Mrs Cheong Hean Lok née Khoo Hock Neo
鍾門邱氏福娘
c. 1854 – 29 July 1930 · Bukit Brown · mother of Cheong Tek Lan · stone headed 嘉應
In brief. Khoo Hock Neo 邱福娘 (c. 1854 – 29 July 1930), Mrs Cheong Hean Lok, was the mother of Cheong Tek Lan 鍾德蘭; her stone at Bukit Brown carries her husband's ancestral place-name, Kaying 嘉應. She died aged 76 on the 4th day of the intercalary 6th month of 1930, and her granite stone names three sons, two daughters, six grandsons and a granddaughter — the fullest roll of the family on any of its tombs. This page gives the inscription, the family it records, and the newspaper record of her grandsons' marriages; her eldest son's tomb of 1934 is on its own page.
- Deceased
- Khoo Hock Neo 邱福娘, Mrs Cheong Hean Lok (c. 1854 – 29 Jul 1930)
- Stone dated
- 民國十九年閏六月初四日 — 4th day of the intercalary 6th month, 1930 = 29 July 1930
- Location
- Bukit Brown Cemetery
- Named on the stone
- Sons 德蘭 錦蘭 如蘭 · daughters 秀春 秀連 · grandsons 生財 生祥 生基 生寶 生全 生和 · granddaughter 陸娘
- Sources
- Tomb inscription; Malaya Tribune 1934, 1942; Malayan Saturday Post 1931
Tomb Inscription 墓碑銘文
Headstone
嘉應
顯妣鍾門邱氏福娘之墓
民國十九年閏六月初四日
Right wing · children
孝男 德蘭 錦蘭 如蘭
女 秀春 秀連
立
Left wing · grandchildren
孫 生財 生祥 生基 生寶 生全 生和
孫女 陸娘
嘉應
顯妣鍾門邱氏福娘之墓
民國十九年閏六月初四日
Right wing · children
孝男 德蘭 錦蘭 如蘭
女 秀春 秀連
立
Left wing · grandchildren
孫 生財 生祥 生基 生寶 生全 生和
孫女 陸娘
| Translation 譯文 |
Kaying 嘉應 (the husband's ancestral prefecture, Guangdong). Tomb of our late beloved mother Hock Neo 福娘, née Khoo 邱, married into the Cheong 鍾 family. The 4th day of the intercalary 6th month of the 19th year of the Republic of China — 29 July 1930. Erected by her filial sons Tek Lan 德蘭, Kim Lan 錦蘭 and Joo Lan 如蘭, and daughters Siew Chun 秀春 and Siew Lian 秀連. Grandsons Seng Chye 生財, Seng Siang 生祥, Seng Kee 生基, Seng Poh 生寶, Seng Chuan 生全 and Seng Hoe 生和; granddaughter Leok Neo 陸娘. |
福娘 is the Hokkien-style "Hock Neo" of the English title. 1930 had an intercalary sixth month, and its 4th day fell on 29 July — the date the researcher records for her death, so the stone carries the death date. The romanisations of 錦蘭, 如蘭, 秀春 and 秀連 are not attested in English on this page and are given in the Hokkien form the family used for Tek Lan and Hock Neo; 生寶 is carved with the short form 宝. The grandsons' column is read from a weathered photograph — 生全 in particular should be checked on site. Her husband's name, Cheong Hean Lok, comes from the researcher's title and is not on the stone.
| Era 年代 | 民國 Republic of China |
| Year 年份 | 1930 (民國十九年) |
| Material | Granite, three-panel, Chinese only |
Tomb Location 墓碑位置
| Cemetery 墳山 | Bukit Brown Cemetery |
| Block No | 3 |
| Division | A |
| Plot No | 345 |
Field Notes
Headstone leaning, both wings displaced from their sockets, overgrown. Her son Cheong Tek Lan's marble tomb of 1934 is at Block 3 Division D
Headstone leaning, both wings displaced from their sockets, overgrown. Her son Cheong Tek Lan's marble tomb of 1934 is at Block 3 Division D
Timeline 年表
| Date | Event | Source |
| c. 1854 | Born — "age 76 years" at death (c. 1855 if the age is reckoned Chinese-style). | |
| Dies; stone dated the 4th day of the intercalary 6th month, 民國十九年. | ||
| Grandson Cheong Seng Siang 生祥 engaged to Wee Beng Geok. | Malaya Tribune, 1 Nov 1930 (on the Cheong Tek Lan page) | |
| Wedding of Cheong Seng Siang and Wee Beng Geok. | Malayan Saturday Post, 26 Sep 1931 | |
| A "Mrs. Cheong Seng Chye" — probably the wife of grandson 生財 — in the wedding party of Koh Teck Ee and Lee Gim Teng. | Malayan Saturday Post, 31 Oct 1931 | |
| Eldest son Cheong Tek Lan dies at 37 Lorong 16, Geylang, aged 57; buried at Bukit Brown 7 Nov. | Malaya Tribune, 5 Nov 1934 | |
| Grandson Cheong Seng Siang marries Yeo Kim Neo (Besar). | Malaya Tribune, 7 Jan 1942 |
Newspaper Archives 報章記載
All clippings from NewspaperSG (National Library Board), transcribed in full with original spelling. Three of the four also appear, with fuller commentary, on the Cheong Tek Lan page.
