Skip to main content
A Singapore Government Agency Website How to identify
Official website links end with .gov.sg
Secure websites use HTTPS
Look for a lock () or https:// as an added precaution. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Information

This website is in the midst of an information transfer, and some links may not work as intended. If assistance is required, please email us at ref@nlb.gov.sg

National Library Reference Guides

Zhang Liqian

Explore the life and works of Zhang Liqian, a Chinese scholar and educator in pre-war Singapore and Malaya, with a curated list of books about him and his key writings on Southeast Asian history.

Last updated on 22 July 2026

Introduction

Zhang Liqian (张礼千; 1900﹘1955) was born in Nanhui, Jiangsu province, China in 1900, and arrived in Southeast Asia in the late 1920s. He was a teacher at Pay Fong High School in Malacca and was the principal of the Chinese High School in Singapore from 1932 to 1933. Zhang was ordered by the colonial government to leave the country for supporting student protests. He returned to Singapore in 1939. He was employed by Chinese-language daily newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh as an editor for its commemorative publication Ten years of Singapore (《星洲十年》), and later became the chief editor of the economics supplement of the newspaper. Zhang, together with Hsu Yun Tsiao, Yao Nan and several others, founded the South Seas Society in 1940. Zhang returned to China in 1941. He was a professor at the Department of Oriental Language at Peking University in 1949. Zhang could not tolerate criticism levelled against him and committed suicide in 1955 by jumping into a lake.

Selected books on Zhang Liqian

  • 柯木林. (主编). [Ke, M. L. (Ed.).] (1995). 《新华历史人物列传》 (opens in new tab) [Who’s who in the Chinese community of Singapore]. 新加坡: 教育出版公司, p. 108. Call no.: RSING Chinese 959.570092 WHO -[HIS]. The book contains the biographies of 1,175 Chinese personalities in Singapore, covering the period from 1819 to 1990. Each biography contains information on the birth and death dates, dialect group, occupation and affiliated organisations of the Chinese personality. Zhang Liqian’s biography is also included.

  • 廖文辉. (主编). [Liao, W. H. (Ed.).] (2013). 《张礼千文集》 (opens in new tab) [The collected works of Zhang Liqian]. (Vols. 1–3). Kajang, Selangor: 新纪元学院. Call no.: RSEA Chinese 959 ZLQ. This book is a compilation of Zhang’s works on the history of Southeast Asia. It comprises three volumes and is a collection of his translated works, essays, poems and letters.

Selected works by Zhang Liqian

  • 张礼千. [Zhang, L. Q.] (1938). 《英属马来亚地理》 (opens in new tab) [Geography of British Malaya]. 长沙: 商务印书馆. Call no.: RDTYS Chinese 959.504 CLC. The book is a study of geography as well as a historical outline of British Malaya (Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States, Non-federated Malaya States) and the Malay Archipelago.

  • 张礼千. [Zhang, L. Q.] (1939). 《马来亚历史概要》 (opens in new tab) [An overview of the history of Malaya]. 长沙: 商务印书馆. Call no.: RDTYS Chinese 959.5 CLC. The book provides an overview of the history of Malaya. It includes Zhang’s translations of “The English and Dutch in the East, 1579-1786” and “The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824” from British Malaya, 1824-1867 written by L. A. Mills.

  • 张礼千. [Zhang, L. Q.] (1939). 《雷佛士传》 (opens in new tab) [Sir Stamford Raffles]. 槟城: 周满堂先生纪念委员会. Call no.: RCLOS Chinese 923.542 RAF -[HYT]. This biography of Sir Stamford Raffles was translated by Zhang from Hugh Edward Egerton’s Sir Stamford Raffles: England in the Far East that was published in 1900.

  • 张礼千. [Zhang, L. Q.] (1941). 《马六甲史》 (opens in new tab) [History of Malacca]. 新加坡: 郑成快先生纪念委员会. Call no.: RSING Chinese 959.5301 ZLQ. The book describes the history of Malacca from its establishment in the early 15th century until it was ceded to the British in 1824. It also includes the history of the overseas Chinese in Malacca.

  • 张礼千. [Zhang, L. Q.] (1947). 《东西洋考中之针路》 (opens in new tab) [Studies on the maritime routes in the eastern and western oceans]. 新加坡: 南洋书局. Call no.: RDTYS Chinese 959 CLC. This book is Zhang’s study on the maritime routes in the eastern and western oceans as well as translations of Nanyang place names in relation to Study of the eastern and western oceans (《东西洋考》) written by the Ming scholar Zhang Xie (张夑) in 1617.

  • 张礼千. [Zhang, L. Q.] (1947). 《中南半岛》 (opens in new tab) [Indochina]. 上海: 商务印书馆. Call no.: RCLOS Chinese 959 ZLQ -[HYT]. Originally published in 1943 as 《倭寇侵略中之南洋》上篇, this book introduces the geographical history of Vietnam, Myanmar and Siam (Thailand).