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Since the late Qing dynasty, writers born and raised in China have left their homeland for Nanyang (Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian countries) for a variety of reasons. Such reasons include making a living, seeking refuge, going on diplomatic missions, pursuing education, and immigration. Collectively referred to as “writers who came south”, most of them were engaged in Chinese education and journalism. Before 1919, they wrote classical-style poetry and prose using classical Chinese, but many started to use vernacular Chinese to create new literature after 1920, under the influence of China’s May Fourth Movement.
At least five waves of Chinese writers have come to Nanyang over the past century. The first arrivals began in the late Qing period and included diplomats such as Tso Ping-lung (1850–1924), Huang Tsun-hsien (1848–1905), and Yang Yunshi (1875–1941). Others were literati such as Khoo Seok Wan (1874–1941), Yeh Chih Yun (1859–1921), Kang Youwei (1858–1927), and Xiao Yatang (birth and death years unknown). Their works belonged to classical literature and mainly expressed concern for the times and their homeland. Much was dedicated to promoting Chinese education and strengthening the Chinese community’s cultural identification with China. Some works, however, depicted local customs and practices — such as Huang Tsun-hsien’s poems about durians, and Khoo Seok Wan’s Nanyang poetry.
The turbulent period between the early days of the Republic of China and the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937 brought a large number of writers to Nanyang, including Lin Kexie (1892–1954), Zhang Shu’nai (1895–1939), Tan Yunshan (1898–1983), Chen Lien Tsing (1907–1943), Wu Zhongqing (1900–1948), Zeng Shengti (1901–1982), Ma Ning (1909–2001), Wang Gekong (1903–1959), Lin Cantian (1901–1972), Qiu Shizhen (1905–1993), Yang Sao (1900–1957), Xu Jie (1901–1993), Pan Shou (1911–1999), and Zhang Chukun (1912–2000). This was the group that pioneered Malayan Chinese new literature, advocating for a perspective on Nanyang through this emerging genre of literature. The acclaimed calligrapher and poet Pan Shou was also involved in the advancement of this genre while he was working as an editor, and wrote vernacular poems himself.
From the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 to before the fall of Singapore and Malaya in February 1942, another batch of writers turned up on Singapore’s shores to propagate resistance against the Japanese and advocate for world peace. Among them were Tie Kang (1914–1942), Liu Yanling (1894–1988), Wang Junshi (1910–1942), Gao Yunlan (1910–1956), Yu Dafu (1896–1945), Hu Yuzhi (1896–1986), Shen Zijiu (1898–1989), Baren (1901–1972), and Hong Sisi (1907–1989).
When Malaya and Singapore fell to the Japanese, some of these writers were killed, while others fled. After the war, some of the survivors returned and even stayed on for good. One such individual was Liu Yanling, who spent his final years in Singapore. He belonged to the first generation of Chinese vernacular poets, and his works were posthumously included in a collection titled Zheliu nanlai de shiren: Liu Yanling xinjiapo zuopin xuanji (The poets who came south: collection of Liu Yanling’s literary works written in Singapore).
After the end of World War II came the Chinese Civil War. Ding Jiarui (1916–2000), Xie Baihan (1919–2011), Yang Jia (1917–1995), Yue Ye (1920–2001), and Yao Zi (1920–1982) were among the writers who came to Singapore and Malaya during this period. The 1950s was also the Cold War era, and writers such as Li Kuang (1927–1991), Huang Ya (1931–1992), Yao Tuo (Yiu Hong, 1922–2009), Bai Yao (1934–2015), Ma Moxi (1918–1971), Seow Yeoh Thian (1913–1990), and Yang Jiguang (1925–2001) travelled south from Hong Kong and contributed to the Chinese literary scene of Singapore and Malaya through the founding of publications Chao Foon and The Student Weekly.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, cultural exchange between China and Nanyang were stagnated for various reasons. After Singapore established diplomatic relations with China in 1990, a large number of Chinese started coming to Singapore for purposes including education, immigration, business, overseas assignments, and reunion with their families. A handful of them became new immigrant writers.
The aforementioned five waves of writers stayed in Nanyang for periods ranging from a few months to several decades. Some of them eventually settled down for good and acquired citizenship in their country of residence, while some went back to China as returned overseas (guiqiao) writers. Others left the region and moved to a third country.
There are differences in the literary works among the various generations of writers who came south. Writers from earlier times were seen as overseas Chinese writers as they considered themselves sojourners with no sense of belonging to the local community. In contrast, some writers from the same era chose to stay and made Nanyang their homeland. Examples include Yao Zi, Li Rulin (1914–1991), Xing Ying (1912–1967), and Li Kuang, who contributed to the growth and development of Chinese literature in Singapore and Malaysia through their writing, editing, and publishing efforts.
The establishment of diplomatic ties between Singapore and China brought the two countries’ relationship into a new era. Besides encountering the sights and sounds of Nanyang, Chinese writers who came to live in Singapore post-independence have witnessed the country’s economic prosperity, political integrity, social stability, and multiculturalism. A number of them have integrated into the local community, becoming Singapore citizens themselves and developing a sense of belonging.
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Calligraphy was traditionally an integral part of Chinese education. Part of daily life, it was used in public and private correspondence, records, and bookkeeping. Most Chinese schools in Singapore from the early 20th century to the 1970s therefore ran calligraphy classes.
The Chinese in mid-19th century Singapore recognised the importance of education. Generally speaking, the curriculum of early Chinese schools “still followed the old Chinese tradition, teaching little beyond the Three Character Classic, Thousand Character Classic, Youxue qionglin (The primer for traditional Chinese culture), the likes of Four Books and Five Classics, as well as calligraphy and zhusuan (knowledge and practice of performing arithmetic calculations using an abacus)”.1 Similarly, the teaching of calligraphy in traditional private schools was mainly for practical purposes. For example, the account books used by the early Chinese business houses were usually neatly written in Chinese brush and ink, in two variants of the regular script — gongkai and xingkai.
In the early 20th century, the scholar Khoo Seok Wan (1874–1941), known as nanqiao shizong (“master poet of southern overseas Chinese”), had a circle of friends who were mostly literati, academics, artists and politicians from the late Qing period. Of the many different forms of written expression, they chose calligraphy as their medium for inscribing prefaces and postscripts on each other’s paintings or collected artworks, for exchanging complimentary verses, and even for exploring ideologies and debating politics. Meanwhile, art collector Huang Man Shi (also known as Huang Cong or Huang Mun Se, 1890–1963), had a coterie of literati, artists and intellectuals who had received a modern education. His studio Bai Shan Zhai was an important salon in Singapore at the time.2 The people in Khoo and Huang’s circles represented the middle and upper classes of Chinese society. Besides interacting with each other, the groups also had some members in common. Generally speaking, Huang’s circle was more active than Khoo’s in promoting the development of local calligraphy. 3
As large numbers of Chinese immigrants sailed south at the end of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century, clan associations and Chinese temples were established in Singapore. In keeping with Chinese tradition, these buildings had plaques or couplets inscribed by distinguished people. In parts of Singapore where there is a lot of traditional architecture, this offers a feast for the eyes even today. One example of this is Thian Hock Keng Temple, built in 1839 on Telok Ayer Street. Above the main hall, there is a plaque bearing the characters bo jing nan ming (calm waves on the south sea) in the hand of Emperor Guangxu. Over at Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery, which was founded in 1898, the calligraphy on plaques and couplets are from distinguished figures of the past century. These inscriptions were not merely instructive — they also added a touch of beauty to the monasteries. At clan and guild associations, plaques inscribed by well-known modern calligraphers from China are also a common sight. The plaques or couplets in these locations, including any ink works hung on display, do not just illustrate – they also form an important part of local Chinese visual art heritage.
