Not Clan Associations, Not Mafias: The Hidden World of Singapore’s Early Chinese Secret Societies

I presented this article at the seminar REPRESENTATION OF THE MAFIAS, A Literary perspective across Asian secret societies and Camilleri's Sicily. The seminar was organised by the Ambasciata d'Italia Singapore and hosted at the Central National Library B1 Room 2 on 3rd November 2025 5.30-7.30pm.

 

Introduction — Unmasking the Secret Society

Singapore is one of the safest cities in the world. It is hard to imagine that barely over half a century ago, secret societies were still dominant on this island.

The term “Chinese secret society” evokes images of tattooed men, blood oaths, and underground rituals — a world of violence and crime. Yet, the Chinese secret societies that once flourished in Singapore were never simply gangs or mafias. Nor were they clan associations, though they shared the same language of kinship and solidarity. Mafias such as the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza were primarily driven by profit through criminal activities.

In contrast, clan associations were largely charity-based, providing free accommodation, schools, hospitals, cemeteries and funeral aid.

Early Chinese secret societies were not mafia.

Early secret societies were hybrid institutions — motivated by certain ideologies, part brotherhood, part social welfare network, part resistance movement — born out of hardship and exile. Understanding them requires looking beyond their surface to the ideals and anxieties of the Chinese migrants who formed them.

 

Roots in China: Brotherhood and Resistance

The story begins in southern China during the 18th century. In the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, resentment brewed among the Han Chinese under the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. From this unrest emerged the Tiandihui (天地会), or Heaven and Earth Society, which sought to “overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming” (反清复明).

Although the Tiandihui was banned in Qing Dynasty China, it was not a criminal organisation until the late 19th century in Singapore. Its rituals of loyalty and mutual protection drew inspiration from folk religion and popular literature, especially Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义) and The Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh, 水浒传). These tales of righteous heroes uniting against corrupt rulers shaped a moral vocabulary of brotherhood that resonated with the oppressed.

Tiandihui drew inspiration from the folk religion and popular literature.

When migrants from these provinces sailed for the Nanyang (Southeast Asia), they brought this code of solidarity with them. For the ‘sinkheh’ (新客), or newcomers, in foreign lands with no family or legal protection, a sworn brotherhood was not just symbolic; it was survival.

 

Arrival in Singapore: The First Brotherhoods

Singapore’s transformation into a British trading port in 1819 attracted waves of Chinese labourers and traders from Fujian and Guangdong provinces. The secret societies were rooted and formed Hui (会), kongsi (公司) and bang (帮) through brotherhood.

The early Chinese came from the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong in China.

The Ghee Hin (义兴) society was established in the 1820s, followed by the Ghee Hok, Hai San, Guandihui, etc. They traced their spiritual lineage to the Tiandihui. Their goals were part idealistic, part pragmatic: to support new arrivals, to provide loans and employment, and to defend members’ economic interests against rival groups or hostile employers.

Birth of the Ghee Hin and other secret societies as early as the 1820s.

At the same time, they assisted the police in maintaining order and referred offenders to the law enforcement agencies. Although the colonial government was aware of the existence of secret societies in the founding years, it was difficult to fully control them due to the weakness of the law enforcement force. For example, in 1830, there was only one magistrate and a dozen or so policemen. The authority had to rely on the leaders of these societies to help manage the community. 

The Ghee Hin and Ghee Hok drew mainly from migrants speaking Hokkien and Teochew dialects, while Hakka dominated the Hai San. In the absence of official labour structures, they controlled coolie labour, mediated disputes, and even ran gambling and opium farms. Colonial authorities alternated between tolerating and fearing them, depending on whether their activities generated revenue or unrest.

It should be noted that clan associations were already present at that time. However, their social influence was still not as significant as the secret societies.

 

Rituals, Loyalty, and Brotherhood

At the heart of the secret societies lay elaborate initiation ceremonies. New members knelt before ancestral tablets, took their oaths, pricked their fingers and drank the blood mixed with chicken blood, rice wine and spices. Such rituals bound them as “brothers” (兄弟) under Heaven and Earth, reinforced solidarity among men who had left their families behind.

At the heart of the secret societies lay elaborate initiation ceremonies and brotherhood.

Brotherhood, loyalty, and vengeance were not abstract ideals; they were codes of conduct that governed survival in a frontier society.

But with power came corruption. Over time, these brotherhoods, which meant to protect the weak, grew entangled in labour control, gambling, brothels and violence. By the 1840s, their rivalries erupted into open conflict.

