the anthologyThe Forbidden Stitch: An Asian
American Women’s Anthology, published in 1989,
and in Lim’sMonsoon History: Selected Poems,
published in 1995.
Author Biography
Shirley Geok-lin Lim was born in Malacca (later
Malaya), Malaysia on December 27, 1944. Lim’s
father named her Shirley, after the movie star
Shirley Temple, but he raised his only daughter
as a culturally traditional Chinese woman. Lim,
her father, Chin Som, her mother, Chye Neo
Ang, and her brothers all lived with her paternal
grandfather and her grandfather’s other children
and grandchildren until she was five years old.
When she was five, her father opened a shoe
store, and the family finally moved into their
own home. Lim was eight years old when her
mother abandoned the family.
Malaysia was a British colony, and so Lim
received a British colonial education. English was
her primary language as a child, and she was edu-
cated at a British Catholic convent school. In 1967,
she received a BA with first-class honors in English
from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur,
where she continued with graduate studies until
- Lim received a Fulbright Scholarship in
1969 and moved to the United States, where she
entered Brandeis University, just outside Boston,
Massachusetts.ShecompletedanMAin1971and
a PhD in 1973, both in English and American
literature. While still in graduate school, Lim mar-
ried Charles Bazerman, who had been a fellow
graduate student at Brandeis. During her time in
graduate school, Lim worked as a teaching assis-
tant at Brandeis and at Queen’s College, in New
York City. After graduation, she took a position as
an assistant professor at Hostos Community Col-
lege, of the City University of New York. In 1976,
Lim left Hostos and began teaching at Westchester
Community College, part of the State University of
New York.
Lim’s first collection of poems,Crossing the
Peninsula, and Other Poems, was published in
Kuala Lumpur in 1980. Her first book to be pub-
lished in the United States was a collection of
short stories,Another Country, and Other Stories,
published in 1982. Another book of poetry,No
Man’s Grove, and Other Poems, which includes the
poem ‘‘Pantoun for Chinese Women,’’ followed in
- In 1989, Lim served as one of the editors for
the first anthology of Asian American women’s
poetry ever published,The Forbidden Stitch: An
Asian American Women’s Anthology.Thatsame
year, she published another collection of poetry,
Modern Secrets: New and Selected Poems.Since
1994, Lim has published several additional books,
including poetry, short stories, the memoirAmong
the White Moon Faces: An Asian-American Mem-
oir of Homelands(1996), and the two novelsJoss
and Gold(2001) andSister Swing(2006). She has
also edited a lengthy list of journals and literary
texts and has published dozens of articles and
chapters in other books. Since 1991, Lim has
been a professor at the University of California
at Santa Barbara.Poem Text
At present, the phenomena of butchering, drown-
ing and leaving to die female infants have been
very serious.
The People’s Daily, Peking, March 3rd, 1983
They say a child with two mouths is no good.
In the slippery wet, a hollow space,
Smooth, gumming, echoing wide for food.
No wonder my man is not here at his place.
In the slippery wet, a hollow space, 5
A slit narrowly sheathed within its hood.
No wonder my man is not here at his place:
He is digging for the dragon jar of soot.
That slit narrowly sheathed within its hood!
His mother, squatting, coughs by the fire’s
blaze 10
While he digs for the dragon jar of soot.
We had saved ashes for a hundred days.
His mother, squatting, coughs by the fire’s blaze.
The child kicks against me mewing like a flute.
We had saved ashes for a hundred days, 15
Knowing, if the time came, that we would.
The child kicks against me crying like a flute
Through its two weak mouths. His mother
prays
Knowing when the time comes that we would,
For broken clay is never set in glaze.20Through her two weak mouths his mother
prays.
She will not pluck the rooster nor serve its
blood,
For broken clay is never set in glaze:
Women are made of river sand and wood.
She will not pluck the rooster nor serve its
blood. 25
My husband frowns, pretending in his haste
Women are made of river sand and wood.Pantoun for Chinese Women