Name Khoo Yuen | ||
Khoo Sook Yuen (1874 – December 1941) was a Singaporean poet. He penned more than a thousand poems and is historically considered an important figure in Chinese language poetry.
Life and career
Khoo Sook Yuen was born 1874 in Changzhou, Fujian, China. His father, who died in 1907, was a rice merchant. The family relocated to Singapore when Khoo was only eight years old. Khoo took over his father's company in 1896 and with the profits, donated generously to the public. However, his ineptitude in business caused the company to fall into bankruptcy. Ridden in dept, Khoo became a newspaper writer.
Khoo founded two newspapers – the Tian Nan Xin Bao in 1898 and the Zhen Nan Ri Bao in 1912. He was also the editor of the Sin Chew Jit Poh from 1929. He was an enthusiastic poet and in his lifetime wrote more than 1,200 poetry works, all in the Chinese language. He had shown an interest in poetry in as early as his teenaged years; The Jade Flute, his first poem, was written when Khoo was fifteen. "[E]asily one of the best poets in Singapore", he is historically considered a major figure in Chinese poetry. He died in December 1941, aged 68.