You may not believe it but you can live your dream.
It sounds too good to be true but it is possible. I have discovered that. My latest book, Ayam Buah Keluak and the Art of Writing, has been shortlisted for the Singapore Book Awards 2025. Whether it wins or not is immaterial. I felt like I had already won. For a kampong girl like me who almost did not get to go to school, it’s a personal best.
I was lucky to grow up in a kampong as a child, where life was more languid. Though we had no modern facilities, we lived in a real community and there was a lot of joy amongst the deprivations.
On weekend evenings, we gathered outdoors to talk, tell stories, recite poetry and sing songs, all of which were in Malay. I was intrigued by storytelling. I love to hear and read them. A skilled storyteller can give you hope, take you to beautiful places, away from our shanty huts and poverty. Even when we had little food to eat, reading was my sustenance.
My family was too poor to send me to school. My elder brothers were educated by the missionary school near our village. It made me so jealous that they had privileges I didn’t have. So, I ranted and raved to be sent to school. My father said it was of no use for a girl to be educated, as we will belong to the husband’s family when we marry. I sulked and grumbled.
In the end, my mother thought it would be a good idea if I had an education and could bring in some money. So, she cooked her delicious nasi lemak and I had to go around the village selling the packets. My eldest brother also started working and could help with the financing for sending me to school. I was nearly eight by then. But as soon as I learnt English, I fell in love with the cadence and musicality of the language!
The English family living at the top of the hill close to our village used to throw out torn comics like Beano and books like Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. I would salvage them and read and reread them. My two best friends, Parvathi and Fatima, didn’t get to go to school so I read the stories to them. That was when I knew that I would like to write such stories too.
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Life intervenes
But pursuing my dream of becoming a writer is not always straightforward. Life intervenes.
Credit: Josephine Chia
After my Senior Cambridge examinations (equivalent to today’s GCE O-Levels), I became an Assistant Dental Nurse at Outram General Hospital.
My first month’s salary was a princely sum of $152.50! I never forget that. It was the tradition for elder siblings to support their younger siblings, so I gave my mother the whole pay packet. She gave me $50 for my monthly expenditure of bus fare and lunch at work.
I held my dream close to my heart, and I continued to read voraciously. I was constantly learning how stories were written, finding out the kind of story I would like to write, and finding out what I wanted to say.
I also saved money to get to university to study literature so that I can learn from famous writers. I couldn’t afford to go to pre-university, so I became a private candidate and sat for the A-Levels on my own.
After seven years as a nurse, I finally saved enough to get into Singapore University (SU as it was then called, now the National University of Singapore) to read literature and philosophy.
The first part of my dream had come true!
It is not crazy to dream
As a kampong girl, I thought it was ludicrous to aspire to be a writer. I didn’t dare tell anyone in case people laughed at me.
So initially, I was a closet writer. I sent out short stories to magazines. I was first published by the now-defunct SINGA, the literary journal of Singapore. It showed me I was not a total dreamer. An editor saw me fit enough to be a writer! When others start believing in you, it’s a great motivation.
Whatever happens in life, keep on holding your dream and continue to pursue it. Believe in yourself! Only you can really shape your dream. Don’t make excuses – lack of money, lack of opportunities, family to take care of, not the right time. Think positively. Picture yourself on a day when you have achieved your dream. Hold that image to inspire and motivate you.
I’m not saying it is always easy to surmount your problems. I am saying that if you want something enough, you have the capacity to make it happen.
My own journey hasn’t been plain sailing – I went through all sorts of emotional upheavals and financial setbacks. My first marriage failed. We were too young – I was seventeen and he was nineteen when we met. But we had two wonderful sons and now five grandchildren. Both of us had remarried since then.
My second husband was an Englishman. I married him and went to live in England. I took the opportunity to do my master’s in creative writing, to learn how to teach people how to write and to learn how to be a better writer. We were together for 25 years.
Sadly, the last few years became wrought with emotional and physical abuse as he turned into a raging alcoholic. It was too dangerous to continue to live with him, so I had to leave. My audacity angered him and he tried to take revenge by making it financially challenging for me.
As I was working in his business, I also ended up without a job! Luckily, my kids have finished university and have jobs. They met girls during their time at NS and so they returned to Singapore to marry and to live.
Credit : Josephine Chia
I decided that it was time to put my money where my mouth was. I shall be a writer. I focused on my other gift of being a good cook to get out of financial difficulty before the divorce settlement was finalised.
I took various stalls at markets and fairs across Surrey and Sussex, selling beehoon and chicken lemak. I catered for parties, bottled sambal to sell. I taught English people how to cook. I wrote a cookbook during this time as well.
Josephine Chia the author
Credit: UK. Surrey Advertiser newspaper
Suddenly, to my amazement, one of my short stories was nominated for the Ian St James Award, a major literary competition in the UK with a prize money and an opportunity to be published for the top entries.
I did not win the first prize but was one of the twelve finalists and our stories were published by Harper Collins in an anthology.
I was the only Asian writer and this put me on the literary map! Singapore’s The Straits Times featured my nomination and two publishers from Singapore approached me to publish my first book, a collection of short stories, and my first novel.
I am now a real writer.
Even when things seemed dark, some light will come in to lift you!
After 30 years in UK, when my first grandchild was born in Singapore, I felt that it was the right time to return to Singapore to live. So, I did in October 2012 and I returned to a successful metropolis – a first-world nation.
I felt that it was imperative to document my kampong and kampong life in pre-independent Singapore to preserve it for posterity.
My generation, the Merdeka Generation and the Pioneer Generation are the last citizens to remember these villages as we had experienced the birth of modern Singapore. So, I wrote my first kampong book, Kampong Spirit, Gotong Royong, Life in Potong Pasir 1955 to 1965.
To my astonishment, this book won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2014. Since then, I have won other literary prizes both in the UK and Singapore. I can really call myself a writer!
My dream has come true.
If you choose to focus on your talent and dream, you may have to give up some pursuits or activities, maybe a bigger house, car or foreign holidays. How determined are you to fulfill your dream? If, by now, you haven’t made the most of your talent, don’t wait. You haven’t got the luxury of years. You are at your best age to do it!
With fewer responsibilities and daily demands on your time, go all out to fulfil your dream before you are incapable, mentally or physically.
