Singapore’s Chinese names: The Xinjiapo variants

The Chinese name ‘Xinjiapo’, a transliteration of ‘Singapore’, can be found in written records dating as far back as 1835. Differently-written variants circulated in Singapore and China until an official name was chosen in 1972.

The anglicised name of Singapore was standardised as early as the 19th century. Its Chinese translations had varied and some coexisted till the 1970s. Among them, the most common ones are 新嘉坡 and 新加坡. They are both pronounced as Xinjiapo, but have different Chinese characters representing the character “jia”.

The name 新嘉坡 first appeared in 1835, 16 years after the founding of modern Singapore. In 1834, Ira Tracy (1806–1875), a missionary from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, established the American Mission Press in Singapore. The following year, the Press printed the first booklet written by Tracy, which was titled Yapian su gai wen (Incentives to abandon opium) and had the words 新嘉坡书院藏板 (Xinjiapo shuyuan cang ban, or “printed by Singapore College Press”) on the title page. This is the earliest documented evidence of the Chinese term 新嘉坡 for Singapore.¹ After 1836, the title page of the Press’s publications printed 新嘉坡坚夏书院藏板 (Xinjiapo jian xia shuyuan cang ban, or “printed by Singapore American Mission Press”) instead.

‘New Beautiful Port’

According to Han dynasty scholar Xu Shen’s Shuowen jiezi (Explaining graphs and analysing charcaters), 嘉 (jia) means “beautiful” or “excellent”. The word 坡 (po), according to Southeast Asian historian Hsu Yun Tsiao (1905–1981), is considered a misinterpretation of 埠 (bu), which means port. Therefore, 新嘉坡 can be interpreted as “New Beautiful Port”, an elegant translation that reflects the significance of the founding of Singapore as a port city.

Due to the widespread distribution of books and publications by missionaries, the name 新嘉坡 quickly became popular locally. For about half a century afterwards, this translated name dominated. In official notices, monumental inscriptions,² and announcements in Chinese newspapers, the colonial authorities used it as the name for Singapore.

From 1850, the Chinese community also mostly continued to use 新嘉坡 as the name for Singapore, including for inscriptions on temples and association plaques, petitions submitted to the government, and in newspapers.

*Yapian su gai wen* (Incentives to abandon opium), printed by Singapore College Press in 1835. *Harvard-Yenching Library Collection, courtesy of David Chng Khin Yong*.

On 2 January 1846, the Straits government issued a notice strictly prohibiting Chinese shipowners and sailors from setting off firecrackers and playing loud instruments during the Chinese New Year. This is an example of the Straits government using the term 新嘉坡. *Straits Settlements Records – Singapore: Miscellaneous Letters In – BB63, 1846, NL586, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore*.

On 5 February 1850, Tan Kim Seng, Tan Oo Long (Tan Tock Seng’s elder brother), Seah Eu Chin and other Chinese community leaders jointly submitted a petition to the Straits government, requesting it to impose a pig slaughter tax to help the poor and disabled. This is an example of the Chinese community using the term 新嘉坡. *Governor: Miscellaneous Letters (In), Jan – Dec 1850, NL129, Raffles Museum and Library, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore*.

New written variant emerges in China

Around the same year that the translated name 新嘉坡 emerged, the name 新加坡 appeared in China. Ye Zhongjin³, a resident of Guangzhou, wrote Yingjili guo yiqing jilue (Brief record of occurrences relating to English barbarians). When discussing the establishment of trading posts by the British East India Company in India and Southeast Asia, he said this of the company:

When opportunities arose, it stationed warships armed with cannons at strategic locations, appointing foreigners as supervisors and collecting import and export duties. It successively acquired places such as Menglajia 孟剌甲 (Malacca), Xindipo 新地坡 (a transliteration of “Singapore”), and Xinjiapo (Singapore).⁴

As Chinese books and publications from the Singapore American Mission Press circulated in China, the name 新嘉坡 travelled across the seas to China. In 1841, when Qing dynasty scholar Wei Yuan (1794–1857) compiled the Haiguo tuzhi (Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms), there were books from the American Mission Press and works by Ye Zhongjin on his desk. He thus used the term 新嘉坡 from the American Mission Press’s title page in his book, along with the term 新加坡 from Ye Zhongjin’s writings. As a result, these two translated names began to circulate in China. Qing dynasty officials’ reports to the throne, imperial decrees, and the works of scholars and the literati sometimes adopted 新嘉坡, and at other times used 新加坡.

Standardised Chinese name

In the late 1880s, due to visits by Qing dynasty officials and Chinese scholars to Singapore, the term 新加坡 was brought to Singapore from China. It was accepted by the local Chinese community and gradually began to appear in inscriptions and newspapers.⁵

Having multiple translated names for one place is not an uncommon occurrence. In the 1920s and 30s, The Commercial Press and Chung Hwa Book Company in Shanghai published dictionaries of place and person names. They standardised the translated name for Singapore as 新加坡, thus removing the use of 新嘉坡. However, these two translated names continued to coexist and were commonly used for more than 90 years in Singapore.

It was not until 25 April 1972 that the Committee on the Standardisation of Chinese Translations of Names of Government Departments and Statutory Bodies established by the Ministry of Culture in Singapore decided to officially adopt 新加坡 as the standardised Chinese name for the country.⁶ From then onwards, 新嘉坡, which had been used for more than 130 years, gradually faded and became a historical name.

