Ancestry Run V8.0

Ode to my Great Great  Great Grand Father
My Great Great Great Grand Father's Tomb!
I stand before him, silent, in respect and awe.
His genes embedded in every cell of mine,
We are bonded though the course of time.

My Great Great Great Grand Father's Tomb!
I sit beside him, sunlight streaming through the trees.
I sense inner warmth and joy sublime:
Habitat Heritage History entwine.

My Great Great  Great Grand Father's Tomb!
The white stakes declare a restless future:
His eyeless sockets shedding copious tears-
That eight lane highway: unspoken fears!

My Great Great Great Grand Father's Tomb!
"Could you not beg them to let us rest in peace?"
His silenced tongue in eloquence loudly says :
His bony hands grasp me in one last fond embrace.


TAN- SEOW-LIM
Family Connection scattered over various blocks in Bukit Brown.
The tomb stops include :
Tan Kim Ching, GGGGF (Great Great Great Great Grand Father)
(neighbour to Cheang Hong Lim )
Yeo Buay Neo (Mrs Seow Watt Chye) GGM
Tan Boo Liat GGF
Mr & Mrs Lim Mah Peng GGGGF/M Mr & Mrs Lim Thean Geow GGGF/M      


Tan Kim Ching (陳金鐘) (1829 -1892. ) Tan Tock Seng’s eldest son. Recommended Anna Leonowens, as teacher for children of King Mongkut of Siam ( King Rama IV).

Buried in Changi, transferred to Bukit Brown (1940). One of Singapore’s earliest “diplomats” and much respected in the Siam court.
Tan Boo Liat, (1875-1934) built his home Golden Bell Mansion, 10 Pender Road on Mount Faber, naming it after his grandfather. He was a strong supporter of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and member of the Singapore T'ung Meng Hui along with Lim Boon Keng. In 1920 he was awarded the title Phra Anukul Sayamkich by the Siam court. Note “Kuo-Ming-Tang” rays on  his tomb.
Tan Boo Liat’s daughter Polly was the template for Emily of Emerald Hill, written by my sister Stella Kon ( nee Lim). To know that Polly was the niece of Lilian Tan Luck Neo and that Polly eventually married her aunt’s husband (Tan Boo Liat) 12 years her senior, when the aunt passed away is to understand some of the complex forces at play in “Emily”

Polly Tan (my Grandmother) is pictured here, aged 10 years. Lady with right arm on armrest is Mdm Yeo Buay Neo, my Great Grand Mother (Mrs Seow Chye Watt), mother of Seow Poh Leng: 

Polly at the piano while her husband Seow Poh Leng serenades. An alumnus of the Anglo Chinese School, he instituted a medal Seow Poh Leng Gold Medal in 1936 to be awarded to the top ACS boy at the Senior Cambridge/GCE “O” Level Examinations.

Lim Quins: Mr & Mrs Lim Mah Peng (Mdm Khoo),Mr & Mrs Lim Tean Gow (Mdm Su)
Md  Margaret Wong Tuan Keng (Mrs Lim Boon Keng V1.0) [Septuplet: plus two of
LBK’s sisters)


Lim Boon Keng (GGF) with Stella (my sister) and Mrs Lim Boon Keng V2.0, Grace Yin Pek Ha (GGM) with me on her lap.
Impetus for studying medicine was death of mother when he was 8 and father Lim Thean Gow when LBK was 17, from blood poisoning after razor cut: a dozen doctors resulting from this fatal cut!
Dr Lim Boon Keng
Dr Robert Kho Seng Lim, Dr Lim Peng Thiam
Dr Lim Kok Ann, Dr Lim Kok Kian, Dr Lim Kok Lian
Dr Michael Palmer, Dr Suzanne Low, Dr Lim Su Min, Dr Lim Su Chong
Dr Lim Min Yu, Dr Mark Kon

THE SAGE OF SINGAPORE [The Straits Times 22 October 1948 Page 4 ]
Straits Times interview by Roy Ferroa.
Of his 80 years of living, Dr.Lim says that his “happiest memories” are those of his school days, in particular  of his old headmaster Mr Hullet.
“The thing that makes me ever -mindful of dear Mr. Hullett is his word of advice given to me when I left school and was on my way to study in England.
Mr Hullett said: You are a Chinese going to the West.
Remember to respect yourself and do right. Never mind what other people, the rich and influential, may think of you. As long as you do right and remain right you will always be happy.

Mr. Hullet also told me “I advise you to keep a Bible by your side and read it whenever you have the time. The Bible is the basis of the English language.
This, Dr. Lim explained was the advice given him when he was still making headway with English literature and grammar.
Today 65 years after those words were uttered by his teacher, the pupil follows their precept. His Bible, slightly tattered and well worn, is in his hands when he walks about in his garden.
  The Bible has 66 books and one of them is written by a doctor. It is from the book written by Dr. Luke that I have chosen a passage to be read at my funeral. All of you are invited to my funereal. I don't have the date yet and I hope it doesn't happen soon.

But just as a preview, let me give you glimpse. In Chapter 16 verse 19-31 of Luke's book, we read of a parable told by Jesus of an unnamed rich man who was enjoying a life of luxury and a poor man named Lazarus who was longing to eat the scraps of food that fell from the rich man's table.
Lazarus dies and is bought by angels up to heaven.
Lazarus has a relationship with God that began while on earth, and this continues  on in heaven.
The rich man, however, failed to share of his abundance while on earth thus demonstrating his lack of relationship with God The Rich man dies and is brought to a place of eternal torment:
For the rest of the story you will have to attend my funeral, but one take home message is this: We need to be accountable for the gifts that we are given from above, and we need an ongoing relationship with the Giver.


“He died that we might live” was a clear message I heard as I was cleaning tomb of Great Great Grand Father Lim Thean Gow.  At first I thought the message was talking about Lim Thean Gow, but it did not quite make sense.

Only later, when we discovered the adjacent tomb of Great Grand Mother Margaret Huang, did I understand that voice I had heard must have came from her father (my Great Great Grand Father Pastor Huang Nai Shiong refering to no less than Jesus Christ.

Great Grand Ma Margaret

 

Page 236-237 of Sir Song Ong Sian's book One Hundred Years History of The Chinese in Singapore carries a photo and article about my great grandmother Margaret Huang.

"His (Lim Boon Keng's) first wife, whom he married in Decmber 1896 at the Presbytarian Church in Orchard Road, was the elder daughter of Mr. Wong Nai Siong, of Foo-chow.

She was a refined, enlightened and well educated gentlewoman. The experiences she had gained through her visits to England and America, prior to her marriage, enabled her to take a sympathetic and active interest in all the reform movements of this period, in which her husband played the chief role. When the Singapore Chinese Girls' School was founded in 1899, she undertook the task of giving the pupils lessons in Chinese twice a week. Belonging to the Wesleyan Methodist communion she occasionally worshiped at both the Methodist Episcopal Church in Coleman Street and the Princep Street Church and was greatly  liked and admired by her Chinese Christian friends. She died in 1905 leaving four sons, of whom the eldest is Roberst, who has just taken his degrees of M.B., B.Ch. at Edinburgh University. During the War, Robert served as a surgical dresser to the Indian Hospital at Netley, Hants. "

Foot note: 

Her 4 sons were 

Robert Kho Seng,

Walter Kho Leng

Francis Kho Beng and

John Kho Liau

Her excavated tomb is one of the "Lim Septuplet" at Bukit Brown

and marked by the unusual fallen cylinder

Cylinder Tombstone: GGM Margaret Huang

Bangkok- Tan Kim Ching Run

Counting the beads...

there should be 108 sandal wood beads: 

I counted 100....

Mooted over kopi at Ya Kun Central, this dream run became reality as Yeo Say Ann and I managed to get gracious Grand Aunt Siri to anchor this run.

This chart should put key players in their place...

TRIMMED GENEAOLOGY

1 Tan Tock Seng

2 Mdm Chua- Tan Kim Ching- Mdm Ying

3 Soon Toh  s/o Chua         Hay Leng s/o Ying   Choon Neo (Grandma Chun) d/o Ying

4 Boo Liat s/o SoonToh            Alice d/o HL                 Molee d/o Chun

5 Kenny & Polly c/o BL  Jackson s/o A - Rene w/o J     Woody s/o Molee - Siri w/o W

6 Sopha d/o K- Pong h/o Sopha   Rosie d/o Polly  Isabella  (4 months) d/o Jackson      

           

   7                                      Su Min s/o Rosie- Sing Yu w/o SM                                   .                         

   

Eight hard core Brownies were let into this secret and converged onto LubD Siam

P Siri presented Power Point with aplomb and grace.

(Aunty Sopha and Aruphong joined us for the Powerpoint.

In the evening they hosted dinner at Asiatic)

Siri  spent the whole day showing us around. We were safely driven in a 15 seater.

We visited Siam House, 591 Prasamen Road, originally of Tan Kim Ching: now still in the family: run as a wedding venue.

 We went to Ayutthaya, 100 miles north of Bangkok. Grandma Chun's house was donated to the Bhuddist college there and transported  whole....

Grandma Chun's transported house

We visited one ancient temple Watchai Watanaram  at Ayutthaya

I thought that the spires were reminiscent of some science fiction alien spaceship story....

Desperately hungry, we could not find a riverside restaurant: 

But this lady besides the Wat Chai Watanaram provided a meal for us.

Metal Temple

The Metal Temple (Lohat Prasad) was a quick photo op/ sketching opportunity.

