in his poems that is able to connect of "singlish" with

precise English.

had its first print run of 2000-3000 copies. Its whimsical and

wordplay humour caught the heart of many poetry lovers,

and won the first poetry award from the National Book Development 

Council of Singapore in 1976.

mainly in Japanese, Malaysian and Mandarin languages.

won him his second Book Council Award.

with his "Man Snake Apple & Other Poems"

in 1988.

was complied and published into a book a book 

called "The Space of City Trees: Selected Poems".

In 2015, his book "Down The Line" was chosen by The Business Times as one of the top 10 English Singapore books from 1965-2015.

a fused combination, the progeny in infinite premutations.

mensnakesapples built cities, flew as they one did,

fought wars, archiving them as later documentaries,

invented organized leisure, civilized swindle,

top-ten everything, mass trances, pop-whatever.

it was forever & forever & forever

& a day,

today, it begins again today

Wikipedia

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2709182.Kuo_Pao_Kun

-The Theatre Practice

-The Substation

-The Theatre Training and Research Programme

-The Intercultural Theatre Institute

Mr. Kuo founded Practice Performing Art School(PPAS)

in 1965, 1st of July, when he returned from studying abroad.

This was a memorable date as not only did he establish the school,

he was also married on this very day. Students and ex-students were

very active in the school as they still were highly involved with the school

even after they have completed the drama course.

In 1966, Mr.Kuo translated "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" and produced in Mandarin

and was the first ever Bertolt Brecht play to be performed in Singapore.

nature of Chinese theatre culminated into the 1976 massive leftist purge, he released his first production

"The Little White Sailing Boat".

In 1984, he wrote the first draft of "The Coffin is too Big for the Hole" which was a response

to the Singapore Arts Festival guest director's call to local playwrights to present sketches of Singapore life.

Recently, his production 

"Mama Looking For Her Cat" was deemed by The Business Times as one of the "finest plays in 50 years".

"Go into Life Campaign" to experience life of the labouring masses

in Singapore and Malay Pensula. Their guiding principle was "Art came

from life. Without knowing life first-hand and deeply, especially the life of the

labouring masses, it would be difficult to write artistic works." This resulted in

the build-up of original works based on real life stories of labouring people

like The Fishing Village.

In the 1970s, economy was growing tremendously. In order to embrace their new status as denizens of a first world country, many people in Singapore then sought ways to emulate their counterparts in the developed countries. One such medium through which was carried out was films, shown in cinemas that would eventually become a popular culture among teenagers.

"immediately one floor down
dragon room is taken for the reception.
relatives line up at the entrance,
the men clutching proffered tins of rothmans"

"twice, a hand gently steals out & pats
any suspected flaw of coiffure into perfection.
most of the time, looking at her gloves,
her eyes are downcast, cast downwards
one floor immediately below"

"most of the time, looking at her gloves,
her eyes are downcast, cast downwards
one floor immediately below" 

"at the end of an elastic hour
will she rise, raise her eyes,
descend one floor, ascend the low platform
elevating the tabled 10 courses,
smile gently at the groom, post-sharksfin
& pre-crispy chicken & mark out clearly
her domain, right here & right up there?"

The first stanza shows that it is a special event happening. The first line indicates that it is a wedding.The first stanza also tells us that the bride is waiting for the wedding to commence. This can be seen when the poet wrote "Her eyes, downcast, become modest behaviour". This event is a special event as the first stanza said "not a daily occurrence", weddings do not occur frequently with the same partner as it should be just a one and for all special event, accomplished at once without any disruptions. It may not seem too special if the wedding took place more than a day, it may bore out the guests, family, bride and groom.

The second stanza tells us that the wedding is about to start as relatives of the groom and bride are waiting at the entrance to enter the wedding hall. The bride and groom are nervous about their big event. Not only they feel it but their relatives are also feeling nervous about the wedding. We can see that the relatives are nervous as the poet wrote "the men clutching proffered tins of rothmans", showing that

The third stanza tells us that the bride is getting ready for the wedding as there are people helping her to look flawless as can be seen in the line "twice, a hand gently steals out & pats
any suspected flaw of coiffure into perfection" , a special event requires numerous commitment to keep everything in place and to make sure everything that has been planned will run smoothly, but most importantly the bride has to look pleasing to the others too.

The fourth stanza tells us that the bride is anxious and she keeps looking down. The repetition of the words with "down" in it indicates that she is not confident. Since this is her first time having such a big event, it makes her anxious as she may not know what to do or how to react towards certain situations that may happen later on during the ceremony or reception. She is also not confident as she may be paranoid of the plans that may not be going well and not smoothly.

The fifth stanza tells us whether the bride is prepared for marriage as it the sentences are written in the form of questions. Such sentences are "Will she rise, raise her eyes," and "right here & right there?" These sentences indicates that the bride is feeling a sense of doubt and that she might not be ready to get married. She may be shy to stand in front of a large crowd with just her partner by her side and she has to rely on him if anything happens. For example, if she gets a panic attack, her partner will be the first person that she has to turn to. She prbably feels less confident than anxious.

The poem overall is talking about the thoughts and processes during a wedding and that sometimes its stressful even for a happy event. It tells us that the bride is nervous about the wedding as she might not be ready for it as it can be seen in "looking at her gloves,
her eyes are downcast, cast downwards
one floor immediately below". This shows that she is having pre-marriage jitters and is trying distract herself from the jitters. The language used by Arthur Yap is very powerful because he can describe a situation with a few words. He uses actions and short and abrupt sentences to slowly explain the story behind his poem. He gives little details and phrases instead of using a whole sentence to tell us what is happening. This makes readers get the concept much more faster as only keywords were used to describe the situation.

are something modest and traditional. As said in the text, that the bride is seperated

in another room while the guests and relatives are waiting for her at the guestroom or living hall.

In a wedding, the bride will be the centre of attention as she is like the princess of the day and

people will make her look more flawless and subtle. Also, the feeling of being nervous experienced

by the bride relates to how a real wedding happens. They will feel nervous and excited as that shall be

the day they will be seperated from family and lead a new life.

For example, how the relatives wait for the bride to come down the room. 

Also, the nervousness of the bride relates to how one will

feel on their wedding day as one would worry about how things will go. 

On a real wedding day< the bride would feel very nervous and scared as

she will be separated from her family and move put to stay.

is something to be happy about but it is also a big event that makes even

the groom and the bride nervous. This shows that starting a family is a very

scary idea and that even the bride and groom have to rethink their decision

to marry thoroughly.