and serenity --- dominated by the matriarchal presence of  her grandmother.

 

There were big bedrooms and cool verandahs. In one room was a huge silver cup --  a horse-racing trophy won by her mother’s grandfather, Tan Boo Liat.  On the walls hung portraits of bygone Nonyas.  She remembers the big garden with a green fern-house, with spider orchids and Vanda Joachim, with mangosteen and chiku and rambutan trees.  At  Chinese New Year her grandmother would make her special ice-cream in the old wooden tub. There would be rounds of ceremonial visits to old aunties in traditional sarong kebaya, cackling and gossiping in hearty Peranakan dialect. Old family stories would be repeated.

 

Stella was not brought up to speak the Peranakan dialect, to cook the food or to wear the costume.  But stories of the past, albums of sepia-tinted photos, an awareness of family continuity over many generations, are part of her heritage.  It was this heritage she drew upon, together with nostalgic memories of her childhood at Oberon, to write Emily of Emerald Hill [link to Emily page].

 

Stella has spent most of her life in Singapore. Her childhood was spent in "Oberon," a mansion in Emerald Hill, which no longer exists. She now lives in "Pek Kio", an old HDB estate very near KK Hospital.

 

She has written plays, novels, poems and short stories. Her best-known work is the monodrama, Emily of Emerald Hill [link to Emily page].

 

Stella has been writing all her life, since her mother used to write down the childish stories I dictated to her, in an old exercise book. Her biggest writing successes were in the early eighties, when Singapore's Ministry of Culture organised the National Playwriting Competition in 1979, 1982 and 1985. I won the First Prize on all three occasions. (Then they discontinued the competition!)

 

Stella’s own favourite work is the novel, ESTON, which won a Merit Award in the Singapore Literature Prize Competition of 1994.  For a sample, and more description, do click on this extract from Eston [link to extract].