For an artistic style representative of the era to emerge, members of the literary and artistic community need to create works, develop their calligraphy skills, and pass them on. Media coverage will also help it enter public consciousness. During the pre-war period, some important journalists who were also calligraphers and painters included Yeh Chih Yun (1859–1921) and Zhang Shu’nai (1895–1939). Yeh Chih Yun, who was editor-in-chief of Lat Pau for 40 years, was well-versed in calligraphy and painting, seal cutting and traditional Chinese medicine. After arriving in Singapore in 1919, Zhang Shu’nai took up a post as lead writer and editor-in-chief of Sin Kuo Min Press. He was also an early advocate of xin wenxue (new literature), and many plaques belonging to local shops were created by him. Other important figures promoting the art of calligraphy were calligraphers and painters who had travelled south to exhibit their art or make a living. Among them were Pan Shou (1911–1999), Lim Hak Tai (1893–1963), Ng Here Deog (1910–1994), Ho Hsiang-Ning (1878–1972), Xu Beihong (1895–1953), as well as the brothers Gao Guantian (1876–1949) and Gao Jianfu (1879–1951). After the 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident, more scholars and artists also headed south. Prominent names were See Hiang To (1906–1990), Liu Yanling (1894–1988), Liu Haisu (1896–1994) and Yu Dafu (1896–1945). They either stayed for a short period or became citizens after Singapore’s independence. All of them contributed to the development of calligraphy in Singapore.
During the period after World War II, Chinese education in Singapore was well-developed. There were about 280 Chinese primary and secondary schools on the island in the period from pre-war to the 1980s, before the education policy changed.4 Among them, several prominent Chinese institutions such as Tuan Mong School and Chung Cheng School had no lack of calligraphers among their teaching staff. This included Tan Keng Cheow (1907–1972) and Chan Shou She (1898–1969), who championed calligraphy education in their respective schools. Students who were talented in calligraphy emerged in waves from both schools, and often came tops in competitions, be it in the primary or secondary school categories. Many of the calligraphers nurtured by Tuan Mong and Chung Cheng have become active calligraphers in Singapore since the 1980s. Tan Siah Kwee, who heads the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore, for example, is a Chung Cheng graduate. The society co-hosts a couplet-writing (hui chun) calligraphy competition with community clubs every Lunar New Year to promote the development of calligraphy in Singapore — allowing it to reach the general public and become a popular art.
In addition, Chen Jen Hao (1908–1976), who was the principal of Dunman Government Chinese Middle School (now Dunman High School) from 1956 to 1969, had always attached importance to the influence of calligraphy on students. After it became a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school, calligraphy remained part of its curriculum. One former student who studied under Chen is the local calligrapher and painter Koh Mun Hong.
Since the 1960s, a growing number of calligraphers have imparted their craft via private lessons. Calligraphers who had done so over the years include See Hiang To and his students Tan Kian Por (1949–2019), Tan Kee Sek and Teo Yew Yap; as well as Pan Shou, Chang Kwang Wee, Koh Mun Hong, Chang Sow Yam, Choo Thiam Siew and Wong Joon Tai. After the 1990s, new immigrants who were talented in calligraphy also added vibrancy to the local scene. Among them are notable names such as Guo Shuming, Ma Shuanglu and Kong Lingguang.
When Singapore’s economy grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, Singaporeans enjoyed greater spending power. More shops selling wenfang sibao (“four treasures of the study”) started to spring up. At the time, people looking for brushes, ink, paper and inkstones had more options besides Chung Hwa Book Company, The Commercial Press Agency, and Shanghai Book Company. They could also head to places such as Tsing’s Book & Art (Jinshi Shuhuashe), Si Bao Zhai Arts Gallery and Chen Soon Lee Book Stamp and Coin Centre in Bras Basah Complex (dubbed the “book city”). In the 1970s, Chung Hwa Fine Art Gallery — located on the fourth floor of Chung Hwa Book Company in the South Bridge Road area – would hold a yaji (literati gathering) every Saturday afternoon. Many regaled stories of how Pan Shou, surrounded by a crowd, would pick up his brush, dip it in ink, and complete a piece of work in a flash — whether it was a banner, couplet, fan, or zhongtang (calligraphy hung centrally in a hall).
After changes to Singapore’s education policy in the 1980s, English became the medium of instruction in schools, and Chinese was relegated to a single subject. However, various community clubs and associations have continued to be active in organising calligraphy competitions. The Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore, community clubs, Nanyang Calligraphy Centre, Siaw-Tao Chinese Seal Carving Calligraphy & Painting Society, and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, conduct calligraphy courses, providing more avenues for the many people interested in learning calligraphy.
Since 1969, Singapore’s National Day Art Exhibition has been an annual feast for the eyes. From the 1970s to 1980s, it was a platform for the first and second generation of calligraphers in Singapore to exhibit their works. Prominent local art associations such as the Society of Chinese Artists, Siaw-Tao Chinese Seal Carving Calligraphy & Painting Society, and the Chinese Calligraphy and Art Research Society (predecessor of the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore) hold numerous calligraphy and painting exhibitions.5 More recently, calligraphy and painting groups such as the Hwa Han Art Society, Molan Art Association, Lanting Art Society have also become a driving force in the development of local calligraphy.
In the 1980s, when Singapore’s economy took off, there was a growing trend among Hong Kong and Taiwan calligraphers and painters to hold exhibitions in Singapore to sell their calligraphy and paintings. At the start of China’s reform and opening-up, some antique shops or galleries in Singapore were also very active in inviting modern Chinese calligraphers and painters to exhibit in Singapore. This triggered a wave of interest in collecting Chinese calligraphy and ink paintings, as well as in learning calligraphy.
Since 2000, prominent annual calligraphy exhibitions in Singapore such as the Singapore Book Fair, Shicheng Moyun calligraphy exhibition, the National Day Calligraphy & Painting Exhibition hosted by Ngee Ann Cultural Centre, and Nanyang Calligraphy Exhibition, have transformed learning calligraphy into a trend in self-cultivation. From teenagers to the middle-aged and elderly, many have taken the bold step of participating in calligraphy exhibitions.
Looking back on the developments of the past decades, it can be said that despite the closure of Chinese-medium schools, the calligraphy scene in Singapore continues to be vibrant and alive.
Ini Indexs
As was customary in the early days of the Chinese community in Singapore, where immigrants arriving from China formed associations or societies based on familial and trade connections, those in the art sector also banded together to set up groups to promote their interests and practice.
The earliest example goes as far back as the first two decades of the 20th century when some Straits-born Chinese formed a hobby group known as the Amateur Drawing Association in 1909. It received strong support from eminent community leaders such as Lim Boon Keng (1869–1957), Song Ong Siang (1871–1941), Tan Jiak Kim (1859–1917), and Tan Boo Liat (c. 1874–1934).
When Yang Zhi’ai (birth and death years unknown), a China artist who stopped by and then settled in Singapore when returning from his studies in France, found the art scene here too quiet, he established an art association called Tanmei huahui (“Explore beauty painting society”) in 1929 to organise art exhibitions. Otherwise, visual arts activities of the time would likely be left to organisations such as Nanyang Chinese Students’ Society, which were dedicated to more general cultural interests including literature and theatre.
The 1930s saw an increase in the number of art groups being formed. More and more artists were arriving from China, especially towards the second half of the period due to the imminent Second Sino-Japanese war. For example, the Nanyang Journalistic Caricature Association was formed in 1931, and was dedicated to the promotion of cartoons which were becoming increasingly popular as the main medium to spread anti-Japanese messages among the Chinese population in Singapore.
In 1935, the Salon Art Association was established by the alumni of the Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts and Shanghai Art Academy, whose membership was later extended to include artists from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. This resulted in the formation of the bigger and more inclusive Society of Chinese Artists (SOCA) in the following year, which received a big boost with members of the intelligentsia arriving in Singapore to escape the war breaking out in China in 1937. SOCA played a significant role in the establishment of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 1938.
