In 1896, as the Qing Dynasty crumpled in China amid popular uprisings and suppression by Western powers, two young brothers 黄卓丙 (left) and 黄卓水 (right) left Kinmen Island to seek a brighter future in Singapore.

​​

In the booming British colony after a perilous one-month journey by boat, they set up an overseas branch of the family's business, which already had by then a storied history. Our family's ancestors had apprenticed under a master craftsman sometime in the Ming Dynasty (pre-1644) in Tong'an​, Nan’an county (同安, 南安县), Quanzhou of southern Fujian Province.

​

Out of courtesy, our ancestors felt it was not appropriate to compete with
our master’s descendants, and migrated to Kinmen Island, just off the coast of Xiamen and today a part of modern-day Taiwan.

​

There, they establishing Say Tian Kok (西天国). Translated as "Kingdom of Western Heaven", a reference to the abode of the Buddha, it was the original name of our shop. 

​

Shortly after helping to set up the shop in 1896, 黄卓水 left Singapore to seek his fortunes in Thailand, leaving his brother to run the business. There, he broke into the puppetry businesses where wood carving was also involved. However, when 黄卓丙 passed away suddenly, 黄卓水 returned to Singapore, grief-stricken, with a Thai wife, to take over the fledging business.

​

When he too passed away in the 1940s, he had not designated a successor. Two of his sons, the elder Ng Tian Sang (黄天送) and the younger Ng Yew Kian (黄猷建) were skilled craftsmen and willing to take over. A religious ritual was conducted at the family altar, presided over by a Taoist priest, to decide who would take over. Ng Tian Sang was chosen, with the condition that, since he would oversee the income from the shop, he must now also help to support Ng Yew Kian’s family.

​

Ng Tian Sang accepted this responsibility, and took over the shop. However, the arrangement ended up being inequitable for Ng Tian Sang. To preserve family harmony, he gave up the shop to his brother in 1954 and set up his own down the street. This shop was named Say Tian Hng (西天园). Translated as "Garden of Western Heaven", the name was given by Ng Tian Sang's mother-in-law, whose daughter Tan Chwee Lian (陈水莲) married into the shop as an 18-year-old in 1949. To honour the lineage established in the religious ritual, we cite 1896 as the founding year of Say Tian Hng. 

​​

Ng Tian Sang and Tan Chwee Lian ran the business while raising 7 children, born within the span of 10 years. Tan was the only female craftsman in the shop, learning the secret skills of this male-dominated trade by observing her husband, and experimenting when her husband left for the toilet or coffee breaks. Within a year, the young mother was able to work independently, specialising in the early Qing Dynasty technique of thread sculpture (漆线), whereby holy joss stick ash is used to create the intricate motifs on the robes of statues.

​

Meanwhile, China was engulfed in a new wave of turmoil. As the Cultural Revolution erupted across China in the 1960s and 70s, it dealt a devastating blow to religious worship and craftsmen involved in statue-making. Our original shop in Kinmen Island survived, as it had become subsumed into modern-day Taiwan, and beyond the reach of the communist revolutionaries. The shop hung on until the 2010s, when it finally closed due to a lack of successors.​ In Singapore, Say Tian Kok had closed in the 1990s, also due to a lack of successors.

​​

Say Tian Hng barely made it across to the third generation with eldest son Ng Yeow Hua (黄耀华) stepping up in 1980, the year his first child was born, and single-handedly keeping the shop afloat since the 2000s.

​​

That first child, Ng Tze Yong (黄智勇), started apprenticing in 2021, taking Say Tian Hng into its 4th generation.