One Lady's Legacy

Betty Chen is many things: a devoted family woman, a loyal friend and a lifelong philanthropist who served as president of Singapore's Chinese Women's Association for 26 years. The nongenarian, who will turn 96 next month, imparts lessons on life and tells us how she stays young at heart

- Coco Marett

Betty Chen has an incredible presence. She commands the room effortlessly and those in her orbit can’t seem to help but fawn over her—openly admiring everything from her immaculately coiffed hair to her infectious smile, and basking in her confident, calming aura.

She is, in every sense of the word, a true matriarch—both a mother and a powerful leader. Think a real‑life Shang Su Yi, the revered grandmother, or ah ma, in Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians. And yet, Chen is strikingly relatable.

It is lunchtime when she arrives on set for this photo shoot. While we are used to extravagant requests here at Tatler, Chen’s lunch order is refreshingly simple: an egg and avocado croissant sandwich. After lunch, she enjoys being pampered: getting her hair and make‑up done, and her nails painted in a brilliant red hue. She reveals that today is the first time in a long while—years, even—that she has left the house without make‑up.

Chen is a girls’ girl and always has been—from a youth spent in some of the world’s most prestigious girls’ schools (Raffles Girls’ School in Singapore and Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne, Australia) to spending her life surrounded by women and focused on bettering their circumstances. She has dedicated much of her life to the Chinese Women’s Association (CWA) in Singapore, for whom she has helped to raise millions of dollars over the years.