Happy Birthday Professore!
Topic: September Birthdays
Today is Dr Wong Yunn Chii's Birthday! All MACSians of '71 and in particular the ever proud Hainanese community rejoice on this day in recognition of this outstanding sukinang.

I am very pleased to share here with you Yunn Chii's own autobiography which he very sportingly obliged to specially pen for this blog:

"Datuk Larry Gan remarked over our sumptuous dinner in KL at his restaurant recently that I am a “perpetual student” who has not left school. (Was it a snide or compliment? Whichever, but from a sukinang, it is always endearing).

I would like to think that I am a perpetual learner. But, as a “do-er” I am a teacher.

In my trade, there is a self-effacing and cruel joke: if you cannot do, teach. And if you cannot teach, teach architecture. For some architecture is about building, thus it cannot be “thought” or taught. I can assure you that you can – and I have the good fortune of doing so at the National University of Singapore for the past 20 years – after work as an architect in America upon graduation. In between I spent 5 years to complete my doctoral studies in modern architectural history, on Richard Buckminster Fuller, an American architect-inventor. I have been writing more than I build. But building continues to fascinate me. Last year I designed and curated Singapore’s inaugural architectural exhibition at the Venice Biennale; and this year the nation’s 40 Years of modern architecture.

It has been a blessed 50 years, and I am always thankful for my family, my teachers and my friends. My wife Siew Leng is an urban designer. My two young ones, son Hee Jinn (11) and daughter Lu Yii (6), keep me on my feet.

Schooldays in ACS remain those special moments for me – horse-fight, jungle-bar, burong hantu in toilet, Flintstones, Saturday movie matinees in school hall, tai-bak & ice-balls, ice-Malaysia, sports day, Christmas concerts & plays, assembly, chapels, MGS girls, dental clinic & Vicki (of course). These memories are as fresh as yesterday; I hope they have also tingled your memories!

It is our good fortune that internet has brought us together again. Thank you".

Below is a snap-shot of a photo wall in Yunn Chii's cyber-study room. From Top Left Clockwise: Yunn Chii during younger days at the Coronation Park Gardens, daughter Lu Yii, son Hee Jinn, Yunn Chii with wife Siew Leng in Venice, the two professors, Moses Samuel & Yunn Chii and Yunn Chii with Tedin & Su at Danny's Simply Nyonya Cafe.





















As Yunn Chii had perhaps by oversight left out some important details, I add below a few words on his biography:

Wong Yunn Chii is assistant professor with the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore. There he coordinates the visual collections in the Department of Architecture as well as History-Theory-Criticism Studies. His primary area of historical study is modern architecture and urbanism; the published works in these two areas include a study of PWD-Singapore in the inter-war years and the New World urban amusement park. Dr. Chii studied at Washington University-St. Louis and went on to MIT-Cambridge for his Ph.D. in the history of architecture. He is an affiliate of mAAN, the modern Asian Architecture Network, an organization that promotes the study, documentation and conservation of Asian modern buildings and environments. He is also a member of Singapore History Museum Board.

Press Release on Singapore@ Venice Biennale 2004


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