As artists in Singapore came increasingly under China’s influence during the Second Sino-Japanese war, they turned to the art of woodcutting and cartooning as they joined the anti-Japanese war movement on the island. The SOCA organised a Save-China Cartoon Exhibition to raise funds for China’s war efforts. Many in the arts then were urging artists to make full use of cartooning as a powerful weapon in propaganda against the Japanese, especially among the illiterate in the community. Within the five years leading up to the war, there were a good number of cartoon exhibitions to raise funds in aid of war victims.
In 1940, NAFA also started a “woodcut and cartoon research programme”, which involved Lu Heng (1902–1961), Chen Chong Swee (1910–1985), Tchang Ju Chi (1904–1942), Dai Yinlang (1907–1985), Xu Junlian (1911–unknown), Chen Puzhi (1911–1950), Chuang U-Chow (unknown–1944), Liang Zuokan (birth and death years unknown) and Yong Mun Sen (1896–1962), all of whom actively exhibited their works.
As part of the anti-Japanese war effort, the SOCA and the Singapore Art Club also joined forces to organise the Fight for Freedom Art Exhibition in 1941 to raise funds for British war victims. This was the first time Chinese and expatriate artists in Singapore worked together towards a common cause, transcending the interests of their respective groups.
Following the disruption of art activities during Japanese occupation (1942–1945), the art scene in Singapore and Malaya underwent rapid changes after the war. Most art associations were not revived post-war except for the SOCA, which changed its Chinese name from Huaren meishu yanjiuhui to Zhonghua meishu yanjiuhui. In 1949, British officers Richard Walker (1896–unknown), Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill (1911–1963) and Francis Thomas (1912–1977), together with local artists such as Liu Kang (1911–2004) and Suri bin Mohyani (birth and death years unknown), established the Singapore Art Society (SAS) as a multicultural body. It amalgamated various ethnic-based arts groups such as SOCA, Malay Society of Arts, Indian Fine Arts Society as well as NAFA and the British Council. The overarching SAS clearly set out to promote Malayan arts and culture as a new consciousness now that the war was over. Those who had served as its president included Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill, Liu Kang, Ho Kok Hoe (1922–2015), Christopher Hooi (birth and death years unknown), Ho Ho Ying (1936–2022) and Khor Ean Ghee.
In 1956, Lee Boon Wang (1934–2016) led a group of young artists such as Lim Yew Kuan (1928–2021), Lai Kui Fang (1936–2022), Chua Mia Tee and Koeh Sia Yong to establish the Equator Art Society (EAS), advocating a realist approach to art to depict the reality of life and express noble thoughts and feelings through images. These artists had previously been active in the Singapore Chinese High Schools’ Graduates of 1953 Arts Association, formed earlier with a stronger anti-colonial stance. With a few hundred members at its height, the society was championing realism in art and opposed to modernist style of painting. It also cautioned members that only by knowing the value and worth of true art would one be bold enough to forge ahead against “the temptation of personal aggrandisement in all its devilish forms” and that what is great about true art is that “it does not lose its integrity amidst the ugly commercial dealings belonging to the decadent bourgeois”.1Though EAS was deregistered in 1972, the group left behind an enduring influence and legacy in the Singapore art scene.
In the early 1960s, a group of young artists whose artistic position was diametrically opposed to that of the Equator Art Society met frequently to discuss what direction art in Singapore should take. Ho Ho Ying, Wee Beng Chong, Tong Siang Eng, Tay Chee Toh, Tan Yee Hong (1932–2003), Goh Tuck Hai and Ng Yat Chuan formed the Modern Art Society (MAS) to challenge and encourage artists to reinterpret nature with a new vision. In a newspaper article in 1964, Ho Ho Ying lamented the lack of aesthetic direction in the art scene driven by associations such as SAS and SOCA. Earlier in 1963, Ho had written that “Realism has passed its golden age; Impressionism has done its duty; Fauvism and Cubism are declining. Something new must turn up to succeed the unfinished task left by our predecessors. Any attempt to recover past glory shall be in vain because history will not repeat… Art like all things in the world is ever changing and we are trying to catch up with the change.”
In 1969, watercolorists including Chen Chong Swee, Gog Sing Hooi (1933–1994), Ong Kim Seng, Lim Cheng Hoe (1912–1979), Sim Kwang Teck (1906–1993), Loy Chye Chuan, Khor Ean Ghee and more founded the Singapore Watercolour Society. The members would go on painting trips in the city area along the Singapore River on Sundays, and occasionally travelled around the region in search of pictorial subjects.
Between 1961 and 1970, Yeh Chi Wei (1913–1981) gathered a group of friends to go on field trips in the region to sketch and paint so that they would be able to exhibit their works on their return. Known as the Ten Men Group, which was not a formal association, members included regular participants such as Lee Sik Khoon, Seah Kim Joo, Yeo Tiong Wah (birth and death years unknown), Chen Cheng Mei (Tan Seah Boey, 1927–2020), Cheah Phee Chye, Choo Keng Kwang (1931–2019), Lim Tze Peng (1921–2025), Lai Foong Moi (1931–1994), Shui Tit Sing (1914–1997), Tan Choh Tee and Tan Teo Kwang. Together they have travelled to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.
Other groups which have remained active today will be described in a separate article, because most of them may be categorised by the medium of Chinese ink on which their practice is based.
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St John’s Island is located in Singapore’s southeastern waters. It is a popular tourist destination for locals and foreigners, boasting clear waters and ferries shuttling back and forth from its shores. More than 200 years ago, however, this serene and leisurely scene was a desolate island covered in wild vegetation.
On 28 January 1819, at around four o’clock in the afternoon, Sir Stamford Raffles’ (1781–1826) fleet arrived at Sakijang (now St John’s Island). The next day, as he was hesitating over whether to disembark in Singapore, a Chinese man on his ship volunteered to set foot on the island first. He asked that 20 Indian Sepoy soldiers go with him. Led by this Chinese man, the soldiers landed in Singapore and raised the British flag on the island. After seeing the flag, Raffles felt it was safe to disembark.
The Chinese man, Chow Ah Chey (Cao Yazhi), was a Taishan Cantonese carpenter on Raffles’ ship, the Indiana. According to legend, to express his gratitude for Chow’s efforts, Raffles granted him two parcels of land:
However, when we carefully examine this widely-circulated legend, we can find many points that are questionable. First, there is uncertainty over the exact location of Chow’s landing. Some sources claim it was at the mouth of the Singapore River (behind present-day Parliament House), while others suggest it was at the mouth of Rochor River. There is still no consensus on this matter. Furthermore, British archival records do not mention Chow’s landing, and Raffles’ Log Book also lacks any related entries.
If we look at the situation back then, it is unlikely that Raffles would have entrusted 20 Indian Sepoy soldiers to a carpenter without military training. On top of that, if Chow really did land in Singapore, it would be more likely that he raised the flag of the British East India Company, rather than the Union Jack (flag of the United Kingdom).
So, did Chow really exist? According to the research of Tan Yeok Seong (1903–1984) in the article “Xinjiapo kaibu yuanxun Cao Yazhu kao” (A study on Cao Yazhu, pioneer of Singapore’s founding), Chow Ah Chey (Cao Yazhi) really existed, but his real name was Cao Yazhu. In the dialect of Taishan, Guangdong, the pronunciations of the characters “志” (zhi), “珠” (zhu), and “枝” (zhi) are exactly the same. Tan Yeok Seong’s verification is based on land deed records, which provide historical evidence.
If we rely solely on historical sources, whether Chow landed in Singapore before Raffles remains debatable. I believe Chow represents the image of early Chinese pioneers. Like Pangu, the creator god in Chinese mythology, the contributions of Singapore’s Chinese population require a legendary origin story. If it was not Chow Ah Chey, it could very well have been someone else, perhaps a “Wu Yazhi” or “Huang Yazhi”.
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Lat Pau was first published on 10 December 1881 and continued running till 31 March 1932. This remarkable record of 50 years and 4 months made it the longest-running Chinese-language newspaper in Singapore before World War II. The newspaper’s enduring legacy has been largely attributed to its chief editor Yeh Chih Yun (1859–1921). Less widely known, however, is the fact that Lat Pau was founded by an English-educated Peranakan businessman, See Ewe Lay (1851–1906). See was born to a prominent Peranakan (Straits Chinese) family. His grandfather, See Hoot Kee (1793–1847), was a pioneer in the Hokkien community of Singapore.
