First post on this blog
Thursday, July 31, 2008
TRIBUTE TO MY FATHER
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TRIBUTE TO MY LATE FATHER TAN SEE TIP
I have always wanted to blog and have procrastinated for far too long. I had wanted to start off with something meaningful.
On 31 July 1992, at a ripe age of 88, my father passed away peacefully. Today is my father 16th anniversary. As a mark of my respect and gratitude for him, it is really my pleasure to dedicate my very first blog to honour him. He was my architect. My father inculcated in me the values of honesty, integrity, independence and responsibility. He showed me humility and how to live a simple frugal life. Even in times of dire financial hardship, he never borrow, asked for favour or complained. He was proud of whom he was, never indulged in self pity and faced the challenges bravely . He accepted his destiny and fate and hoped the next generations would be better off. I guessed if you had struggled through 50 years of hard life, you just moved on with your life. Pain, suffering, hardship, prejudice, plain bad luck, you named it, my father had gone through all. From my recollections, I will share his what I know about his life in my following blogs.
My father had great vision and foresight despite his economic and language handicap. I thanked him for transferring me to English school as well as putting me in Raffles Institution. Those important decisions shaped my future. He also put my older brother through technical education. Like all hainanese parents, he believed the key to success is good education. As parents, no matter how hard they have to work and sacrifice, my father will not compromise or trade off this conviction of good education.
On 31 July 1992, at a ripe age of 88, my father passed away peacefully. Today is my father 16th anniversary. As a mark of my respect and gratitude for him, it is really my pleasure to dedicate my very first blog to honour him. He was my architect. My father inculcated in me the values of honesty, integrity, independence and responsibility. He showed me humility and how to live a simple frugal life. Even in times of dire financial hardship, he never borrow, asked for favour or complained. He was proud of whom he was, never indulged in self pity and faced the challenges bravely . He accepted his destiny and fate and hoped the next generations would be better off. I guessed if you had struggled through 50 years of hard life, you just moved on with your life. Pain, suffering, hardship, prejudice, plain bad luck, you named it, my father had gone through all. From my recollections, I will share his what I know about his life in my following blogs.
My father had great vision and foresight despite his economic and language handicap. I thanked him for transferring me to English school as well as putting me in Raffles Institution. Those important decisions shaped my future. He also put my older brother through technical education. Like all hainanese parents, he believed the key to success is good education. As parents, no matter how hard they have to work and sacrifice, my father will not compromise or trade off this conviction of good education.
I was essentially English educated. My father was very conservative and steep in Confucian ethics. We communicated in hainanese dialect. There was a very wide generational and language gap between my father and me. We talked very little. During conversation, I normally listened, There were some fear to challenge his thoughts and reasoning. Respect for the elders is a Confucian virtue I was taught and embraced. Yes, as a child, I was very obedient and respectful.
We talked very little, many of the emotions, feeling and understanding were conveyed through body gestures. We never openly express our love with words or hugs. In my mind, I have never doubted his deep unconditional fatherly love, mutual respect and trust he had for me. Strangely the body language and telepathy is so assuring, and convince me that I was his pride and joy, I was his hope and his world. I need to be responsible and stand up to be counted on any occasions. For that, taking care of him through his old age was just an intuitive calling. Deep in me, I knew he had no regret or sorrow when he finally passed away.
My father, Tan See Tip was born in the year 1905 in a farming village on Hainan Island, China. Both his parents were native hainanese. Apparently he was among the 3 surviving children out of 11 siblings. Those days, the infanticide rate was high. From his recollections, both his father and grandfather were the scholarly type, in another word, they need not be farmers. Father had formal education and even secured a place in the highly reputable Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, where many of the early Chinese leaders like Deng Xiopeng were enrolled. He told me he was with the medical wing. However he did not complete the course for reason which I am not sure.
My father, Tan See Tip was born in the year 1905 in a farming village on Hainan Island, China. Both his parents were native hainanese. Apparently he was among the 3 surviving children out of 11 siblings. Those days, the infanticide rate was high. From his recollections, both his father and grandfather were the scholarly type, in another word, they need not be farmers. Father had formal education and even secured a place in the highly reputable Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, where many of the early Chinese leaders like Deng Xiopeng were enrolled. He told me he was with the medical wing. However he did not complete the course for reason which I am not sure.
Father was born at a time when the world was in turmoil. In fact his life itself mirrored the history of modern China and that of Singapore. He was born at the time when the Ching dynasty was at the nadir, the empire crumbling amidst the weak empress dowager. Western powers were colonizing part of China. In 1911, the Manchu abdicated and China became a republic under Dr Sun Yat Sen. This was followed by civil war, and many warlords was vying for their turf and personal interest. Also during this period, communism was brewing in China. Socialism was brewing and became popular as the ordinary Chinese struggling with poverty and famine... The conflict between the nationalist and the communist brought more turmoil and hardship for the ordinary people.
Then the World Great Depression set in the 1930s and exacerbated the poverty in China. Like many Chinese, my father migrated to South East Asia to look for better pasture. He decided to come to Malaya. While he was in Malaya, the 2nd world war broke and the Japanese captured the Malayan peninsula. He was already married with a son and daughter residing in Kulai. The Japanese murdered his wife brutally.
He returned to China after the war. He could not managed the two motherless children while he was struggling to edge out a living in South East Asia. He then remarried my mother and that was how I was brought into this world. I have a lot more to write about my father in my subsequent blog.
MY PLAN FOR THIS BLOG
This blog will initially focus on my family in our early years. I will also write more of myself and my early years in my future postings. It will be kind of a diary for my future generations.
This blog will initially focus on my family in our early years. I will also write more of myself and my early years in my future postings. It will be kind of a diary for my future generations.
Time permitting, my blogs will touch on my thought on current affair, the world economics and political developments that unfold from times to times.
Its also my intention to document all my travels with my family. Its a mammoth tasks but I believe I have the motivation to do it.
I am glad I have started. So much for my first blog!!!
I am glad I have started. So much for my first blog!!!
Documents my father used when he came to Singapore.
Migrated from previous blog.
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