Читать книгу One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition - Ong Siang Song - Страница 12

FOREWORD

WHEN it was decided that a local history of Singapore should be compiled as one mark that the Colony founded by Raffles had reached its hundredth year, the compilers were faced with considerable difficulties, owing to the lack of written records. The published books were few and the newspapers indeterminate on facts, though not lacking in comment on local affairs. Moreover the average period of a generation – and few families ran to two or three generations – was short. The compilers of One Hundred Years of Singapore had intended to include two or three chapters on the history of the Chinese of Singapore, those interesting settlers contemporary with the British, who had brought with them their own characteristics and culture, their own literature and tradition to which they steadfastly adhered, while readily absorbing the spirit of Western law and Western commerce which were the foundations of the future prosperity and greatness of the place. It was soon evident that the task of chronicling the hundred years of the Chinese in Singapore could only be adequately undertaken by a member of that race, and that it would be a task of great magnitude. The Hon Dr Lim Boon Keng was approached; he found the work more than he could undertake with his manifold political, commercial and social activities, but he suggested Mr Song Ong Siang, not less a busy professional man, for the work. Mr Song Ong Siang has brought to it great industry, scholarly ability and a record in the life of his family in the Straits – five generations.

Records of the history of the Chinese in Singapore are even more scanty than those of the Europeans, and only personal inquiry and patient investigation could have succeeded in discovering so much of the old Chinese families here. The Straits-born Chinese have always been noted for the strength of their family ties and their love for the country they have adopted. Numerically they are more than the British, and their influence on the Colony has always been great. The book which the author has produced is a fine testimony to their virtues, and serves to remind future generations of how the sons of an Old Empire can adapt themselves to the conditions of a new one, retaining their centuries-old characteristics, yet receptive of new ideas (often those of their own sages, clothed in Occidental dress) and capable of utilising their abilities in the formation of a unit of a New Empire – the British.

Walter Makepeace

Singapore 16^th March 1923