Lim - Rice Bowl

When it first appeared in 1984, Suchen Christine Lims Rice Bowl formed a landmark publication. One of the earliest fully-fledged novels of post-independence Singapore, it reflected the countrys recent history, suggesting how its unique position in an increasingly globalised world, the complexities of its past, and a probing search for its traditions could be turned into the central motifs of an emergent nations literature. Today, Lims first novel represents a crucial part of Singapores literary history, providing not only a vital example of the beginnings of the countrys post-war fiction, but also important insight into a turbulent and yet often forgotten part of the history and culture in Southeast Asia.

Assistant Professor Tamara S Wagner
Division of English, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Cast out from Malaysia and denied a hinterland, how was Singapore to survive? Was it by rational planning to feed the stomach or by learning to have a consciousness of the land and people, thereby feeding the mind, the spirit and the imagination? Opposing viewpoints fuel the tension between Marie and her first love, Paul. Is Sister Marie, the activist nun, naive in the face of controlling forces? A peaceful demonstration goes wrong and she is deported. Marie leaves Singapore with the experience of a raised awareness that takes in history and class. Paul is left alone with his rational development that cannot console his soul. Marie may be naive, but the novel is not. Rice Bowl speaks to us today, through powerful writing that instructs, educates and moves, showing how history can be retrieved and changed to release creative energies.

Peter Nazareth
Professor of English, University of Iowa

Suchen Christine Lims first novel, Rice Bowl, attempts to represent a totality of Singaporean society. It moves beyond the single communal entity to question the what and why of an evolving national identity. An identity novel and a bildungsroman ... it has a much broader sweep, moving to issues of national cohesion and national identity formation.... Rice Bowl is also a campus narrative. The major character is a Westernised idealist who constructs an individualists version of Singapore's identity.... Marie is a complex character whose appealing idealism masks egotistical drives.... Against this charismatic figure, the novel portrays a sceptical, cautious male whom Marie rejects as an inarticulate Singaporean male, limiting and rigid. The clash of ideological positions is figured in their eventual developments.

... In the midst of this debate are suffering individuals who need rescue. Ser Mei ... is forced into prostitution by a greedy mother and dies as a possible suicide; Mak, the male chauvinist and Communist agent-provocateur goes crazy in his attempts to radicalise the students-workers protest activities; Yean, rich and confused, is unable to stop her father from moving his entire family to California.... The concluding scene when Paul leaves behind the avenue of consumerist vulgarity for a quiet war-memorial park, is one of separation and loss.

from Writing Against The Grain
Shirley Geok-Lin Lim University of California, Santa Barbara

The late 60s and 70s were important for Suchen Christine Lim. She established and clarified her values and attitudes during those years, close after Singapores independence and in the first flush of the countrys development. Malaysia-born, she was conscious of having chosen Singapore as my nation. We were at the crossroads, trying to decide whether we should migrate. Would we have a future here? Not surprisingly, Rice Bowl captures the uncertainty, questioning and struggles of a group of young people in those early days.

Caroline NguiThe Straits Times, 1984

2009 Suchen Christine Lim

Cover art by OpalWorks Co. Ltd

First published 1984 by Times Books International. Reprinted 1989, 1991 and 2005.

This edition published 2009 by

Marshall Cavendish Editions

An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd

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National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data

Lim, Suchen Christine

Rice bowl / Suchen Christine Lim. New ed. Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, c2009.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978 981 4484 41 1

1. Youth Singapore Fiction. 2. Singapore History 1965-1990 Fiction. I. Title.

PR9570.S53

Printed in Singapore by KWF Printing Pte Ltd

For

Chi-Minh, Chi Sharn

and Shannan

I am deeply grateful to Professor Lucille Hosilos (retired), University of the Philippines, who was Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore at the time of the writing of this novel, and Mrs Rosalind Chan, former editor of Singapore University Press. Both gave me a desk and a private space to write this novel when I was still a student in the university.

Influences while I was writing the novel, more than 25 years ago, included The Cultural Revolution (1969) by Joan Robinson; Red Star Over China (1968) by Edgar Snow; the songs and hymns composed by Sister Miriam Therese Winter, Medical Mission Sisters, especially their groundbreaking Piano/Vocal Collection, Joy Is Like The Rain (1966); and the poetry of Elizabeth Jennings (19262001), especially her poem, Friends.

Lines quoted in the book: I walked one morning by the sea ... from A Long Road to Freedom, song by Sister Miriam Therese Winter; Listen to this ... poem by Anonymous; and I fear its very wrong of me ... from Friends, poem by Elizabeth Jennings.

I thank my editor, Lee Mei Lin, for working closely with me on this new edition.

It is 25 years since Rice Bowl was first published in 1984. Since then, the novel has had three reprints in 1989, 1991 and 2005. Instead of a fourth reprint this year, Marshall Cavendish decided to issue a new edition, and I thought it was a good opportunity for me to look at the novel again.

I must confess that I have not read