{{Short description|Singapore physician (1895–1947)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{family name hatnote|Lee|lang=Chinese}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Lee Choo Neo | honorific_suffix = | image = Lee_Choo_Neo.png | image_size = | caption = Lee, c. 1923 | native_name = 李珠娘 | native_name_lang = zh | pronunciation = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1895|09|07|df=y}} | birth_place = Singapore, {{flag|Straits Settlements}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1947|09|07|1895|09|07|df=y}} | death_place = {{flag|Colony of Singapore}} | known_for = First female doctor in Singapore | nationality = | citizenship = | education = Singapore Chinese Girls' School <br> Raffles Girls' School <br> King Edward VII College of Medicine | occupation = Doctor | spouse = {{marriage|Teo Koon Lim|21 September 1923}} | partner = <!-- (unmarried long-term partner) --> | children = Lionel Teo (son) <br> Eileen Teo (daughter) <br> Winnie Teo (daughter) | parents = | mother = Mak Hup Sin | father = Lee Hoon Leong | relatives = Lee Chin Koon <br> (younger half-brother) <br> Chua Jim Neo (sister-in-law) <br> Lee Kuan Yew (nephew) <br> Lee Hsien Loong (grandnephew) <br> Lee Wei Ling (grandniece) <br> Lee Hsien Yang (grandnephew) }} '''Lee Choo Neo''' ({{zh|t=|s=李珠娘|p=Lǐ Zhūniáng}}; 7 September 1895 – 7 September 1947) was the first female medical doctor to practice in Singapore.<ref name="swhf">{{cite web|url=http://www.swhf.sg/the-inductees/18-health/152-lee-choo-neo|title=SINGAPORE WOMEN'S HALL OF FAME - Lee Choo Neo|author=SWHF|access-date=2015-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113033804/http://www.swhf.sg/the-inductees/18-health/152-lee-choo-neo|archive-date=2015-01-13|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her father, Lee Hoon Leong, was a merchant of Hakka descent.<ref name="asiaone.com">{{cite web|url=http://news.asiaone.com/news/diva/they-helped-shape-todays-singapore#sthash.BUNct6Qi.dpuf|title=They helped shape today's Singapore|work=AsiaOne|access-date=13 January 2015|archive-date=13 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113044000/http://news.asiaone.com/news/diva/they-helped-shape-todays-singapore#sthash.BUNct6Qi.dpuf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her mother was her father's first wife, Mak Hup Sin, who was of Cantonese descent.<ref name="swhf" /> Lee Choo Neo was also the aunt of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister; his father was her younger half-brother, Lee Chin Koon.<ref name="swhf" />
==History== Lee attended Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Raffles Girls’ School.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Great Peranakans: Fifty Remarkable Lives|url=https://www.nhb.gov.sg/peranakanmuseum/~/media/tpm/document/exhibitions/english%20gallery%20guide.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620172723/https://www.nhb.gov.sg/peranakanmuseum/~/media/tpm/document/exhibitions/english%20gallery%20guide.pdf|archive-date=20 June 2022|access-date=|website=National Heritage Board|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1911, Lee Choo Neo became the first Straits Chinese girl to earn the Senior Cambridge Certificate, and in 1918, she graduated from King Edward VII College of Medicine, Singapore.<ref name="swhf"/><ref name="Backman2004">{{cite book|author=Michael Backman|title=The Asian Insider: Unconventional Wisdom for Asian Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vH-TDxqX0lYC&pg=PA72|date=5 April 2004|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4039-4840-3|pages=72–}}</ref> She originally served as an assistant surgeon, overseeing two women's wards at the General Hospital.<ref name="swhf" />
Lee Choo Neo married Teo Koon Lim at 114 Emerald Hill on 21 September 1923 and had a son named Lionel Teo Cheng Ann and two daughters namely Eileen Teo Cheng Sim and Winnie Teo Cheng Kim. After several years in the government service, she resigned and followed her husband to Kuala Lumpur who had business there. However, in 1930, she went back to Singapore and opened her own clinic ''Lee Dispensary'' on Bras Basah Road, which specialized in maternity care.<ref name="swhf" />
In addition to her medical work, she was a founder of the Chinese Ladies' Association of Malaya (later called the Chinese Women's Association), founded in 1915, which raised funds for war, taught domestic skills, introduced outdoor sports, and sponsored a rescue home for at-risk women.<ref name="swhf"/><ref name="asiaone.com"/> She served as the Association's honorary secretary for many years.<ref name="swhf" /> In 1925 she and two other women were appointed to the Chinese Marriage Committee, which was investigating the need for laws to govern Chinese marriage and divorce in the Straits Settlements.<ref name="swhf" /> The Chinese Marriage Committee found that women wanted an end to polygamy, while men did not; their findings were a preliminary to the 1961 passage of the Women's Charter, which outlawed polygamy.<ref name="swhf" />
Lee Choo Neo died on 7 September 1947, and her grave is located in Singapore in the Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classicfengshuimastery.com/singapore-bukit-brown-chinese-cemetery/lee-choo-neo/|title=Lee Choo Neo Classic Feng Shui Mastery|work=Classic Feng Shui Mastery|access-date=13 January 2015|archive-date=17 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917180901/http://www.classicfengshuimastery.com/singapore-bukit-brown-chinese-cemetery/lee-choo-neo/|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
The Singapore Women's Hall of Fame was created in 2014, and Lee Choo Neo was inducted into it that same year, under the category "Health."<ref name="swhf"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.istana.gov.sg/photogallery/launch-singapore-womens-hall-fame|title=Launch of Singapore Women's Hall of Fame|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123003104/http://www.istana.gov.sg/photogallery/launch-singapore-womens-hall-fame|archive-date=2015-11-23}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Singaporean people of Hakka descent Category:People from Dabu County Category:Singaporean gynaecologists Category:Singaporean people of Cantonese descent Category:Singaporean women medical doctors Category:Peranakan people in Singapore Category:Singaporean women's rights activists Category:1895 births Category:Singaporean people of Chinese descent Category:1947 deaths Category:Raffles Girls' Secondary School alumni Category:20th-century Singaporean medical doctors Category:Lee family (Singapore) Category:20th-century women medical doctors
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