>>NLB Resources
	Related Articles Related Images Related eBooks All Related Resources

By Marsita Omar written on 2007-10-03
National Library Board Singapore

Yeo Cheng Chuan, a.k.a. Robert Yeo, (Associate Professor) (b.1940, Singapore -), poet, playwright, novelist and former senior lecturer, Division of Literature and Drama, School of Arts, National Institute of Education (NIE). He is the president of The Association for Literature Education (TALE) and is often associated with his second generation literary contemporaries, poets Lee Tzu Pheng and Arthur Yap.

Early life

Yeo was born to a Peranakan family in 1940. He grew up in a kampung in Bukit Timah, where everyone was known to each other, and where his sister ended up marrying a neighbour from the same village.

Achievements

Yeo is a self-confessed accidental playwright. His two-year education stint abroad in London in the late 1960s left him with a deep impression. His experiences stirred him but he found that as a form poetry was insufficient and limiting to what he had wanted to say. That resulted in the writing of his first play, Are You There, Singapore?.  It was drafted in three weeks in 1968 upon his return from London, where he received a Masters in comparative education. It was published only in 1974. The play was about Singaporean students studying and living abroad and their views on post-Independent Singapore at the time. 

Yeo not only spent time in London, he also traveled to Southeast Asian countries after his graduation. His travels increased his political awareness. Although he had no political ambitions, Yeo believed that artists had a role to play in the social and political life of a country. He never lost touch with the political developments in Singapore. 

Yeo's plays are realistic depictions of Singapore "as it is now". His trilogy of plays, Are you there, Singapore?, One Year Back Home and Changi, are meant to provide not only intellectual stimulus but aim to increase social and political awareness in Singaporeans. 

Yeo's poems are characterised by his depiction of the dilemmas that beset the human condition. His poems reflect his personal soul-searching, his search for an identity as a writer and as an Asian through the decades. Underlying each poem are questions of larger meaning on the human condition. Introspection, questions of human responsibility and morality, the transitory nature and complexity of human events and ideological observations are typical of his poems. 

Yeo believes that discipline is important for a writer. He does not believe in the traditional notion of inspiration where a writer waits to be struck by inspiration before he can write. To Yeo, a writer must be disciplined enough to write and produce at least one book every three to four years. Inspiration means having an idea and working hard to make it work. 

Yeo asserts that he does not write for money. He is more concerned about getting his works published than the number of books sold. However, he does acknowledge the difficulty of getting Singaporean literature published locally, as publishers here are motivated by the local market conditions with its relatively small readership. As a writer, Yeo hopes to convey to Singaporeans to not be afraid to speak up if they had anything critical or constructive to say about Singapore. 

Yeo has also been involved in editorial work, compiling and editing several Singapore short stories through the years. One of his selections of short stories, Singapore Short Stories Vol. 1 & 2, became the second Singapore book to be used as a Cambridge O-level literature text in 1991 and 1992. In addition, he was credited with getting Catherine Lim's first book, Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore (1978) to be published. It was his encouragement and recognition of her talent that led to the publishing of her first book, which subsequently became the first Singapore book used as a Cambridge O-level literature text. Yeo was also the former chairman of the Drama Review Committee, National Arts Council. He is also a member of the Centre for Research in the New Literatures in English (CRNLE), Flinders University, Australia.

Education

Serangoon English School.

St. Andrews School.

University of Singapore, BA (Hons) English.

Institute of Education, Singapore, Dip. Ed. (1963).

London Institute of Education, MA Ed. (1968).

Dip. Applied Linguistics (1980).

Timeline

1961 : Vice-chairman of university literary journal, Focus.

1962 : Graduated with BA (Hons) English, University of Singapore.

1966 - 1968 : Studied for Masters in Education in London.

1968 : Completed Masters in Education from the London Institute of Education.

1969 - 1979 : Information officer with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Secretariat in Bangkok, where he traveled to nearly every country in Southeast Asia, except Burma (Myanmar).

1973 : Began lecturing at Institute of Education, Singapore, later on known as National Institute of Education (NIE).

Works
Poetry

1971 : Coming Home Baby.

1977 : And Napalm Does Not Help.

1989 : A Part of Three: Poems.

1999 : Leaving Home, Mother: Selected Poems.

Plays

1974 : Are You There, Singapore?.

1980 : One Year Back Home.

1989 : Second Chance.

1991 : The Eye of History.

1997 : Changi. 

Novel

1986 : The Adventures of Holden Heng. 

Editorial

1977 - 1978 : Singapore Short Stories Vol. 1 & 2.

1977 - 1978 : Prize-winning Plays Vol. 1-4.

1981 : ASEAN Short Stories.

1984 : (with M. P. Liu) To Cipher and to Sing: Ideas and Activities for Literature Teaching.

1989 : Singapore Short Stories.

1991 : ASEAN Plays, Singapore.

1993 : Singular Stories Vol. 1. 

Selected Short Stories
2004 : The Professor

Family

Married, with two daughters, 28 and 22 years.

Author
Marsita Omar


References

Chia, H. (1989, July 26). All for the love of writing. The Straits Times, Section 2, p. 2. 

Nagpal, J. (1980, November 16). Here's a realistic play about today's S'pore. The Straits Times.  

Tan, E. S. (1989, June 4). Cambridge picks second S'pore book as O-level text. The Sunday Times. 

Tan, W.J. (1974, July 21). How towkay's darlings live in London. The Sunday Times. 

Wee, E. (1982, July 25). Drifting down river of time. The Straits Times, p.1.

Wong, H. C. (1980, November 23). A success as political comedy. The Straits Times. 

Getting published is a problem. (1985, April 19). The Straits Times. 

Robert's not in it for the money. (1989, September 15). Asiaweek, p. 52. 

S'pore play packed with imagination. (1974, July 26). The Straits Times. 

S'pore poet to make debut as playwright. (1974, July 10). The Straits Times.


Further Readings

Chua, C. J. (1989, December 6). Yeo, down the line. The Straits Times, Section 2, p. 2.

Helmi Yusof. (1999, October 6). The world's a reader. The Straits Times.

Koh, B. P. (1997, February 1). Yeo reincarnates play as a book. The Straits Times.

Koh, B. S. (1997, December 1). Famous comebacks - Sign of more open Singapore. The Straits Times.

Lee, A. (1999, October 9). I want to talk with Mum. The Straits Times.

Leong, L. G. (2001, July 14). Book-Republic visited in three works. The Straits Times.

Ong, S. F. (1997, November 24). The accidental playwright - Politics still a life and death issue for Yeo. The Straits Times.

Yeo, R. (1994, January 19). Towards new era of Peranakan plays. The Straits Times. Life, p. 7.

Yeo, R. (2003, January 11). His overt influence through the Enright Affair is still felt. The Straits Times. 

National Book Development Council of Singapore. (n.d.). Yeo Robert. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from http://www.bookcouncil.sg (then click on Writers > Yeo Robert).

Flinders University. (n.d.). Literary links with Singapore writ large. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from http://www.flinders.edu.au (then click on News and events > On campus > 2000 > Literary links with Singapore writ large).



The information in this article is valid as at 2007 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the library for further reading materials on the topic.