Yeo Cheng Hai and His Xiayang-Yeo Business
Yeo Cheng Hai (1865-1927)
alias Yeo Teow Seng, Yeo Seng Ngip 楊清海 / 楊兆昇
The association of Yeo Cheng Hai with Yeo Cheow Kaw （楊昭固） had been established with Yeo Cheng Hai’s portfolio of business in Yeo Chip Moh & Co. （楊集茂号） Yeo Chip Moh & Co., was identified in Arnold Wright’s account of Yeo Cheow Kaw in his Twentieth Century Impressions of Burma, as a branch of rice businesses his family opened in Singapore and Penang. Names of business as Yeo Chip Moh, Chip Moh, Sin Chip Moh, Yeo Heng Moh, Heng Moh, etc had been spotted over newspapers printed in Singapore in the period from the late 19th century to 1920’s. An advertisement that appeared in The Straits Times, 5 June 1896 linked Yeo Poon Miah （楊本铭）, Yeo Cheow Toe （楊昭道）, and Yeo Cheng Thwan （楊清泉*） from Rangoon, and Yeo Cheow Hock （楊昭福） and Yeo Cheng Hai from Singapore in Yeo Heng Moh & Co. （楊恒茂号）Earlier, the two groups were in businesses under Yeo Oh Kow & Co. and Chop Heng Moh （恒茂号）, with Yeo Oh Kow, alias Yeo Poon Wee/Whee, who died in August 1895. Yeo Oh Kow & Co. and Chop Heng Moh had their office at No. 5 Synagogue Street.
The businesses as named above were also identified in the Singapore & Straits Directory. Yeo Chip Moh and the above-related companies were mentioned almost every year in the List of Principal Chinese Firms in Singapore, Singapore & Straits Directory running from 1895 to 1907.
Yeo Chip Moh & Co operated its business from 20 Synagogue Street, was evidenced from notices and advertisements found from The Straits Times and The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. From these two sources, the items printed between 1902 and 1926 included:
| Year | Name | Address |
|---|---|---|
| 1895, 1896 | Yeo Oh Kaw & Co. | Synagogue Street |
| 1897 | Yeo Heng Moh & Co. | Synagogue Street |
| 1898 | Yeo Chip Moh | Synagogue Street |
| 1900-1904 | Yeo Chip Moh & Co. | Synagogue Street |
| 1906-1907 | Yeo Chip Moh & Co. | Synagogue Street |
- Notifications on ship/cargo movements between ports from Amoy, Batavia, Hong Kong, Penang, Rangoon and others;
- Advertisements on properties to let, with types from godown, to houses. The properties had addresses on Wallich Street, Cecil Street, Mohamed Sultan Road, and Balestier Road. The advertiser was Yeo Cheng Hai or Chop Chip Moh, or Yeo Chip Moh. For the bungalow on 88 Balestier Road, it was always Yeo Chip Moh with one exception , in 1926, as “20 Synagogue Street”.
- Donations which came in the form of list of donor names under a fund title. Yeo Cheng Hai/Yeo Chip Moh/Yeo Chip Moh & Co/Chop Yeo Chip Moh/Mr Yeo Chip Moh was named.
- A notification on the business partnership dissolution in Chop Tong Bee, in 1928.
With a successful business in operation, Yeo Cheng Hai was highly recognized in the Chinese community in his time. Indeed, he was a founding member of early Chinese Chamber of Commerce （中华商务会）, and a founding member of the management board of Dao Nan School （道南学校）, one of the earliest Chinese schools in Singapore. He was aso a founding director the Chinese Commercial Bank （华商银行）, which was to become the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation （华侨银行）of today. Yeo Cheng Hai also made frequent donations to the building and maintenance of various Chinese temples as recorded in the book, A Collection of Chinese Inscriptions in Singapore 《新加坡华文碑铭集录》.
He was appointed a committee member of the Society for the protection of Chinese women and children. It is believed that he lended his weight in the Yeo Gongsi in the early time also.
Yeo Cheng Hai also responded actively to various investment and donation calls from China. In 1906, Yeo Chip Moh Co. was one of the Fujian Railway Company’s management offices. In 1919, Yeo Cheng Hai was on the donor’s list for an Anglo-Chinese College in Amoy.
Over the decades, Yeo Cheng Hai made these and many contributions in his personal name as well as in the name of Yeo Chip Moh. One of the daoist temples was 善德堂, still serving worshippers on Cuppage Road in Singapore.
In a 1913 published protem committee list of the Singapore branch of the Republican Party of China (中国共和党新加坡支部), Yeo Cheng Hai was named as a Branch Speaker (评议长).
In 1918, Yeo Cheng Hai was appointed as a trustee of Hiap Guan Sun Cemetery.
Heap Guan Sun Cemetery (协源山), or Hiap Guan Hill Cemetery, also known as Sehn Yeo’s Burial Ground, a 128-acre plot of land in Telok Blangah, was donated by Tan Geok Hup （陈玉合）who was the wife of Yeo Hong Tye （楊逢泰/楊鸿泰/楊丰泰）, daughter of Tan Kim Seng （陈金声）, and sister of Tan Beng Swee （陈明水）. Mdm Tan was bequeathed the land by Yeo Hood Ing （楊佛应） and she willed the Cemetery exclusive and free-of-charge for the burial of any Hokkien Yeo in Singapore, with the site license obtained in 1889.
In 1924 Yeo Cheng Hai appointed Yeo Tiong Wee, another Xiayang Yeo, to replace Yeo Hock Hoe, an original trustee of Hiap Guan Sun.
Yeo Cheng Hai died in April 1927. He joined his first wife Mdm Gang (Gay) Ang Chua Neo in her burial site in Hiap Guan Sun Cemetery. This land of Yeo’s burial ground was later acquired by the government to give way to construction of roads and housing blocks. In 1973, Mr Yeo Cheng Hai and Mdm Gang (Gay) were re-interred in Choa Chua Kang Chinese (CCK) Cemetery. A plague was put up in CCK Cemetery to commemorate the deed of the original donors and past trustees including Yeo Cheng Hai (@Teow Seng) of Hiap Guan Sun.
In July 2017, the Government announced the exhumation of 45,500 Chinese graves at the CCK Cemetery. Mr Yeo and Mdm Gang were cremated in 2018. Mandai Columbarium Block C, Row 324, is their final resting place.
Mr Yeo Cheng Hai appeared to be a man who kept a low profile despite his considerable social standings and impressive philanthropist records in the early Chinese community in Singapore. The late Mr Steve Haryono (楊宗贤, 1957-2018), a great-grandson of his half-brother from Cirebon, Indonesia) contributed much information of his family members and relationships with other Xiayang Yeos. With further digging into reported social news and obituaries, a Yeo Cheng Hai family tree of Yeo Cheng Hai evolved, though not without uncertainties.
An early portrait of Yeo Cheng Hai and his wife and two children. Year and place unknown, from family album of Steve Haryono.
资料来源 Sources
Newspapers including The Straits Times, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, Nanyang Siang Pau (南洋商报) and Lat Pau （叻报）
Song Ong Siang, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore, Singapore, Singapore University of Malaya Press 1967
Singapore Directory for the Straits Settlements, various years
Settlement of Singapore Registry of Deeds dated 22 March 1904, 5 April 1918, 8 November 1920, 30 October 1924, and 9 September 1927
庄钦永 (Chng, David K Y). 杨氏家族与协源山 (Hiap Guan Sun Cemetery Stone Tablet and the Yeo Families) 亚洲文化 Asian Studies, 8 (Oct 1986): 24-27
Private communications with Steve Haryono, David Soh, Rosalind Yeo, Raymond Goh, Khoo Ee Hoon, and Walter Lim