Shirley Lim

Amy Lai (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Ed. by John Thieme, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.4.2: Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian and Myanmar Writing and Culture.

Dates

Born 27 Dec 1943
Activity 1963-ongoing

Places

Born in Malaysia
Active in Malaysia; United States

Activities

Primary

Poet
Story-writer

Other

Autobiographer
Essayist

Resources

Lim's Works

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Shirley Lim was born in 1944 in Malacca, a small town on the West coast of the Malay Peninsula, Malaysia. In her memoir,

Among the White Moonfaces

(1996), she describes a childhood powerfully shaped by deprivation, poverty, parental violence and abandonment, and a culture that rarely recognized girls as individuals.

As a student, she was scorned by teachers for her love of English over her “native” tongue and was looked down upon for wishing to pursue her love of English literature. An academic high-flyer, she obtained her bachelor degree in English from the University of Malaysia, and pursued her PhD in American Literature at Brandeis University on a Fulbright Scholarship, which she completed in 1973. She then commenced her academic career, and has since then lived and worked in the

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228 words

Citation: Lai, Amy. "Shirley Lim". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 October 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2734, accessed 25 November 2024.]