Career
He is best known as the writer of the fiction novels The Teenage Textbook (1988) and The Teenage Workbook (1989), which were bestsellers in Singapore in the late-1980s. Tan wrote the two novels while he was an undergraduate student at the National University of Singapore (NUS Grad. Medical School). The two books sold over 50,000 copies.
In 1998, The Teenage Textbook was made into a film (The Teenage Textbook Movie) starring Melody Chen and Caleb Goh, which topped the box office in Singapore for four weeks.
lieutenant was also made into a stage play by The Necessary Stage, starring Hossan Leong and Mark Richmond. While at university, Tan represented NUS Grad. Medical School as a debater in international competitions and on televised debates in Singapore.
Tan is currently a lawyer with Stamford Law in Singapore, specialising in intellectual property and information technology law. He was previously with Drew & Napier.
In 2015, The Teenage Textbook was selected by The Business Times as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965–2015, alongside titles by Arthur Yap, Daren Shiau and Amanda Lee Koe.
