Florence Tan, a 60-year-old artist living with dwarfism in Singapore, has built a remarkable life centered around art and love despite facing decades of physical and social obstacles. Standing only 1.2 meters tall, Tan now operates her own craft stall outside Clementi Mall, paints daily, and is preparing to marry her partner of 36 years who has stood by her side through countless challenges.
When meeting Tan for the first time, visitors are immediately struck not by her diminutive height but by her larger-than-life presence. Her quick wit, bursts of laughter, and artistic flair draw people in as she works at her art kiosk, carefully painting cats and other animals on tote bags with her head bent in concentration. An array of hand-painted bags featuring adorable cats, dogs, and pandas are neatly displayed on her table, showcasing her artistic talent.
Tan's daily life requires assistance due to mobility challenges that have worsened following hip surgery in March 2024. Because of her dwarfism, she walks differently than the average person, relying more on her hips than her knees to move forward. Over time, this gait has caused significant wear and tear on her hip ligaments, leading to sudden, intense pain. After having surgery on her left hip in 2016, doctors advised her to have her right hip operated on as well, but she delayed the procedure out of fear until a fall from her adult-sized bed in early 2024 made the surgery unavoidable.
Despite recounting these physical ordeals, Tan's voice carries no trace of self-pity or despair. She laughs frequently during conversations, making ironic quips such as, "This is why I don't want to have kids. I don't want them to live a miserable life like mine." While she delivers these comments with a cheeky grin, there's an undertone of real pain beneath her self-deprecating humor, reflecting decades of struggle to adjust to a world built for bodies that look and work differently from hers.
Growing up as the youngest of eight children, Tan learned to toughen up early as her family moved frequently around old estates including Margaret Drive and Tiong Bahru before settling in Telok Blangah in the mid-1970s. Her father died of leukemia when she was in Secondary 1, leaving her mother and older siblings to guide her through childhood. School presented constant challenges as blackboards were often out of reach, making it difficult for her to write as instructed by teachers. Physical education lessons were particularly difficult, with activities like running being naturally harder given her stature.
Daily life presented additional obstacles, such as being unable to reach the lift button for the 21st floor where her family lived in Telok Blangah. Her parents would wait at the school bus stop to pick her up so they could walk home together. One day in Primary 5, when the bus arrived earlier than expected, she found herself alone and decided to walk home by herself. However, she was soon confronted by neighborhood kids who hassled and jeered at her for her height. "I was so scared, so I ran to the lift in my block. I couldn't press my floor's button, so I just pressed the 'door close' button," she recalled. "But then, one of the boys outside pressed the 'open' button again and laughed at me. I was so sad, I cried and cried and cried."
From that traumatic experience, young Florence began carrying a ruler everywhere so she could navigate lifts independently when needed. Her mother also made it a point to arrive much earlier at the bus stop, sometimes as early as 12:15 PM even though the bus wouldn't arrive until 12:45 PM. As she aged into adulthood, daily challenges persisted. Boarding a bus felt like "climbing a mountain," especially before more widespread accessibility efforts came into effect. In the past, before low-floor public buses became standard, familiar bus drivers would sometimes make extra effort to stop close to the curb so she had less of a gap to cross.
Despite living in a world that wasn't always kind to her, Tan has always found beauty in it through art. At just four years old, she would sit on her potty by the kitchen door and peel paint, imagining shapes where a line would become a river and a chip of paint would become a person or tree. By Primary 2, her budding talent was recognized when one of her artworks was displayed on the classroom wall, and she received a certificate in a coloring contest – her very first award, which she recalled proudly.
Pursuing art after O-Levels wasn't straightforward, however. Nearing secondary school graduation, she had her sights set on the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), but her practical mother worried whether pursuing art could pay the bills. "She preferred that I go to junior college to study science or math instead," Tan explained. "She always said I couldn't earn a living if I studied art." Despite her mother's attempts to dissuade her, Tan refused to give up exploring her love for creative art, spending time at the library admiring Peter Rabbit illustrations and drawing numerous illustrations to imitate artist Beatrix Potter's style.
Eventually, her mother gave in but with one condition: that Florence also master typing. In the 1980s, typing was a valuable skill that could secure office or administrative work in various industries. "My mother made me sign an agreement. I cheated a bit. She wanted me to master the advanced typing course, but I only did elementary," Tan said with a laugh. Getting her mother's approval turned out to be only the beginning of a grueling journey to enroll in NAFA's fine art diploma program. Tan's application was rejected four times before she finally succeeded at age 24.
