The Other House of Tan Yeok Nee: Zi Zheng Di, Hidden Masterpiece (Pictorial)

Tan Yeok Nee's Zi Zheng Di palace, situated in Chao'an, Guangdong province, China, is several times larger than Singapore's The House of Tan Yeok Nee. This, and the fact that its central halls are adorned with highly intricate and unique stone carvings, accounts for why it took Tan a decade or more longer to complete its construction when compared to his Singapore mansion. Only after Zi Zheng Di was completed did he go on to build The House of Tan Yeok Nee in Singapore. 

Very little has been written about Zi Zheng Di, in either Chinese or English, with the notable exception of a chapter by Gretchen Liu which appeared in the 2003 book The House of Tan Yeok Nee: The Conservation of a National Monument. The chapter she wrote sets out in some detail, for the first time, how the architectural style of Tan's second mansion in Singapore was so heavily influenced by his first mansion in Chao'an specifically, but also by that region's architectural heritage more generally. It appears to be the first well researched and best written source to make a meaningful connection between the two buildings.

It should be noted that, originally, both of the buildings built by Tan bore the same name: Zi Zheng Di. This reflected Tan's annointed status, regardless as to whether he or the buildings were located in China or Singapore. This was quite a sensible thing for him to do in the context of the times. However, in this blog I have have purposefully tried to avoid confusion by labelling the two buildings with different names: (1) Zi Zheng Di; (2) The House of Tan Yeok Nee. Two seperate buildings, in two separate locations that are thousands of kilometers apart, but built by the same man.

Below I have presented a selection of photographs showing the interior of Zi Zheng Di.































The 2003 book The House of Tan Yeok Nee: The Conservation of a National Monument, co-authored by Gretchen Liu, explores the architectural style of the two buildings built by Tan Yeok Nee:



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