Research Guides: Shirley Geok-Lin Lim: Biography

Shirley Geok-Lin Lim (Born on December 27, 1944)

Lim's immigrant experience in the United States has become part of the rich sources of her writings. In her short stories such as "Transportation in Westchester," "A Pot of Rice," and "Two Dreams," Lim writes about the experience of exile, dislocation, and struggle for a better life. The unique aspects of these stories are her portrayals of academic immigrants' struggles, including the challenge they face in dealing with interracial relationships and intercultural conflicts both socially and at home. Her professional protagonists and their experiences reflect a new phase in the changing demographics of Asian American communities and of North America as well. In this respect, Lim's immigrant stories have a closer connection to the works of a younger generation of Asian American writers such as Gish Jen Wang Ping and Chang-Rae Lee, rather than to the stories of Hisaye Yamamoto, Wakako Yamauchi, or Maxine Hong Kingston. Yet Lim's stories share much with the older generation of Asian American women writers, especially in their thematic concerns of the female experiences and their social conditions, including patriarchy and racial hierarchy. Continue . . .

Source: Xiaojing, Zhou. “Shirley Geok-Lin Lim (1944- ).” Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story, Jan. 2000, pp. 337–341. From Literary Reference Center Plus database.

Book Collection

Among the White Moon Faces: an Asian-American memoir of homelands

Moving Poetry: Hong Kong children's poems

Resources

Walking with Her Muse: An Interview with Shirley Geok-lin Lim An interview with novelist Shirley Geok-lin Lim is presented. Topics discussed include the Lim's poem entitled "Stop Already" which seems to represent that she was surrounded with men, when she become aware regarding heterosexuality or the differences in her body, and the poems she made which shows empowerment for females.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim: An Interview Interview by Mohammed A. Quayum.
‘My Father’s Daughter’: Filial Dislocation in Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s Poetry Drawing on the father figure and the father–daughter dynamic in Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s poetry, this article examines how the motif of filial dislocation underlines ambivalent and complicated emotions and meanings that can be traced back to the poet’s traumatic childhood experience of her father’s violence.
`Pomegranates and English education' Presents excepts from the memoirs of author Shirley Geok-lin Lim. Author's memories of growing up in her father's Chinese-immigrant community and her mother's assimilated Malaysian community; Education at a convent school; Formation of the author's awareness of race preference; Influence of her convent education on her perception of her own mixed culture.
Poem: California Sun The poem "California Sun" by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim is presented. First Line: The pool whirrs suddenly, and the blue; Last Line: the Santa Ynez Mountains and shine.
Poem: The Neighborhood The poem "The Neighborhood" by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim is presented. First Line: Here and there occasional; Last Line: tarp.
Poem: Stop Already The poem "Stop Already" by Shirley Geok-lin Lim is presented. First Line: Stop already with the whining, Last Line: Fall, harassed, whining, and end-stopped.
Poem: A Life The poem "A Life" by Shirley Geok-lin Lim is presented. First Line: All needed to be A's, my father; Last Line: Climbing, walking, frowning.
Learning to Love America "Learning to love America" by Shirley Geok-lin Lim from What the Fortune Teller Didn’t Say. Copyright 1998 by Shirley Geok-lin Lim. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of West End Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico. www.westendpress.org. Produced by USC Film School.

From Films On Demand database:

Shirley Geok-lin Lim Shirley Geok-lin Lim reads "Riding into California.” She says that poetry allows her to go into a space that is her own private language. Poetry must give pleasure. She reads “Pantoun for Chinese Women.”
Power of Language in Poetry Shirley Geok-lin Lim believes poetry saved her. When she was nine, she discovered that language gave her a private way to do and say anything. "Lament" is her dedication to language that gives her self-expression.
When Poetry Becomes Art Poetry is nothing more than how words work together in the world around and their structure or order. According to Shirley Geok-lin Lim, poems must give pleasure, even out of pain, to succeed as art, as illustrated in "Starlight Haven."
Geok-lin Lim's Chinese Identity For Geok-lin Lim, a Chinese who grew up in Malaysia under Japanese rule and then married a Jewish American, poetry helps her find a singular identity. "What the Fortune Teller Didn't Say" narrates her immigrant experience.
Chinese Tradition and Poetry Chinese practice ancestral worship, believing the ancestors cannot live with being worshipped. Since Shirley Geok-lin Lim's father is buried in Malaysia, she writes poems, including "My Father's Sadness," as her way of worshipping him.