The two mango trees

These two mango trees, now more than 100 years old, were there, shoulder high, when Grandma was a young girl. The location is 123 Petchburi Road. Grandma Chun's house was here, now translocated X100 miles North to Ayatthaya. A new set of houses were erected here: We examined the special beads:

Chaozhu were worn with court dress by nobles and higher officials, or by lesser officials for certain ceremonial occasions only. These court beads were status symbols but not actual indications of rank in the same manner as mandarin squares and hat finials. The choice of beads was left up to the individual except for the emperor, empress and dowager empress, who wore fresh water Manchurian pearls mandated by law for them alone.

The prototype of court beads is thought to be the rosaries used by Lama Buddhist monks of Tibet and Mongolia for counting repetitions of a prayer or mantra. (Cammann, 4:1979) In 1643, a year before the invasion of China, an envoy of the Dalai Lama presented the Manchu leader with a rosary.

The traditional rosary and the court beads which resemble them consist of 108 small counting beads, divided into four groups of twenty-seven by three large spacer beads called fotou (fo-t'ou), or "Buddha heads." The ends of the cord then pass through a vase or pagoda-shaped bead from which extends a silken ribbon, a flat, rectangular stone, sometimes in a metal frame, beiyun (pei-yun) and several more inches of ribbon culminating in a drop pendant, dazhui (ta-chui). This extension hangs down the wearer's back and acts as a counter-weight so the beads will be more evenly balanced between front and back and more comfortable to wear. Suspended from the back of the necklace are an additional three strands of ten beads each, jinian (chi-nien), ending with a drop pendant

And we were brought to the family bones room, to greet the ancestors. It was a special moment for me.

Dinner was at a fancy place: Asiatique, the "in" place: Half of Bangkok was there! Fusion food, live band etc. And crazy traffic jam.

Next day we had long farewell at Jim Thomson Cafe.

IN SUMMARY
Overwhelmed with graciousness of my Thai relatives
Touched by keen interest of Brownies on my family
Facinated to be part of the living heritage that is the legacy of Bukit Brown

Mr Seow Chye Watt and descendants

My Great Grand Father!

Mr Seow Chye Watt

Merchant

Rice Trader

Based in Singapore

Frequently travelled to Thailand

 I recently had kopi with my newly discovered cousin Hedy

Her grandma is my Koh Tengah aka Seow Guat Eng

We plan to meet again: She hoped to meet Gordon and John:

and I thought I would do a family tree search

 to see how many relatives I have who are descended from Seow Chye Watt:  

Turns out to be many more than I thought!!!

Obviously I have not kept the data up to date... WORK IN PROGRESS!

Labour Day Bush Bashing becomes Impromptu Tour

Fortified with a hearty Labour Day breakfast at Boomerang Cafe and

a serious cappuccino from Toby's Estate I was all ready for some serious bush bashing.

I got to the oval at Bukit Brown and got ready my barang barang. As I looked around for familiar faces and peeled my eyes, scanning the horizon for fallen trees I saw a family of 4 looking a bit lost.

As they wandered around looking even more "loster", I went up to them and asked "Are you here for a tour?"

"No" they replied.

"Do you have relatives here?" I asked.

"No" they replied.

So they were just vaguely interested in the place.

 I volunteered to bring them or a mini guided tour.

As they had a car we did an expanded route...

Tan Chor Nam, Tong MingHui connection

Mrs Seow Chye Watt aka Yeo Buay Neo (+ Seow Poh Quee, reference his wife Mdm Huang Shan Chiung and her father Rev Huang Nai Shong), Seow Poh Leng connection

Tan Kim Ching , ref his Changi tomb, 

       ref Anna and the King of Siam, 

       (+ Cheang Hong Lim, ref LBK trio)

Bangali Singh: Sikh guards at Chew Geok Leong's living tomb - Block 3 Division D

We chatted with voluble Tombkeeper Queenie, who says Magistrate Chew Geok Lan escaped from China to Singapore to avoid beheading. (Mrs Blackburn is Malaysian Chinese from Trengganu, Heng Hwa if I remember correctly, and understood more of the Queenie chat than I did)

Tan Boo Liat, ( Sun Yet San, KouMingTang connection)

and the Lim Quins, and the connection of Lim Boon Keng's wife Margaret Huang Tuan Keng, sister  to Mdm Huang Shan Chiung (wife of Seow Poh Quee.)

We ended at Tan Bin Ching.

They promised me copies of the photographs taken today and said they would be back.

Ms Blackburn, Mas Blackburn,                      Mrs Blackburn Mr Blackburn

Mr Blackburn is Ass Prof NIE, Humanities & Social Studies Education.

After that I did a wee bit of bush bashing between Tay Koh Yan & Fang Shan.

Tan Teck Guan Building

Video Clip Tan Teck Guan Building

Tan Teck Guan Building, located at 16A College Road, was built in 1911 to add to the existing facilities of the Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School (later known as King Edward VII College of Medicine). It underwent renovations in 1985 and was gazetted as a national monument on 2 December 2002.