A · Grandchildren's weddings, 1931
Wedding of Mr. Cheong Seng Siang and Miss Wee Beng Geok
Malayan Saturday Post, 26 September 1931, Page 30 · find on NewspaperSG
The wedding of Mr. Cheong Seng Siang, second son of Mr. and Mrs. Cheong Teh Lan, and Miss Wee Beng Geok, only daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Wee Seck Chuan. Mr. Ee Ong Kee was the best man and the bridesmaids were Miss Tan Lai Cheng and Miss Gaiety Wee. Mr. C. V. Miles of Messrs. Rodyk and Davidson officiated at the ceremony.
Summary: her grandson 生祥, fourteen months after her death.
The Wedding of Mr. Koh Teck Ee and Miss Lee Gim Teng
Malayan Saturday Post, 31 October 1931, Page 16 · find on NewspaperSG
Seated, left to right: Mrs. Khoo Boo Gay, Mrs. Lee Quee Choo (Bride's mother), Miss Lee Gim Teng (Bride), Mr. Koh Teck Ee (Bridegroom), Mrs. Koh Keng Chuan and Mrs. Cheong Seng Chye.
Standing, left to right: Master Lee Teck Swee, Master Lee Teck Kiat, Mr. Lee Quee Choo (Bride's father), Mr. Koh Keng Chuan and Mr. Lee Quee Bee.
Summary: a wedding of another family in which a "Mrs. Cheong Seng Chye" sits with the bride's party — presumably the wife of her eldest grandson 生財, which would make her a relative of the Koh or Lee families. The researcher marks this "need to verify"; a Mrs Khoo Boo Gay in the same row may point to the Khoo connection.
B · The eldest son and a grandson, 1934–1942
Domestic Occurrence — Death of Cheong Tek Lan
Malaya Tribune, 5 November 1934, Page 10 · find on NewspaperSG
Mr. Cheong Tek Lan, aged 57, passed away peacefully on Saturday, 3rd inst., at 8.15 p.m., at Lorong 16, No. 37, Geylang. He leaves behind him two wives, six sons, Cheong Seng Chye, Seng Seng, Seng Khee, Seng Chuan, Seng Hoe, Seng Hup, one daughter, two daughters-in-law and several grandchildren to mourn his loss. Funeral on Wednesday, at 10 a.m. Bukit Brown. (S.S. and F.M.S. papers please copy).
Summary: her eldest son, four years after her. Five of his six sons are the grandsons on her stone; Seng Hup was born after 1930, and 生寶 Seng Poh of her stone is absent from his.
Domestic Occurrences — Engagement
Malaya Tribune, 7 January 1942, Page 7 (Advertisements Column 1) · find on NewspaperSG
ENGAGEMENT
The engagement is announced between Mr. Cheong Seng Siang, second son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Cheong Tek Lan and Miss Yeo Kim Neo (Besar), eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Yeo Kim Tiong. The marriage will take place on 24th January, 1942.
Biography 生平
Khoo Hock Neo 邱福娘 (c. 1854 – 29 July 1930) was the wife of Cheong Hean Lok, whose ancestral place-name, Kaying 嘉應 (Jiaying, in eastern Guangdong), heads her stone and her son's — as a married woman's stone follows her husband's ancestry, it records his origin, not hers. Nothing of her own life has yet been found in the newspapers; what the stone records is her family. She died aged 76 on the 4th day of the intercalary sixth month of 1930 — 29 July — and was buried at Bukit Brown under a granite stone erected by three sons, Tek Lan 德蘭, Kim Lan 錦蘭 and Joo Lan 如蘭, and two daughters, Siew Chun 秀春 and Siew Lian 秀連, and naming six grandsons of the 生 generation and a granddaughter, Leok Neo 陸娘.
