Unfinished Modernity: Tan Kah Kee’s Housing and Sanitation and His Modern Imagination of Reconstruction of China Post World War II

During the war of resistance from 1937 to 1945, Chinese cities and villages suffered significant destruction. In 1940, Tan Kah Kee, a Chinese expatriate residing in Singapore, returned to China to comfort the soldiers and civilians and noticed the poor sanitary conditions in various places. Therefore, drawing on his experience in Singapore, in 1944 he wrote “Housing and Sanitation: The Priority of Post-War Nation Building,” hoping to provide guiding principles for post-war reconstruction in China. However, this work did not receive widespread attention. This paper aims to analyze Tan Kah Kee’s modernity plans concerning the residential environment and public health improvements, discussing his vision for China’s post-World War II reconstruction. Firstly, it will introduce Tan Kah Kee’s observations on rural environmental sanitation in China and his discourse on modern housing and health and then explore his link between public health and the well-being of the nation. Subsequently, it will examine how British Singapore’s governance became a model for his vision of China’s urban and rural development, as well as his ideas for transforming housing and urban space. Finally, it will analyze the construction of modernity and subjectivity to highlight Tan Kah Kee’s social practices and cultural imagination for China’s modernization.