Boey Kim Cheng

Background

Boey Kim Cheng (b. 1965, Singapore–) is widely regarded as one of the most promising Singapore poets to emerge in the 1990s.¹ Boey has published four collections of poetry. Three of his works, Somewhere-bound, Another Place and Days of No Name, have won awards.² For his artistic achievements, Boey received the National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 1996.³  He taught for 13 years at the University of Newcastle in Australia. In 2016, he joined Nanyang Technological University as an associate professor at its School of Humanities.⁴ He is currently the head of its English department.⁵

Early life
Boey was born in Singapore in 1965. He received both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English Literature from the National University of Singapore (NUS). In 1993, he won a scholarship from the Goethe-Institut to pursue German Studies in Murnau, Germany. The following year, he attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in the U.S. Boey embarked on a doctoral programme with NUS, which he later discontinued. He entered the workforce and was employed by the Ministry of Community Development as a probation officer. Disillusioned with the state of literary and cultural politics in Singapore, Boey left for Sydney, Australia with his wife in 1996. While in Australia, he completed his doctorate at the University of Macquarie and taught at the University of Newcastle. He is now an Australian citizen.⁶

Literary career 
In 1987, Boey won first prize in the NUS Poetry Competition while an undergraduate.⁷ At the age of 24, he published his first collection of poetry, Somewhere-bound, which eventually won the National Book Development Council Singapore (NBDCS) Book Award for Poetry.⁸ In 1992, he published his second volume of poetry, Another Place, to much acclaim.⁹ In 1995, Days of No Name, which was inspired by people he met had in the U.S., was awarded a merit at the Singapore Literature Prize.¹⁰ In recognition of his artistic talent and contributions, Boey received the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award in 1996.¹¹ 

After a long hiatus, Boey returned with his fourth volume of poetry in 2006. After the Fire deals primarily with the passing of his father in 2000.¹² Boey’s works have also appeared in anthologies such as From Boys to Men: A Literary Anthology of National Service in Singapore; Rhythms: A Singaporean Millennial Anthology of Poetry; and No Other City: The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry.¹³

Boey’s works are highly regarded by both the academic and writing communities in Singapore. Writer Shirley Lim remarked that he is the “best post-1965 English language poet in the Republic today”.¹⁴ His sense of restlessness about life in Singapore is often reflected in his poems. According to him, Singapore’s rapid growth and swift economic success have been achieved at a cost and feelings of displacement and disconnection with the past occur precisely because places where one might have experienced a sense of belonging in their childhood are fast disappearing.¹⁵

Boey is the co-founder of Mascara Literary Review, the first Australian literary journal to promote Asian Australian writing. He also co-edited the groundbreaking anthology Contemporary Asian Australian Poets (2013). In 2013, Boey returned to Singapore as one of Nanyang Technological University’s writers-in-residence and is currently an associate professor at the division of English.¹⁶ His poems have also been studied as part of the ‘A’ level English Literature syllabus, alongside other homegrown writers such as Kuo Pao Kun.¹⁷

Influences
Lee Tzu Pheng, Boey’s former lecturer, is often credited as being his mentor.¹⁸ In terms of poetic direction and discipline, Boey attributes T. S. Eliot, John Keats, Gerald Manley Hopkins, William Wordsworth, W. B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney as his major influences. His favourite authors include Albert Camus, Keats, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Nikos Kazantzakis. He also enjoys the poetic works of Rainer Maria Rilke, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell and Pablo Neruda, as well as novelists Bruce Chatwin, Peter Matthiessen, Colin Thubron and Joan Didion. Besides the literary arts, Boey also enjoys the visual arts. In particular, he admires the works of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, as well as films by Wim Wenders, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Akira Kurosawa.¹⁹

Awards
1992: NBDCS Book Award for Poetry for Somewhere-bound.²⁰
1995: Merit Award for the Singapore Literature Prize for Days of No Name.²¹
1996: National Arts Council Young Artist Award for Literature.²²

Works
1989: Somewhere-bound²³
1992: Another Place²⁴
1996: Days of No Name²⁵
2006: After the Fire: New and Selected Poems²⁶
2009: Between Stations²⁷
2012: Clear Brightness²⁸