History
The construction of Tan Teck Guan Building was funded by a $15,000 donation from Tan Chay Yan, a Chinese philanthropist in Malacca and one of the earliest rubber planters in British Malaya. The building was named after his father, who was the third son of Tan Tock Seng. It was officially opened on 23 June 1911 by then Acting Governor of the Straits Settlements, E. L. Brockman. It served as the medical school's administrative block and housed various offices, a library, a reading room, a lecture room and a pathology museum.

In 1926, when the building adjacent to it - today the College of Medicine Building - was built for the medical school, the Department of Anatomy took over Tan Teck Guan Building. In subsequent years, it also housed the electron microscope unit and the histology laboratory.

During World War II, the laboratory in the building was used by the Japanese to develop biological weapons.

Syonan (Singapore) HQ

Formed in 1942, by Ryoichi Naito, Unit 9420 had approximately 1,000 personnel based at the Raffles Medical University. The unit was commanded by Major General Kitagawa Masataka and supported by the Japanese Southern Army Headquarters.

There were two main sub units: the "Kono Unit", which specialized in malaria, and "Umeoka Unit", which dealt with the plague. In addition to disease experiments, this facility served as one of the main rat catching and processing centers.

The Oka 9420 Unit in Singapore

By Admin

by Chew Yong Jack

As a subordinate unit of the infamous Japanese biological warfare Unit 731, the Oka (岡inkanji or Steel) 9420 unit based in Singapore had been not much more than a mere footnote in history. In fact, in Daniel Barenblatt’s “Plague Upon Humanity” (Harper Collins, 2004), which got me acquainted to this little known factoid, it was merely mentioned that:

The [731] network ultimately included secret bases along the Russian border …. Singapore, the Philippines and New Guinea (p. 36).

and

[Ryoichi] Naito was himself a top university professor who had been director of the Unit 731 branch unit in Singapore, a civilian cohort of [Shiro] Ishii, with special expertise in the analysis of human blood (p. 47)

With the rather limited primary materials I had come by so far, I can make no claims of being able to shed much more light on the subject. However, a picture (incomplete and hazy as it doubtlessly is) can be pieced together of the inner-workings and operations of Oka 9420.

Origins

Ostensibly, Oka 9420 acted as a medical unit attached to the 25^th Japanese Army occupation force in Singapore. Its first traceable contribution to the Japanese military administration in Singapore was in the inaugural Gunsei Geppou (軍政月報) issued in March 1942 which contained a section warning of the dangers of an outbreak of para-typhus in Singapore. It is quite likely that the public health warnings posted by the military administration in the Syonan Times under the – with hindsight of course – whimsically titled “M.A.D Notices” (M.A.D being the unfortunate acronym for “Military Administration Department”) also involved inputs from Oka 9420.

Oka 9420’s facilities were located in the Singapore General Hospital as well as the College of Medicine Building area along College Road. According to former Minister for Social Affairs Mr Othman Wok - who was a lab assistant tasked to remove fleas from rats, the bubonic plague laboratory was situated in the Tan Teck Guan building (Straits Times, 19/09/1991).

Command Structure

Oral accounts by those who worked for Oka 9420 offer at most a hazy conception of its structure. Mr Othman Wok, who had trapped rats for the unit’s laboratories, mentioned that he was under two colonels and four senior privates (ibid). Mr Chelliah Thurairajah Retnam, a local volunteer of the British Royal Army Medical Corp before working for Oka 9420’s “Analyst Department”, mentioned reporting to a “Major Nato” (National Archives, Accession No 579).

Assuming that Mr Retnam had not mistakenly referred to Oka 9420’s director Ryoichi Naito, a civilian researcher, as “Major Nato”, it was quite likely that military personnel had resided in the middle tiers of the command structure. Sandwiching this group would be director Naito at the top and local staff members like Mr Retnam and Mr Othman Wok at the base.

It is not clear how many locals were in Oka 9420’s employ. Mr Retnam recalled that in the “Analyst Department” that he had worked for, there were about fifty to sixty local staff members – including future luminaries such as Eddie Barker (former Minister of Law) and Phay Seng Whatt (former Chairman, Public Service Commission). There were also an unknown number of those who worked on a part-time basis for specific assignments like rat catching. Mr Othman Wok estimated that about forty were involved in trapping rats for the unit (Straits Times, 19/09/1991).

Known Activities

Mr Othman Wok’s experience in working with Oka 9420 was possibly the most revealing of the sinister nature of the unit’s work here in Singapore. Responsible for picking fleas from rats, he also witnessed how the fleas were fed blood of rats infected by plague, as he described below:

Each flea was then put in a test-tube, which was inverted over a rat’s stomach which had been shaved [sic] of its fur. The flea then fed on the rat, which had been injected with plague serum (ibid).

