Chan Guan Seng

Chan Guan Seng 曾源生 
Chan Kwan Seng (burial register name)

Bukit Brown Cemetery, Hill 2, Division H, Plot [ ]

Summary: Chan Guan Seng 曾源生 (died April 1927) was an ordinary Hokkien pioneer buried at Bukit Brown Cemetery, Singapore. His plain headstone names two sons, Chan Kang Kian 江建 and Chan Kang Choon 江春, and two grandsons, Chan Chye Tuan 再傳 and Chan Chye Hock 再福. This record transcribes and translates the inscription and notes a possible 1925 newspaper trace of the family.

Tomb Inscription 墓碑銘文

碑文	Transcription / Meaning
CHAN GUAN SENG	Romanised name cut across the top of the headstone
考曾源生公墓	"Grave of our late father, Mr Chan Guan Seng"
民國十六年三月X日	Republic year 16, 3rd lunar month, .21st day of the 3rd lunar month of 1927 correspond to 22 April 1927,  however only such entry can be found in 1927, only for 1928
男 江建 江春	Sons: Chan Kang Kian 江建, Chan Kang Choon 江春
孫 再傳 再福	Grandsons: Chan Chye Tuan 再傳, Chan Chye Hock 再福

Notes on the inscription:

• The stone is a plain one: a single headstone set into a low brick surround. The central line reads simply 考曾源生公墓, with no 顯 honorific, no 諱 before the name, and no ancestral hometown carved at the top. Together these point to a family of ordinary means rather than a towkay household, and mean the family's place of origin in China cannot be read from the tomb.
• The surname 曾 is Romanised Chan in the Hokkien manner (the Cantonese form would be Tsang), and the given names of the sons and grandsons follow Hokkien pronunciation, so the family was almost certainly Hokkien.
• The two sons share the generation name 江 (Kang) and the two grandsons the generation name 再 (Chye), showing a family still following the traditional naming order into the 1920s.
• Both sons and grandsons are recorded, but no daughters or daughters-in-law, which is the more usual pattern on tombs of this period.

Burial Register 埋葬記錄

Name (as registered)	Chan Kwan Seng
Age	58
Date of interment	20 May 1928
Location	Bukit Brown Blk [2 ], Division [H ], Plot [ 26]

Note - the tomb is located in area where burial year and month are around 1928 Apr May period

Short Biography 生平簡介

Chan Guan Seng 曾源生 is one of the many ordinary Hokkien pioneers of Bukit Brown about whom the newspapers say almost nothing. What we know of him comes almost entirely from his headstone: that he died in the 3rd lunar month of Republic year 16, that is in April 1927, and that he was survived by two sons, Chan Kang Kian 江建 and Chan Kang Choon 江春, and two grandsons, Chan Chye Tuan 再傳 and Chan Chye Hock 再福. Since the eldest grandsons were already old enough to be named on the stone, Chan Guan Seng had most likely reached his sixties or beyond by 1927, which would place his birth around the 1860s in the late Qing.

A possible trace in 1925

A search of the English-language newspapers on NewspaperSG for the years around his death turned up no death notice or obituary for Chan Guan Seng, which is not unusual for a family of this standing in 1927. There is, however, one possible earlier trace. In September 1925 a "Chan Kuan Seng" is listed among the donors to the Chong Nam School Fund, giving $10 alongside Chop Chip Huat, Chop Guan Hong & Co., Tan Hoo Kock and Tan Eng Ann (Singapore Free Press, 24 Sep 1925). "Kuan" and "Guan" are interchangeable Romanisations of 源, and the modest sum and the date, some eighteen months before the tomb was erected, would fit a man of his means. Please note that Kuan would correspond well with the burial entry of Chan Kwan Seng with year carved wrongly

If any descendants of Chan Kang Kian, Chan Kang Choon, Chan Chye Tuan or Chan Chye Hock come across this entry, I would be glad to hear from them and to bring them to the tomb.

Sources 資料來源

• Headstone inscription, Bukit Brown Hill [ ] Div [ ] Plot [ ] (field transcription).
• Bukit Brown burial register, entry for Chan Guan Seng [to be added].
• "Chong Nam School Fund", The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 24 September 1925, p. 14 (NewspaperSG).

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About this record
This entry is part of the Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials (S.T.E.M.) 新加坡墓碑銘集录, a specialised digital documentation project and archive recording historical tomb inscriptions in Singapore, with a focus on Bukit Brown Cemetery 武吉布朗坟场 (Kopi Sua 咖啡山) and other early Chinese burial grounds. Each record transcribes the original Chinese inscription, gives an English translation, cross-checks it against the burial register, and adds a short biography drawn from contemporary newspapers and archival sources.

Cite this entry as:
Raymond Goh. "Chan Guan Seng 曾源生." Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials (S.T.E.M.), tombs.bukitbrown.org, https://tombs.bukitbrown.org/ [permalink to be added]. Accessed [date].

Keywords: Chan Guan Seng, 曾源生, Bukit Brown Cemetery, 武吉布朗, Hokkien pioneers Singapore, Chong Nam School, Republican era tomb 1927, Chinese tomb inscriptions Singapore, Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials, S.T.E.M.