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ANG SEAH IMM 汪聲音 (1870*–1927) Place of  Ancestry: Tung Ann  (同安)
CHEONG CHWEE SIM 鐘水心 (1878* –1944) Place of  Ancestry: Tung Ann  (同安)

Ang Seah Im was a wealthy businessman with business interests in mining, rice, rubber, and trading. He owned many properties in Malaya and Singapore especially along Telok Blangah Road. On 17 Aug 1907, the Municipal Commission agreed to his proposal to name a private road on his land after him, since he fulfilled the requirements of installing lighting, fences and embankments. A few of the houses built by him still stand along this road. Although he was able to bounce back from a bankruptcy in 1914, he experienced yet another bankruptcy a few years before he passed away in 1927.

Ang Seah Im’s prominence in early Singapore could be seen from him being a committee member of the Poh Leung Kok (保良局), an organisation set up in 1888 by the Chinese Protectorate to protect females from vice. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a serious gender imbalance within the Chinese population in the Straits Settlements, which consisted mainly of male coolies and others who came seeking their fortunes. This was a ready market for prostitution which was often supplied by traffickers who kidnapped or brought women and girls to the Nanyang under false pretences. The organisation provided shelter for the females rescued from such circumstances and sometimes even found suitable husbands for them. Ang’s role as a committee member would likely have extended beyond consultation to providing donations for the organisation’s work, as with the other wealthy Chinese merchants in the committee.

Less well known is that fact that Ang contributed to the building of the kramat (shrine) on Kusu Island, which is still a  pilgrimage site today.  

by Ang Yik Han

*When age at death is recorded in newspaper notices, the birth years are calculated using the Gregorian calendar. In Chinese tradition  the lunar calendar is  used, and there is also a practice to add three years to the age at death in family records. 

Further Reading : 

On Singapore’s Colonial Black and White Houses: Seah Im Road: