Siu Yong Yeung

Siu Yong Yeung (蕭?) (c. 1886 – 1941)

Member of the Singapore Wharf Workers' Mutual Help Association 星洲碼頭工友互助會會員
Bukit Brown Cemetery, Block 4, Division 3, Plot 592

Summary: Siu Yong Yeung (c. 1886 – 12 May 1941) is a wharf worker buried at Bukit Brown Cemetery, Block 4 Division 3, Plot 592, whose weathered headstone, now gripped by tree roots, carries that number, the name of his union, the Singapore Wharf Workers' Mutual Help Association 星洲碼頭工友互助會, and an ancestral place that appears to be Fuzhou 福州 (carved 福洲). His given name and surname are only partly legible on the stone, so his identification with the burial register entry rests on the grave number and the surname. Like Hong Kim Hock 方亞來, who died in July 1940, he was buried under his union's name; he died about seven months before the Japanese invasion of Malaya. This record transcribes the visible inscription, sets out the register entry, and places him among Singapore's Foochow (Fuzhou) labourers.

Tomb Inscription 墓碑銘文

碑文	Transcription / Meaning
592	Grave number cut at the top of the stone, matching plot 592 in the burial register.
星洲碼頭工友互助會	"Singapore Wharf Workers' Mutual Help Association", the union of Chinese harbour coolies registered in April 1939. Here the union's name stands in place of the family's usual dedication.
福洲	Ancestral home (籍貫): Fuzhou 福州, Fujian. The stone is carved 洲 where 州 is intended, the same variant as in 星洲 for Singapore. This records where his family hailed from, not necessarily where he was born.
蕭 xx  (given name hidden)	The first character is 蕭 (Siu / Siew / Sieu), matching the register,  the given name (Yong Yeung in the register) cannot be read from the photograph.

Notes on the inscription:

• The union as family. As with Hong Kim Hock 方亞來, the stone names the Mutual Help Association where a family would normally carve its own dedication, and no son, widow or erector is legible. Because most of the tomb face is hidden, the absence of kin cannot be asserted as firmly as in Hong's case, but the layout, a bare number and the union's name followed by the ancestral place, is the same.
• Matching the register. The stone's number 592 corresponds to Block 4 Division 3 Plot 592 in the burial register, which is how the entry was found. Since the given name on the stone cannot be read, the identification rests on the grave number and the visible surname, which agrees with the register's Siu.
• Romanisation. "Siu Yong Yeung" looks like a Cantonese-style rendering by a registry clerk; the man himself, as a Foochow speaker, would have been called something like Sieu in his own dialect. The register's romanisation should not be taken to indicate his dialect.
• A stone swallowed by a tree. The slab has been lifted and tilted by the roots of a tree, a common fate of unattended Bukit Brown graves, and its surface is eroded.

Burial Register 埋葬記錄

Name	Siu Yong Yeung
Age	55 (born c. 1886)
Date of death	12 May 1941 (17th day of the 4th lunar month, year 辛巳)
Date of interment	13 May 1941
Location	Bukit Brown Blk 4, Division 3, Plot 592
Note	Identification based on the tomb number and the visible surname, not on a legible full name.

Short Biography 生平簡介

Almost nothing is known of Siu Yong Yeung beyond the stone and the register. He was born about 1886, a man whose family traced its origin to Fuzhou 福州, the provincial capital of Fujian, and he died aged 55 on 12 May 1941 and was buried the next day. The Foochow (Fuzhou) people arrived in Singapore later and in smaller numbers than the Hokkien and Teochew; they are best known for coffee shops and hairdressing, and later immigrants and minority dialect groups such as the Foochow were frequently regarded as labourers (Culturepaedia; BiblioAsia).

That he was buried under the name of the Singapore Wharf Workers' Mutual Help Association shows that he worked on the wharves and belonged to the union Lee Choo Liang 李秋良 had led until his death in September 1940 (Lee Choo Liang record). Together with Hong Kim Hock, a Hockchia (Fuqing) man, he makes the point that the association's membership was not drawn from one dialect group: a Hockchia and a Foochow worker both lie under its name, in a union whose first committee included men with Foochow-area names (Nanyang Siang Pau, 24 May 1939).

He died in the last year of peace. Within seven months Japanese forces had landed in Malaya, and Singapore was bombed on the first night of the invasion, 8 December 1941. I have found no trace of the association after 1940, and its members' graves are among the few lasting traces of it. No obituary or other newspaper notice of Siu Yong Yeung has been traced; the fuller context for the union is in the records of Lee Choo Liang and Hong Kim Hock.

Sources 資料來源

• Headstone, Bukit Brown Cemetery, Block 4 (field photograph and transcription, S.T.E.M.).
• Municipal burial register, Bukit Brown Cemetery: Siu Yong Yeung, aged 55, died 12 May 1941, interred 13 May 1941, Blk 4 Div 3 plot 592.
• "The Foochow community in Singapore", Culturepaedia, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre. culturepaedia.singaporeccc.org.sg
• "Chinese Dialect Groups and Their Occupations in 19th and early 20th century Singapore", BiblioAsia, National Library Board. biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg
• Nanyang Siang Pau, 24 May 1939, via NewspaperSG.
• Related records: Lee Choo Liang 李秋良; Hong Kim Hock 方亞來.
• Lunar–Gregorian conversion checked with a perpetual calendar: 12 May 1941 = 17th day of the 4th month, year 辛巳.

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About this record. This entry is part of Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials (S.T.E.M.) 新加坡墓碑銘集录, a specialised digital documentation project and archive recording historical tomb inscriptions in Singapore, with a focus on Bukit Brown Cemetery 武吉布朗坟场 (Kopi Sua 咖啡山) and other early Chinese burial grounds. Each record transcribes the original Chinese inscription, gives an English translation, cross-checks it against the burial register, and adds a short biography drawn from contemporary newspapers and archival sources.

Cite this entry as:
Raymond Goh. "Siu Yong Yeung." Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials (S.T.E.M.), tombs.bukitbrown.org, https://tombs.bukitbrown.org/2026/10/siu-yong-yeung.html. Accessed [date].

Keywords: Siu Yong Yeung, 蕭, Bukit Brown Cemetery, 武吉布朗, Singapore Wharf Workers' Mutual Help Association, 星洲碼頭工友互助會, Foochow, Fuzhou 福州, 福洲, wharf coolie, Tanjong Pagar, mutual aid society burial, Singapore labour history 1941, Chinese tomb inscriptions Singapore, Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials, S.T.E.M.