Tan Teck Soon

Tan Teck Soon
Traditional Chinese陳德順
Simplified Chinese陈德顺
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChén Déshùn
Southern Min
Hokkien POJTân Tek-sūn

Tan Teck Soon (simplified Chinese: 陈德顺; traditional Chinese: 陳德順; pinyin: Chén Déshùn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Tek-sūn; 1859 – 25 November 1922) was a Chinese intellectual and writer active in Singapore. He was the son of missionary Tan See Boo.

Early life

Tan was born in 1859 in Singapore. His father was Chinese missionary Tan See Boo. His mother, Yeo Geok Neo, was an alumna of the Chinese Girls' School.[1] Tan attended Raffles Institution and was particularly proficient in Chinese studies.[2] As a teenager, Tan often helped his father to translate his letters to overseas missionaries from Chinese to English.[3] In 1873, he became the first Straits Chinese recipient of the Guthrie Scholarship for Chinese boys, which allowed him to further his studies at the Anglo-Chinese College in Xiamen, China.[2]

Career

After completing his further studies, Tan returned to Singapore to work as a civil servant. He subsequently joined the private sector, serving as part of Kim Ching & Co's consulate in Thailand.[2] Tan was also an active member of the Singapore Chinese Educational Institute, the Straits Chinese Christian Association, the Anti-Opium League, and the Chinese Philomathic Society.[4]

In 1893, Tan co-founded the Straits Philosophical Society, whose membership was limited to 15 and required one to be of "distinguished merit", a university graduate, or a member of a European learned society; alongside Lim Boon Keng, who was admitted into the society in 1895, Tan was one of its two Chinese members.[4] In 1894, Tan and Presbyterian minister Archibald Lamont purchased the Daily Advertiser, which Tan had been the editor of since 1890. Tan also co-authored a book on Chinese expatriates in Singapore, titled Bright Celestials: The Chinaman at Home and Abroad (1894), with Lamont.[4]

Tan frequently wrote for the Straits Chinese Magazine, a quarterly journal that ran from 1897 to 1907. In 1898, together with Lim Boon Keng and Chinese scholar Khoo Seok Wan, Tan established the Chinese-language newspaper Thien Nan Shin Pao; he served as its general manager from 1898 to 1905.[5]

Later years

Tan withdrew from public life in his later years.[6] He became increasingly drawn to Buddhism and was a supporter of the Maha Bodhi Society founded by Sri Lankan revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala.[7] Tan died on 25 November 1922 at the age of 63.[8]

References

Citations

  1. ^ White 2017, p. 104.
  2. ^ a b c Doran 2006, p. 50.
  3. ^ DeBernardi 2020, p. 181.
  4. ^ a b c Doran 2006, p. 51.
  5. ^ Doran 2006, p. 52.
  6. ^ Isakhan 2015, p. 262.
  7. ^ Turner, Cox & Bocking 2020, p. 117.
  8. ^ Doran 2006, p. 63.

Works cited

  • DeBernardi, Jean (2020). Christian Circulations: Global Christianity and the Local Church in Penang and Singapore, 1819–2000. NUS Press. ISBN 9789813251090.
  • Doran, Christine (2006). "Bright Celestial: Progress in the Political Thought of Tan Teck Soon". Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 21 (1): 46–67. doi:10.1353/soj.2006.0003. JSTOR 41308064.
  • Isakhan, Benjamin (2015). The Edinburgh Companion to the History of Democracy. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748653683.
  • Turner, Alicia; Cox, Laurence; Bocking, Brian (2020). The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk who Faced Down the British Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190073084.
  • White, Chris (2017). Sacred Webs: The Social Lives and Networks of Minnan Protestants, 1840s–1920s. BRILL. ISBN 9789004339170.