 

The Age of Riots and Colonial Anxiety

Between the 1840s and 1880s, Singapore was rocked by repeated outbreaks of violence. For example:

·       1846: Riots between the Ghee Hin (20,000 members) and Guandihui (1000 members). The Guandihui launched an attack during the funeral procession of the deceased Ghee Hin’s leader. This was the first serious incident of gang conflict in Singapore's history, triggered by a shortage of plantation land and unclear land boundaries. 

·       1851: Anti-Catholic riots sparked by disputes with the Catholic Chinese plantations. Because the Catholic Teochew plantation owners did not pay protection fees, Ghee Hin attacked more than 20 plantations while the church presidency was on leave. The Teochew community leader Seah Eu Chin helped resolve the dispute. 

·       1854: The “Five Catty Rice Riots” between Hokkien and Teochew left over 500 dead. The anti-Qing Dagger Society’s Teochew members fled to Singapore for refuge. When a Hokkien rice merchant deliberately raised the price, the two sides evolved from a verbal dispute to a 10-day armed fight between Ghee Hok and Ghee Hin. The colonial government formed a mediation group comprising British merchant William Henry Macleod Read, the Hokkien community leader Tan Kim Seng, the Teochew community leader Seah Eu Chin and the Ghee Hok secret society leader Chua Moh Choon to sit down at a round table, which finally resolved the crisis.  It was again reported that Seah Eu Chin played a particularly prominent role in the final settlement. The British government appointed Seah as a justice of the peace, and he was elevated to the position of honorary magistrate in 1872. 

·       1876: The Post Office riot which was triggered by disputes over remittances. The Chinese and the colonial government came head-to-head over the Post Office Incident. At that time, there were more than 50,000 Chinese in Singapore. The remittances sent back to their homeland amounted to about 70,000 Spanish dollars yearly. The amount was expected to increase every year. The government set up the Post Office to handle remittances, on the pretext of protecting senders' money. Some Chinese merchants believed that the government aimed to monopolise the remittance market and take away their jobs. They encouraged members of secret societies to dismantle the Post Office and even threatened the lives of the Post Office staff. The government swiftly deployed the police to stabilise the situation. 

·       1888: The Verandah riot which was triggered by the ban on the use of the five-foot way. This was one of the tough measures the government took against secret societies after the attack on Pickering, the Chinese Protectorate.

To the British, these incidents confirmed that the Chinese were ungovernable and their secret societies inherently criminal. But the root causes were economic and social: dialect rivalry, job insecurity, and the lack of formal representation. It was a world of coercion, but also of desperation, reflecting the harsh realities of immigrant life rather than innate lawlessness.

Singapore Free Press reported the existence of secret societies in 1846.

 

Pickering and the Chinese Protectorate

In 1877, the colonial government established the Chinese Protectorate to regulate Chinese affairs. Its first head, William A. Pickering, was a rare official who understood Chinese culture. Having served in China and Formosa (Taiwan), he spoke Mandarin and several dialects, earning the respect of local leaders.

Pickering, in his writings, described the secret societies as “largely friendly societies”, dangerous mainly because of some of the lawless characters within them, not because of any political conspiracy. He believed the solution lay not in punishment but in understanding.

Under his leadership, the Protectorate registered societies, mediated disputes, and protected workers and women from abuse. Yet his reforms provoked hostility. In 1887, Pickering was attacked in his office by a carpenter named Chua Ah Sioh, reportedly incited by secret society headmen due to the government's tightened gambling control. The attack nearly killed Pickering and led to the Societies Ordinance of 1890, which banned all unregistered associations.

This new order was overseen by the governor, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith. Smith served in Hong Kong before taking up his new role in Singapore. He cited that secret societies were forbidden in China and Hong Kong. Such unlawful organisations being protected in Singapore for so many decades was something unimaginable. However, the Societies Ordinance did not eliminate secret societies. It merely drove them underground.

Pickering, Smith and the Societies Ordinance.

Indeed, the local Tiandihui participated in the fight against the Qing Dynasty. According to colonial government documents, three of the six leaders of the 1850s Amoy Dagger Society were Singaporeans, and most of the Dagger Society members were born abroad. About half a century later, some Chung Wo Tong (中和堂) members sneaked back to China to support Sun Yat-sen's Chinese Revolution. The Straits Times (November 22, 1936) reported that at the time of Sun Yat-sen's death, there were about 200,000 Chung Wo Tong members in Singapore. Apparently, the "anti-Qing" forces in Singapore were still strong.

