Bee Chen Goh

Malaysia & Lincoln 1984

Oxford United Victory Bus Parade Milk Cup 1986

Family Photo Proudly Attending The Phd Graduation Of Bee Chen'S Daughter, Mindy Gill

Bee Chen Goh at Marlborough House London.

Bee Chen Goh at Rhodes House.

Rhodes Trustees Dinner 1984, with classmates Raymond Lim (Singapore & Balliol 1984) and Donald Bobiash (Prairies & Balliol 1984).

Oxford United Victory Parade 1986.

Oxford United Victory Bus Milk Cup 1986.

With classmates Nanda (India & Trinity 1984) and Penelope (New Zealand & Nuffield 1984) at 40 Years of Rhodes Women celebration.

With Michelle Norton (South Africa-at-Large & Magdalen 1984) at 40 Years of Rhodes Women celebrations.

Bee Chen Goh and family.

Family photo proudly attending the PhD Graduation of Bee Chen's daughter, Mindy Gill.

Bee Chen Goh was born in Malaysia and studied at the University of Malaya before going up to Oxford and then Cambridge to undertake postgraduate law studies, subsequently obtaining her doctorate from Bond University in Australia.

Goh was a practising lawyer in Malaysia prior to moving to Australia to become an academic at Bond University. In 2006, Goh was appointed Head of School and Professor in the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University, Australia, where she also served as Director of the Centre for Peace and Social Justice. She has also served on the Queensland Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee. Goh is now Emeritus Professor at Southern Cross University, and is a Fellow and Director of the Australian Academy of Law acting as the Academy’s Treasurer. Her published works include Law Without Lawyers, Justice Without Courts: On Traditional Chinese Mediation. Goh recently produced It’s Time, a play based on true events written by her husband, Chamkaur Gill (a retired Bond University academic), that deals with the damaging impact of PTSD on Australian Vietnam-War veterans involving theatre as therapy and the power of theatre in storytelling. Their daughter, Mindy Gill, is an award-winning poet, literary editor and critic, and an academic in Australia.

This narrative is excerpted from an interview with the Rhodes Trust on 23 September 2026.

‘Education is in our lifeblood’

I was born in Paloh, a tiny village in the State of Johore in Malaysia. There were periods in my childhood where we had no electricity and did our homework by the light of kerosene lamps and of course, that just seemed perfectly normal to us. I am very grateful because that kind of community, with shared interests and villagers helping each other, gave me a very, very good foundation for how I live my life. My father was the Headmaster of the Chinese Primary School and my mother was one of the teachers in the same school. Education was in our lifeblood - for us children, attaining higher education, whether at university or teachers training colleges, was a given. And now our daughter has just graduated with her doctorate.

I was one of ten siblings who grew up attending the school where my parents taught. We went through our formative education in Mandarin and it was only when I went to secondary school that I started to learn in English. I still remember picking up my first English storybook, by Enid Blyton. It took me over a month to finish reading it, and every second word, I had to open a dictionary, so it was definitely a challenge. But, looking back on it, it was, like, ‘Oh, okay, that was good.’ At school, I enjoyed History, and also Literature - both English and Chinese.

I would say when I was young, my cultural heritage would have been traditional Chinese. My grandparents had migrated from China to what was then known as Malaya. My grandmother had had her feet bound as a girl. But she was the most broadminded, liberal-minded person we knew. She was really ahead of her time. And with my mother working as a teacher, we took it for granted that women could work in jobs outside what was primarily an agricultural economy of the village at that time. I participated in a lot of activities at school, including sports and also debating. I was told, ‘Oh, you’re so good at arguing. Why don’t you do law?’ and that’s what planted the seed in my brain for a career pathway in Law.

On applying for the Rhodes Scholarship

I did my undergraduate law degree at the University of Malaya in Malaysia. At that time, if you couldn’t get into that University you had to study overseas, which we – along with most other people – couldn’t afford, so competition for domestic places was intense. In my admission year, there were just 100 Law places available nationally. I remember when the news of my Law admission arrived, my dad was teaching in class and I cycled over, holding the envelope, and knocked on the door of his classroom and said, ‘I got in, I got in!’ Moving to Kuala Lumpur was a bit of an eye opener, but I made friends there which eased the transition and by that time my boyfriend, whom I later married, was there too. He used to act in plays and I would get involved with various aspects of stage production. Theatre is such a great bonding environment.