During my face-to-face interview with Mr Othman Wok on 7 March 2006, he revealed that the “research team” was careful to dispose of the carcasses of infected rats. He said that he had learned from a driver assigned to the unit that the fleas bred as vectors for plague were transported to Thailand. At the time, Mr Othman Wok was unaware of the purpose of his work and it was not until after the war when he read that the Japanese “had bombed Chongqing with bottles of fleas”* that he realised the implications of his work for Oka 9420 (ibid).

When I asked him what happened to Oka 9420’s facilities at Singapore General Hospital after the Japanese surrendered, Mr Othman Wok said he had heard that the unit destroyed all evidence of its existence even before the surrender.

In contrast to Mr Othman Wok’s experience, Mr Retnam’s work with the “Analyst Department” was apparently far removed from Oka 9420’s more sinister activities. His work with the unit only included malaria prevention while he was in Singapore and the supplying and ensuring the sanitation of water for his assignment in Kachanaburi, Thailand. Unit 9420 had the necessary water filtration equipment and expertise to supply water to the worksite at River Kwai.

From Mr Retnam’s description, Oka 9420’s work was thus nothing more than the prevention of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid (National Archives, Accession No 579). The only experience common to both Mr Retnam and Mr Othman Wok was the physical abuse at the hands of rank-and-file Japanese soldiers who were typically high-handed and brusque in their treatment of locals.

However, it should be noted that the different experiences by both men actually illustrated themodus operandi of the Japanese biological warfare programme. After all, Ishii’s Unit 731 had as its official designation “Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Unit of the Kwantung Army”. Ishii himself had also made his mark in the Japanese army through his invention of a portable water filtration device for usage in the field (Barenblatt, 2004).

A Question to Ponder

One big question left unanswered could be whether Oka 9420 had restricted its activities in Singapore to sample collection, research and breeding of fleas as vectors.

Could Oka 9420 have used the initial chaos during the Japanese invasion of Malaya and Singapore as an opportunity to conduct field testing as it had done in China (where attacks were known to have been conducted in Ningbo, Zhejiang and Jiangsu)? Could the public health warning for infectious diseases issued under the “M.A.D. Notices” in fact be caused by such sinister activities?

Given these unanswered questions, this short write-up is but no more than a tiny scratch on the surface of a topic which deserves further study by historians and history enthusiasts more resourceful than myself. While I harbour no expectations that my write-up could lead to further research by others, I do hope that it can play a small part in generating greater awareness and interest in Oka 9420.

In 1982, it was decided that the medical school would move to the Kent Ridge campus, and the Ministry of Health (MOH) proposed to restore and renovate the College of Medicine Building. In August 1985, the Preservation of Monuments Board recommended that Tan Teck Guan Building be preserved too. Both buildings were then renovated at a cost of S$14.4 million. When it was officially re-opened on 14 August 1987, Tan Teck Guan Building was occupied by MOH, the Academy of Medicine and the College of General Practitioners.

Description
An architect by the name of Draper designed the two-storey building with a Georgian façade and neo-classical details. Its main entrance has an ornate archway supported by Doric columns. The upper level of the building has Ionic columns.

It was originally made mainly from timber trusses, floors and joists that sat on brick. However, much of the timber was badly infested with termites by the time of the building’s renovation in 1985 and had to be replaced with steel structures. Similarly, the timber window frames were replaced with new matching wooden frames. The roof tiles were also replaced with matching new ones from France. While the building’s internal granite staircase and balustrade were retained, two brick walls were removed to allow for flexible office installation.

(In 1912 the medical school received a large donation $120,000 from the King Edward VII Memorial end started by Dr Lim Boon Keng)

Tan Kim Ching Property Sale

Choose your language:  English |  中文(简体) |  Bahasa Melayu

The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), 22 November 1913, Page 9

PROPERTY SALE.

The Straits Times, 11 December 1913, Page 9

Page 9 Advertisements Column 1

Two ladies GGGM & GGGGM

Wuying Ho Yi (aka Wong Ho Yi aka Mrs Tan Soon Toh.) my Great Great Grand Mother

Mdm Chua (aka Mrs Tan Kim Ching) My Great Great Great Grand Mother

(Addendum 25 Jan 2014; Raymond Goh Darren Koh, 

Thanks for putting a name to the face!

My great great grand mother I have only known as Wuying Yi Ho.

Now I learn Mrs Tan Soon Toh actually name would 織理 Zi Li (posthumous name : Yi Ho). 

織理 in cantonese would be jik leih.   Weave reasons..

And we learn that Wuing Boon Whatt was buried at Jln Novena and exhumed.)

Mother -in-law and daughter in law

lie side by side in a tomb at outram hill

tomb erected 1882..

There are two female names here.

The name in the centre is the Chua Xiao Hui the wife of Tan Kim Cheng. 

Family records her name as Chua Seah Neo (aka Yee Ren aka Ee Jin)

She is the daughter of the descendant of Malacca famous personality Chua Yan Keng.

Chua Yan Keng himself was son of Chua Chong Kiat.

She has 3 sons, the 2nd is Tan Soon Toh (1853 - 1892). 3 daughters, and 7 grandchildren.

