When it first appeared in 1984, Suchen Christine Lim’s Rice Bowl formed a landmark publication. One of the earliest fully-fledged novels of post-independence Singapore, it reflected the country’s recent history, suggesting how its unique position in an increasingly globalised world, the complexities of its past, and a probing search for its traditions could be turned into the central motifs of an emergent nation’s literature. Today, Lim’s first novel represents a crucial part of Singapore’s literary history, providing not only a vital example of the beginnings of the country’s post-war fiction, but also important insight into a turbulent and yet often forgotten part of the history and culture in Southeast Asia.

Assistant Professor Tamara S Wagner
Division of English, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Cast out from Malaysia and denied a hinterland, how was Singapore to survive? Was it by rational planning to feed the stomach or by learning to have a consciousness of the land and people, thereby feeding the mind, the spirit and the imagination? Opposing viewpoints fuel the tension between Marie and her first love, Paul. Is Sister Marie, the activist nun, naive in the face of controlling forces? A peaceful demonstration goes wrong and she is deported. Marie leaves Singapore with the experience of a raised awareness that takes in history and class. Paul is left alone with his rational development that cannot console his soul. Marie may be naive, but the novel is not. Rice Bowl speaks to us today, through powerful writing that instructs, educates and moves, showing how history can be retrieved and changed to release creative energies.

Peter Nazareth
Professor of English, University of Iowa

Suchen Christine Lim’s first novel, Rice Bowl, attempts to represent a totality of Singaporean society. It moves beyond the single communal entity to question the what and why of an evolving national identity. An identity novel and a bildungsroman ... it has a much broader sweep, moving to issues of national cohesion and national identity formation. ... Rice Bowl is also a campus narrative. The major character is a Westernised idealist who constructs an individualist’s version of Singapore's identity. ... Marie is a complex character whose appealing idealism masks egotistical drives. ... Against this charismatic figure, the novel portrays a sceptical, cautious male whom Marie rejects as an “inarticulate Singaporean male, limiting and rigid.” The clash of ideological positions is figured in their eventual developments.

... In the midst of this debate are suffering individuals who need rescue. Ser Mei ... is forced into prostitution by a greedy mother and dies as a possible suicide; Mak, the male chauvinist and Communist agent-provocateur goes crazy in his attempts to radicalise the students-workers’ protest activities; Yean, rich and confused, is unable to stop her father from moving his entire family to California. ... The concluding scene when Paul leaves behind the avenue of consumerist vulgarity for a quiet war-memorial park, is one of separation and loss.

from Writing Against The Grain
Shirley Geok-Lin Lim University of California, Santa Barbara

The late 60s and 70s were important for Suchen Christine Lim. She established and clarified her values and attitudes during those years, close after Singapore’s independence and in the first flush of the country’s development. Malaysia-born, she was conscious of “having chosen Singapore as my nation. We were at the crossroads, trying to decide whether we should migrate. Would we have a future here?” Not surprisingly, Rice Bowl captures the uncertainty, questioning and struggles of a group of young people in those early days.

Caroline Ngui The Straits Times, 1984