In 1896, as the Qing Dynasty crumpled in China amid popular uprisings and suppression by Western powers, two brothers, on the cusp of adulthood, took a chance and left to seek a brighter future in Singapore.

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After surviving a perilous one-month journey by boat, they arrived in the booming British colony. There, they set up an overseas branch of the family's business, which had already by then a storied history.

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Our family's ancestors had learnt the skills a half-century before, around 1840, from a master artisan named Beh Kwee Kee (马开基) in Tong'an​, Nan’an county (同安, 南安县), Quanzhou of southern Fujian Province. Out of courtesy, the 2nd generation of artisans felt it was not appropriate to compete with our master’s descendants. In 1891, they migrated to Kinmen Island (金门岛), just off the coast of Xiamen and today a part of modern-day Taiwan.

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There on the rustic island, they established Say Tian Kok (西天国). Translated as "Kingdom of Western Heaven", a reference to the divine abode of the Buddha, it was run by 黄展成 (1843 - 1904), then in the midst of passing down the skills to the 3rd generation, 2 of whom would set sail to Singapore in 1896.

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In Singapore, one brother (黄卓丙) ran the new overseas branch Say Tian Kok while the other (黄卓水) started a second business making bowls at China Street. However, after this business failed, he left to seek his fortunes in Siam (modern-day Thailand), where he started a Chinese puppetry troupe, using his skills to carve wooden puppets.

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Back in Singapore, 黄卓丙 died unexpectedly in 1907, newly married and still childless. When his widow remarried, 黄卓水 was asked to return from Siam to take over the business. He did so with his newly-wed Thai wife and went on to run Say Tian Kok for the next 40 years.

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In 1947, just as the dust was settling after the horrors of WWII, 黄卓水 passed away. He had not designated a successor. Both his sons, the elder Ng Tian Sang (黄天送) and the younger Ng Yew Kian (黄猶建), were skilled craftsmen and willing to take over. To decide, a religious ritual was conducted at the family altar, presided over by a Daoist priest. Ng Tian Sang was chosen, and took over the shop, with the condition that he would have to provide for not only his own, but also the extended family. He was barely 24.

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However, 7 years later, in 1954, he gave up the shop to his brother, 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) had married into the shop in 1949 at the age of 18. ​​

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Tan was the only female craftsman in the shop, learning the skills of this male-dominated trade by observing her husband, and experimenting in short busts when her husband left for a toilet or coffee break. Within a year, the young lady, barely 19, was able to work independently, specialising in the early Qing Dynasty technique of thread sculpture (Qī Xiàn / 漆线), whereby holy joss stick ash is turned into a dough thread, then twirled and coiled to create the intricate relief motifs on the robes and armour of the deities. Husband and wife ran the business while juggling raising 7 children, all born within the span of 10 years, ​in the tumultuous 1950s as a defiant Singapore resisted the resumption of British rule.

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Up north, China was gradually engulfed in turmoil of its own. In the 1960s and 70s, the Cultural Revolution swept across China, dealing a devastating blow to places of worship and craftsmen involved in statue-making. As many shops closed, our parent shop in Kinmen Island survived as it had by then, in the chaos of the earlier civil war, been subsumed into modern-day Taiwan by the retreating Republican government, beyond the reach of the Communist revolutionaries caught up in the Cultural Revolution. The parent shop hung on until the 2010s, when it finally closed due to a lack of successors.​ In Singapore, Say Tian Kok faced a lack of successors as well, and ​​closed in the 1990s.

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Say Tian Hng barely made it across to the its 5th generation when eldest son, 28-year-old Ng Yeow Hua (黄耀华) stepped up in 1980, the year he became a father.

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That first child, Ng Tze Yong (黄智勇), would start his apprenticeship 4 decades later, in 2021, taking Say Tian Hng across into the 6th generation.

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Notes: 黄卓丙 was also known as 黄丙辰 and Ng Bia Sin. 黄卓水 was also known as 黄壬水 and Ng Lim Chwee.