CHINATOWN’S HERITAGE BUSINESSES

Last month, Chinatown held the third edition of its Five Foot Way Festival, which celebrates early Chinese immigrants and their trades, clans, arts and culture. The name comes from the “fivefoot way” – the continuous covered walkway (five feet in length) that links shophouses across Singapore.

The festival also acknowledges the many multigenerational businesses in Chinatown who still thrive today, despite rapid change and development. Here’s a quick look at three of them!

#1 Say Tian Hng Buddha Shop

Founded in 1896 by two brothers from Kinmen, Say Tian Hng Buddha shop has made, sold and repaired Taoist idols for well over a century. (Its business origins can be traced back to the 14th-century Ming dynasty!) Currently located at 35 Neil Road, Say Tian Hng is helmed by fourth generation co-owner Ng Tze Yong, and still produces the only handcrafted Taoist statues in Singapore. It also now offers educational programmes to locals and tourists.

#2 Tong Heng

Mr Fong Chee Heng began as a humble drinks vendor at Pasir Panjang in the late 1920s, before opening a shop in the heart of Chinatown in 1935 and expanding into Cantonese-style pastries. This was when his passion for pastries flourished, and the signature Tong Heng egg tart was born. Today, third-, fourth- and fifth-generation family members work in the business – one of Singapore’s oldest traditional Chinese pastry shops – producing the renowned handmade diamond-shaped egg tarts.

#3 On Cheong Jewellery

On Cheong was founded by Mr Ho

Yew Ping in 1936, who left Guangdong to work as a goldsmith apprentice in Penang and Ipoh. At 25, he came to Singapore and set up

On Cheong Goldsmith

– named for a Chinese idiom symbolising “peace and prosperity”. The shop relocated from North

Bridge Road to a site in Chinatown in 1941 (still one of its two locations now), where most Chinese immigrants resided. Today, this long-standing family-run business is known as On Cheong Jewellery.

Find out more at chinatown.sg.