The grandsons are the sons of her eldest, Cheong Tek Lan, who followed her to Bukit Brown in November 1934 under a white marble stone lettered in Chinese and English. Within her stone's first two years two of the grandchildren's households appear in the Malayan Saturday Post: Seng Siang's wedding to Wee Beng Geok in September 1931, and a Mrs Cheong Seng Chye in the party of another wedding that October. Seng Siang married again in January 1942, weeks before the fall of Singapore.
Deceased 亡者
| Name (Chinese) | Name (English) | Relationship | Dates |
| 邱福娘 | Khoo Hock Neo, Mrs Cheong Hean Lok | 顯妣 — late beloved mother | c. 1854 – 29 Jul 1930, aged 76 |
| Husband | Cheong Hean Lok (researcher's title; not on the stone) | ||
| Clan / Family | 邱 Khoo, married into 鍾 Cheong · ancestral place-name on the stone: 嘉應 Kaying / Jiaying, Guangdong — the husband's ancestry; her own family's origin is not recorded | ||
Mourners 孝眷
| Name (Chinese) | Name (English) | Relationship | In the newspapers |
| 德蘭 | Cheong Tek Lan | 孝男 — filial son (eldest) | d. 3 Nov 1934 aged 57, 37 Lorong 16, Geylang; his tomb, Bukit Brown Blk 3 D. |
| 錦蘭 | Cheong Kim Lan (romanised) | 孝男 — filial son | — |
| 如蘭 | Cheong Joo Lan (romanised) | 孝男 — filial son | — |
| 秀春 | Cheong Siew Chun (romanised) | 女 — daughter | — |
| 秀連 | Cheong Siew Lian (romanised) | 女 — daughter | — |
| 生財 | Cheong Seng Chye | 孫 — grandson | Eldest son of Tek Lan; a "Mrs Cheong Seng Chye" at the Koh–Lee wedding, Oct 1931. |
| 生祥 | Cheong Seng Siang | 孫 — grandson | Second son of Tek Lan; m. Wee Beng Geok 1931, Yeo Kim Neo 1942. |
| 生基 | Cheong Seng Kee (Seng Khee) | 孫 — grandson | Son of Tek Lan. |
| 生寶 | Cheong Seng Poh | 孫 — grandson | Not among Tek Lan's sons in 1934 — died young, or a son of 錦蘭 or 如蘭. |
| 生全 | Cheong Seng Chuan | 孫 — grandson | Son of Tek Lan. |
| 生和 | Cheong Seng Hoe | 孫 — grandson | Son of Tek Lan. |
| 陸娘 | Cheong Leok Neo | 孫女 — granddaughter | Daughter of Tek Lan ("one daughter", 1934). |
Only Tek Lan, Hock Neo and the 生-generation grandsons have English forms attested on this page or the son's; the other names are romanised here and marked so. Tek Lan's youngest son Seng Hup is not on this stone — born or named after July 1930.
Features 特色
- A three-generation roll on one stone: three sons, two daughters, six grandsons, one granddaughter.
- Dated by the intercalary month — 閏六月 — which fixes the year: 1930 is the only year of the period with a leap sixth month.
- Headed 嘉應 Kaying — her husband's ancestral place-name, shared with her son's marble tomb of 1934.
- Mother and son buried four years apart, hers in granite with Chinese only, his in marble with the family in English.
Related Tombs & Further Reading 相關墓碑
- Cheong Tek Lan 鍾德蘭 — her eldest son's bilingual marble tomb (d. 1934), Bukit Brown Block 3 D, with the full commentary on the sons' marriages.
- NewspaperSG search for the husband: "Cheong Hean Lok"; for the daughters-in-law: "Mrs Cheong Seng Chye", "Wee Beng Geok".
Raymond Goh, "Mrs Cheong Hean Lok née Khoo Hock Neo 邱福娘," Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials (S.T.E.M.) 新加坡墓碑銘集录, first published 1 January 2021, revised , https://tombs.bukitbrown.org/2021/01/mrs-cheong-hean-lok-nee-khoo-hock-neo.html.
Tomb inscription transcribed on site; newspaper texts transcribed from NewspaperSG (National Library Board, Singapore) and reproduced for research and educational purposes. Translations are the author's and are approximate.
Family – Cheong Tek LanName – Cheong 鍾Name – Khoo 邱Region – 嘉應Year – 民國Cemetery – Bukit Brown
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