1	In 1838, Singapore’s Dongxi yang kao meiyue tongjizhuan featured an article titled “Tui nongwu zhi hui” [Singapore Agricultural and Horticultural Society]. The compiler appended a note at the end, using the term 新加坡. However, this usage was short-lived and quickly disappeared. Additionally, Mao Daqing suggested that 新加坡 first appeared in Chen Naiyu’s travel prose “Galaba fu” [About Kalapa] in 1830, but this is a misreading. Upon reviewing Chen Naiyu’s original text, the term appears as 寔叻 (Selat). See Ai Hanzhe (“lover of the Chinese”, refers to Karl Friedrich Augustus Gützlaff) et al ed., Huang Shijian, comp., Dongxi yang kao meiyue tongjizhuan (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1997), 317; Mao Daqing and Yin Zhiliang, Yi kouqi dudong Xinjiapo [Understanding Singapore in one breath] (Beijing: Tuanjie Publishing House, 2011), 5; and Hsu Yun Tsiao, “Kaiba lidai shiji jiaozhuben” [Annotated edition of historical chronicles of Kalapa], Journal of the South Sea Society, Vol. 9, Issue 1 (June 1953): 12.
2	In Xinjiapo huawen beiming jilu, there is a pharse “Xinjiapo zhong tangmin jingshi” (新加坡众唐民敬识, “Respectfully inscribed by the various Chinese people in Singapore”) recorded in the monument commemorating the second visit to Singapore by the Marquis of Dalhousie, Governor-General of India. Many years ago, however, when I made rubbings of this obelisk, I discovered that the word “Singapore” is in fact written as 新嘉坡. See Chen Ching-ho and Tan Yeok Seong, eds, Xinjiapo huawen beiming jilu, 321; and Kenneth Dean and Hue Guan Thye, eds, Chinese Epigraphy in Singapore 1819–1911, Vol. 2, 1396.
3	Ye Zhongjin (birth & death years unknown), courtesy name Rongtang, was a native of She county, Anhui province. He was a painter in the late Qianlong and Daoguang eras. In 1809, he was a Clerk （dianshi in Pingnan county, Guangxi province. Later, he engaged in the tea business in Guangzhou and had interactions with Xu Rong (1792–1855), Zhang Weiping (1780–1859), and Wu Lanxiu (1789–1839), who were from the Xuehaitang, an institute of classical studies in Guangzhou.
4	The editors of Jindai Zhongguo dui xifang ji lieqiang renshi ziliao huibian [Compilation of materials on the understanding of the West in modern China] believe that Ye Zhongjin’s Yingjili guo yiqing jilue was likely written around 1834, while the late Qing Confucian scholar Fang Dongshu (1772–1851) believed it to be 1831. Upon carefully examination Ye’s text, there are two notes deserve our attention. Firstly, it mentions W. H. C. Plowden (1788–1880). We know that Plowden took over the position of the first Superintendent of British Trade in China in October 1834. Secondly, it states: “The modern form of newspaper now circulating in Macau was first appeared in Italy.” This piece of information was taken from from “Xinwenzhi lüelun” [A brief note on newspaper] in the 1834 issue of the Dongxi yangkao meiyue tongjizhuan. Based on the above evidences, I therefore conclude that Ye’s writings was completed in 1835 or later. See Wei Yuan, “Yingjili guo guang shu shang” [British in General Part 1], in Haiguo tuzhi [Illustrated Treatise on the maritime kingdoms], Volume 34 (Yangzhou: Gu Wei Tang, 1844), leaves 18a, 20b–21a, and 24a–b; Aihanzhe et al., ed., Huang Shijian, comp. Dongxi Yangkao meiyue tongjizhuan, 76; Fang Dongshu, “Bingta zuiyan” [Guilty Words on the Sickbed], Miscellaneous Works, Part 2 in Kaopan ji wenlu [Anthology of kaopan collection], Vol. 2, in Qingdai shiwen jihuibian [Collection of poems and prose of the Qing Dynasty], Vol. 507, 2010, leaves, 4a, 5b; Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, ed., Jindai Zhongguo dui xifang ji lieqiang renshi ziliao huibian, Vol. 1, Part 2 (Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1972), 791–792.
5	For example, in the 13^th year of the Guangxu reign (1887), the inscription on the incense burner at the Fuk Tak Chi Temple used the term 新加坡. See Kenneth Dean and Hue Guan Thye, eds, Chinese Epigraphy in Singapore 1819–1911, Vol. 1, 65.
6	Report of the Committee on the Standardisation of Chinese Translations of Names of Government Departments and Statutory Bodies (Singapore: Government Publications Bureau, 1972), 6–7.

	Aihanzhe (Karl Friedrich Augustus Gützlaff) et al eds, Huang, Shijian comp., Dongxi yang kao meiyue tongjizhuan [Eastern Western Monthly Magazine]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1997.
	Chen, Ching-ho and Tan, Yeok Seong, Xinjiapo huawen beiming jilu [A Collection of Chinese inscriptions in Singapore]. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 1972.
	Dean, Kenneth and Hue, Guan Thye, eds. Chinese Epigraphy in Singapore 1819–1911. 2 Vols. Singapore & Guangxi: National University of Singapore Press and Guangxi Normal University Press, 2017.
	Jao, Tsung-I. Xinjiapo gushiji [Historical events of Singapore]. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 1994.