{"id":1531,"date":"2026-09-01T05:48:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?p=1531"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:48:31","slug":"everyday-crossings-goay-lian-choo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?p=1531","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Crossings: Goay Lian Choo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Malaysia\u2019s history was shaped by those who crossed borders and seas; to tell our history is to tell the tale of migration, the people who got left behind, the ones who stayed and the ones who crossed between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We begin with the life of Goay Lian Choo \u502a\u83b2\u73e0 (born in 1954), a Malaysian whose journey across borders is marked by resilience, reinvention, and remarkable personal transformation. This microhistory <\/strong><\/em>1<\/a><\/sup>of Lian Choo\u2019s life illustrates both the weight of family tradition and the increasingly parochial outlook of Malaysia\u2019s new national policies, yet she refused to let these forces dictate her future.
<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. What are microhistories?<\/em><\/strong>
    Microhistories explore individual or small-group experiences to offer a corrective to the glorification and abstraction of elite-centred history. It reveals lived realities, systemic inequities, and the complexity of everyday life, while also reminding us that no single narrative can capture the full texture of the past.<\/em>
    \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n
    Early Life in Penang<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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    Lian Choo (bottom row, second right), Mike Smee (upper row, second right), and Lian Choo\u2019s surviving siblings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Lian Choo and her sisters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Goay Lian Choo was the eldest of 12 children, born in rural Butterworth, Penang, just three years before the Federation of Malaya gained its independence. Her father, born in Malaya, made a good living through animal husbandry and agriculture, possessing several pieces of land which he generously gave out to relatives. Her mother was a tongyangxi<\/em> (\u7ae5\u517b\u5ab3), a child bride adopted at three years old by her future husband\u2019s family. Lian Choo\u2019s childhood was shaped by gender conservatism and deep-rooted Confucian values. But from a young age, she stood out for her academic excellence and unyielding spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fighting for an Education<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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    Lian Choo\u2019s secondary school certificate from Phor Tay High School, Penang.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    Lian Choo attended primary school in Butterworth from 1960 to 1966, excelling in her studies. However, her path to further education was blocked by her conservative grandmother, who believed schooling was unnecessary for girls destined for marriage. Though her father supported her right to study, he deferred to his mother out of filial duty in line with Confucian values.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Lian Choo\u2019s father turned to her headmaster for help. The headmaster personally visited her family to persuade her grandmother. Her grandmother eventually agreed, but on the condition that she complete all household chores before and after school, including caring for her seven brothers\u2014a burden not expected of the boys. Because of this delay, she missed the registration deadline for secondary school. It was with the help of Dr. Lim Chong Eu, soon-to-be Chief Minister of Penang, that she was finally admitted to Phor Tay High School in 1967.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pursuing Nursing in the UK<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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    Lian Choo\u2019s Malaysian Certificate of Education, in accordance with the Cambridge Examination Syndicate (1972).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    In the 1970s, around a decade after independence, Malaysia reinforced the priority of the Malay language, particularly within the education system, as a cornerstone of its nation-building and national identity efforts. After completing secondary school, Lian Choo aspired to study nursing at a local institution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    However, despite earning As in most subjects, she was deemed ineligible due to her C grade (Band 7) in Malay. Raised in a predominantly Chinese household and immersed in a Hokkien-speaking environment, her only exposure to the national language was through the Bahasa Malaysia lessons at school. She then tried to retake the subject but still missed the requirements by one band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Lian Choo and her Phor Tay juniors, in front of their nursing home entrance, among whom is Hooi who started her nursing training a year before her.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Her friend, who experienced the same dilemma, encouraged her to apply for a nursing diploma programme in England. Among her female classmates, at least four applied to pursue the same programme, as they knew that their Malay proficiency would harm their chances for local tertiary education. Motivated to escape a constrained future, Lian Choo applied. She was admitted in 1974 and promised a monthly stipend, on the condition that she performed well at every stage of her training and assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Lian Choo\u2019s first trip back to her old house after the UK, with her eldest niece.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Lian Choo\u2019s story reveals not only strictures of gender roles within the Chinese diaspora in Malaya, but also the social and political shifts that came with Malaya\u2019s entry into postcolonial nationhood. As the daughter of a traditional Chinese Malaysian family, she grew up under the watchful eye of her conservative grandmother, whose views nearly kept her from continuing her secondary education.

