With a free mind, the pioneer of modernist Chinese literature in the region continues to reinvent himself in in nite ways – even at the grand age of 74. Written by Koh Yuen Lin
He is renowned for his large-scale pieces – including Portrait of Bada Shanren that fetched S$4.4m in 2014, the record auction price for works by a living Southeast Asian artist. The multidisciplinary artist also expresses himself through myriad mediums, and his pieces – spanning Chinese ink to sculpture – can be found in numerous public spaces around Singapore. For his contributions to the visual arts scene, he was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 19871, and conferred the Meritorious Service Medal by the President of Singapore in 2003.
In her doctorate thesis on the modernist literary movement in
Yet before Tan Swie Hian was a painter, he was a writer. An author of more than 50 published titles in poetry, ction, assays and criticisms, he is also a proli c translator who has interpreted numerous literary works by the likes of French poets Henri Michaux, Romanian literary gure Marin Sorescu, and English writer Aldous Huxley into Chinese. In 1978, he was conferred the Chavalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and presented the Marin Sorescu International Poetry Prize in 1998.
Malaysia-born, Taiwan-based scholar Tee Kim Tong (张锦忠)
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Born in Indonesia in 1943, Tan came to Singapore in 1946 to study at The Chinese High School. There, his English teacher Chen Shaoyi and Chinese teacher Wang Zhen Nan recognised his talent for writing and instilled in him the love of language. He went on to study English literature at Nanyang University. And though the writings of Romantics such as Keats, Shelly and Byron were the subject of his study, the holder of a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages and Literature writes in a style distinctly di erent from that of the classical authors.
His rst published book – a collection of 38 modernist Chinese poems titled The Giant, released in 1968 – marked a rst in the Singapore and Malaysia’s Chinese literary scene. To this day, this ground-breaking volume is widely regarded as the culmination of the Chinese modernist literary movement in Singapore and Malaysia. Yet Tan has been quietly beating a path for modernist writers even before then.
Singapore (《新加坡华⽂现代主义⽂学运动研究》), Dr. Phoon Kwee Hian named Tan as the most important writer of the movement, citing his proli c contribution of poems, short stories and translated works published in various newspapers and publications within the region prior to the release of The Giant. Multiple Malaysian and Singaporean contemporary writers – including Singaporean poet and writer Yang Xuan (杨 萱，aka莫邪), Singaporean poet Pan Cheng Lui (潘正镭), and prominent Malaysian poet Mei Shuzhen (梅淑贞) – testify to Tan’s in uence on their personal writing style and to the literary scene.
Phoon – who gained comprehensive appreciation of Tan’s writing style through editing and publishing a nine-volume compilation of his selected works (《陈瑞献选集》) in 2006 – shares her observation of Tan’s evolution as a writer. “The works from his youth – be it poetry or ction, are expressionist, experimental and avant garde – are a departure from realism, which was de riguer during the time. Yet if you assess his work through modern day lenses, the literary pieces of his youth are high quality creations that stand the test of time, both in terms of writing technique and content,” analyses Phoon. “This shows his true capacity as a literary genius who, even in his youth, is able to pen pieces of timelessness and universal value.”
A Universal Appeal This universal value means that Tan’s work touches far beyond the Chinese-reading audience. Roland Drivon, who was director of the Alliance Française when Tan was Press Attaché at the French Embassy, is a long time collaborator with Tan. “I particular enjoy his fables, translated by Elisabeth Prasetyo. I nd them reminiscent of Japanese haikus and the works of French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine,” shares Drivon of Tan, who was presented the 2003 World Economic Forum Crystal Award for his artistic achievements and contributions to cross-cultural understanding. “There in lies Swie Hian’s genius: he is able to
A Pioneer in Modernist Chinese Literature
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Dr Tan Swie Hian: In nity In Between Lines