The Ghee Hin Kongsi () was a

secret society A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ag ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

, formed in 1820. Ghee Hin literally means "the rise of righteousness" in

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

and was part of the

Hongmen The Tiandihui, the Heaven and Earth Society, also called Hongmen (the Vast Family), is a Chinese fraternal organization and historically a secretive folk religious sect in the vein of the Ming loyalist White Lotus Sect, the Tiandihu ...

overseas network. The Ghee Hin often fought against the

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

-dominated

Hai San secret society The Hai San Society (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Hói-sân''), which had its origins in Southern China,Encyclopædia Britannica was a Penang-based Chinese secret society established around 1820 and in 1825 led by Low, Ah ChongTriad Societies: Western Ac ...

. Ghee Hin was initially dominated by

Cantonese people The Cantonese people ( zh, s=广府人, t=廣府人, j=gwong2 fu2 jan4, cy=Gwóngfú Yàhn, first=t, labels=no) or Yue people ( zh, s=粤人, t=粵人, j=jyut6 jan4, cy=Yuht Yàhn, first=t, labels=no), are a Han Chinese subgroup originating fro ...

, although

Hokkien people The Hoklo people () are a Han Chinese subgroup who speak Hokkien, a Southern Min language, or trace their ancestry to Minnan region, southeastern Fujian in China, and known by various related terms such as Banlam people (), Minnan people, Fujia ...

formed the majority by 1860. Teochew,

Hainanese Hainanese ( Hainan Romanised: ''Hái-nâm-oe'', Hainanese Pinyin: ''Hhai3 nam2 ue1'', ), also known as Qiongwen (), Qiongyu () or Hainan Min () is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hain ...

, and

people formed smaller minorities. One of the major leaders of Ghee Hin was Chin Ah Yam, a Hakka peasant from rural

Dabu County Dabu County () is a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in Meizhou City, in the east of Guangdong Province, China. A center of Hakka people, Hakka culture, it has a population of 375,000. Dabu County has a long history of human s ...

, Guangdong. The secret society, of Hongmen origin, was set up to provide mutual aid and support for Chinese migrants, with the common aim of overthrowing the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

and restoring the

Ming The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, t ...

. Their main lodge in Singapore was located on

Lavender Street Lavender is a subzone within the planning area of Kallang, Singapore, as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Lavender is composed of an area bounded by Tessensohn Road in the north; Balestier Road, Lavender Street and Crawford Stre ...

, and contained the

ancestral tablets A spirit tablet, memorial tablet, or ancestral tablet is a placard that people used to designate the seat of a deity or past ancestor as well as to enclose it. The name of the deity or the past ancestor is usually inscribed onto the tablet. Wit ...

of important ex-members, before being donated to the

Tan Tock Seng Hospital Tan Tock Seng Hospital (abbreviation: TTSH) is a tertiary referral hospital in Singapore, located in Novena. Named after Tan Tock Seng, the hospital has 45 clinical and allied health departments, 16 specialist centres and is powered by more ...

when it was torn down in 1892, following the "Suppression of Secret Societies Ordinance". The Ghee Hin were notorious for committing mass killings of such targets as the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

ethnic group in 1850 (with approximately 500 casualties), and post office workers in 1876, due to their opposition to a new, more expensive monopoly on postage and remittances. The colonial government began to move towards surveillance, control, and finally suppression of Ghee Hin from the 1890s onwards. The Teochew people who belonged to the Ghee Hin secret society were massacred by the hundreds, if not thousands.

References

* Lim, Irene. (1999) ''Secret societies in Singapore'', National Heritage Board, Singapore History Museum, Singapore

External links

Ghee Hin — Encyclopædia Britannica
Secret societies in Singapore Organized crime groups in Malaysia Organised crime groups in Singapore History of Perak Triad groups Chinese secret societies Hokkien-language phrases Teochew culture in Singapore {{asia-hist-stub