Shirley Lim, What the Fortune Teller Didn't Say

Eddie Tay (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Ed. by David Huddart, Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.4.2: Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian and Myanmar Writing and Culture.

Dates

First circulation or publication 1998

Places

Malaysia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s poetry collection

What the Fortune Teller Didn’t Say

, like her memoir

Among the White Moonfaces

published two years earlier, testifies to the uneasy position of an immigrant subject within American culture. I have argued elsewhere that her poetry engages with various cultures (Tay 305), and the present volume continues this project of transcultural mediation.

The collection is divided into three sections. The section entitled “What the Fortune Teller Didn’t Say” presents a Malaysian and Singaporean landscape associated with paternal and maternal figures. In these poems, the drama of Asian patriarchy is being played out. In “Hands”, the persona is taught by her mother “to serve tea, / thumbs behind, fingers curled, / in a ring of obedience” (Fortune

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

739 words

Citation: Tay, Eddie. "What the Fortune Teller Didn't Say". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12455, accessed 23 April 2024.]

Save this article