It was actually my boyfriend who saw the newspaper advertisement about the Rhodes Scholarship and said, ‘You should apply.’ I remember going for the interview at the British Council, but I didn’t go with any expectation. It was simply, ‘I’ll just do my best.’ I had graduated by that point and was already practising as a lawyer and I remember getting back to my office and the phone rang with the news that I had won. The person from the Selection Panel who spoke to me said, ‘You are Malaysia’s first female Rhodes Scholar.’ I wasn’t sure how to tell my law firm that I was leaving but a journalist found out about the Scholarship and wrote about it in the local newspaper and that’s how my firm found out. I told them how worried I’d been and they just said, ‘No, no, this is our pride and joy as well.’ I thought that was so nice.

‘Not just the architecture but the intellectual architects’

I found the tutorial system at Oxford thrilling, being taught by world-class people who had written the books you were studying from. Oxford was really awe-inspiring in every way: not just the architecture but the intellectual architects that you would meet. As to British quirks, I would say it would have to be the sherry parties with cheese. But the thing that really got to me about England was the cold. In my first year, I would put my feet so close to the heater that I had chilblains. But beyond that, everything was enjoyable and good. My boyfriend had come with me to England and in my second year of the Scholarship, we decided to get married. He is a Sikh and so we tied the knot in a Sikh temple in London. We had some of my fellow Rhodes Scholars among our wedding guests.

Quite a few things have changed since I was in Oxford. I feel that Rhodes House is now more like a hub which is really great to see for the younger Scholars. Also, in those days, we didn’t have much money for travelling. So, when I sat on the Queensland Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee and I got to see how widely Scholars travel now, I thought, ‘Good on them.’

‘I wanted to carry on this passion project on peace’

After England, I returned to Malaysia and went back to the law practice where I had been working before. My husband had always been interested in migrating and his first choice was actually England, but I couldn’t face the idea of that freezing weather again! We settled on Australia, where I had already spent some time travelling before going to England, because I’d also been awarded an Australian Fellowship by the Australia Malaysia Singapore Association. I had met a Bond academic visiting Malaysia who recruited me to join Bond University, which was new and was the first private university in Australia. Most weren’t sure if this experiment in tertiary education in Australia would succeed, but Bond University has been flying high ever since.

I spent over 15 years at Bond before I joined Southern Cross University to head the Law School. My background in legal practice really served me well in how I taught my students, and I also took on leadership roles. I found the administration side easy because I have good organisational skills and I have always had a very big picture when it comes to how things are supposed to happen. But managing people, incorporating them in whatever vision you have, is the challenge. For me, the Centre for Peace and Social Justice was my hobbyhorse, because what I am mostly interested in is the area of peace. My grandmother was my first role model in terms of mediation in dispute resolution, and I wrote an undergraduate thesis in this area for which I interviewed a fair few Chinese elders, because traditional Chinese culture leans towards non-litigiousness. Coming to Southern Cross University, I wanted to carry on this passion project on peace and we ran a number of seminars and lectures on peace, including the opportunity to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV. That was quite an experience.

‘I enjoy seeing the successes of other people’

I am now retired from mainstream teaching but I do still have an affiliation with the University and I also undertake Higher Education consulting. Recently, I partnered with my thespian husband to produce a play that was inspired through meetings with Australian Vietnam-War veterans and hearing about their experiences battling PTSD. The main character recalled an incredibly touching episode of reconciliation by his participation in the Australian Wandering Souls Project in which he returned objects collected from the battlefield to the mother of a Viet Cong fighter in Vietnam. It was a charity production and proceeds went towards bursaries helping veterans’ children studying at Bond University. My husband and I have also co-founded the Robina Literary Club which brings community creatives together to share poetry, prose and theatre. I think bonding with people and nurturing relationships are things I hold dear to my heart. In life, love is the main thing. I enjoy seeing the successes of other people, uplifting them, and I think there is nothing like education in seeing your students succeed. That gives me tremendous joy.

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