烽火的烙印——二战前后新加坡林氏家族的式微与潮社权力格局的变化

Ravages of War: The Decline of Lim Nee-soon's Family from the Eve of World War Ⅱ and the Change of Power-structure within the Singapore Teochew Community

1942年,日军占领新加坡后对华侨展开大规模的"检证"和"肃清"行动,领导和参与抗日救国运动的侨领自然是首当其冲,其中有不少因此而家破人亡,生命财产蒙受惨重损失。20世纪20年代以后新加坡最具声望的侨领之一林义顺的家族便是其中一例,林氏家族在二战期间的遭遇加速了家道中落的步伐,使得其最终在战后淡出潮社的权力中心,从后林义顺时代林氏家族的遭遇可以窥探二战前后区域局势的变化和日本南侵对当地潮人精英的冲击以及由此而引发的潮社权力格局的变异。

When the Japanese troops occupied Singapore in 1942,they carried out large-scale purges( also known as"sook ching") of the overseas Chinese on the island to weed out those who had participated in anti-Japanese activities prior to the war. The family of Lim Nee-soon,one of the leading Teochew community leaders of Singapore in the 1920 s,was among the persecuted ones during the war. The Lim family's wartime ordeal hastened the family's slip into oblivion so that they were eventually edged out of the power-centre of the Teochew community in post-war Singapore. The sufferings of Lim's family after his death showed how the Japanese occupation impacted the economic activities,social resources and influence of the local Teochew elites in Singapore,as well as the resultant changes of the power structure within the local Teochew community.