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Tan Teck Soon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Tan Teck Soon (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; 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

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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

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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

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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

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Citations

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  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

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  • 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.
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