Nalla Tan

Tan was born Nallammah Navarendam on 12 May 1923 in Ipoh.[1][2] Tan's parents were teachers and she was the fourth out of six children.[3] Tan attended the Methodist Girls' School in Ipoh.[1] She graduated from the University of Malaya in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in Medicine.[1] Tan told The Straits Times in 1984, that at first she'd wanted to be a lawyer, but chose medicine because there was no law faculty at the time at the school.[4]

After school, she became a government health officer and later an administrative officer for the Ministry of Health.[2] In the 1960s, she advocated introducing sex and health education in schools.[2] Tan would later head the Singapore Medical Association committee to organize the first public health program in Singapore.[2]

Between 1967 and 1971, she was the principal of Eusoff College, which was part of the University of Singapore.[2] Tan was also a faculty member of the university.[2] During the 1970s, she began writing newspaper columns and gave speeches against gender discrimination.[5] She brought up the idea of creating a "Women's Affairs" department in the government.[6] In 1975, Tan, along with Chan Choy Siong and Lim Kim Choo, were recognized with Outstanding Women Awards for their work for women's rights in Singapore.[7]

Tan earned her doctorate of medicine in 1975.[2] The next year, she was promoted to associate professor at the university.[2] Tan became a member of the faculty of Community Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians in 1978 and five years later, became a fellow.[2] When she retired from the university, she ran a private clinic from her home for several years.[1]

Tan served on the World Methodist Council (WMC) Presidium between 1976 and 1981 and the WMC Family Life Committee between 1976 and 1991.[1] She was the first Singaporean to be elected to the Presidium.[1] She was awarded the Honorable Order of Jerusalem for her work on the council and within the Methodist community.[1]

Tan began to exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in the early 2000s.[3] Tan died in the Tan Tock Seng Hospital on 27 March 2012, after suffering a chest infection that developed into pneumonia.[3] In 2015, Tan was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame.[1]

Tan wrote poetry as a young adult, but did not start writing seriously until she was on maternity leave in 1961.[2] Tan's husband, Tan Joo Liang, encouraged her to explore her personal style of writing during her leave.[8] She wrote her first story, "Robert and the Beetroots" at that time.[8] In 1974, her short story, "The Goddess of Mercy" was aired on BBC.[8] An anthology of women's fiction, called The Sun in Her Eyes: Stories by Singapore Women (1976), brought recognition to her writing.[9] It was also the first time that Singaporean women's short stories had been collected into an anthology.[10] She was also featured in Singapore Short Stories Volume II (1978).[11] The collection of her short stories, Hearts and Crosses (1989), incorporate her own personal experiences and take place in Singapore.[12] Many of her short stories are also characterized by a sense of irony and having a twist ending.[12]

Tan's poetry has been called "essentially feminine" by The Straits Times, even though Tan herself never felt as though she was a "woman writer" and was influenced primarily by male writers as a young adult.[13] The Times also describes how her satirical poetry has a sense of "dry humor."[13]

Her non-fiction work included focus on family and social issues, as well as providing educational information about puberty and sexual health.[2] Her health education books, You Need to Know (1976) and Beyond Your Navel (1977) are written in a "inimitable, chatty style" according to The Straits Times.[8] Beyond Your Navel discusses both sexual and emotional health, breaking down ideas into clear and simple sections for better understanding.[14] She also discusses drug addiction in the book.[14] Tan wrote a weekly column in the Sunday Times called 'You' where she discussed issues many readers faced, politics and developing the community.[1]

• The Collected Poems of Nalla Tan. Singapore: Times Books International. 1998. ISBN 9789812048431.
• Hearts and Crosses. Singapore: Heinemann Asia. 1989. ISBN 9789971641979.
• Nalla on Sunday. Singapore: Times Books International. 1985. ISBN 9789971652333.
• Beyond Your Navel. Singapore: Federal Publications. 1977. OCLC 36124482.
• You Need to Know. Singapore: Federal Publications. 1976. OCLC 64013693.

• Nalla Tan in the National Archives of Singapore