The early Peranakans’ strong identification with Chinese culture could have been a motivating factor behind See Ewe Lay’s founding of Lat Pau. Exhibits at the Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum in present-day Malacca show how Chinese culture influenced every aspect of the daily lives of the 19th century Straits Chinese, including domestic routines, festivities, weddings and funerals. The See family also had frequent contact with China. See Ewe Lay’s father, See Eng Wat (1826–1884), ran a shipping business and frequently travelled between Singapore and Xiamen, China. See Ewe Lay’s younger brother, See Ewe Hock (Sit Yau Fu, 1862–1884), served in the Fujian Marine Fleet and died during the Battle of the Pagoda Anchorage in 1884.
To focus on publishing the newspaper, See Ewe Lay resigned from his well-paid comprador position at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. He also declined an invitation from the colonial government in 1892 to become a Municipal councillor. However, during the early years of its publication, with limited literacy among the population, Lat Pau struggled to find readers, and its average circulation was less than 350 copies per year. In 1890, the threat of closure loomed large.
| Year | 1883 | 1884 | 1885 | 1886 | 1887 | 1888 | 1889 | 1890 |
| Circulation (Copies) | 350 | 301 | 300 | 300 | 168 | 200 | 200 | 200 |
See Ewe Lay did not let these financial losses deter him. He hired Yeh Chih Yun, then editor of Hong Kong’s Chung Ngoi San Po (Chinese and Foreign Gazette), to take charge of the editorial work for Lat Pau, which gave the newspaper a significant boost. See Ewe Lay described his mission as one to “enlighten the people”. This philosophy aligned well with the ideals of his grandfather, See Hoot Kee, even though the younger See had never met his grandfather in person. With See Ewe Lay’s strong sense of cultural mission, Lat Pau managed to survive despite the financial losses during its early days.
After more than a decade from its inception, Lat Pau saw a gradual increase in circulation, reaching around 500 copies per year by 1900. Over its more than 50 years of publication, Lat Pau preserved the history of Singapore’s early Chinese community, providing invaluable source material for scholars researching the local Chinese community. The newspaper’s format served as a model for future Chinese newspapers, and its supplement was the start of newspaper’s supplements in Singapore’s history. Lat Pau holds an indelible place in the history of Chinese publications in Singapore.
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The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is the largest Chinese religious festival in Singapore and Southeast Asia. It is held from the first to the ninth day of the ninth lunar month each year. The festival is also observed in other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Preparations for the festival involve a thorough cleaning of the temple premises and the cleaning or replacement of utensils and ritual paraphernalia to be used during the festival. The red lanterns and banners in the temples are replaced with yellow ones. When all is ready, some temples put up a zhaijie (斋戒) sign to announce that there will be no consumption of meat on the premises, and that those entering the festival premises have to be on a strict vegetarian diet and remain physically and spiritually pure. This is particularly so for temple leaders and key personnel involved in the rituals and duties of the festival, who might start the vegetarian diet earlier (with the cleaning of the temple or even earlier). In some temples, they are required to stay in the temple for the duration of the festival. Devotees are also encouraged to follow such a diet and regimen when they visit the temple and participate in its rituals. It is customary for festival attendees to wear white clothes and white head scarves, along with yellow wrist- and waistbands.
More than 20 temples in Singapore observe the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, with some simply holding small-scale or closed-door events. The festival and temples have become an important part of the social and cultural landscape of the Chinese communities in Singapore.
The oldest Nine Emperor Gods temples in Singapore date back to the early 20th century and were important focal points for their respective communities in suburban and rural Singapore. These temples would often support village schools and other community initiatives, and their celebrations involved village communities and devotees from the surrounding area. Yew keng processions through the kampongs or villages, festival rituals, and opera performances were major community affairs — as were the receiving and sending off of the Nine Emperor Gods by the river or sea. From the 1960s, Singapore’s national development plans meant that many Nine Emperor Gods temples, like the kampong or village communities they were situated in, had to be relocated to new housing estates. New temple communities formed in those newer estates, even as the temples retained ties with residents from the older communities. Furthermore, Nine Emperor Gods temples in different parts of Singapore have been establishing ties with each other and strengthening these connections through new types of yew keng processions and temple visits across the island. These have added to the community and festive atmosphere of the Festival. Other ethnic communities also participate in the festival, which has come to feature multicultural programmes involving performances by Indian, Malay, Thai and other community groups, as well as western military bands.
Today, many Nine Emperor Gods temples in Singapore are connected to Nine Emperor Gods temples in Malaysia and Thailand from which they obtained their foundational incense and incense lineages, such as Nan Tian Gong in Ampang and the Hong Kong Street Dou Mu Gong temple in Penang. In addition, devotees and temples in Singapore have also been establishing their own connections to other Nine Emperor Gods temples in places such as Johor Bahru, Rengit, Ampang, Penang, Hat Yai, Bangkok, and Phuket. Representatives from the Nine Emperor Gods temples in Singapore have also been attending the Golden Seal ceremonies hosted by different temples in different parts of Malaysia each year under the auspices of the Federation of Dou Mu Gong (Jiu Wang Da Di) or Gabungan Dou Mu Gong (Jiu Wang Da Di). Through these annual events, they have come to be connected to many Nine Emperor Gods temples in Malaysia and Thailand.
The findings from a national survey of the history and rituals of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival in Singapore between 2016 and 2018 at 15 Nine Emperor Gods temples and festival sites show how the festival encompasses the diverse religious traditions of the Chinese communities in Singapore. Depending on the temple hosting the festival, the rituals and ceremonies could involve Taoist, Buddhist, and other Chinese rituals and religious traditions. Furthermore, the festival encompasses core traditional values in Chinese culture, such as abstinence, purity, humility, respect and community spirit and has become an important channel for their transmission.
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival in Singapore and Southeast Asia today is characterised by a distinctive system of rituals and ritual paraphernalia, setting it apart from other Chinese deity festivals. Historical references to the Nine Emperor Gods in the 6th century associated them with prehistorical Chinese Emperors and the Emperors of the different realms of heaven, human and earth, and their visualisation in various Taoist self-cultivation regimes, with connections to the worship of the stellar constellations. From the Sui-Tang period (581–907), or perhaps even earlier, they were believed to be the nine stellar deities of the Northern Dipper (seven visible and two invisible) in various texts from the Taoist canon. The importance of Dou Mu Yuan Jun in the Chinese religious pantheon, especially in relation to the Nine Emperor Gods, emerged later, from the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) onwards.
In Southeast Asia, the Nine Emperor Gods are remembered among the Chinese communities in their historical manifestations as the last Southern Ming emperor, Ming loyalists, as well as Robin Hood-like pirates and other folk heroes who sacrificed themselves for the country and the greater good. They reflected the historical experiences and social memories of the Ming-Qing transition among southern Chinese communities in their coastal and maritime environments, and the socio-economic backgrounds of the Chinese migrants from these regions to Southeast Asia between the 18th and 20th centuries. These memories and experiences shaped the representations of the Nine Emperor Gods and the beliefs about these deities in Southeast Asia. The Nine Emperor Gods are represented either through a tablet with the name of the deity, or through one or nine images of the deity.
The central tenet of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival in both China and Southeast Asia is a strict adherence to a vegetarian regime and an emphasis on purity. Participants in the festival are expected to observe a vegetarian diet for at least 10 days. Those involved in core rituals or carrying palanquins might decide to do so for a longer period. Participants are also expected to abstain from impure thoughts and actions during the festival. In the Nine Emperor Gods temples and festival sites in Singapore today, vegetarian food is provided — typically sponsored by the temple’s supporters.
