Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- The YMCA-Lim Kim San Volunteers Programme
- Family Tree
- 1 The Man with the Blanket
- 2 Early Life
- 3 The Japanese Years
- 4 Choosing Sides
- 5 Judging People: The Public Service Commission
- 6 Housing a Nation: The Housing and Development Board
- 7 Housing a Nation: Resettling a People
- 8 Housing a Nation: Owning Homes, Reclaiming Land
- 9 Politics, Elections, and Malaysia
- 10 Minister for Finance
- 11 Minister for the Interior and Defence
- 12 Other Ministries and Roles
- 13 A Life Well Lived
- Index
- About the Author
- Plate section
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- The YMCA-Lim Kim San Volunteers Programme
- Family Tree
- 1 The Man with the Blanket
- 2 Early Life
- 3 The Japanese Years
- 4 Choosing Sides
- 5 Judging People: The Public Service Commission
- 6 Housing a Nation: The Housing and Development Board
- 7 Housing a Nation: Resettling a People
- 8 Housing a Nation: Owning Homes, Reclaiming Land
- 9 Politics, Elections, and Malaysia
- 10 Minister for Finance
- 11 Minister for the Interior and Defence
- 12 Other Ministries and Roles
- 13 A Life Well Lived
- Index
- About the Author
- Plate section
Summary
Lim Kim San was born into a conservative Peranakan Chinese family in Singapore on 30 November 1916, the eldest son among six children of Lim Choon Huat and Wee Geok Khuan. His ancestry was interesting. When the British colonized Malaya and Singapore, the Peranakan Chinese — local-born and permanently-settled Chinese who spoke Malay or a local language at home and who were culturally more assimilated into Southeast Asian society than the fresh arrivals from China — came to be known as the Straits Chinese. This name reflected the fact of their residence in the Straits Settlements that were formed when Penang, Singapore and Malacca were placed under a single administration in 1826. Not all Straits-born Chinese were Peranakan, but the Peranakan Chinese were born locally. Defined, and defining themselves, as Straits Chinese, the elite of Chinese society possessed certain characteristics: Their families had been living in the region in general, and in the Straits Settlements in particular, for generations; they had become British subjects within the empire; they had generally retained their clan and dialect-group links, but tended to speak English and send their children for an English education to one of the prestigious local private schools; and they ran a network of business organizations that were influential in the settlements.
Lim's family had been out of China for three to four generations. His mother's family came from Bengkalis; her father, uncles and one of her brothers were Kapitan China in Bengkalis. The title of Kapitan China (or Cina) is believed to have originated in the Portuguese who ruled Malacca after the defeat of the Malacca Sultanate. They continued the sultanate's system of administering foreign traders in Malacca — Indian, Arab, Javanese or Chinese — through a headman that the community chose and who was then confirmed by the ruler. Kapitan Cina, who enjoyed the powers of a typical Malay chief, had to keep the peace, administer civil and criminal law, and collect tax occasionally.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lim Kim SanA Builder of Singapore, pp. 12 - 21Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak InstitutePrint publication year: 2009