The female name on the left is Wong Yi Ho. She is the wife of Tan Soon Toh and is the daughter of lawyer Wong Boon Fah. 

(Soon Toh married Wuing Yi Ho, the daughter of Wuing Boon Whatt who according to Song Ong Siang, was the first Chinese in Singapore to practice law) the family name is recorded as "Wuing" Su Min's guess it was a dialect pronunciation.

She has 5 boys listed on the grave. (Tan Soon Toh has a 2nd wife Seow Lin Neo who died in 1926)

There are 3 wells in front of this grave. 2 wells are half wells, meaning half is closed, half is filled with water. The 3rd well is completely closed.



It is believed that the purpose of the half wells is to tap the dragon spirit.
The closed well is to prevent the dragon spirit from escaping.

 

The hill spirit stands  as guardian for the tomb

Four Chi-lin flank the forecourt .

The Qilin (Chinese: 麒麟; pinyin: qílín; Wade–Giles: ch'i-lin) is a mythical hooved Chinese chimerical creature known throughout variousEast Asian cultures, and is said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a wise sage or an illustrious ruler. It is a good omen that brings rui (Chinese: 瑞; pinyin: ruì; roughly translated as "serenity" or "prosperity"). It is often depicted with what looks like fire all over its body. It is sometimes misleadingly called the "Chinese unicorn" due to conflation with the unicorn by Westerners.

Origins

The earliest references to the Qilin are in the 5th century BC book Zuo Zhuan.The Qilin made appearances in a variety of subsequent Chinese works of history and fiction. The word Qilin is derived from the Somali word Geri, which means Giraffe.

In legend, the Qilin became tiger-like after their disappearance in real life and become a stylised representation of the giraffe in Ming Dynasty. The identification of the Qilin with giraffes began after Zheng He's voyage to East Africa (landing, among other places, in modern-day Somalia). The Ming Dynasty bought Giraffes from the Somali merchants along with Zebras, incense and other various exotic animals. Zheng He's fleet brought back two giraffes to Nanjing, and they were referred to as "Qilins". The Emperor proclaimed the giraffes magical creatures, whose capture signalled the greatness of his power.

The identification between the Qilin and the giraffe is supported by some attributes of the Qilin, including its vegetarian and quiet nature. Its reputed ability to "walk on grass without disturbing it" may be related to the giraffe's long, thin legs. Also the Qilin is described as having antlers like a deer and scales like a dragon or fish; since the giraffe has horn-like "ossicones" on its head and a tessellated coat pattern that looks like scales it is easy to draw an analogy between the two creatures. 

It is unlikely that giraffes and Qilin were regarded as the same creature in pre-modern times however. For example, typical depictions of the Qilin have much shorter necks than giraffes.

[edit]Description

A qilin from the spirit way of the Emperor Wu of the Liu Song Dynasty (ca. 422)

There are many different ways Qilin have been described. Some think of them as a rare form of unicorn; others have described it as a creature that has the head of a dragon and a body of tiger with scales. Others see it as a creature with a single horn on its forehead, a multicolored back, the hooves of a horse, the body of a deer, and with the tail of an ox.

Although it looks fearsome, the Qilin only punishes the wicked. It can walk on grass yet not trample the blades, and it can also walk on water. As it is a peaceful creature, its diet does not include flesh. It takes great care when it walks never to harm or tread on any living thing, and it is said to appear only in areas ruled by a wise and benevolent leader (some say even if this area is only a house). It is normally gentle but can become fierce if a pure person is threatened by a sinner, spouting flames from its mouth and exercising other fearsome powers that vary from story to story.

Legends tell that the Qilin has appeared in the garden of the legendary Huangdi and in the capital of Emperor Yao. Both events bore testimony to the benevolent nature of the rulers. It's been told in legends that the birth of the great sage Confucius was foretold by the arrival of a Qilin.

Some stories state that the Qilin is a sacred pet (or familiar) of the deities. Therefore, in the hierarchy of dances performed by the Chinese (Lion Dance, Dragon Dance, etc.), the Qilin ranks highly; third only to the Dragon and Phoenix who are the highest.

In the Qilin Dance, movements are characterised by fast, powerful strokes of the head. The Qilin Dance is often regarded as a hard dance to perform due to the weight of the head, stances and the emphasis on "fǎ jìn" (Chinese: 法勁) — outbursts of strength/power/energy.

Qilin are thought to be a symbol of good omens, protection, prosperity, success, and longevity by the Chinese.


Variations




A Qilin in the dragon, fish, and ox style of the Ming Dynasty. Note the pair of horns.

A Qing Dynasty qilin-shaped incense burner













There are variations in the appearance of the qilin, even in historical China, owing to cultural differences between dynasties and regions.

In the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) of China the Qilin is represented as an oxen-hooved animal with a dragon-like head surmounted by a pair of horns and flame-like head ornaments.

