The Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall was the former headquarters of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance (also known as the Tong Meng Hui) in Southeast Asia. This villa was built in 1902 by Boey Chuan Poh, a merchant who named it Bin Chan House, possibly after his horse.
In 1905, local businessman Teo Eng Hock bought the villa to serve as a retirement home for his mother and renamed it Wan Qing Yuan (Mandarin for “Serene Sunset Villa”). In late 1905, Teo offered the villa to Dr Sun Yat Sen, leader of the Tong Meng Hui, for his revolutionary activities. With the support of the overseas Chinese communities, Dr Sun’s forces launched a series of uprisings against the Qing dynasty and eventually overthrew the Chinese imperial government in 1911.
The building was reopened as the Sun Yat Sen Villa in 1966. It was gazetted as a National Monument in 1994, and renamed the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in 1997. The building’s galleries were revamped and reopened in 2011 to present the 1911 Chinese Revolution from the perspective of the overseas Chinese communities in the region.
Today, the building is owned by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and managed as a heritage institution under the National Heritage Board.
