Theresa Poh Lin Chan

Chan Poh Lin (9 July 1943 – 6 June 2016),[1] better known as Theresa Poh Lin Chan, was a Singaporean writer and teacher.[2] Born in Singapore, she was known in her youth as "the Helen Keller of Southeast Asia", as, like Keller, Chan was a highly accomplished deaf and blind person.[3] Chan has been deaf since age 12,[4] and deafblind since age 14.[5]

John Wilson, director of Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, met Poh when he visited Singapore in 1958, and recalled in his 1963 book, Travelling Blind: “She told me she wanted to learn like Helen Keller, to speak English like the Queen of England, to meet everyone in the world.” On his recommendation, Poh was accepted at the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts where she topped the school in Mathematics, became president of the sports club, and learned to dance, ice skate, knit, and horseback ride.[5] In 1961, she fulfilled her dream of meeting Helen Keller in Connecticut.[6]

Poh spent 13 years in the United States and returned to Singapore in 1973 to take care of her aging parents. She became a teacher at the Singapore School for the Blind, but eventually lost the job in 1990.

She was the subject of a 1964 BBC radio documentary, "Child of the Silent Night: The story of Chan Poh Lin" by Stephen Grenfell. She also starred in the feature film, Be with Me (2005), a Singaporean movie in three parts. Chan is credited as a writer for the film as well,[7] considered because her writings about her life were part of the inspiration for the film.

Poh died in June 2016, a month before her 73rd birthday. In 2017, she was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame.

Notes
  1. Theresa Chan, Singapore's Helen Keller, dies after battle with lung cancer
  2. Holden, Stephen. Movie Review: Be With Me: "Three Tales Revolving Around a Real Life", The New York Times, 29 September 2006.
  3. Herrmann, Dorothy. Helen Keller: A Life, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1998. ISBN 0-679-44354-1
  4. Wilmington, Michael. "Review for Be With Me" Archived 2008-06-18 at the Wayback Machine, Chicago Tribune, 27 August 2007.
  5. Production Notes for Be with Me
  6. "Theresa Chan Poh Lin". Singapore Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  7. Be with Me at IMDb

Further reading
  • Morgenstern, Joseph. "Chan Poh Lin, The Chinese Girl Of Eighteen, Who Can Neither See Nor Hear", World Health magazine, March–April 1962, pp. 29–31.


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