An Old Trustee of the Soon Thian Keing

  He was an old  trustee of the Soon Thian Keing (Temple)  who together with his wife is buried at Bukit Brown. Through his personal memories, Ho Siew Tien (1864-1960) helped shed light on the temple’s history. This story by Ang Yik Han begins with the origins of one of the oldest temples in Singapore. *************************************************************************************** In the 1980s, a debate took place in the local newspapers over the age of an old Chinese temple dedicated to the earth deity […]

Ang Kok Kian – Pioneer of Soap Industry

Ang Kok Kian – A Pioneer of the Soap industry by Ang Yik Han It is not clear if Ang Kok Kian (洪轂堅) grew up in Penang or he travelled there from his ancestral village in Nan’an county, Fujian province. During the 1910s, he moved to Taiping with his family but left after two years for Singapore, where he felt there were better prospects. Of the businesses he established in Singapore, the most successful was the See Sen Soap Factory […]