History
Established in 1822-1823, Ying Fo Fui Kun is the oldest clan associations in Singapore. At a time when development in Singapore was in its infancy, Ying Fo Fui Kun's clan house was amongst the first buildings in Telok Ayer, where the island's earliest Chinese settlements were located.
Ying Fo Fui Kun began life as a temple, serving the needs of Hakka immigrants from Jia Ying prefecture in Canton. Its founder, Liu Runde (劉潤德), envisaged Ying Fo Fui Kun as a public institution that would not only provide welfare services — the conventional role of a clan association — but also act as a kinship bridge between the Hakka community in Singapore and China. Ying Fo Fui Kun looked after the welfare of its members, finding accommodation and jobs for newly-arrived Hakkas and making funeral arrangements for deceased clan members. In 1905, Ying Fo Fui Kun opened what was then considered a modern Chinese school.
In 1887, the Ying fo Fui Kun bought over a piece of land from the British government to meet the burial demands of the increasing number of association members. The Ying Fo Kuan Memorial was built, and an ancestral hall was built next to it, which was called the Shuang Long Shan Wu Shu Ancestral Hall (Twin Dragon Hills).
Read more about this topic: Ying Fo Fui Kun
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)