Turquoise silk long-sleeved cheongsam worn by Kwa Geok Choo

This cheongsam was worn by Mdm. Kwa Geok Choo, the late wife of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. Kwa was spotted in cheongsam at various functions accompanying her husband or their eldest son, Mr. Hsien Loong, the third Prime Minister of Singapore.Kwa was born in 1920. She met Lee when they studied at Raffles Institution, where she was the only girl in high school. The couple won the Queen’s scholarship to study law at Cambridge University where Kwa became the first Malayan woman to graduate with first class honours. Besides being one of Singapore’s earliest women lawyers, Kwa was also credited with drafting part of a key amendment to the Separation Agreement when Singapore broke away from Malaya.

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