Chua Jim Neo

Chua was born in Singapore in 1905 to Chua Kim Teng, a wealthy local businessman, and Liong A Soen (aka Neo Ah Soon), a Chinese Indonesian of Hakka descent who hailed from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Dutch Borneo (present-day Indonesia). While her father was born in Singapore, her paternal grandfather came from a Hokkien Peranakan family in Malacca, Malaysia with ancestry from Haicheng, Zhangzhou, Fujian.[1][2] Her parents arranged a marriage for her to a storekeeper, named Lee Chin Koon, and they married when she was fifteen.[3] Chua had five children and her oldest son was Lee Kuan Yew, who went on to become the first Prime Minister of Singapore.[3][4] Chua saved her family jewelry and money, managing household finances and helping Kuan Yew attend law school in Britain.[3]

In 1974, she wrote Mrs. Lee's Cookbook: Nonya Recipes and Other Favorite Recipes[5] in order to preserve the heritage of Peranakan cuisine[3][6] (also known as nyonya or nyonya/baba cuisine), which combines Straits Chinese cooking with Malay-style cooking. Chua, a nyonya (Peranakan Chinese woman), was considered a "highly respected authority" on the subject.[7][8] The original publication included a preface by her cousin Wee Kim Wee, who was then serving as the high commissioner to Malaysia and would later become President of Singapore.[9] The cookbook was updated and republished in 2003 by her granddaughter, Lee Shermay.[10]

Chua died on 8 August 1980, and was cremated at the Mount Vernon Columbarium.[11] She was inducted posthumously in to the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.[3]