Is Revenge Sweet?

I first encountered Wee Tong Poh's father 1894 tomb in the depths of Lao Sua.

I was immediately intrigued by the tomb couplet :

不求風水福  No need to wish for good fengshui 

但望子孫賢  Just need the descendants able and virtuous

There are not many tombs that give these kind of advice.  Who is this Wee Eng Sim and son Wee Tong Poh that erected this tomb

 I find out there was a certain Wee Tong Poh who wrote a story "Is  Revenge Sweet?"  first published in Volume 4 of  "The Straits Chinese Magazine in 1900 (started by two young Baba Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang)

In this revenge story,  it was a woman wrongly accused by a towkay wife to be a chap ji ki operator by planted evidence by the towkay wife accomplices - a police informer and a coolie.

Inspector Catspaw of the Gambling Suppression branch believed the story and convicted the poor woman.  The towkay wife became sick and was dying when she summoned
Dr Wee Tong Poh to make a confession.  She died at the same time as if choked to death by the wrongly convicted woman who died at similar time in prison by starving to death.

Full story can be found here :

http://www.pulauujong.org/straits-chinese-stories/is-revenge-sweet/

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Singapore did not produce the first medical graduate until 1910.  It is interesting that writer envisioned himself to be a Chinese medical doctor then.  Also interested is the Inspector name Catspaw, which comes from an idiom, meaning "the dupe of another"

Wee Tong Poh (Wee Thong Poh) did not become a doctor, but became a pioneering stockbroker, his company was Wee Thong Poh & Co .

His brother in law Yap Yeow Chin became a medical doctor and even became President of the Alumni Association of King Edward VII College of Medicine for the year 1932

The revenge of the poor woman comes in the form of retribution, but this story comes at the loss of 2 lives,  perhaps giving a warning to the ills of the gambling. And so, the revenge is not sweet at all .... 

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A few weeks ago,  I was responding to a tomb request when I noted a beautiful tomb in Blk 1 E.  As I am pretty tired,   i did not follow it up.

Two weeks ago,  I went with my fellow tomb explorers Ah Beng and Peter Pak, and this time, make effort to find back this tomb again.

To my surprise,  it is the tomb of Wee Tong Poh and his first wife  which I has been trying to find for quite some time.

With this tomb find,  I was able to find out more about his rich family background, and work out the relationship between him and Ong Boon Tat/ Ong Peng Hock family, proprietors of New World.

I was also able to work out the families of the 3 Lim sisters :

He has two wives, the first wife was the daughter of the eldest of the 3 Lim sisters (eldest married a Mr Yap, one  married Tan Cheng Tuan, and another  married Wee Theam Seng, more to follow on these sisters)

His second wife was the granddaughter of Tan Kwee Eng, son in law of Cheang Hong Lim

Further reading :

https://tombs.bukitbrown.org/2021/02/wee-tong-poh.html?m=1

More to follow ......