    Later, as a citizen of postcolonial Malaysia, she faced the restrictions of a new national education policy that closed doors to further tertiary studies. Not letting these limits define her, Lian Choo instead chose to forge her own path and search for a future beyond her birth country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    LIFE AND LOVE ABROAD<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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    Lian Choo\u2019s certificate of recommendation to start her nursing training in the UK, issued by the Malaysian Ministry of Education.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    In 1974, Lian Choo received a studentship offer to pursue a nursing diploma programme in England. However, she gave up the offer due to the Miners\u2019 Strike of 1974. The widespread labour unrest prompted the UK government to limit electricity supply to three days per week, which had severely disrupted businesses and daily life. She reapplied successfully in 1975, enrolling in a three-year psychiatric nursing programme at Banstead Hospital in Londonborough.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    As the only Chinese nurse in her assigned medical ward, she faced everyday racial prejudice. Her colleagues gave her the dirtiest tasks, often leaving her alone to clean up the faecal and urinary waste in her ward, made up of 30 patients. She was not alone in such challenges; the 1970s witnessed a racial climate of disillusionment and fear for minorities of colour, such as Black, Asian and Irish communities in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fortunately, these unpleasant experiences were not representative of her traineeship, which turned out to be fulfilling and rewarding. From her stern and dedicated head nurse, she acquired a deeply compassionate approach to care to which she adhered for life: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    \u201cTreat one\u2019s patients like one\u2019s own family\u201d.<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    This philosophy of care, paired with Lian Choo\u2019s diligence, won her widespread recognition and trust. Within 3 months after graduation, she was promoted to acting ward sister.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
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    At Banstead Hospital, she met Mike Smee, an English nursing student who joined the program a year later. They were assigned to the same ward in 1976. While they grew fond of each other, Lian Choo initially hesitated to pursue a relationship because she had promised her family that she would only marry a Chinese man. She had sworn an oath at her family\u2019s ancestral altar never to marry a non-Chinese man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \"\"
    Mike Smee and Lian Choo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    In 1977, Lian Choo experienced a serious bicycle accident, requiring two surgeries for a dislocated jaw, broken teeth, and facial scarring. While some of her Chinese Malaysian suitors stopped visiting, Mike continued to support her. He cycled daily to see her in the hospital and helped prepare her meals during her six-month recovery on a liquid diet. His consistent support made her consider telling her family the truth about their relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Her family initially opposed her relationship with Mike. Even after he proposed in 1978, she declined because of their disapproval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
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    She returned to Malaysia that year, and her mother gradually became more accepting, while her father remained resistant. In October 1979, she went back to London and set a wedding date for 22 March 1980. Two months later, she learned her father was in the final stage of lung cancer. He passed away six days before her wedding, though a phone call from her elder brother reassured her that he had given his blessing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \"\"
    Lian Choo\u2019s first return to Malaysia after completing her training in the UK, after explaining to her father about the irrelevance of race when it came to love.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    To cope with her father\u2019s passing, she submitted essays in Chinese under her pen name \u84dd\u91c7 (Blue Hues) to Guanghua Ribao<\/em> \u5149\u534e\u65e5\u62a5.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One of her later essays, a rhetorical letter addressed to her father, was published in an award-winning anthology of essays in 2015, called Cun Cao Xin, \u5bf8\u8349\u5fc3.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \"\"
    Lian Choo\u2019s publication in the 2015 anthology titled \u201dGreat Joy, but Great Sorrow too!\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Lian Choo receiving an award from the CEO of the NHS South London and Maudsley NHS trust (2002).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    While in charge of an acute psychiatric admission ward with a highly violent patient in Banstead, Lian Choo had to be assertive in advocating for appropriate treatment. When a consultant prescribed only minimal tranquilisers, she openly disagreed during the ward round, leading him to report her. In time, however, he came to respect her judgment and encouraged her to apply to the Royal Bethlem Hospital at the Maudsley, one of the UK\u2019s oldest psychiatric institutions. She eventually joined the Hospital in 1981, where she served with distinction till her retirement. Retired in 2005, she now divides her time equally between London and Penang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a young Chinese Malaysian woman, she left her country partly due to national educational policies that disadvantaged her in educational terms. Beginning her nursing career in the UK, she faced new forms of racialized discrimination, where hierarchies privileged white staff and marginalized non-White and Irish colleagues. Her experiences reveal how colonial legacies and global racial hierarchies persist across borders, shaping both structural barriers and everyday biases. Navigating these constraints, she exercised agency in advancing her career while maintaining strong ties to Malaysia through family, culture, and memory that anchored her identity as she built a new life abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    RAISING A MIXED-RACE FAMILY<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Lucy (in red) sang a Chinese song at her school’s Christmas nativity play at the age of seven.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Lian Choo and Mike had their first child, Lucy, in 1982. As parents to a British-Chinese child, they accompanied her through a childhood marked by the political salience of race. Lucy was only one out of two mixed-race children in Oak Lodge Primary School in West Wickham. At the age of seven, she suffered a firsthand experience of racism when her classmates bullied her after she wore a Chinese traditional dress and sang a Chinese song during a Christmas celebration in school. This eventually pushed her to abandon the language altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