The Qilin of China's subsequent Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911) is a fanciful animal. Depictions of the Qilin show a creature with the head of a dragon, the antlers of a deer, the skin and scales of a fish, the hooves of an ox and tail of a lion.

Mrs Wuing Boon Whatt GGGGM Teo Cheok Neo

Found a link that names Mrs Wuing Boot Whatt
Mr Wuing Boot Whatt is GGGGF

She is Teo Cheok Neo, mother of Wuying Ho Yi (aka Wong Ho Yi aka Mrs Tan Soon Toh.)

She is my Great Great Grand Mother
GGGGM

The Straits Times, 17 October 1883, Page 21 Advertisements Column 1

 

 

My great great grand father Pastor Wong Nai Siong

黄乃裳 

1849- 1924

In 1901 Pastor Wong Nai Siong (Huang Naishang) led the first batch of Foochow Christians from China to Sibu to open up the fertile lands of Sibu for cultivation, a

 massive opening up of Sibu. This was a landmark year in the history of the development of Sibu.

Pastor Wong Nai Siong came to Singapore in September 1899. From there, he proceeded to West Malaysia, Sumatra and the Dutch East Indies. For six months he explored the places but failed to find a suitable place for the immigration and settlement of his folks in China. In April 1900, Mr. Wong Nai Siong came to Sarawak and got the approval of the Sarawak Rajah to look for a suitable site for Chinese immigrants.

Pastor Wong explored the lower valley and upper reaches of the Rajang River. He soon discovered that the Rajang Delta was very fertile and particularly suitable for cultivation. So he decided to choose the area for opening up for cultivation. With that decision, Mr. Wong went to see the second Rajah of Sarawak, Rajah Charles Brooke, for discussions regarding the matter of opening up of land for cultivation. In those days of the Rajahs, Sarawak was sparsely populated with vast land yet to be developed, Pastor Wong's plan was timely and very much appreciated.

So, when Pastor Wong Nai Siong went to see Sir Charles Brooke and explained to him his plan to lead large groups of Foochows to open up Sibu for cultivation, the Rajah immediately agreed. Both parties signed an agreement.^[4]

Huang Naishang    

was born in 1844 to a poor family in a small town of Minqing County west of Fuzhou in the province of Fujian. His father, Huang Qingbo, was a carpenter who also tilled the land. Huang came into contact with missionaries from the American Methodist Episcopal church in 1861 and was baptized as a Christian convert on 16 December 1866. He then proceeded to travel with Reverend Xu Yangmei on his preaching circuit for the next two years, at which point he was granted a probationary preacher’s license, and continued in ministry until 1872.

                                  

The Chinese immigrants came in three batches. The first batch consisted of 72 people, the second batch 535, and the third batch 511, totalling 1118 people. Of the total, 130 brought their spouses and families, while the others were bachelors. After working in Sibu, nearly all the immigrants chose to settle down and made Sibu their new home. They were happy to settle down for a brighter future in Sibu.

From that year, Huang began to help the missionaries with translation and literary work, since he had received a basic education in the Confucian classics and wrote well. Apart from helping to translate the Bible, from 1874 Huang became the key helper with a Chinese newspaper the missionaries started that year called Zion’s Messenger (Huanshan shizhe yuebao). Huang used the newspaper as a platform to write articles advocating a number of modern reforms. His was one of the first Chinese voices to call for using vaccinations against smallpox, as well as for putting an end to the practice of foot-binding. In addition, he was a strong advocate of mission education who favored instruction in English so that Chinese Christians could tap into Western knowledge and the field of commerce. Education of women was part of his vision and he established two private schools, one 1873 and the other in 1885, to educate his own children, including his daughters.

Starting from the early 1870s, Huang decided to prepare for China’s traditional civil service examinations. He chose this course because he saw the numerous conflicts that Chinese Christians experienced with local society and how they were discriminated against and marginalized by local gentry. Huang believed that if there were Christians who were members of the gentry it would improve the situation. He studied hard and in 1877 obtained the basic shengyuan degree, which was followed in 1894 by the much more difficult juren degree. This was quite an achievement, given the stiff competition for degrees in the latter part of the Qing dynasty. When Huang traveled to Beijing in 1895 to take exams for the highest level jinshi degree (which he never obtained), the Sino-Japanese War was underway, and he suffered the pain both of China’s defeat and the loss of his younger brother, who was a sailor in the navy. Huang then joined other scholars in Beijing in support of Kang Youwei and his call for China to reject a peace treaty with Japan and to immediately seek ways to strengthen the nation.

Upon returning to Fujian, and in light of the dangers facing his country, Huang decided to leave his work at the Methodist Episcopal mission and instead seek to promote a Christianized China through political and educational reform. To this end, in 1896 he used his own funds to launch a secular Chinese newspaper called Fubao, which was the first newspaper started by a Chinese in Fujian. It was a two-page paper published twice a week and it advocated adoption of such reforms as a parliamentary system and a free press. However, after a year he had to shut the paper down because it was losing money.

