Lim Chor Pee

Lim Chor Pee was a pioneer Singapore playwright writing in English in the early 1960s, part of a circle of writers and theatre practitioners finding their voice as Singapore gained independence. Born in Penang in 1936, he attended the Penang Free School and in 1955, he set sail for England where he read law at St. John's College, Cambridge University. Upon graduation in 1958, he moved to London to sit for the English Bar exams. He came to Singapore in 1959 joining the Singapore Legal Service and later established himself in private practice where he spent the rest of his career. He was the founder president of the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC), which, together with like-minded friends, he set up in 1961 to foster the growth of English language Malayan theatre in a time when the local theatre scene was dominated by expatriates and Western plays. As well as producing plays for ETC, he began to write. The following year his first play Mimi Fan was staged by ETC at the Drama Centre at Fort Canning. His second play A White Rose at Midnight was staged in 1964. He contributed articles on the development of local theatre to Tumasek, a literary journal, for which he also served as a member of its editorial advisory board. Started by poet and novelist, Dr. Goh Poh Seng in 1964, Tumasek aimed to provide a platform to nurture local writers and counted Edwin Thumboo and Robert Yeo among its contributors. Lim practised law for over 40 years until he passed away in December 2006, leaving behind his Swiss-born wife, three children and three grandchildren.