Wong Nai Siong

Farming and Study

Wong Nai Siong was born in 1849 in Minqing, Fujian, into a family that both farmed and studied; his father made a living by carpentry and farming. From childhood he worked the fields while studying, and as an adult he sat the imperial examinations, earning the juren degree in 1894, so that he combined traditional scholarly rank with a view of the new learning.

Coming to Faith and Serving

On December 16, 1866, at the age of 17, Wong was baptized and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, becoming one of the early Chinese believers in Fuzhou. Carefully trained by the missionary Nathan Sites (许扬美), he studied the Bible closely and became fluent in English. He served as a preacher and for many years worked on editing, translating and publishing Christian books and periodicals, serving the church through the written word. His conversion as a young man and his ordination as a preacher laid the foundation of a life built on faith.

Reform and the Press

China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, in which his third younger brother, Huang Naimo (黄乃模), executive officer of the cruiser Zhiyuan, died alongside Deng Shichang (邓世昌), wounded Wong deeply. He went north, came to know Kang Youwei (康有为), and threw himself into the reform movement. In 1896 he founded Fu Bao in Fuzhou, the first modern newspaper in Fujian, advocating reform to strengthen the nation; the paper reached the capital and was valued by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao (梁启超). In the Wuxu year (1898), during the reform movement, he joined other reformers in repeatedly submitting memorials to the throne. After the reform failed he was wanted by the Qing court as a leading offender, so he fled south and eventually reached Singapore.

Opening New Foochow

In exile Wong did not lose heart; instead he turned his desire to save his country into a settlement venture. In May 1900 he signed a settlement agreement with Charles Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak, travelled up the Rajang River to survey the land, and chose Sibu as the site. From 1901 to 1902 he led some 1,100 or more Fuzhou villagers, most of them Christians, south to Sibu in three groups. Clearing the jungle, they established the "New Foochow" settlement. He was chosen as its kangchu (headman), allotted land, started primary schools, built churches and set up the New Foochow Company to trade in rice and salt, so that the Fuzhou people put down roots in the rainforest of Borneo. In June 1904 he handed the running of the settlement to the American missionary James Hoover and returned to China. The settlement later grew into Sibu's thriving Fuzhou community and an important center of the church.

Joining the Revolution

Back in China, Wong's patriotism turned toward revolution. In 1906 he met Sun Yat-sen in Singapore and joined the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance). In the battle to liberate Fuzhou during the 1911 Revolution he gathered students into a unit and carried the banner in support; after the liberation he became deputy head of the Administrative Council of the Fujian military government and concurrently director of its Communications Department. In his later years he remained concerned for the welfare of his home region; in 1914 he was arrested for a time for firmly opposing the opium trade, and was released after support from many quarters. In 1923 he returned to his hometown of Minqing because of liver disease, and he died on September 22 of the following year at the age of 75.

Faith and Country

Wong Nai Siong's life fused Christian faith, love of his country and overseas Chinese settlement: he began as a preacher and went on to be a reformer, newspaperman, pioneer settler and revolutionary, yet faith remained the inner force that carried him across the oceans to open new land. "New Foochow" in Sibu still remembers this pioneer, and his name lives on in the shared memory of Chinese Christians and the overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia.