In the Mirror: New and Selected Poems of Wong Phui Nam

Forthcoming August 2025

by Wong Phui Nam, edited by Brandon K. Liew and Daryl Lim Wei Jie

The poetry of Wong Phui Nam (1935-2022) is foundational to Malaysian literature in English, and while his early work is often cited and quoted in this regard, this edited collection of his poetry and critical essays makes it clear that his lifelong trajectory as a poet and critic is of deep interest. In the Mirror by Wong Phui Nam is a critical exploration of Malaysia's fractured post-colonial identity and literary landscapes.

Like many of the generation of English-speaking young intellectuals educated in the University of Malaya before independence, by the 1960s Wong became disillusioned when faced with the stark contradictions of writing in a colonial language while striving to build or maintain a national literary tradition. When in 1969 Malaysia's national cultural policy firmly emphasised the primacy of Bahasa Malaysia, "I no longer wanted to write, at least not in a language I was told was a colonial leftover."

But over the years he returned to poetry in English, often publishing privately. He came to believe that English was in fact the language "most capable of representing our predicament", given the spiritual and cultural vacuums left by colonialism's great ruptures in the region, and the ongoing neocolonial structure of the state and economy. His work challenges the reader to confront the realities of cultural displacement and the complexities of a multi-ethnic society grappling with its past and future.

The editors worked with Wong to prepare his latest works In The Mirror (2000-22) for publication. This volume combines these with his earlier achievements, starting with How the Hills are Distant (1960-4), as well as some of his key essays and literary criticism. A foreword by the editors links Wong's work with contemporary poetry in the region. An afterword by Wong's contemporary Edwin Thumboo completes a volume that will be treasured for its historical context-making, but more importantly for the literary rewards of Wong's poetry, written in unblinking confrontation with the contradictions and difficulties of writing in English in the region.

Wong Phui Nam (1935-2022) was a Malaysian poet. 

Brandon K. Liew is a writer and editor, and currently a researcher at the University of Melbourne.

Daryl Lim Wei Jie is a poet, editor, translator and literary critic. His poetry collection Anything but Human (2021) was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize.

Publication Year: 2025
246 pages, 229mm x 152mm
Paperback (Asia)
ISBN: 9789813252844

Ridge Books