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Thean Hock Keong and Its Leadership, Organization

and Functions, 18401915
A Study Based on Newspaper Materials
Li Yong
Department of History, Xiamen Unicersity/
Institute of Overseas Chinese Studies, Huaqiao University

Abstract
The early history of Thean Hock Keong is not easy to be studied mainly because
of the lack of historical documents. But Lat Pau and other early Singapore Chinese
newspapers provide us with considerable valuable resources for understanding the topic.
Especially essential is to gather and analyze these materials for an examination on the
leadership, structure, and functions of Thean Hock Keong as the headquarter association
of Singapore Minnan dialect social group or Hokkien Bang over the past 70 years, in
a collision field of West and Chinese cultures. It will shed light on how the Singapore
immigrant Chinese society of Bang sturcture and the folk social organization operated.
This article is divided into three parts: First part is a historical account of Thean Hock
Keongs organization and its leadership evolution. The second part discusses Thean Hock
Keongs dual functionality in religious and communal matters, such as undertaking the
Hungry Ghost Festival, celebration of the Temple Gods, imperial decree presching,
establishment of the education and extending relief to the ancestral home and so on.
The final part is preliminary thoughts on how Chinese immigrant social organizations
organize and operate in foreign lands.
Keywords: Thean Hock Keong, Singapore, Hokkiens, dialect groups, Overseas Chinese
temple

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HokkienTeochew
CantoneseHainanese
Hakka

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3352Yen Ching-Hwang, Early Hakka Dialect Organizations in Singapore and Malaya 18001900, Asian Culture 17 (1993): 106126; Yen Ching-Hwang, The Role of Hokkien
Chinese in the History of Malaysia and Singapore, Journal of Malaysia Chinses Studies 9 (2006): 79104;

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Arthur P. Wolf, Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors, Arthur P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford:
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University of Malaya Press, 1968), p. 210.

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