Chapter 4

Roof Ridges and Qian Ci

Look up before you look in. The roofs of a Teochew building carry its most exuberant art, and they are made from something as ordinary as broken bowls.

The shape of the roof

The National Heritage Board identifies almost-straight roof ridges as a defining feature of Teochew architecture. Where some Chinese building traditions sweep the ends of the ridge sharply upwards, Teochew builders kept the line long and nearly level. That flat run becomes a stage. On the House of Tan Yeok Nee the ridges are colourful and dense with ornament: carvings, painted panels and even calligraphy, comparable to the roofscape of Yueh Hai Ching Temple, one of the oldest Teochew temples in Singapore.

What qian ci means

Qian ci (嵌瓷) translates as “inlaying porcelain”. In Hokkien building practice the same family of techniques is called jian nian (剪粘), “cut and paste”. The method is exactly what the names suggest. Craftsmen take fired ceramic — traditionally specially made bowls in bright glazes — and cut or nip them into small shards. They then press the shards into a plaster or mortar armature, one by one, to build up petals, scales, feathers, robes and faces.

The result is a three-dimensional mosaic that catches the sun. Because the glaze is fired, the colour does not fade in the way painted plaster does, though the plaster beneath can crack and the shards can loosen over decades of rain and heat.

Every petal on the ridge is a single curved shard, chosen for its colour and the way it bends.

How a figure is built

Armature. A core is shaped in mortar, sometimes over wire, giving the rough form of a figure, a flower or an animal.
Shard preparation. Glazed ceramic is cut with nippers into shapes suited to the part: long tapering pieces for leaves, small rounded ones for petals, narrow strips for outlines.
Setting. Each shard is pressed into fresh mortar at a chosen angle. The angle matters: slight tilts make petals open and scales overlap.
Finishing. Painted details, moulded plaster and sometimes small porcelain figurines complete the scene.

The skill lies less in any single step than in the eye that chooses which curve of a broken bowl will make the most convincing petal.

What to look for at the house

The horse

Among the many motifs on the ridges, the horse appears repeatedly. The National Heritage Board links this to the start of construction in 1882, a Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac.

Auspicious flora and fauna

Coverage of the reopening lists orchids for resilience, bats and koi for abundance and dragons for luck. Try to spot each on the roofs and gables.

Koi that drain the roof

In the entrance courtyard, koi sculptures sit at the junctions between roofs. They are not only ornament: rainwater from the roofs pours out of their open mouths. It is a lovely example of Teochew builders turning a practical need into a symbol.

Repairing qian ci today

Porcelain inlay is fragile on a roof exposed to tropical storms, and the craft needs specialists. When the house was restored from 2024, the team brought in skilled craftsmen from Chaozhou, including masters of Teochew architecture, because the conservation consultant judged that Singapore no longer had craftsmen able to restore the timber carvings and ceramic roof ornament to the required standard. Their tools, materials and methods were chosen to match the original building tradition. Chapter six covers the restoration in more depth.

Glossary

Qian ci 嵌瓷: “Inlaying porcelain”: Teochew technique of setting cut glazed ceramic into mortar to make relief figures.
Jian nian 剪粘: “Cut and paste”: the Hokkien name for the related shard-mosaic technique.
Ridge: The horizontal top line of a roof. On Teochew buildings it is almost straight and heavily ornamented.
Gable: The triangular upper end wall under a pitched roof, often carrying plaster relief and painted panels.
Armature: The internal core, usually mortar, onto which shards are pressed.
Towkay: A business owner or merchant; the builders of the Four Grand Mansions were Teochew towkays.
Fengshui: Chinese geomancy: the reading of landform and water to site a building well.