Yellow and white are the core colours of the festival in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Yellow is the colour of the Nine Emperor Gods. All the ritual paraphernalia, including lanterns, banners and candles are changed to yellow from the usual red. Yellow also signifies zhaijie, a vegetarian diet, and the purity required of all festival attendees. Meanwhile, devotees don white attire, which includes a white headscarf. In some temples, white candles are also used alongside yellow ones. In traditional Chinese culture, the wearing of white signifies mourning and death. This is due to memories and traditions of the Chinese in Southeast Asia surrounding the manifestations of the Nine Emperor Gods during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty in southern China as the last Southern Ming emperor, Ming loyalists and other folk heroes.
Another important ritual installation for the festival is the Nine Emperor Gods Lamps. While the lamps were traditionally raised on tall and strong bamboo, the difficulty of securing good bamboo in Singapore has prompted some temples to use metal masts and parts of a bamboo plant instead. In some temples, the lamps are raised before the receiving of the Nine Emperor Gods. In others, they are raised only after the receiving of the Nine Emperor Gods and their arrival at the temple. These lamps are kept burning throughout the festival, except for when they are lowered before dawn and in the evening to be cleansed and refilled. The Nine Lamps are meant to announce to the heavens and the surrounding communities that the Nine Emperor Gods Festival is taking place. Devotees and visiting temple contingents will pay their respects before the Nine Lamps before entering the festival’s main altar area.
The festival begins with the receiving of the Nine Emperor Gods. In Singapore and many other parts of Southeast Asia, the Nine Emperor Gods — and, in some temples, Dou Mu Yuan Jun — are received and sent off by the sea or rivers, or bodies of water connected to them. The receiving ritual occurs in the last week of the eighth lunar month, with most temples receiving the gods in the evening of the last day of the month. Devotees led by their respective temples will journey to a beach or river to receive the deities via a consecrated incense censer. This censer, along with other sacred artefacts, is then “invited” back to the temple in a palanquin concealed from public view. Both the palanquin and the sacred objects associated with the Nine Emperor Gods remain veiled — another unique characteristic of this festival in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Once received, the deities are ceremoniously escorted to their respective festival sites, where they rest in an Inner Chamber. This room serves as the sacred chamber for the Nine Emperor Gods throughout the festival, and is out-of-bounds to most of the devotees, volunteers and temple management. It is maintained by a selected group of people, including a Taoist priest and the censer guardians involved in the rituals in the chamber. They adhere to a very strict vegetarian and abstinence regime to ensure their purity for the tasks inside. Some temples require them to live in the temple during the festival.
Over the nine days of the festival, the temples remain open through the night for devotees to pay their respects and make offerings to the Nine Emperor Gods. Rituals are also conducted to bless the community, and for devotees to seek blessings or assistance. These include Crossing the Bridge of Blessing (ping’an qiao), as well as other luck-changing rituals (gai yun) like fire-walking. Some temples also hold fire-walking rituals. These are conducted by mediums, Taoist priests or other ritual specialists. Some temples also engage Taoist priests to conduct a short jiao (醮) ritual to bless and protect the community, or to lead the censer masters, towkays and temple members in special prayers in the early mornings of selected days. Other temples might host community feasts for the Nine Emperor Gods, during which devotees and the temple offer vegetarian food to the deities. Scriptural chanting and special blessing rituals are also conducted by Taoist priests, Buddhist monks, Chaozhou Shantang ensembles, and other ritual specialists for the devotees and the wider community.
In certain years, some temples may undertake a yew keng, a procession involving visits to other temples on a specific day of the festival. These are accompanied by lion and dragon dances, Chaozhou drum and percussion troupes, and other cultural performance troupes. The Nine Emperor Gods are invited to join these processions in their swaying palanquins. The visiting and host temples exchange gifts during these processions.
On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, the Nine Emperor Gods and their censers are sent off by the respective temple communities by the sea or water bodies connected to it. This marks the festival’s climax, with devotees flocking to temples to accompany the deities back to the sea. Many temples in Singapore have incorporated the burning of a Dragon Ship or Ritual Ship as part of the sending-off ceremony, allowing devotees to affix their names to the “ships” to be sent off to sea with the Nine Emperor Gods and burnt at sea, to signify the removal of misfortune and the bestowing of blessings upon the faithful. In recent years, fireworks and other community performances have been added to the sending-off ceremonies. For many temples, the festival only officially ends in the late morning of the 10th day, after thanking the celestial armies with meat dishes and lowering the Nine Emperor Gods Lamps. Many temples will host dinners for the devotees and supporters of the festival from the evening of the 10th day onwards.
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In September 1935, John Sung (1901–1944), one of the most influential Chinese evangelists of the 20th century, arrived in Singapore to conduct a series of revival and evangelistic meetings at Telok Ayer Methodist Church. Preaching mainly in Henghua (Hinghwa)-accented Mandarin, Sung’s sermons were translated into Hokkien for the large number of audiences who came to hear him.
Sung’s meetings were a success. Over 1,300 people converted and 111 voluntary evangelistic teams were formed. The teams became part of a transregional network of Sung-inspired evangelistic teams that had been established across China and Southeast Asia. Between 1935 and 1939, Sung visited Singapore eight more times, resulting in the formation of more teams. These teams galvanised Singapore’s Chinese Protestant churches, leading them into a period of evangelistic fervour through regular preaching activities among many local Chinese communities in Singapore and Johor, until the Japanese Occupation in 1941.
Sung’s revivals are representative of two key historical patterns in Singapore’s Chinese Protestantism:
This essay provides an introductory historical narrative of Chinese Protestantism in Singapore through a selected number of cases during three discernible periods since colonial Singapore was founded. These cases will underline the presence and evolution of the two historical patterns in the different periods. The three periods are characterised as:
Historically, Chinese Protestantism is a minority religion in Singapore. Nonetheless, this article recovers its contributions to Singapore’s engagements with China and the island’s Chinese-speaking communities.
The eminent China scholar, John K. Fairbank (1907–1991), once commented: “Protestant missions [in the 19th century] began a flank attack on China through the soft underbelly of expatriate overseas Chinese communities in South-east Asia.” Singapore was one of the places where this flank attack began. This period lasted from 1819 to the late 1840s, when early Euro-American missionaries and Chinese evangelists relocated their base of operations from Singapore to China after the First Opium War concluded in 1842. Significantly, Fairbank’s statement highlights that Protestantism in Singapore began with the objective of bringing Christianity to China. Migrant Chinese communities in Singapore were seen as stepping-stones to fulfilling this objective. The missionaries looked towards these migrant communities as a training ground for their future ministries in China.
Early colonial Singapore had a large transient population. Chinese migrants, many of whom did not settle for long, formed a large proportion of the growing population. In the 1824 census, Chinese people made up 31% of the 10,683-strong population. By 1849, the Chinese had become the majority community, making up 52% of the 52,891 people on the island. On the one hand, Singapore was an ideal training ground for the missionaries to conduct evangelistic and educational work among a critical mass of Southern Chinese speakers, especially the Teochews and Hokkiens. Most missionaries employed teachers from Chaozhou and Fujian to teach them these languages. Some of these teachers converted to Christianity, and assisted in preaching, translation and publication work. On the other hand, the early endeavours of the missionaries and Chinese evangelists yielded little fruit. Besides the transience of the migrant Chinese community, which made it challenging for missionaries to achieve substantive interactions, settled individuals such as merchants were not receptive to the Christian message. Some reasons included their unwillingness to reject polytheistic practices for Christianity, and their objections to Britain’s role in the Opium War. Thus, the number of Christian converts remained small.1
A lack of sympathy for Christianity meant there was only a trickle of converts to the faith. Nonetheless, historians have managed to recover stories about some of Singapore’s early converts. For instance, Su Ching reveals rare details about Chae Hoo, the first Hokkien convert who was baptised in Singapore. Chae Hoo came to Singapore in 1827 and was baptised in 1835. His baptism was a public event attended by 30 Chinese people. Post-baptism, he worked for the missionaries, engaging in educational and printing work. It is not known if he returned to China with the missionaries in the 1840s.
