Family Background and Early Life
Lim was born in Nan'an, Fujian, China, in the final years of the Qing Dynasty, as the 11th child but the first son in the family. His father, Lim Loh (Chinese: 林路; pinyin: Lín Lù), was a building constructor. In 1925, Lim came to Singapore at the age of 16 to study in Raffles Institution under the British colonial government. He went on to read business at the University of Hong Kong.
In 1930, Lim married Gan Choo Neo (simplified Chinese: 颜珠娘; traditional Chinese: 顏珠娘; pinyin: Yán Zhū-niáng), a Nyonya woman from the Lim clan association hall of Singapore. They had eight children, one of whom died in infancy. Initially a Taoist, Lim converted to Christianity after his marriage to Gan.
Read more about this topic: Lim Bo Seng
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