余氏总会 (新加坡）
yee clan association
(singapore)
Created by PYee
21/12/2012
余子基
Yee Clan, Yee Clan Association, Yee Clan community, Singapore
The original signboard.
会史
History continued
由于余氏家塾只限四邑人氏参加，遂有客籍宗亲因拟组织余氏公会而于报章刊登招幕会员的新闻，当时具有远见的领导层认为余氏家塾应开放门户。接纳其他籍贯余氏宗亲入会，会务才能发扬，于是委派代表与当时的客籍宗亲代表余镜威会晤，大家在融洽的气氛下商议 后，对于组织宗亲会的宗旨取得共识，余氏家塾遂修改会章，容纳各籍余氏宗亲加入，而客籍余氏宗亲数十人也即刻入会，实行大团结。由此余氏家塾的会员，不仅有四邑人。也有客家人，福建人，潮州人甚至福州人，而余氏家塾的名称也于1950年改为余氏总会。
余氏总会易名之后，会员人数不断增加，而会所面积狭小，不敷应用，董事部同人于是发起自置会所的宏愿o 1954年7月11日成立筹置会所小组, 由余汝轼担任主任，委员有鹤年、国宁、隆安、炳昂、栋新、泽华和瑞标，于大世界游艺场公演粤剧发动筹款，结果全场爆满，现已作古的炳亮宗老先生当时也是热心支持者之一。1954年11月19日，由董事会通过，’向余东漩家族以特优价格两万元购得武吉巴梳路9号二层楼现址。另加装修及补贴住户的搬迁费用等共2万7仟余元，因筹置会所基金不足，尚差欠1万2仟元，由互助部免息借出。会所经过一番装修后，于1957年5月4日（农历四月初五日）开始迁入办公，至今已有37年的历史。以目前我国寸土如金的环境，先贤们能深具远见，及时购买产业，对后辈宗亲族人，在推展会务的工作上，提供非常有利的条件。
....回去
The association was then relocated to Ann Siang Hill (known as Da Men Lou). The encouraging recruitment result did not only motivated the management committee to work even harder for its members, but the encouraging sentiment also went on and touched the hearts of members. It laid a good and solid foundation for the future development of the association.
In the early years, most of the association members were single bachelors who had just arrived from China, they did not have a permanent place to settle down. Thus, the 'Yee Family Association' was used as a place for members to gather news from the relatives in China through their friends. Every evening many members were patiently awaiting at the association office for letters from their homeland. They also gathered there to look for job opportunity from their friends. At that time, almost every evening the association was packed and filled with all kind of noise; there were people playing chess and cards, chitchatting, drinking, singing, playing musical instruments and doing other activities for relaxing and to get rid of loneliness.
As the Cantonese were more dominant in the membership, there came a group of Khek Yee personnel who advertised on the local newspapers to recruit members for another clan association. Some of the clan leaders realised that there was a need to unite all the Yee personnel, regardless of their dialect groups to stay together under one roof. They decided that the association should be open to all other dialect groups, and not just confined to only Taishan people. Later, representatives were sent to discuss with the Khek Group leaders. Shortly after that, an agreement was made to amend or refine the association rules and regulations to accept memberships from other dialect ethnics. Immediately after this amendment was effected there were about sixty to seventy Khek people joined the association to show the big unity among the Yee Clan personnel in Singapore. Since then
its memberships started to include Khek, Hokkien, Teochew, Fuzhou and other Yee Clan people. In 1950 the 'Yee Clan Family Association' was renamed as 'Singapore Yee Clan Association'.
After the renaming of the association, memberships had grown rapidly and office became too cramped for its activities. To overcome the problem, the Board of Directors initiated a move to raise fund for the new association building. On 11th July 1954, an association building committee was set up to raise fund for the new premise. A Cantonese opera performance at the "Great World Amusement Centre" was organised. The response for the fund raising was overwhelming. On 19th November 1954, the committee spent twenty thousand dollars to purchase the present two storey building at 9 Bukit Pasoh Road from the Eu Tong Sen family at a special concession rate. Total expenditure including the renovation and tenants resettlement fees, all in was about twenty seven thousand dollars. The newly renovated association building was officially declared open on 4th May 1957. The Singapore well-known charity man the late Dr Ee Peng Liang, was then one of the activists who had helped in one way or another in promoting the clan activities and projects.
The Yee Clan Association building witnessed the most difficult years in the late seventies and early eighties when the memberships had dropped to its lowest. Today the Singapore Yee Clan Association stands high at the Bukit Pasoh Road, it is one of the active clan associations in Singapore. We are very fortunate and proud to have such a nice building to organise clan activities for its members. This is possible, especially when we are living in a fast changing and high cost of living society, we really must thank our predecessors who had got the foresight and wisdom to keep Yee Clan Association moving with history.
Referenced from:
Yee Clan Association
65th Anniversary Celebration Magazine.