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Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary 218 of his children, it was his daughter Esperanza who came to be considered something of an institution in Manila. As a Catholic nun with the Assumption order, she was the moving force in the post-war rebuilding of the heavily damaged Assumption College. She is also credited with having founded Assumption’s College Department in 1946. She became its dean, recruited a top-notch faculty, and mentored many students.In recognition of her services,she received two honorary doctorates: a doctor of education from De La Salle University in 1965,and a doctor of humanities from Araneta University in 1977. Carmelea Ang See R E F E R E N C E S Wong, Kwok Chu. The Chinese in the Philippine economy, 1898–1941. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999. Interview with Josephine Khu, daughter, September 2009. D Dai Xiao Hua ( , 1949– ) Writer, Chinese association leader, Malaysia D ai Xiao Hua, who was born in Taiwan in 1949, is a famous Chinese writer in Malaysia. She was the president of The Writers’ Association of Chinese Medium of Malaysia for two terms and is also the president of the Malaysian Chinese Cultural Society since 2003. As a writer, she is recognized and respected by writers especially woman writers from overseas. As a result she was elected as third president of the World Overseas Woman Writers’ Association. During her term as the president of the Malaysian Chinese Cultural Society, she was invited to be chairman of a famous debate between two political parties, viz. the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP).As a culturalfigure,shewasawardedtheHonourable Contribution Award by the king of Malaysia. From 1968 to 1971, when she was at a university campus as an undergraduate,she was a keen writer of articles. During this period too, she founded The New World Press with her friends and was its deputy president.The publication was a monthly, which provided her with a training ground for her writing. However, her writing career did not continue after she graduated from the university. Instead she stopped writing for ten years. In 1973, she married a Malaysian businessman and has stayed in Malaysia since then. Dai started writing again in 1986 and wrote not only prose, but also discussive essays and television drama. Her literary works were published in Nanyang Siang Pau ( ) and her television dramas were well received by Malaysian. In 1986, her television drama, Frightening Experience during The Honeymoon ( ) was made into a television series Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary 219 and released on local television channel RTM2.The following year, she started writing another television drama, City Built in the Sand ( ) and had it published in April 1988 by Shi Fang Publisher ( ).The drama was made into a nine-chapter television series and this made her well known among Malaysians. That drama has a realistic moral theme, and its intense cultural content and vivid portrayal of characters make them readily come to life. The tortuous plot, but simple and active language employed, contributed to the success of the drama, the extremely good response to which established her a place in the Malaysian Chinese writing arena. As a writer, she is versatile in many aspects such as drama, prose,novels and commentaries.Her works are popular in Mainland China and other parts of the world with overseas Chinese. In 1990, just before the Malaysian Government imposed the ban on Malaysians visiting China, Dai Xiao Hua became the first Malaysian writer to be invited to lecture in China. She then wrote a number of articles on her visit to China, which she claimed to be a special and memorable journey in her life. The articles were then collected in a book entitled Dai Xiao Hua’s Journey to China ( ). In 1996, she was offered the visiting professor post at the Ni Nan University of China. Dai’sworkshavewonsomeliteraryawards. As early as in 1986, her prose, Auntie Ah Chun ( ) won the literary award organized by the Nanyang Siang Pau. In 1992, her book on her journey to China won the first “Xu Xia Ke Literary Award” ( ), in a competition which drew writer contestants from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and other overseas Chinese writers. Dai Xiao Hua published a few important works between 1988 and 1996. As mentioned earlier, her television drama, City Built in the Sand ( ) was published in 1988. Four years later, she published...
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