Singapore (and port-cities like Melaka) also served as a training ground for the small number of converts who became full-time Christian workers. A significant case is Liang Fa (1789–1855), who is considered China’s first Chinese Protestant evangelist. Liang wrote the religious tract Quanshi liangyan (Good words to admonish the age), that inspired Hong Xiuquan’s (1814–1864) vision for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Liang had two working stints in Southeast Asia. The first was from 1815 to 1822 when he engaged in publishing work with William Milne (1785–1822), the second Protestant missionary to China. The second was from 1834 to 1839 as an evangelist. Liang’s work in Southeast Asia produced mixed results, although it prepared him for ministry in China. His publishing work in Melaka allowed him to develop original publications that built up to Quanshi liangyan (published in 1832). Liang’s second stint in Singapore was less effective. As a Cantonese native, Liang learnt to speak Hokkien and preach to the Hokkien- and Teochew-dominant Singapore Chinese population. Unfortunately, Liang failed to master the language and yielded only one conversion in Singapore. In all, these cases demonstrate how Singapore’s early Chinese Protestantism served as a launchpad for China missions.2
Singapore Chinese Protestantism’s relationship with China and Southern Chinese language speakers evolved from the late 1840s to 1945. Protestant native-place ties became intertwined with denominational affiliations. Thus, churches in Singapore formed intra-denominational connections with the churches that were established in their native places, especially Fujian and Guangdong. Singapore’s Protestants also increasingly identified as huaqiao (diasporic Chinese) when the term gained currency from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century.
Native-place connections were a crucial factor in the early formation of Hokkien-speaking Presbyterian and Brethren churches in 19th-century Singapore. An individual who was intimately connected to these churches was the Hokkien preacher Tan See Boo (1833–1884), who had been converted by William Chalmers Burns (1815–1868), the first English Presbyterian Mission (EPM) missionary to China. Tan moved from China to Singapore in 1856 to work for the EPM. From 1856 to 1867, he worked with the missionaries to evangelise the colony’s Hokkien communities. Tan was a significant figure in forming Hokkien Protestant congregations in Bukit Timah and on the premises of Chinese Girls’ School in Sophia Road. In 1864, the EPM planned to transform the Sophia Road congregation into a full-fledged church. Tan, who had embraced Brethren beliefs by then, thwarted their plans and successfully persuaded his congregants to leave the EPM and build their own Brethren church. 3 Emboldened, Tan returned to Xiamen in the late 1860s and mid-1870s to promote his new beliefs. However, unlike Singapore, he found it challenging to popularise those beliefs there.4
Tan’s efforts to influence Hokkien Protestantism in Singapore and Xiamen demonstrate how transregional influences and connections developed between churches in South China and Southeast Asia during the 1860s and 1870s. These links intensified from the early 1900s. One aspect was the provision of manpower from the native-place churches. The lack of missionary manpower in Singapore during the first half of the 20th century meant that the Chinese Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican congregations had to recruit pastors and Bible women from sister congregations in South China to meet their needs. This problem was exacerbated for minority groups like the Henghua and Foochow who struggled to find the right personnel to manage their churches because of the lack of ministers who could speak their languages. Provision of manpower from the native-place churches continued up to the late 1940s, before the Chinese Communist Party came into power. To be sure, resources also flowed from Singapore as congregations funded the schools and church building projects of their native-place churches and denominations.5
A significant development that arose in the first half of the 20th century and peaked during the 1920s to 1940s was the formation of a China-oriented nationalism among the denominational Chinese churches in Singapore. The acceptance of a huaqiao identity among the Chinese churches meant an increased identification with China as a modern nation-state. By this point, the number of Chinese Protestant members and churches had increased to a sizable critical mass that could be mobilised for causes with some effect. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were around 2,300 worshippers in a dozen churches — making up less than 1% of the island’s population of 226,842 in 1901. By the 1930s, there were 21 denominational Chinese churches. The percentage of Chinese Christians increased to 2.8%. Specific denominations like the Chinese Methodists and Presbyterians also saw substantial increases in membership.6
An early instance of nationalism was the influence of revolutionary fervour during the 1900s. Tay Ping Teng (1872–1944, better known as Tay Sek Tin), who was employed as the first ordained Chinese minister for Hokkien speakers by the EPM in 1898, became an important figure in Singapore’s Chinese society from the 1900s to 1910s. Significantly, he was also a major Protestant promoter of Chinese nationalism during that period. Besides establishing and pastoring Hokkien Presbyterian congregations in Tanjong Pagar and Paya Lebar (now known as Jubilee Church and Bethany Presbyterian Church), Tay’s social contributions included the creation of the Sin Chew Reading Room and his involvement in opium rehabilitation. The Sin Chew Reading Room, which was originally established for Singapore’s educated elite, became a major site for Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary activities in Singapore and the Tongmenghui’s transregional network.7
Tay’s influence extended beyond revolutionary activities. As a senior pastor, he was part of a group of leading Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican Chinese ministers who promoted inter-denominational cooperation in the late 1920s. In 1931, these ministers decided to advance this cooperation and form the first inter-denominational association in Singapore — the Singapore Chinese Christian Inter-Church Union (SCCIU). The formation of SCCIU meant that, for the first time, Chinese churches in Singapore had an independent and representative umbrella body that had the authority to mobilise church members and resources across denominations and native-place affiliations. This allowed the SCCIU to imbue a sense of China-centric identification across all congregations.
On the one hand, the SCCIU introduced national patterns of spiritual revival from China by inviting John Sung and other prominent China-based evangelists to conduct evangelistic and revival meetings. Sung’s revivals were particularly successful in energising church members and clergy from all denominations to participate in regular team-based evangelism, creating a “spiritual movement” which permeated churches in Singapore and Southeast Asia from 1935 to 1941. On the other hand, the SCCIU fostered nationalism in the churches by enjoining them to identify with the National Salvation movement in China as huaqiao Christians. Other than mobilising the churches to raise funds for China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the SCCIU became a key promoter of a transregional religious nationalism that appropriated the discourse of National Salvation for Singapore’s Chinese churches. This was expressed through prayers and liturgies in regular Sunday services and inter-denominational activities.8
The postcolonial independent Singapore nation-state presented Chinese Protestantism with two new challenges. Firstly, what did it mean for Chinese-Singaporean Protestants to identify with China? Secondly, as English became the primary lingua franca in Singapore, what did it mean for the use of Southern Chinese languages and Mandarin in the churches?
Several changes occurred within Chinese Protestantism after the post-war period of the late 1940s. The disruption of connections with native-place churches in South China led to a loss in religious manpower. Due to the urgent need for manpower, the SCCIU established a high-grade Chinese seminary in 1951 called the Singapore Theological Seminary (now known as Singapore Bible College) to train ministers for the local churches. The College was one of five theological schools formed from the late 1930s to 1960s to cultivate local church clergy and leaders. During the 1950s and 1960s, a total of 44 new congregations were started by the traditional groupings of the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Brethren, as well as four new denominations, the most prominent of which were the Baptists and Bible-Presbyterians. The sharp growth in congregations was due to conversions of local-born Chinese and non-Chinese who were part of a post-war youth boom. This increase did not mean direct growth of the Chinese Protestant sector. Due to the increasing number of baby boomers who were English-educated, English-speaking congregations arose from the Chinese churches and new denominations, creating a fresh generation of English-speaking Protestants who were local-born Chinese from traditionally Chinese-speaking families. In 1980, 203,517 Chinese Singaporeans (10% of Singapore’s Chinese population) identified as Christians. Nonetheless, English-speaking churches started to dominate the landscape — their membership grew by 65.9% from 1970 to 1978, while Chinese church membership only increased by 29.1%.9
In 1987, schools in Singapore transitioned to using English as the main medium of instruction. Responding to these changing times, Singapore’s Chinese churches came up with methods to retain their English-educated youth and adult members. However, these measures were unable to fully stem the flow of these young members to English-speaking congregations. By 1980, the landscape of Protestantism in Singapore had furthermore become highly associated with the English-speaking class, who were generally well-educated. In order to rejuvenate their congregations and strengthen their evangelistic work, the Chinese churches turned their attention to the broader segment of non-Christian Chinese-educated Singaporeans during the mid-1980s, calling them the “Chinese-speaking grassroots”. English-speaking churches also participated in this shift by starting new Mandarin and Southern Chinese language congregations for the Chinese-speaking grassroots. What this meant was that Chinese churches had to move away from a conventional multi-generational church model to one which catered to working-class and middle-aged to elderly Chinese-speakers.10
The re-opening of mainland China during the Reform era (1978 onwards) enabled re-connections between the churches in Singapore and China. For the pre-baby boomer generation, native-place based identification with China was rekindled from the 1980s to early 2000s, when South China’s Protestant communities looked to raise funds from Singapore’s churches to rebuild their church buildings and infrastructure. However, native-place ties did not appeal to the local-born baby boomer and post-boomer generations as they were at least one generation removed from the migratory experiences of their ancestors. Nonetheless, they still strongly identified as ethnic Chinese, and with China. Thus, for them, identification with China became more of a concern for the growth of Christianity and church-state relations there. This concern was manifested through the provision of theological education for China’s Protestant workers and clergy. In the late 1990s, Singapore’s leading theological higher education institute, Trinity Theological College, enrolled pastors and preachers from the registered churches in Fujian. Students from registered and unregistered churches across China would also train at Singapore Bible College and other seminaries, before returning to China to serve as ministers.