In hindsight, about 80% Chinese migrants were male during Pickering's time. More than 60% of these male migrants were on the secret societies' name lists. If these people were largely disordered, Singapore would have become a ruin rather than a flourishing port city by the early 20th century.

Number of members and office bearers during Pickering's time.

 

Clan Associations and the Remaking of the Chinese Community

With the suppression of secret societies, clan associations (huiguan, 会馆) became more prominent. By the early 20th century, the leadership of the Chinese community had shifted decisively from the brotherhoods of the underworld to the boardrooms of the huiguan.

Where the secret societies operated through oaths and secrecy, clan associations relied on kinship, dialect, and place of origin. They were legitimate representatives of the Chinese community. For example, the Hokkien Huay Kuan (福建会馆), Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan (潮州八邑会馆), Cantonese Ning Yeung Wui Kuan (宁阳会馆), Hakka Wui Chiu Fui Kun (惠州会馆), Hainanese Hainan Hwee Kuan (海南会馆), among others.

In many cases, these associations executed the very functions that secret societies once performed, but within the law. They helped the poor, cared for the dead, and preserved Chinese cultural identity in a colonial setting. Today, there are more than 300 traditional clan associations in Singapore. Some of them are actively engaging in various Chinese cultural activities in the present English-dominant environment, while others are relatively quiet due to an ageing population.

Clan associations took on more significant roles.

 

The Afterlife of the Underworld

Large-scale secret societies re-emerged after WWII. A massive ritual gathering was held in Clementi Forest in 1948, signalling a possible revival. It had taken the colonial authority by surprise. The background of this mass gathering was to form a united front between the Penang and Singapore secret societies.

By the 1950s and 1960s, more than 300 unlawful secret societies were established in Singapore. The city was dubbed the “Chicago of the East”, plagued by gang violence, blackmail, kidnapping and territorial clashes. Even women formed their own groups, such as the “Red Butterfly”.

Chicago of the East.

Determined to restore order, the government launched multi-pronged efforts — combining policing, social reform, youth engagement, jobs and education. By the 1970s, large-scale organised secret societies had largely disappeared.

Yet traces of their past remain in street names like Ghee Hin Street (China Street), Hai San Street (Upper Cross Street) and Ghee Hok Street (Carpenter Street), in the quiet hall of Pu Zhao Chan Si (普照禅寺) where old society tablets rest, and in the collective memory of elder residents.

Traces of the secret societies' past.

Key members' resting place.

 

From Fear to Heritage

Researchers such as Tan Gia Lim, Wilfred Blythe and Irene Lim remind us that secret societies were products of migration and necessity. Their secrecy reflected exclusion from the colonial system, not inherent criminality. Their rituals and hierarchies were attempts to create order in a world that offered none.

Seen in this light, Singapore’s early Chinese secret societies were more about belonging. They remind us that the city’s foundations were not just official rulings, but also by informal networks of trust and obligation forged among the powerless.

Lessons and reflections.

 

Conclusion — Brotherhood, Fear, and Memory

To equate Chinese secret societies with “mafias” would misunderstand their origin. In comparison, the Sicilian mafia and Japanese yakuza were profit-driven syndicates; the Chinese brotherhoods were born from the moral language of loyalty and mutual aid.

They began as revolutionary dreams in China, evolved into survival networks in colonial Singapore. Legitimate clan associations had taken over their influence. Their story reflects the early days of Chinese migration — the struggle to find order, dignity and identity in a world of displacement.

 

Selected References

Annual Reports of the Chinese Protectorate (1877–1890)

Irene Lim, “The Chinese Protectorate”, Singapore Infopedia, NLB Singapore

Lee Kok Leong, The Dark Underworld: From China’s Tiandihui to Singapore Secret Societies (《黑道江湖》2025)

Lee Meiyu, “Chinese Clan Associations in Singapore: Then and Now”, BiblioAsia, Jul–Sep 2014

Lim Tin Seng, “Triads, Coolies and Pimps: Chinatown in Former Times”, BiblioAsia, Oct–Dec 2015

Makeswart Periasamy, “Heaven, Earth and Brotherhood”, BiblioAsia*, Jul–Sep 2017

Munshi Abdullah, Hikayat Abdullah (Oxford University Press, 1983)

Tan Gia Lim, “Insight into Late 19th Century Chinese Secret Societies in Singapore,” Journal of the South Seas Society, Vol. 77

Wilfred Blythe, The Impact of Chinese Secret Societies in Malaysia (Oxford University Press, 1969)

William A. Pickering, “Chinese Secret Societies,” in Triad Societies, ed. Kingsley Bolton & Christopher Hutton (Routledge, 2000)