Lim Boon Keng
| Dr. Lim Boon Keng OBE | |
|---|---|
|
Lim Boon Keng | |
| Native name | 林文慶 |
| Born |
18 October 1868 Penang, Malaya |
| Died |
1 January 1957 (aged 88) Singapore |
| Resting place | Bidadari Cemetery |
| Other names | Lin Wenqing |
| Education | MBBS (Hons) |
| Alma mater | Edinburgh University |
| Occupation | Physician, social activist |
| Known for | Promoting social and educational reforms in Singapore |
| Spouse(s) |
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| Children |
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| Parent(s) | Father: Lim Thean Geow (林天堯) |
| Lim Boon Keng | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 林文慶 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 林文庆 | ||||||||||
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Lim Boon Keng (18 October 1868 – 1 January 1957), OBE, was a Chinese physician who promoted social and educational reforms in Singapore in the early 20th century. He was of Peranakan descent, with ancestry from Haicheng Town, Longhai City, Fujian Province.
Early life
Lim was born as the third generation of a Peranakan family in Penang, British Malaya. He moved to Singapore with his father, Lim Thean Geow, and the rest of his family when he was young. He studied at Raffles Institution in Singapore. However, the death of his parents during his childhood inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. In 1887, Lim became the first Malayan to receive a Queen's Scholarship. He gained admission to Edinburgh University and graduated in 1892 with a first class honours degree in medicine.[1]
Career
In 1895, Lim became a member of the British Legislative Council in Singapore. The following year, he headed a Commission of Inquiry into the sources of poverty in Singapore. He was also a Justice of the Peace and a member of the Chinese Advisory Board.
Lim founded the Philomatic society and published the first Chinese-language magazine in the Straits Settlements in 1897. In the same year, he also campaigned against the wearing of queues among Chinese men, with the intention of toppling the Qing dynasty in China.
In 1899, Lim co-founded the Singapore Chinese Girls' School (SCGS) with his friend, Song Ong Siang, to facilitate the education of Chinese women living in the Straits Settlements. (Chinese girls were not encouraged to be educated before the 20th century, thus many were illiterate.) The next year, Lim founded the Straits Chinese British Association, and later became its president.
As a member of the Legislative Council, Lim wanted opium banned so he formed the Anti-Opium Society. However, opium was not banned until 1943 during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. The British reasoned that imposing a ban on opium would mean that the government would lose a source of income from the tax on opium. To make up for the loss, the British governor suggested taxing the people's incomes. The main group that would be affected by this tax would be the merchants. Therefore, the European and Asian merchants opposed to this, and opium was not banned, although heavier taxes on opium were imposed.[2]
Lim was created an officer of the Order of the British Empire on 12 March 1918 (backdated to 1 January 1918) for his services as an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements.[3]
Together with Lim Nee Soon, Lim co-founded OAC Insurance in 1920. OAC was the first locally owned insurance company to be set up in Singapore. The following year in June, upon the request of Sun Yat-sen, Lim served as the second president of Xiamen University, until the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937. The university was founded by Lim's friend, Tan Kah Kee.
Lim later went into banking, and co-founded the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC).[4]
As the president of Xiamen University, Lim published the Li Sao, also known as An Elegy on Encountering Sorrows.
In 1937, Lim founded the Straits Chinese China Relief Fund Committee of Singapore to support China in its war efforts against Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
President of OCA
In 1942, Lim's family were interned at a Japanese concentration camp at Arab Street. According to Shinozaki Mamoru, Lim was in a state that he was so shocked that his voice was inaudible. However, with Shinozaki's help, Lim was able to get home by using Shinozaki's protection cards.
Lim was asked by the Japanese to become the leader of the Overseas Chinese Association (OCA), an association which was designated to serve the needs of the local Chinese community under the approval of the Japanese. In response, Lim refused, claiming that he was too old to take up the role of a president. Lim's wife was then made to kneel down under the scorching sun for four hours at a stretch, in addition to bearing other insults. After Shinozaki persuaded him, telling him that Lim's position as president was merely to be a figurehead without needing to do much work, Lim finally relented.
In March 1942, Lim was ordered by the Japanese to raise a "donation" of 50 million straits dollars for Japan. However, only 28 million dollars were raised with much difficulty. In response to the anger of the Japanese, Lim made an emotional speech:
"We never told a lie. When we promised to give the military contribution, we mean to do it. Financial conditions are now such as to be beyond our control. If we are unable to pay, then die we will. I wish to point out, however, that the manner in which the Government raise this military contribution is without any parallel in any country."
In the end, the Japanese agreed to a loan for the remaining sum through the Yokohama Specie Bank.
Lim also supervised the construction of the Endau settlement in 1944. In view of Singapore's inability to feed its large population, it was meant to be a place for local citizens to migrate to.
Known as the grand old man of the Singaporean Chinese community, during the Japanese occupation, Lim feigned a drunken stupor rather than cooperate with the Japanese.[5]
Later life
Lim led his remaining years in recluse in Singapore as an ordinary citizen. He died on 1 January 1957, two months after his 88th birthday.[6] and was buried at Bidadari Cemetery in Singapore.
Family
Lim married twice. His first marriage was to Margaret Huang (黃端瓊; Huáng Duānqióng) in 1896 at a Presbyterian Church, and they had four sons: Robert Kho-Seng, Francis Kho-Beng, Walter Kho-Leng and John Kho-Liau. However, Lim's wife died in 1905.
Lim remarried in 1908, to Grace Yin (殷碧霞; Yīn Bìxiá). They had one son, Peng Han, who later became a race car driver and the first Chinese person to race in Brooklands in the United Kingdom. They also had a daughter, Ena Guat-Kheng. Lim also had another son, Peng Thiam, with Chui Geok, a niece of one of Lim's wives, probably out of wedlock.
Legacy
The area now known as Boon Keng, including Boon Keng MRT Station, Boon Keng Road and Upper Boon Keng Road are named after Lim.
References
- ↑ "Lim Boon Keng". National Library Board. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
- ↑ "Background of Lim Boon Keng". Retrieved 8 January 2015.
- ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30576. p. 3287. 12 March 1918.
- ↑ Oon, Clarissa (7 April 2008). "Nanyang gentleman caught between two different worlds". Singapore: Straits Times.
- ↑ "Healer, educator and social reformer, Lim Boon Keng (born 1869 – died 1957)". Retrieved 8 January 2015.
- ↑ "Talk: Lim Boon Keng- A Life to Remember. 1869-1957". Singapore Heritage Society. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
Bibliography
- Cook, John Angus Bethune, Sunny Singapore: An account of the place and its people, with a sketch of the results of missionary work, E. Stock, 1907
- Doran, Christine, The Chinese Origins of Democracy: Dynamic Confucianism in Singapore., Nebula, 2010
- Frost, Mark Ravinder, Singapore: A Biography, Singapore, 2009.
- Frost, Mark Ravinder, Transcultural Diaspora: The Straits Chinese in Singapore, 1819–1918, NUS ARI Working Papers, 2003.