Desmond Sim
Desmond Sim Kim Jin (born 1961) is a Singaporean playwright, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and painter. His work, Places Where I've Been, won a Merit Prize in the 1993 Singapore Literature Prize for Poetry.
Also recorded as Desmond Sim Kim Jin
Desmond Sim
- Name
- Desmond Sim
- Born
- 1961
- Birthplace
- Singapore
- Occupation
- Playwright, poet, writer
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Desmond Sim • Born — 1961 • Birthplace — Singapore • Occupation — Playwright, poet, writer • Genre — Theatre, screenwriting, poetry
Career
Career
Almost all of his 30 plays to date have been performed in professional theatres in Singapore, Malaysia and the United States. He was TheatreWorks' first playwright-in-residence and has been the associate artistic director of ACTION Theatre since April 2004, running Singapore Theatre Oasis, an incubator programme for new and existing Singaporean playwrights. He has participated in the Shanghai Literary Festival and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship. Desmond has also co-written two movies: Beautiful Boxer (2003) and The Wedding Game (2009). He is an acknowledged Peranakan painter who has held more than a dozen exhibitions on Peranakan figurative themes. Desmond also teaches playwriting, branding, marketing and communications at Temasek Polytechnic School of Design and Lasalle College of the Arts.
Selected plays
Selected plays
• 1992: Blood and Snow • 1993: Sammy Won't Go to School • 1993: Elizabeth by Night • 1994: Drunken Prawns and Other Edible Delights • 1994: A Singapore Carol • 1995: Corporate Animals • 1995: Teochew Porridge • 1996: Who's Afraid of Chow Yuen Fatt? • 1998: Drift • 1999: Shrimps in Space • 1999, 2000: The Swimming Instructor • 2001: Autumn Tomyum • 2002: MRT • 2004: Hubbies4hire • 2006: Fairy Godfather • 2007: Postcards from Rosa • 2009: Wife #11 • 2010: Perfecting Pratas
Painting
Painting
• In the Peranakan-styled art that he is now best known for, Desmond is totally self-taught, although a strong influence from Modigliani, Rousseau, de Lempicka and Art Deco is prevalent.
Publications
• Mistress and Other Creative Takeoffs (1990, Landmark Books) • Co-author with Ovidia Yu and Kwuan Loh • Places Where I've Been (1994, EPB Publishers) • Poetry • Student Plays (Epigram Books, 2013) • Contents: Drunken Prawns, MRT, Perfecting Pratas, The Chair, Shrimps in Space, Teochew Porridge, The Durian Man and His Daughters • Six Plays (Epigram Books, 2013) • Contents: Autumn Tomyam, Elizabeth by Night, Fairy Godfather, Postcards from Rosa, Wife #11, The Swimming Instructor
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Text attribution
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Desmond Sim, revision 1365181765 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 21 August 2026.
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