Stella Kon

Stella Kon

By Nureza Ahmad written on 2004-05-14
National Library Board Singapore

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Stella Kon (b.1944, Edinburgh, Scotland - ), playwright, novelist, short story writer and poet, is best known for her monodrama Emily of Emerald Hill, which has been performed locally and internationally. She is the winner of several playwriting competitions in the early 1980s and her works are studied in local and foreign universities. Stella currently resides in Singapore.

Early life
Stella came to Singapore in 1948 at the age of three. Her paternal great grandfather was Dr Lim Boon Keng, while her maternal great great grandfather was Tan Tock Seng. As a child, she lived in a mansion called Oberon at Emerald Hill. She was educated at Raffles' Girls School, and later on, at the University of Singapore.

Stella began creating stories when she was very young, at the encouragement of her mother. Her mother used to write down the stories that Stella dictated to her and she went around showing her daughter 's stories to the aunts and teachers. Stella affectionately calls her mother her first 'publisher'. Her first play that was performed in school was The Fisherman and the King. It was written when she was a Standard Three student in Raffles Girls' School. Her amateurish works at this stage were influenced by Enid Blyton and J.R.R. Tolkien which formed her staple reading.

Stella's love for and early exposure to theatre came from her parents. As a child, she watched her father, who was involved in King Edward Hall productions, directed plays. Her mother was a leading amateur actress in the local theatre in the 1950s, going by the stage name, Kheng Lim. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts of London (RADA), where Stella would accompany her mother to the theatre to watch the latter's performances.

During her university days, Stella wrote short stories which appeared in university publications, for instance, Focus. Her first published work, Mushroom Harvest, appeared in Lloyd Fernando's collection of 22 Malaysian Stories in 1962.

Stella left Singapore for Malaysia in 1967 after her marriage. In Malaysia, she started writing plays, for children and adults. In 1975, she wrote a collection of school-children plays, including The Immigrant. She was in Malaysia for about 15 years and then in Britain for about four years where her children studied. In 1987, she came back to Singapore.

Her writings
Stella's works centre on themes that are distinctly Singaporean, such as national awareness, moral values, cultural and social heritage, and personal integrity. Readers will be able to identify with the Singaporean lifestyle in her plays. Stella writes in order to re-create, in words, the feelings of living in Singapore and being a Singaporean. Thus, she portrays the consciousness of what it is like to be a Singaporean. Stella derives her sources from the literary tradition of China, India and Malaya. The Ramayana and Chinese legendary figures are reflected in her works. Her Catholic heritage and strong interest in fantasy are also evident in her writing. Through her works, Stella has managed to express her Asian cultural, religious and mythical roots and heritage.

Emily of Emerald Hill
A classic which has already seen more than 40 different productions in Singapore and Malaysia, and is arguably the most performed play in both Malaysia and Singapore since 1985. It is one of Singapore's most loved creations with many parts intrinsic to Singapore identity: the search for true self, the celebration of our heritage, the fighting spirit to overcome odds through sheer perseverance, and the gritting of teeth, but all couched in universal truths. Malaysian actress Pearly Chua has played the part of Emily more than 60 times since 1990. Leow Puay Tin, Margaret Chan and Ivan Heng have all reprised the role of Emily.

From 2000 to 2001, the play went global, with performance in the arts festivals in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland, New York, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich. In 2002, the play was staged by Tan Tock Seng Hospital, with director Chin San Sooi, and actress Pearly Chua, to raise funds for the hospital's AIDS programme.


Awards
1979 : Winner, Singapore National Playwriting Competition, for The Bridge
1982 : Winner, Singapore National Playwriting Competition, for The Trial and Other Plays
1985 : Winner, Singapore National Playwriting Competition, for Emily of Emerald Hill
1994 : Merit Award, Singapore Literature Prize, for Eston

Works
1975 : The Immigrant and Other Plays
1977 : Emporium and Other Plays
1982 : The Trial and Other Plays
1982 : Dracula and Other Stories
1986 : The Scholar and the Dragon
1989 : Emily of Emerald Hill
1990 : Dragon's Teeth Gate
1992 : Portrait of a Nonya
1992 : Silent Song
1992 : The Bridge
1995 : Eston
2000 : A Breeding Pair
2002 : The Human Heart Fruit
2003 : Exodus (A Journey of Faith): a musical

Family
Father: Dr Lim Kok Ann, grandson of Lim Boon Keng.
Mother: Rosie Seow Guat Kheng, great granddaughter of Tan Tock Seng.
Brothers: Su Min, Su Chong and Su Hui.
Sister: Sing Lim.
Children: Two sons, Mark and Luke, living in London and Sydney.
Grandchildren: Six.



Author
Nureza Ahmad