Malaya's Prewar Tennis Greats

Writer Abhishek Mehrotra serves up a history of Malaya’s prewar tennis scene, focusing on two tennis greats: Khoo Hooi Hye and Lim Bong Soo, who won 9 Malaya Cups and 12 Singapore Championships between them.

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About the Guest

Abhishek Mehrotra is a researcher and writer whose interests include media and society in colonial Singapore, urban toponymy and post-independence India. He is working on his first book – a biography of T.N. Seshan, one of India’s most prominent bureaucrats. The book, commissioned by HarperCollins, is slated for release in 2024. Abhishek is a former Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow (2021–2022).

Resources

Abhishek Mehrotra, “Khoo Hooi Hye, Lim Bong Soo and the Heyday of Malayan Tennis,” BiblioAsia 19, no. 1, 2023.

T.B.G., “Physical Religion,” Straits Chinese Magazine: A Quarterly Journal of Oriental and Occidental Culture 1, no. 1 (March 1897): 9. (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RRARE 959.5 STR)

Song Ong Siang, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1984), 247. (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RSING 959.57 SON-[HIS])

Nick Aplin, Sport in Singapore: The Colonial Legacy (Singapore : Straits Times Press, 2019). (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RSING 796.095957 APL)

Credits

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Gibson Analytics. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Osman Ahmad and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Abhishek for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library of Singapore.