Guided walk to Hill 4 :Report by Catherine

14 October, 2023

A guided walk to the rarely traversed hill 4 saw a turnout of 20 enthusiasts, some repeat customers, but the majority were first timers.

Our passing stop was the tomb of Tan Chor Nam, enroute to Hill 4, where Fabian explained the importance of the man who was the founder member of the Tong Meng Hui, the revolutionary arm of Sun Yat Sen, widely acknowledged as the founder President of the Republic of China.

At Hill 4, we had to abandon visiting the Tan Quee Lan cluster, because the route was cut off by too many fallen branches.

And so we proceeded to the Lim cluster to Chong Pang and his story of escape by sea during WW2, ship sunk, fortunately he was rescued, but unfortunately found himself back on the island, forced to serve in the Overseas Chinese Association, (OCA) which was essentially the Japanese propaganda machinery.

Much vilified by his own, was he like Lim Boon Keng who served as head of OSA, vindicated, after the war was over? Join us at our next guided walk to Hill 4 to find out and also find out what happened to his first family after he took a second wife.

The beautiful tomb of the coloured mosaic chips – “jian nian (剪黏)” – was next. Lovingly cleaned and glued back by a brownie over the last weekend. This is the tomb of the five cats, all decorated in a myriad of scattered colours. For an example of a finely restored mosaic chips, look no further than the roof tops of the Hong San See Temples at Mohamed Sultan Road, which received, a UNESCO award for restoration.

From 5 cats, it was just two stops over to Wong Chin Yoke, who on a covert operation in Indonesia was betrayed and killed by Japanese forces during WWII. His remains returned after the war, and he was given military honours at his funeral. Guarding his grave are two life size Sikh Guards.

From there, we moved to the end of Hill 4, adjoining the big bungalows of Caldecott, and visited with two luminaries from our early past,

At the grave of Cheang Hong Lim (CHL), Fabian pointed out how the tombstone was different from the shoulders, which were deep grey and carved elaborately. That’s because CHL was reburied from his family burial grounds in Queenstown area. Once the richest man on the island, he too, had to move house. His vast fortune was amassed from the misfortunes of addition, and many were coolies who could ill afford a opium habit. Yet he was generous to a fault, any appeal for charity would not be turned down. In the end, the question was asked, was he seeking redemption?

Tan Kim Ching, the eldest son of Tan Tock Seng was the last stop. What greater contribution to the then community of the disfranchised and the poverty stricken, the gift of a pauper’s hospital. A hospital that has grown, through the continued contributions of his descendants from Tan Kim Ching his son to Kim Ching’s grandson Tan Boo Liat et al. On his tombstone, Tan is honoured as a special envoy of the King of Siam. It is through a meeting between him and George Henry Brown, that led a widowed governess into the Siamese court to teach the children of King Mongut, the inspiration for the musical “The King and I ”

The brownies have visited the descendant of Tan’s second family, a wife bestowed on him by the King no less. And at the descendants house, which is a line from the daughter of Tan, we saw the jade beads that sometimes appear on the formal portrait of Tan Kim Ching. Unlike, CHL, Tan’s titles from the Manchu Court of China was of the second order. But Tan lived in an earlier time before Cheang Hong Lim, who paid for the title of the first order.

Reflection:

As we glimpse into the lives of the very wealthy and prominent leaders of the Chinese community of that time, we look at not only how they made their money from plantations of pineapples, rubber, and property, but also how they spent it -some may have been profligate – but there were definitely the ones who used their reputation, influence and wealth, to build a better life for the poor, a better society, and a better country. We visited with two this morning.

Thank you to the 20 people who turned up, engaged with Fabian and Catherine, asked interesting questions, shared their insights, we enjoyed your company. Please visit with us and other brownies when they explore other hills. We are in our 11th year of guiding walks and we have learned much on our journey with our visitors, and so we do what we do best, we tell stories.

100,000 graves, 100,000 stories.