Tan Kim Seng

Tan Kim Seng Fountain in Esplanade Park (2006)

Tan Kim Seng ( Chinese  陈金声 , Pinyin Chén Sheng Jin , PEH OE jī Tan Kim-seng ; * 1805 in Malacca , † 1864 ) was a prominent Peranakan - businessman , entrepreneur , lawyer and philanthropist in Singapore during the 19th century .

Career

Tan Kim Seng was born in 1805 as the son of Tan Swee Poh ( Chinese  陳 瑞布 , Pinyin Chén Ruìbù ) in Malacca on the Malay Peninsula , which at that time was still largely under Dutch control. He was the grandson of Tan Sin Liew ( Chinese  陳 臣 留 , Pinyin Chén Chénliú ), one of the first settlers in Malacca. Nothing is known about his youth. Tan came to Singapore where he worked as a trader. In 1840 he founded his company, Kim Seng and Company, with which he amassed a great fortune during his lifetime.

In order to improve public welfare, he financed a China Free School, supported the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and improved the public water supply in Singapore. Tan donated heavily to build and maintain a school for boys, better known as the Chui Eng Institute ( Chinese  萃 英 書院 , Pinyin Cuìyīng Shūyuàn ). Hokkien was taught at the school from the start . It was one of the best schools of its time. In 1857 he donated $ 13,000  to build Singapore's first public hydropower plant to improve the city's freshwater supply. In memory of this donation, the Tan Kim Seng Fountain was built by the Municipal Commissioners. However, at the time the donation was wasted by a government engineer who assumed that the water would flow uphill through the aqueducts. The fountain was originally installed in Fullerton Square in 1882 . In 1905 the location of the fountain was moved to Battery Road and in 1925 to Esplanade Park , where the fountain still stands today.

Tan was the first magistrate of Chinese descent in Singapore. He was a recognized Chinese leader in Singapore and Malacca. After the death of his father in 1850 he became a justice of the peace. In 1857 he was appointed to the Municipal Commission as the first Asian. His numerous contributions to society include his participation in the suppression of the Hokkien-Teochew riots in 1854, which prevailed between the communities of the Hoklo (Hokkien) and the Teochew Chinese.

Tan also gave lavish parties to which Europeans, as well as other prominent members of Singapore society, regardless of race, were invited. A European guest who attended his first ball said the following about the festival:

“It was a chaos of dainties, each more tempting than the other. All the fruits of the Indian Archipelago, of India, China and the West - some in their natural state, others exquisitely preserved - were piled around us. ”

“It was a jumble of delicacies, each more seductive than the other. All the fruits of the Indonesian Archipelago , India, China and the West - some in their natural state, others exquisitely prepared - were piled around us. "

legacy

Tan had a road built in the River Valley that still bears his name today - Kim Seng Road . That street ran through Tan's estate. The Jiak Kim Street and Jiak Chuan Road were (after two of its prominent grandson, Tan Kim Jiak Chinese  若錦陳 , Pinyin Chén Ruòjǐn ) and Tan Jiak Chuan ( Chinese  若陳銓 , Pinyin Chén Ruòquán ), named. Kim Seng Road is known by the Hokkiens as hong hin lo ( English : "Hong Hin Street"). "Hong Hin" was the name of Tan's official stamp .

One of the last remaining properties of the Tan family in the area was the Panglima Prang ( Fleet Admiral ) house on River Valley Road . It was Tan Jiak Kim's early home. The house was built in the 1860s and demolished in 1982.

The Kim Seng Bridge over the Singapore River , which is part of Kim Seng Road and connects River Valley Road with Havelock Road , was built by Tan first. It was named after him. The cost of building the original bridge, as well as another one built in Malacca in 1862, bearing his name and opened by the Governor of the Straits Settlement William Orfeur Cavenagh , was borne by Tan. The bridge was renewed between 1950 and 1951.

literature

• Victor R Savage, Brenda SA Yeoh: Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, 2003, ISBN 981-210-205-1
• Lee Geok Boi: The Religious Monuments of Singapore, Landmark Books, 2002, ISBN 981-3065-62-1

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hokkien-Teochew Riots , National Library Board Singapore
2. ↑ Victor R. Savage; Brenda Yeoh: Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd 2013: 215. ISBN 9814484741 , 9789814484749

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Tan is the family name here, Kim Seng is the first name.