Emma Yong was a Singapore theatre practitioner who was highly regarded and well-loved for her acting and singing. Best-known for a part of the Dim Sum Dollies musical cabaret trio, Emma devoted her life to the performing arts and rose to become a prominent theatre practitioner and personality in the arts in Singapore. The bilingual stage, television and film actress acted in lead roles in over 60 English and Chinese-language productions, and received the Best Supporting Actress award at the Life! Theatre Awards in 2006 for her performance in the Chinese-language musical Shanghai Blues.

Born in 1975 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Emma Yong grew up the youngest of three sisters in Singapore. Her elder sisters both became doctors, but Emma developed into one of Singapore's most prominent arts personalities known for her passion and talent for acting and singing.

A six-year-old Emma had her first encounter with the arts when she accompanied one of her sisters to ballet classes. She went on to study at Nanyang Primary School and then at Raffles Girls' School where she discovered her love for singing, joining the school choir and performing in the school's annual musicals. She got an early affirmation of her talent in the first year of her secondary education when she came in first in the solo section of her school’s Festival of Music.

Emma continued singing at Raffles Junior College, coming in second in a school Talentime in 1992. She also discovered her passion for film and literature, becoming the president of the Film Society while she studied in Raffles Junior College and eventually receiving the Angus Ross Prize for topping the A Level English examinations among 7,000 non-British international candidates. Emma seriously considered becoming a writer during this period but it was also then when she began pursuing her interest in theatre outside of school.

Her first experience of theatre was in the underground bunkers at Fort Canning, which was the venue of a production by theatre director Ong Keng Sen about the Japanese occupation. The 19-year-old then began going for auditions while studying for her A Level examinations, and got her first role in Michael Chiang's Heaven II. She also landed a role in the chorus and as the understudy to the lead in the musical Bugis Street. It was then that Emma realised her true calling as a stage performer. She next went on to act in theatre and film director Glen Goei's musical Kampung Amber, which was based on a book by the Catherine Lim and featured music and lyrics by Dick Lee.

In 1994, she started attending University College London in the UK. While she pursued her degree in English, Emma continued acting in productions back home in Singapore, frequently shuttling between the two countries—her precarious juggling between her studies and her passion meant that she once arrived back in the UK on the day of her examinations. During this period, Emma deferred her university studies for a year so that she could act in the musical Mortal Sins in Singapore.

Completing her university studies, Emma returned to Singapore and dove into acting wholeheartedly. In 2000, she returned to the UK for a year to improve her skills by pursuing postgraduate studies in musical theatre at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London. She returned to Singapore after that, foregoing a theatre career in London where she felt she would be typecast.

Over her two-decade-plus career in the arts, Emma performed lead roles in over 60 stage productions, proving herself to be a natural and versatile actress who excelled in both serious and comedic roles. She performed the lead role of Yenehara in Singapore Repertory Theatre's musical Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress. She also performed as Titania in Singapore Repertory Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Fort Canning, which was Emma's favourite Singapore historical spot. The bilingual actress also acted in Chinese-language productions such as Mad Phoenix by Toy Factory and Moving Gods by Theatre Practice. In 2005, Emma—by then well-known for her vocal prowess—held a solo concert From Bjork to Broadway in the Esplanade Recital Studio.

In 2006, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the Life! Theatre Awards for her performance in Singapore Repertory Theatre’s A Twist of Fate. Two years later, she received the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in the Chinese-language musical Shanghai Blues by Toy Factory.

Emma is perhaps best known and remembered for being part of the Dim Sum Dollies musical cabaret trio together with fellow theatre practitioners Selena Tan and Pam Oei. In her ten-year journey with the Dim Sum Dollies, they starred in five of their own productions and appeared in character in other Singapore productions as well. Outside of the regular theatre circuit, the Dim Sum Dollies also performed at the World AIDS Day concert in 2008 at Fort Canning Park and were also ambassadors for a Land Transport Authority campaign promoting graciousness on public transport.

Besides her theatre work, Emma also acted on television in programmes such as First Touch, Family Matters and the The Second Singapore Short Story Project. She also acted in the Chinese-language drama series S.N.A.G. She also starred as lead actress in W!ld Rice’s associate artistic director Glen Geoi’s 2009 film The Blue Mansion, which went on to be shown at film festivals in Pusan, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan.

In Jan 2011, Emma was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which caused her to withdraw from the production Closer and the musical 881. She underwent chemotherapy and the cancer was put into remission. She returned to the stage, appearing in the musical Into the Woods. However, she suffered a relapse in September the same year, forcing her to pull out of Dream Academy Production’s annual Christmas production Crazy Christmas.

In May 2012, Emma Yong passed away at the age of 37.

Shortly after her death, The Emma Yong Fund was set up by Emma's close friends, including fellow theatre practitioner Selena Tan. This was an initiative that was borne out of Emma's hope that there would be a way to help theatre practitioners in times of need, as she herself had to cope with large medical bills due to her lack of medical insurance. The Fund was set up in aid of theatre practitioners with critical illnesses, and also to build awareness among the Singapore theatre community on medical finance.

On June 15 2012, Emma's fellow theatre practitioners held the We Heart Emma memorial concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall in remembrance of their friend, with all proceeds from the concert going to The Emma Yong Fund. The concert raised $275,500 with a further $71,000 raised through an online donation portal at www.emmayongfund.org.

In a year since her death, the fund managed to raise more than $400,000, along the way helping one theatre practitioner who was diagnosed with cancer.

Known for her intensity and quest for perfection in every role she took on, Emma is remembered as a fiercely passionate bright spark who lit up the Singapore theatre stage with her talent and her charm, and as one of the most well-known and beloved theatre stars on the island.

Glen Goei said, "Her talent and commitment to her art were extraordinary. Her courage, in all her endeavours and in her final battle, is an inspiration for all of us. Emma was a bright shooting star that blazed across our lives. Her time with us was brief but oh, she gave a lovely light."

Profile images courtesy of Dream Academy Productions and Tan Ngiap Heng.

The Emma Yong Fund