After graduating three years later, she worked as a graphic designer for a Japanese company, earning more than some of her graduate siblings to her mother's astonishment, before shifting into freelance design. These days, she has found her niche painting on tote bags and crafts from a small kiosk that attracts regular customers. She secured the kiosk license with help from Dr. Tan Wu Meng, former Member of Parliament for Jurong Group Representation Constituency. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Tan also told her about opportunities for people with disabilities to contribute artwork to ART:DIS, a charity championing learning and livelihoods for artists like her.
By selling her paintings through the association, she was able to raise money and support herself, with most proceeds going directly to the artists. In many ways, Tan has achieved her childhood dreams of making art the core of her life. Even when her health faltered resulting in hip surgery, she never stopped painting. "I can paint all day, all night. Even when I'm in pain, I take my painkillers and keep going," she said. "I like this simple life. I don't want to be tied to an 8-to-5 job. I just want to keep painting, keep meeting customers and leave behind my art."
Of all the animal motifs she has painted on tote bags, her favorite subject remains the panda – a tribute to her mother, who died from cancer in 2000 when Tan was 35. "The way panda mothers care for their cubs reminds me of how my mother cared for me," she explained. This personal connection to her art adds deeper meaning to her daily work and helps her process the loss of her primary supporter and advocate.
Tan's love story began while studying at NAFA, where she met Benjamin Wong, now 61, who was in a different class but would often visit her classroom to chat and tease her. Initially treating him as just a friend, she began noticing his sincerity and down-to-earth nature when they were paired for a photography project. He consistently showed care, going the extra mile to help wherever he could – from carrying her heavy equipment to contributing to purchases she couldn't afford. However, when he proposed after graduation, Tan hesitated and rejected him because she felt she wasn't good enough and didn't match him.
Despite her rejection, Wong stayed by her side, patiently waiting through nearly four decades together. He proposed four times in total, with her turning him down each time until 2023, when she finally said yes. When asked why she accepted after all these years, she took a moment to consider seriously: "After all these years, I looked at the way he treated me, the way he loved me, the way he protected me, and I finally accepted him." As for why he stuck by her all those years, she joked, "He told me he preferred someone who has a good heart, who's down-to-earth and funny. I'm very funny, right?"
While Tan admits she's not entirely sure why Wong stayed all those years, she readily acknowledges their undeniable chemistry. "It feels so natural just to talk to him, even back when I didn't really know him that well yet," she recalled. "And we'd miss each other after not meeting for a while, like during school holidays." Upon getting engaged in 2023, the couple renovated the resale flat she had bought independently in 2001 at age 36, creating a home adapted to her needs with light switches placed at her height and a sturdy kitchen platform allowing her to reach the stove and sink with ease.
"At first, I was worried he might not be able to accept staying in my simple home, because my house was very basic and I'm poor. But when he came over and saw my house, he said, 'Don't worry, I'll fix everything up for you,'" she said. "I was so touched." The wedding date remains undecided as they had to postpone registration due to her hip surgery, but Tan expects it to be a simple affair since their shared bond matters more than paperwork and ceremony.
Currently, Wong, who previously worked full-time at the Singapore Art Museum, lives off passive income as a landlord while supporting Tan in running her craft stall and managing daily life together. She glows with happiness discussing their relationship, calling him "a very nice guy" with a rosy grin. Nevertheless, she admits sometimes struggling with old fears that her partner might leave her one day. However, buoyed by Wong's constant reassurance and her brothers' encouragement, she's finally choosing to be brave and stand by his side with her head held high. "I'm trying my best to make him happy, to be a good wife to him. And he told me that no matter what, no matter how crazy I get, he won't leave me."
Despite the upcoming wedding and settling down with the love of her life, challenges remain for Tan. Even with changes to make public infrastructure more inclusive, difficulties persist. Something as simple as withdrawing money from an automated teller machine still requires help from her domestic helper. "I didn't like keeping my money in the bank before because I couldn't reach the ATM. I always needed to go to the counter," she explained. "After going through such trouble, I'd rather keep the cash with me so I can retrieve it easily."
Health concerns weigh heavily on Tan as she ages. She worries that heavy painkiller use will affect her kidneys and liver, so on her fiancé's advice, she now takes supplements to protect them. Living with dwarfism means her back and hip bones ache constantly. Although her recent hip replacement surgery was deemed successful, she still experiences muscle and nerve pain that flares up when sitting or lying down. "Walking takes up so much of my energy, and it's very painful," she said.
Having navigated life as a person with dwarfism, Tan has developed hard-won wisdom she hopes to share with others facing similar challenges in Singapore. "You must work hard and work smart. Save money, don't be so sensitive, be more thick-skinned," she advised. "Ask for help when you need it, and learn as much as you can." Her story serves as an inspiring example of resilience, creativity, and the power of love to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, proving that physical limitations need not define the scope of one's dreams or achievements.
