Bright Celestial: Progress in the Political Thought of Tan Teck Soon

Abstract

This article focuses on the work of an outstanding Chinese Singaporean scholar who was active in the significant cultural and political movements that took place in Singapore around the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Tan Teck Soon was a contemporary of such luminaries as Lim Boon Keng, Song Ong Siang, Tan Boo Liat, and Gnoh Lean Tuck. He took leading roles in many of the same organizations as they, collaborating with them on the notable cultural projects of the period. Yet compared with his contemporaries and peers, Tan Teck Soon has suffered relative neglect at the hands of historians. To date there has been no study of the nature and development of his political thought. The aims of this article are to draw attention to Tan Teck Soon's important intellectual contribution to the pivotal movements of the turn of the 20th century; to situate his work with respect to the various analytical schemas which have been proposed for understanding the political positions of the overseas Chinese in colonized Malaya, including Singapore; and above all to put forward the argument that, by looking closely at the body of Tan's work, a significant trajectory of politicization and radicalization is discernible. There are many different aspects of Tan's rich oeuvre that could be studied, but in this article the focus is on underlining the theme of progress which runs through all his work and demonstrating the process of radicalization in Tan's thought.