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    \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    When Lian Choo\u2019s son, Andrew, was born in 1987, Lucy\u2019s unpleasant experience led her to dissuade Andrew from pursuing the language. It was only in Lucy\u2019s early 20s, when she taught English in Japan and witnessed the Japanese enthusiasm for their language, that she was compelled to revisit her mother tongue. Growing up in the 1980s, the childhoods of Lian Choo\u2019s two children were shaped by fervent waves of racism and equally fervent responses of antiracism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    CHAMPIONING CULTURAL EDUCATION<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Schoolchildren demographic in Link School, Merton, where Lian Choo taught.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Disturbed by the lack of multicultural representation in British schools, Lian Choo took action. When her daughter\u2019s nursery textbooks failed to include any meaningful reference to Chinese heritage, she wrote to the Croydon branch of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). The authorities soon invited her to propose the inclusion of Chinese folktales, legends, and cultural content in the curriculum, to which she responded by introducing the tales of Simaguang<\/em> \u53f8\u99ac\u5149 and The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl \u725b\u90ce\u7e54\u5973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Her suggestion was well received, particularly as the UK began to pursue more inclusive education policies in the mid to late-1980s. In April 1981, violence broke out between the Metropolitan Police and young Black working-class groups in Brixton. Following this, groups of White, Black, and Asian teacher activists from the ILEA campaigned for positive representation of Black minorities in textbooks and television. The campaigns culminated in the 1985 Education for All<\/em> policy, which underlined racial discrimination as a factor for underachievement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
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    \"\"
    Lian Choo teaching at Link School, Merton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Lian Choo juggled between her full-time position as a nurse in Royal Bethlem Hospital while also advancing efforts to promote multicultural understanding in Britain. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n

    From 1987 to 1990, the Merton and Croydon education authorities invited Lian Choo to introduce children to Chinese culture in the UK\u2019s primary schools. Jennie Ingham from Ventura Publishing contacted her to translate English storybooks for preschool children, to which Lian Choo agreed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    (T) Spot Goes to the Farm<\/em> (1989) and (B) Peace at Last<\/em> (1990).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From 1988 to 1990, she translated The Moon Hare<\/em> (1988), Spot Goes to the Farm<\/em> (1989), and Peace at Last<\/em> (1990) into Chinese. These books are still used today as reading materials for preschoolers in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Thanks to her active involvement, the Merton Education Council approached her in 1990 to work as one of six to seven bilingual teaching assistants for migrant children, who had challenges with speaking English in the UK. Between 1992 to 1994, she was a bilingual teaching assistant at Link School in Londonborough of Merton. She also involved herself with the Merton Chinese community, especially to help out with Spring Festival programs. At the same time, she kept her ties to Malaysia alive by writing extensively for Guanghua Ribao<\/em>, sharing her experiences as a nurse, mother, and migrant in the UK with the Malaysian Sinophone community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Two among many of Lian Choo\u2019s writings published in Guanghua Ribao<\/em>, both sent from London.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    LATER LIFE <\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

    Lian Choo\u2019s work shows the complex layers of being Malaysian: as a Malaysian Chinese\u2014not a Chinese national\u2014she leveraged Chinese heritage as an educational tool to push back against Britain\u2019s racialized structures. From childhood through her career and into motherhood, Lian Choo\u2019s life was shaped by Malaysian and British regimes of race. In advocating for herself and her loved ones, she became both politicised by circumstance and a political subject in her own right. Through contesting prejudice, she has contributed directly and indirectly to broader struggles for transnational and multicultural understanding in both the United Kingdom and Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Lian Choo\u2019s children and their families.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Special Thanks<\/strong>
    We at Imagined Malaysia express our heartfelt thanks to Goay Lian Choo, whom we interviewed and who shared with us her personal archives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Malaysia\u2019s history was shaped by those who crossed borders and seas; to tell our history is to tell the tale of migration, the people who got left behind, the ones who stayed and the ones who crossed between. We begin with the life of Goay Lian Choo \u502a\u83b2\u73e0 (born in 1954), a Malaysian whose journey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"What are microhistories?<\/em><\/strong>
    Microhistories explore individual or small-group experiences to offer a corrective to the glorification and abstraction of elite-centred history. It reveals lived realities, systemic inequities, and the complexity of everyday life, while also reminding us that no single narrative can capture the full texture of the past.<\/em>
    \",\"id\":\"c6209ae3-b59b-4f97-a5cb-2c6d1aa12ca3\"}]"},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myunbd"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"smart-post-landscape":false,"smart-post-portrait":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Dennis Ong","author_link":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?author=5"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Malaysia\u2019s history was shaped by those who crossed borders and seas; to tell our history is to tell the tale of migration, the people who got left behind, the ones who stayed and the ones who crossed between. We begin with the life of Goay Lian Choo \u502a\u83b2\u73e0 (born in 1954), a Malaysian whose journey…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1531"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1610,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions\/1610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}