By the 2000s and 2010s, identification with China and Chinese speakers was partially reoriented towards the large influx of Chinese migrants to Singapore. These migrants came from different provinces and had varied backgrounds. Some churches created specific programmes that ministered to these migrants based on their occupations, such as fellowships for Chinese construction workers and nurses. Other churches tried to integrate new Chinese migrant members into their congregations by forming China-specific Bible study groups and recruiting them into church leadership positions. In the last analysis, circumstances arising from nationhood recalibrated the ways in which Singapore’s Chinese Protestants related to local-born Chinese speakers, Reform-era China and its large wave of emigrants.11
The three periods in the history of Chinese Protestantism in Singapore illustrate the changing relationship of Singapore Chinese Protestantism with China, and speakers of Chinese languages. Through these changes, Singapore’s Chinese Protestants were able to adopt, adapt and navigate the China-based influences and language changes, while developing transregional connections with the broader Chinese Protestant sphere. Each period brought its own challenges: a small number of converts in the first period; the dependence on China for religious manpower in the second period; and the need to adapt to and survive in an increasingly English-speaking nation in the final period. Nevertheless, Singapore’s Chinese Protestants have demonstrated the agency and resilience to advocate for and imbue renewed meaning into their faith communities in the face of the contingencies of their time.
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Shen Ping Kwang (1922–2015), founder of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts’ music department, was a respected Singapore composer and music educator. Born in Zhao’an county in China’s Fujian province, he attended singing and Teochew opera classes in his primary school years. He later enrolled in what is now known as the National Fujian School of Music to major in theory and composition in 1940. He joined the army in 1945, serving as the conductor of Nanjing’s Xiong Shi He Chang Tuan (Male Lions Choir).
After the Second Sino-Japanese War, he left the army and took part in the opera The Great Wall, based on the legend of the Lady Meng Jiang, an opera by Russian Jewish composer Aaron Avshalomov (1894–1965). In 1947, he was invited to work with the Taiwan Provincial Symphony Orchestra (now known as the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra) and was later hired by the Taiwan Provincial Normal School (now the National Taipei University of Education) to start its music department. He began teaching at the newly established National Taiwan University of Arts in 1955, and held his first solo concert in Taipei in 1957.
In 1958, Shen went to teach in British North Borneo. While he was there, he helped organise the North Borneo Chinese Cultural Association (now known as Chinese Cultural Association Sabah), and also formed a choir. In 1961, he held a choral concert where he adapted Borneo folk songs, which were then performed in four languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Kadazan. He also performed in Sandakan in 1962, represented North Borneo at the South East Asia Cultural Festival held in Singapore in 1963, and won first prize in a songwriting competition organised by Radio Malaysia in 1967.
After that, he spent two years between 1968 and 1970 at the State University of New York furthering his studies in theory, composition, and conducting. He returned to Sabah in 1970 to become the principal of Kian Kok Middle School. In 1972, he was invited to speak at the University of Singapore on the topic of music education in the city state. Two years later, he transferred to Singapore’s National Institute of Education to lecture in its music department. In 1974, Shen represented Singapore at the second Asian Composers League (ACL) in Kyoto, where he presented his string quartet Three Scenes from the Straits. He also organised a society for Singapore’s composers in 1980, and hosted the 8th ACL in Singapore in 1983. He established the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts’ music department in 1984, and was conferred the Artistic Excellence Award by the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) in 2001.
Shen’s compositions were mainly songs. Those he had composed between the 1940s and 1950s were filled with patriotism for China. During his time in Southeast Asia, he started to reflect the local and ethnic flavours of different regions in his songs, and Chinese festivals continued to be a key theme in his work.
The diversity of the material used in his songs reflected his journey through China, Taiwan, and various Southeast Asian countries. Taiwanese ethnomusicologist Hsu Tsang-Houei referred to him as the “the man who planted seeds for the composers’ community in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia”.1
According to existing records, Shen’s published works span from 1944 to 1990. They include at least two orchestral compositions, three chamber pieces, four instrumental solos, two musicals, 58 solo songs, and 46 choral numbers.2Shen recalled in 2009 that more than 30 concerts featuring his musical works had been held in Singapore and abroad — a rare feat for a Chinese composer.3
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Leong Yoon Pin (1931– 2011) was a respected composer, conductor and educator who is regarded as the “Father of Singaporean Composers”.1
Born in Singapore, he finished schooling at Saint Patrick’s School in 1949, after receiving a mix of English and Chinese-language education. He taught himself to play the piano at 16, and the guitar at 17.2He went on to study at the Teachers’ Training College from 1951 to 1953. Upon graduation, he taught music and singing in five primary schools. The regular income from his job allowed him to take formal piano lessons with South African concert pianist Noreen Stokes (1917–2012). He also won a scholarship to study the bassoon with Fred Krempl (birth and death years unknown). In between teaching and receiving musical instruction, he found the time to sing with the Singapore Music Society Choir.3
In 1955, Leong received a scholarship from Singapore’s Education Department (the precursor of the Ministry of Education) and travelled to London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he majored in composition.4He graduated in 1958, and upon his return to Singapore, joined the Teachers’ Training College as a music lecturer. During this period, he became involved in the musical activities of the Metro Philharmonic Society.5
In 1966, Leong received a scholarship from the French government and went to study with Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979) in France for two years. Boulanger was one of the most influential teachers of the 20th century, and had taught a number of prominent composers of the time, such as Grażyna Bacewicz Biernacka (1909–1969), Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989), Elliott Carter (1908–2012) and Aaron Copland (1900–1990). She encouraged Leong to draw from the music of his own background and create his own distinctive voice.6
After his return, he carried on with his teaching job at the Teachers’ Training College and was eventually appointed Head of its Music Department in 1971. By that time, the college had been renamed the Institute of Education. Leong was still active in the musical scene, and was subsequently appointed Resident Conductor of Singapore’s National Theatre Orchestra.7In 1975, he won a British Council Fellowship and went for postgraduate studies in Music Education at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.8Then, in 1982, he was awarded the Cultural Medallion, the highest cultural award in Singapore, for his contributions to Singapore’s musical development.9
In his later years, Leong served as a director of the then-Singapore Youth Orchestra (now Singapore National Youth Orchestra), and was instrumental in establishing the Music Department of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
In the 1950s, Leong founded the Rediffusion Youth Choir (1953) and the then Metropolitan Philharmonic Choir (1959, now Metro Philharmonic Society) — and started composing for them. The compositions were born out of necessity, because there were very few locally-written songs for the choirs to sing.10These choral pieces were sung in Mandarin, and some of the more notable pieces were Dang baihua shengkai (When a Hundred Flowers Blossom) and Zao an ah, malaiya (Good Morning, Malaya). Many of these choral pieces used lyrics written by notable local Chinese literati.11Although the melodies had a Chinese style, they were given a modern and refreshing treatment. This modern treatment of Chinese choral pieces became a distinguishing feature of his choral works.