Three years later, Huang was in Beijing again to take the jinshi exams when the 100 Hundred Day Reform movement led by Kang Youwei started. He not only actively supported this, but through a friend from Fujian who was very close to Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, he became directly connected with the leaders of the movement. He himself submitted eight petitions to the Guangxu Emperor, one of which recommended adopting pinyin to help with the study of Chinese characters. However, when the reform movement met with a conservative backlash and some of its leaders were arrested and executed by the government, Huang was forced to flee quickly to Fujian, since he was number eleven on the most wanted list.
Shortly thereafter, Huang decided to start a new settlement of Chinese in Malaysia in order to escape China’s despotism and Fujian’s poverty. While in Singapore considering where he might establish such a colony, Huang met Sun Yatsen and the two soon became good friends. Huang’s translation into Chinese of a book on American history won Sun’s respect, and Huang admired Sun’s democratic ideals and commitment to Christianity. In 1901, Huang traveled with settlers from Fujian to Sibu, where he founded New Fuzhou. Before long New Fuzhou had a population of over one thousand Chinese, two-thirds of them Christians. Huang spent the next three years attending to myriad administrative tasks needed to get the community established. Unexpectedly, in 1904 he returned to Fujian, in part because his administration of the settlement did not generate enough profit to satisfy the local ruler who had supplied the land.

Back in Fujian, Huang founded the Fujian Daily News and was a leader of Fujian activities during the nation-wide anti-American boycott of 1905, which protested the adoption of exclusion laws by the United States preventing Chinese laborers from entering the country. While he avoided harsh anti-foreignism, Huang did not hesitate to strongly and publicly condemn the American policy.

By this time, Huang had also shifted his political views from favoring reform, as he had in 1898, to supporting revolution. Young J. Allen, the missionary editor of the influential Chinese language Globe Magazine in Shanghai, was a key person in convincing Huang that support for revolution was a legitimate Christian position. Huang then began to distribute tracts calling for revolution and became an active supporter of Sun Yat-sen, sending information on revolutionary activities in Fujian to Sun’s agents in Singapore, who then reported it to Sun in Tokyo. Huang joined Sun’s Revolutionary Alliance in 1906 and was a key figure in planning the Huang Gang uprising and recruiting many of those who participated in it.

From 1907 to 1911, Huang focused primarily on promoting educational reform by founding 34 Chinese secondary schools in the Min County region of Fujian, which he made sure taught Western subjects and inculcated nationalism. Also, in 1909 he was elected to the Fujian Provincial Assembly, which was part of the constitutional reform program that the Qing government had been forced to adopt. Huang became one of the leading members of the legislative body and he proposed numerous reforms, for instance to ensure better use of Fujian’s natural resources, to counter opium and gambling, and to introduce penal reform.

In 1911, after the 1910 Wuhan Uprising began to unravel Qing rule in China, Huang began to spread revolutionary ideology among students at the Methodist Anglo-Chinese Academy in Fuzhou, where he was Dean. In addition, he established the Fuzhou Qiaonan Physical Training Society as a front for the Fujian Revolutionary Alliance where it could train the students who joined the movement. On the 9th and 10th of November 1911, Huang and the Fujian Alliance fought against and defeated the Imperial Army in Fuzhou with the help of these students, and thus brought Qing rule in the province to an end. As a supporter of Sun, Huang was appointed head of the Board of Communications for the provisional Fujian government in November 1911, but his high-level public service soon came to an end when Yuan Shikai deposed all Sun’s supporters in September 1912.

Huang spent his remaining years engaged in various community projects, serving as head of the Board of Trustees for the Fuzhou YMCA, helping to edit a political newspaper, and being sought out as an adviser to government officials. He held his Christian faith to the end. As he lay on his deathbed, he asked his wife to hold up a picture of Christ for him to see, and asked that the picture be laid on his chest as he died on 22 September 1924.
Huang Naishang was one of the most influential and impressive Chinese Protestants of the Imperial era. His experience in ministry and his two decades assisting missionaries in literary work instilled in him a strong faith and an informed Christian worldview, as well as a familiarity with modern knowledge. His Confucian upbringing and success in the civil service examinations were extremely rare for Chinese Christians at the time and allowed him to have significant social influence. Huang used this influence to seek the reform and Christianization of Chinese society through educational and political change. He described his motivation to do these things as Christian altruism, which combined Christian notions of personal sacrifice for the benefit of others with Confucian ideals of public service. Huang’s many years of ministry and community involvement touched numerous lives and did much to enhance the credibility of the church and of Christianity in China.

Three daughter of 黄乃裳:

1) 黄端琼 Margaret Wong Tuan Keng married to Lim Boon Keng
2) 黄淑琼 Ruth Huang Shu-Chiung married to Wu Lien-Teh
3) 黄珊琼 Huang Shan-Chiung married to Seow Poh Quee