Author
Gracie Lee



References
1. Kirpal Singh, ed., “Introduction,” in Interlogue: Studies in Singapore 17.Literature, Vol. 2: Poetry (Singapore: Ethos Books, 1999), 16–17. (Call no. RSING 809.895957 INT)
2. “Four Acclaimed Writers Call NTU Home,” Nanyang Technological University, accessed 24 September 2016.
3. “About Boey Kim Cheng,” Poetry.SG, accessed 24 September 2016.
4. Boey Kim Cheng, “In the Footsteps of a Tang Dynasty Poet,” Straits Times, 8 May 2017. (From NewspaperSG)
5. “Research Directory: Boey Kim Cheng,” Nanyang Technological University, accessed 5 October 2018.
6. Ian Hamilton and Jeremy Noel-Tod, ed., “Boey Kim Cheng,” in The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 59 (Call no. R 821.9109 OXF); Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly eds., Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures, vol. 1 (New York: Routledge, 2005), 130 (Call no. R 820.9900914 ENC); “2013–2014 Writers-in-residence: Kim-Cheng Boey,” NTU School of Humanities and Social Sciences, accessed 26 September 2016; Koh Buck Song, “There’s Money in Poetry, Literature Prize Proves,” Straits Times, 7 December 1995, 3; Kristina Tom, “Back to Beginnings,” Straits Times, 20 August 2006, 23. (From NewspaperSG)
7. Boey Kim Cheng, “An ROC Friend,” Straits Times, 9 May 1987, 1. (From  NewspaperSG)
8. Hamilton and Noel-Tod, “Boey Kim Cheng,” 59.
9. Vanitha Davidson, “Place of Peace,” Straits Times, 5 September 1992, 13; Shirley Lim, “Singapore: Too Much Presence for Young,” Straits Times, 2 November 1996, 25. (From NewspaperSG)
10. “Singapore Literature Prize: 1995 Winners,” Book Council, accessed 25 September 2016; Koh, “There’s Money in Poetry.”
11. “Poet and Composer’s Shining Hour,” Straits Times, 31 August 1996, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
12. Tom, “Back to Beginnings.” 
13. “Works By Boey Kim Cheng,” Creative Work Database, accessed 30 March 2017.
14. Shirley Lim, “Singapore: Too Much Presence for Young,” Straits Times, 2 November 1996, 25. (From NewspaperSG)
15. A. Brewster, “The Traveller’s Dream: Nation and Diaspora in the Work of Boey Kim Cheng,” in Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature II, ed., Gwee Li Sui (Singapore: National Library Board and National Arts Council, 2009), 127–31 (Call no. RSING S820.9 SHA); Boey Kim Cheng, “Home Truths,” Straits Times, 9 April 2001, 7. (From NewspaperSG)
16. Poetry.SG, “About Boey Kim Cheng.”
17. Yuen Sin and Olivia Ho, “Local Poetry to Be Included in A-level Literature,” Straits Times, 13 March 2017, 8. (From NewspaperSG)
18. Benson and Conolly, Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures, 130.
19. Desmond Zhicheng-Mingdé Kon and Kim Cheng Boey, “A Sense of Questing: Kim Cheng Boey on Poetry,” Cerise Press, 1, no. 3 (Spring 2010)
20. Hamilton and Noel-Tod, “Boey Kim Cheng,” 59.
21. Book Council, “Singapore Literature Prize”; Koh, “There’s Money in Poetry.”
22. “Poet and Composer’s Shining Hour.”
23. Boey Kim Cheng, Somewhere-Bound (Singapore: Times Books International, 1989). (Call no. RSING S821 BOE)
24. Boey Kim Cheng, Another Place (Singapore: Times Books International, 1992). (Call no. RSING S821 BOE)
25. Boey Kim Cheng, Days of No Name (Singapore: Times Books International., 1996). (Call no. RSING S821 BOE)
26. Boey Kim Cheng, After the Fire: New and Selected Poems (Singapore: Firstfruits, 2006). (Call no. RSING S821 BOE)
27. Poetry.SG, “About Boey Kim Cheng.”
28. Poetry.SG, “About Boey Kim Cheng.”



The information in this article is valid as at 2018 and correct as far as we are able to 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.