國賢 & wife never had a name in English and never set foot in Singapore , he was born and raised in Chikan 赤坎镇 . It is not known if he had any siblings and no record of his occupation. The house that he built in Chikan collapsed in the 1970s but was rebuilt in the 1980s costing more than RMB10,000 (approx S$3,300 that time). Relatives and friends chipped in to the reconstruction funds . The house has been occupied since then by 关祝胜 (in Cantonese sounded like Kwan Chok Seng) , a very very distant relative of 國賢. 祝胜 was abandoned by his father when still a toddler, born in Chikan in 1949 and grew up with his grandparents, he was not married and has no children. 國賢 died in January 1937, at age 70+ and buried in a hill slope some kms from the house.
 |
祝胜 stayed
in 國賢 house until he
retired in
Nov 2012, he then moved
to an Old-Folks home
in Chikan
due to ill-health |
 |
| PengYee & 祝胜 in Apr 2013 |
His hope was for his descendents to return and live in the house, sadly none returned. However, over the years many of his children and grand children returned for short “farmstay” vacations, at the same time to understand their roots and to experience for just a few days how their ancestors had lived.
No idea how much the house cost those days, but it was estimated in 1999 that the price of an empty plot of land the same size would be approx S$5,000 (RMB30,000) free-hold for as long as it remains a farm land. Whatever the price may be, it shall always remain a valuable heritage to the generations that follows.
There is no investment value for such a house at time of posting this blog and many empty houses are found dilapidated around the small neighborhood. The title-deed for ChongHui (SungWai) house was kept by his youngest son PengMun and was passed to his nephew Kwan Tuck Sing in 2014. A pdf copy can be downloaded here (2.3MB). However, since no descendants of SungWai is a Chinese citizen, non can claim ownership of the land. The future of the house remains uncertain. TuckSing is also unsure who would be keen to be the care-taker of the title deed and for how many more generations before it would get forever lost or simply get thrown away because not many are keen to trace their roots... until it is too late.
A softcopy of the map with directions to the house is available for download below.
In 1993 the youngest child of SungWai compiled a record of our family tree which traces back to the Sung Dynasty. A softcopy in pdf hand-written in chinese is available for download in the "Family Tree" chapter. It listed the names of our ancestors from the 1st to the 31th generation (1960s), ending with the birth of PengMun’s youngest daugther 瑋庭 in 1969.
Since 1990s , 崇惠's house is being occupied by a distance relative 关健强 & his family (the eldest son of 关根安). It is an arrangement with mutual benefits, the house is taken care of, at same time 健强 family have a decent roof over their head.
1) Map to the ancestor house in Chikan town (赤坎镇 地图) (pdf=0.8 MB)
2) Directions KaiPing (开平) to ChiKan Town (赤坎镇 成人指南) (pdf = 1.0 MB)
3) Photos of 惠庐 and neighborhood (word docs = 1.5MB)
4) High Resolution jpeg image of the hand written contract & Floor plan for the land ownership.
Contract 1 (6MB), Contract 2 (10MB), Contract 3 (5MB), Hand Drawn FloorPlan (13MB)