A Tale of 2 Sun Yat Sen Memorial Halls

It was Good Friday and a group of us decided to visit the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.  A few of my friends had never visited this place before and I wanted to  visit this refurbished building.  

The colonial style building and the statue of Dr Sun Yat Sen greeted us when we entered the compound. Sun Yat Sen played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, and was the first president and founding father of the Republic of China. 

From Left: Teo Eng Hock, Sun Yat Sen, Tan Chor Nam

From the National Library’s resouces, the villa was built sometime in the 1880s by Chinese merchant Boey Chuan Poh, rumoured for his mistress Bin Chan.  The villa chaged hands and eventually Teochew businessman Teo Eng Hock acquired the house and renamed it Wan Qing Yuan (晚晴园.  Teo Eng Hock later offered Sun Yat Sen the use of the villa. 

In 1906, during Sun's two-week stay in Singapore, he formed a local branch of the T'ung Meng Hui (“Chinese Revolutionary League”) with co-founders Tan Chor Nam as chairman, and Hsu Tzu Lin, Teo Eng Hock and his nephew Lim Nee Soon as office bearers. 

The villa became a focal point of anti-Manchu activities outside of China.  It changed hands several times and currently it was owned by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and National Heritage Board has taken over the management.  The villa, located at 12 Tai Gin (off Balestier Road), was gazetted as a national monument on 28 October 1994.

There was an exhibition "Love & Revolution" going on till 7 September 2014, a collaboration with the Soong Ching Ling Memorial Residence in Shanghai.  Mdm Soong was the wife of Sun Yat Sen and she also devoted her life to the establishment of a modern China.

One exhibit item was the certificate of marriage of Dr Sun Yat Sen and Mdm Soong Ching Ling (picture, bottom). 

Mdm Soong Ching Ling passed away in 1981, about 56 years after the death of Dr Sun (1925).

The second floor's other exhibits were about lives during that era and also key Chinese businessmen at that time.  I found the curating of the exhibitions not cohesive, my companions did not see the link of certain sections of the permanent exhibits.  Was it because part of the building was closed for some upgrading work, and thus the flow of the storyline was affected?  However, we did like the multimedia treatment of some texts.......

Overall, our group had an informative trip to this memorial hall.  

A question did cross our mind?  In what way has Dr Sun Yat Sen played in Singapore history?  I searched for the answer in the memorial hall and did not find any.  I searched the organisation's website and it did not offer any explanation.

To encourage more Singaporeans, locals and tourists to visit this place, there may be a need to highlight the historical importance of Dr Sun to a new generation.  If not, this place would only have some bearings to the older Chinese community here.

Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, Penang

There is another Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall over the Causeway, where I had the opportunity to visit when I was in Penang 2 years ago (see Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall in Penang). The villa structure was similar between the 2 buildings.

Dr Sun Yat Sen visited Penang 5 times.  The private-run memorial hall provided more information on the revolutionary struggles.

In terms of presentation of information, the Penang Memorial Hall made good use of clay figures to tell stories, and both the historical facts and artistry of the art piece made it an enjoyable experience.
Hopefully some of these exhibits can come to Singapore.

Both the Memorial Halls attempt to tell an important part of Chinese history which had ripple effects on lives of Malaysia (or Malaya at that time) and Singapore people.  I hope more people would visit these venues to be better informed on important events happening at our doorsteps.