March 29, 2021

Qing Ming festival will be held on 4th April in 2021. On the day, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to pay their respects and make ritual offerings. This practice is still observed in Singapore each year. Most visits, however, are to government-owned columbaria. Cemeteries occupy precious space in land-scarce Singapore, and a handful were exhumed to make space for new development. Singapore’s remaining cemeteries offer important tangible heritage and a glimpse of what life was like in the past.

‘Qing Dynasty Tombs of Singapore: A Digital Archival Project’ is a project by Professor Kenneth Dean and Dr Hue Guan Thye (NUS Chinese Studies), and Associate Professors Feng Chen-Chieh and Wang Yi-Chen (NUS Geography). The project will document Qing Dynasty tombstones in Bukit Brown, Lau Sua Cemetery, and adjoining cemeteries, which complements the team’s previous work on Chinese graves in Heng Shan Ting and Bukit Brown. 500 Qing Dynasty tombs will be studied, including the tombs of famous Singaporeans Tan Tock Seng and Seah Eu Chin. These tombstones are noted for their attractive calligraphy inscriptions and tomb architecture.

Findings from this project will reveal more information on Qing dynasty pioneer migrants and their early family members. The data may also help researchers to establish early migration patterns, family demographics, religious figures, and social organizations. For interested members of the public, the research findings can be accessed digitally through the NUS Singaporean Biographical Database (SBDB). Other data available include the locations, photos, measurements, and transcriptions of the tombs’ inscriptions.