Kwa Geok Choo

Synopsis

Everyone knows her as the wife of Lee Kuan Yew and mother of Lee Hsien Loong. But what do we know about Kwa Geok Choo?

This monologue follows her from girlhood and early romance to life as political wife and mother; and top conveyancing lawyer and main breadwinner of the Lee Family. It explores how it might have felt to be, as Lee Kuan Yew himself said, smarter than he but forever limited by gender to a secondary role.

After their secret marriage in Stratford-upon-Avon, Kwa Geok Choo and her husband were offered a law career in Britain with the promise of a comfortable private life for themselves and their children. Instead they chose to return to overthrow the British. The life they returned to couldn’t have been easy, with death threats against her husband and his new political party, rioters on the streets and a child gone missing…
This is our tribute to the remarkable woman whose actions and influence are responsible for directing the waves, currents and tides that shape our lives in Singapore. It is a family love letter to all Singaporeans, in the hope that memories of Kwa Geok Choo, alongside those of our mothers, grandmothers and others who’ve passed on, will forever form the wellspring of our identity.