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TRIBUTE TO MY FATHER
On 31 July 1992, at a ripe age of 88, my father passed away peacefully. So today is my father 16th anniversary. As a mark of my respect and gratitude for him, I like to dedicate my very first blog to honour him. He was my architect. Inculcate in me the values of honesty, integrity and responsibility. He showed me humility and how to live a simple life. Even in times of dire financial hardship, he never borrow, ask for favour or complain. He was proud of whom he was, never indulge in self pity and accept his lots. Accepted his destiny and fate and hoped the next generations would be better off. I guessed if you had struggled through 50 years of hard life, you just moved on with your life. Pain, suffering, hardship, prejudice, plain bad luck, you name it, my father had gone through all. From my scant recollections, I will share his experiences in my blogs.
My father had great vision despite his economic and language handicap. I thanked him for transferring me to English school as well as putting me in Raffles Institution. Those decisions defined my future. He also put my older brother through technical education. Like all hainanese parents, he believed the key to success is education and as parents, no matter how hard they have to work and sacrifice, they will be no trade off for this conviction.
I was essentially English educated. My father was very conservative and steep in Confucian ethics. We communicated using the hainanese dialect. There was a very distant generational and language gap between my father and me. We talked very little. When he talked, I just listened, never challenged or queried his thoughts. Respect for the elders is a Confucian virtue I was taught and embraced. Though we talked very little, a lot of emotions, feeling and understanding were conveyed through body gestures. We never express our love with words or hugs. Yet I have never doubted his deep unconditional fatherly love, mutual respect and trust he had for me. Strangely the body language and telepathy is so assuring and convince me that I was his pride and joy, I was his hope and his world. I need to be responsible and stand up to be counted on any occasions. For that, taking care of him through his old age was just an intuitive calling. I knew he had no regret or sorrow when he finally passed away.
My father, Tan See Tip was born in the year 1905 in a farming village on Hainan Island, China. Both his parents were native hainanese. Apparently he was among the 3 surviving children out of 11 siblings. Those days, the infanticide rate was high. From his recollections, both his father and grandfather were the scholarly type, in another word, they need not be farmers. Father had formal education and even secured a place in the highly reputable Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, where many of the early Chinese leaders like Deng Xiopeng were enrolled. He told me he was with the medical wing. However he did not complete the course for reason which I am not sure. 
Father was born at a time when the world was in turmoil. In fact his life itself mirrored the history of modern china and that of Singapore. He was born at the time when the Ching dynasty was at the nadir, the empire crumbling amidst the weak empress dowager. Western powers were colonizing part of China. Hegemony is the word. In 1911, the Manchu abdicated and China became a republic under Dr Sun Yat S. This was followed by civil war, many warlords vying for their turf and personal interest. Also during this period, communism was brewing in china. Socialism by Karl Marx was popular as the ordinary Chinese is struggling with poverty and famine... The conflict between the nationalist and the communist brought more turmoil and hardship for the ordinary people.
Then the World Great Depression set in the 1930s and exacerbated the poverty in China. Like many Chinese, my father migrated to south East Asia to look for better pasture. He decided to come to Malaya. While he was in Malaya initially, the 2nd world war broked and the Japanese captured the Malayan peninsula. He was already married with a son and daughter. The Japanese murdered his wife. He returned to China after the war as he could not managed the two children while struggling to edge out a living in South East Asia. He then remarried my mother and that is how I was eventually brought into this world. I have a lot more to write about my father in my subsequent bog
I intend to write more about myself and my family in my future postings. Thereafter my blogs will mainly features current affair, the world economics and political developments that unfold from times to times.
I am glad I have started. So much for my first blog!!!
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