Leong’s work developed over the years and reflected unique aspects of Singaporean society. Wulong (Dragon Dance), commissioned by the then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation Choir in 1988, was a choral work filled with vocal imitations of the sounds of the drums at a dragon dance. This was a work which transcended language, and could be enjoyed by anyone in Singapore. Jietou xiangwei (Street Calls), commissioned in 1997 by the Ministry of Education for its Youth Festival, was a choral work using text consisting only of the names of local hawker food. Xiyang (Sunset), another Youth Festival choral commission in 2005, had a text consisting of all four of Singapore’s official languages.12A commission by the Singapore Youth Choir in 1988 led to E meng (Nightmare), with English lyrics by Singaporean writer Angeline Yap. Besides composing choral music, Leong wrote chamber music for various chamber ensembles as well as large-scale orchestral works. When the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) debuted in 1979 as Singapore’s first professional orchestra, Leong — who had already composed two symphonies by then — was quickly commissioned to write a piece for them. A year later, in 1980, the SSO premiered his Dayong Sampan Overture, which drew on a well-known Malay folk song. A decade later, Leong composed Daybreak and Sunrise for wind band for the Ministry of Education’s 1992 Singapore Youth Festival Indoor Band Central Judging. This opened up his music to a new generation of wind players.
Leong also has the distinction of being the first Singaporean to compose an opera written in English. Titled Bunga Mawar, it was commissioned by the Singapore Lyric Opera and premiered in 1997. The English libretto was written by prominent Singaporean writer Edwin Thumboo, and the story tells of two ill-fated lovers from different Peranakan families.
Leong’s compositions span several decades, and include a wide variety of vocal and instrumental ensembles. His harmonic vocabulary and musical treatment of his chosen subjects paralleled the developments in Singapore’s musical and cultural history. Any Singaporean involved in the music scene as a performer, student, composer, music director, or audience member would have at some point come into contact with Leong’s musical direction or teaching, rehearsed and performed his music, or perhaps just listened to one of his myriad compositions.
Leong died on 11 April 2011. His legacy lives on in the Leong Yoon Pin Music Fund, which was created after his death to support music students at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.13
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Lim Hak Tai (1893–1963) was born in Xiamen to a Qing dynasty scholar and teacher. Skilled in Western oil painting as well as Chinese ink painting, he grew up in China during a period racked by civil unrest and poverty. He left Xiamen in 1913 to enrol in the Fujian Provincial Teachers’ Training College in Fuzhou. After graduating in 1915 with a certificate in applied arts, he taught at No. 13 High School in Fujian and several schools in Jimei.
Following the May Fourth Movement (1919) in China, there was great demand for art training. Riding on this wave of interest, Lim co-founded the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts in 1923 with fellow artists Huang Suibi (1879–1937) and Yang Gengtang (birth and death years unknown).1
He arrived in Singapore sometime between 1936 and 1937, a move that has been attributed to various reasons, ranging from the imminent Second Sino-Japanese War to him taking up a teaching post at The Chinese High School in Singapore.2
Lim set up the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 1938, with support from businessman Tan Khuat Siong (1900–1965) – second son of philanthropist Tan Kah Kee – and the Society of Chinese Artists. It was modelled after Chinese art schools which balanced Western and Chinese art traditions.3
Lim felt strongly that Chinese artists in Southeast Asia should integrate Western and Chinese styles to depict local subjects — a style known as Nanyang art. “Nanyang”, which means “Southern Seas” in Chinese, refers to Southeast Asia. The new academy would champion this style of art.
On 10 March 1938, NAFA opened with just 14 students in a shophouse at 167 Geylang Road. Its curriculum was similar to that of Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts, with classes in Western painting, sculpture, Chinese art and more.
After setting up the school, Lim, then 45 years old, asked his wife and children to join him. Unfortunately, his wife died on the journey to Singapore. While he dealt with this heavy blow, Lim struggled to keep NAFA afloat as it grappled with low enrolment and a shortage of teachers and funds. To help pay for the school’s expenses, Lim also taught at Chinese High and Nanyang Girls’ High on the side. His five children joined him in late 1938.
NAFA’s first cohort of four Western-art students successfully graduated in 1940. To accommodate an increase in student numbers, which had risen to 50, the academy moved to a bungalow at 93 Serangoon Road.4
More teachers escaping war in China came to Singapore and joined the academy. Lim was able to open more classes, including lessons on art theory, music, and cartoon drawing. NAFA flourished during this period, but danger would soon be upon its staff and students.
The start of the Japanese Occupation in 1942 led NAFA, a known anti-Japanese base, to close its doors. Lim himself took part in resistance efforts but kept a low profile. Unfortunately, his eldest son, Yew Ming, was killed by the Japanese in 1943.5
Lim kept the rest of his family safe until the Japanese surrendered in 1945. NAFA reopened in 1946 in a bungalow in St Thomas Walk. It was the only pre-war art school on the island that survived World War II. The 1950s, however, marked the start of fresh problems for NAFA. Lim sought financial support from the Ministry of Education but was only granted funding equivalent to that of primary schools.6In 1952, during the Malayan Emergency, the authorities also stopped recognising the academy’s art education diploma.7
Despite the challenges, school fees were kept affordable, and some needy students were exempted from paying them. Lim carried out many fund-raising activities, and there were times when he and the school’s board of directors even used their own money to keep the school going.
As NAFA’s principal, Lim stressed to staff and students that their works should represent the reality of the place they lived in. He encouraged them to explore Singapore and the region.
One such excursion was a landmark trip to Bali, Indonesia in 1952 by NAFA teachers – and pioneers of Nanyang art – Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–1983), Chen Wen Hsi (1906–1991), and Chen Chong Swee (1910–1985). They were joined by artist Liu Kang (1911–2004). An array of acclaimed works responding to Bali’s culture and landscape emerged as a result of that trip. In 1954, Lim recruited artist Georgette Chen (1906–1993), adding to the list of Nanyang pioneer artists who taught at the academy.
Lim refined his views on Nanyang art over the years. In 1955, he articulated six precepts for young artists in Nanyang:8
Nanyang art — a diverse category spanning oil paintings, Chinese ink works and more – continued to mature in Singapore, enjoying a “golden period” till the mid-1960s.9
Lim died in 1963 at the age of 69. His second son Lim Yew Kuan (1928–2021) — a NAFA graduate himself — took over as the academy’s principal after that.
Lim Hak Tai was known more for his contributions as an educator rather than an artist. He was not as prolific as some of his peers and never held a solo exhibition during his lifetime. This was partly due to his poor health — he had contracted tuberculosis in the mid-1950s. Only about 100 of his works, most of them oil paintings, are known.10A year before his death, Lim was awarded the prestigious Certificate of Honour (Sijil Kemuliaan). There was a posthumous exhibition of his art in 1991, and another exhibition showcasing 50 of his oil, acrylic and Chinese ink works was held to celebrate NAFA’s 70th anniversary.11
Lim’s legacy is far-reaching. Over the years, NAFA has produced numerous alumni who have shaped the country’s arts landscape, ranging from painters Lim Yew Kuan, Chua Mia Tee, Lai Kui Fang (1936–2022), Lee Boon Wang (1934–2016) and Tan Choh Tee — founding members of the Equator Art Society (1956–1972) — to pioneering musician Lucien Wang (1909–2007), and sculptors Ng Eng Teng (1934–2001) and Han Sai Por. More recently, NAFA and Lasalle College of the Arts joined forces to form the University of the Arts Singapore, which is slated to open in August 2024.