Sorry for your loss : re-examining the disappearance of Chinese burial grounds in Singapore, 1945-1985

• Main Author: Tan, Jan Xiong
• Other Authors: Koh Keng We
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::History::Asia::Singapore
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137468
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

It is thought that the Chinese were encouraged to abandon their burial traditions in favour of cremation by the state because Chinese burial grounds in Singapore had to be cleared to make space for housing development projects for the population. However, this narrative fails to consider the proactive push for both cremation and the clearance of cemeteries by the Chinese clan associations, who themselves owned and managed large tracts of cemetery land. By using three exhumed Chinese burial grounds as case studies, this study will re-examine the roles Chinese clan associations had played in shifting the Chinese community from burials to cremation in the lead up to the disappearance of Chinese burial lands in Singapore. Doing so demonstrates how the social, political or economic self-interests of the Chinese clan associations had affected their strategies against the state’s manoeuvres to requisition their burial grounds. More significantly, the involvement of the Chinese clan associations with the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce allows us to understand the dynamism within the Chinese business networks.