Wong Nai Siong is probably one of the best-known pioneers to arrive in Sibu, Sarawak, from China. Wong was born on July 25, 1849 in Fujian province in China. In 1866, missionaries from the United States belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Mission came to his village. Wong was one of the earliest converts and was baptised at the age of 17 on December 16, 1866. 

The following year, Rev Xu Yang Mei accepted him as an assistant and mentored him for two years. During this time, Wong became proficient in English by reading the Bible in English. In 1869, he was appointed a preacher of the East Street Chapel of Fujian after receiving a probationary preacher’s licence from the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Wong’s father was a carpenter-cum-farmer. The eldest of four children, Wong had been educated in a traditional village school but he harboured the dream of becoming a scholar. In 1877, he was awarded the rank of shengyuan at the county level in the imperial examination, attaining second place.^[1] Seventeen years later, in 1894, he would join the ranks of intellectuals in China when he passed the provincial level exam and became a juren, attaining 30th place. 

Between 1872 and 1895, he translated a wide range of Christian literature, including tracts and books, into Chinese. Wong would later become known throughout China as an influential translator, editor, essayist and publisher.  

In 1894, the First Sino-Japanese War broke out. Wong’s third brother, who served in the Chinese navy, died in this war which Japan won. Wong then joined reformist leader Kang You Wei in advocating for reform in China, and started the first Christian newspaper on political reform in 1897. The reform movement failed after being crushed by the Empress Dowager in 1898. The six top leaders of the movement were arrested and executed. Wong was number 11 on the wanted list. He managed to escape from Beijing and sought refuge in Fujian. 

In September 1899, he travelled to Singapore where his eldest daughter, Margaret, had settled after marrying a prominent Singaporean Chinese leader and physician by the name of Dr Lim Boon Keng. Wong managed to secure a job as an editor in a local newspaper while exploring various places in Malaya, Sumatra and the Dutch East Indies for a place to resettle. 

In April 1900, he explored the Rajang River Basin area in Sarawak. At that time, Sir Charles Anthony Johnson Brooke, the second “white rajah” of Sarawak, was seeking hard-working Chinese migrant workers to open up the vast virgin jungles for the cultivation of cash crops. The first group of Chinese migrant settlers had arrived in 1898 under the care of the Basel Mission Society. 

In May 1900, Wong Nai Siong made an agreement with Sir Charles Brooke to bring in 1,000 Fuzhou settlers to start an agricultural colony in the Rajang River Basin. He scouted for the best location for a settlement during a 13-day trip upriver and finally chose Sibu as it had the distinct advantage of a nearby river (Sungai Merah) providing fresh water for drinking and irrigation. A loan from Sir Charles Brooke of $30,000 was secured to cover the transportation cost of bringing the settlers from China and to build homes and roads in the new settlement. 

Back in Fujian, Wong’s recruitment exercise was focused on the Fuzhou Christians of the Methodist Episcopal Church with which he had strong connections. Many of the potential settlers viewed this as an opportunity to escape the ongoing Boxer Rebellion and drought in their hometown. They came to Sibu, labelled as the “New Foochow”, in three waves. 

The first wave of 72 immigrants arrived in Sibu on January 12, 1901. Nineteen had actually absconded along the way. The second wave which numbered 535, led by Wong himself, arrived on March 16, 1901, a day recognised by Fuzhous as the “New Foochow Resettlement Day”. The new community appointed Wong as their leader or kang choo, literally meaning “port master”. Each settler was given five acres of land for farming.

A second loan of $10,000 from the Sarawak government was needed to bring in more settlers. On June 7, 1902, the third wave of 511 Fuzhou migrants arrived. The total number of settlers was 1,118. Three years later, as many as 200 settlers had either died from cholera, malaria and typhoid or had deserted to other places such as Kuching, Sitiawan and Singapore. 

As the settlers were mostly Methodists, the Methodist Episcopal Mission, led by Bishop Francis W. Warne, missionary bishop for India and Southeast Asia, was very supportive of these settlers. He even accompanied some of the settlers from Singapore to Sibu. Eventually, he transferred Reverend Ling Ching Mi of the Malaya Methodist Mission to Sibu to help resettle the new migrants. Reverend Ling stayed for only three months, from May to July 1901. Although nothing substantial was achieved, some basic foundations of religious life were put in place. 

Transforming the hostile, dense tropical forest into the “New Foochow” was a very daunting task. The pioneer settlers faced swampy soil conditions, pest infestation and frequent floods. The vision of becoming self-supporting in six months through rice planting was unattainable. 

Apart from tending to his own farm, Wong devoted much of his time to preaching to fellow settlers who were not Christian, and many were converted. To meet the basic needs of the new settlers, he started the New Foochow Company which sold rice and salt. A primary school and five churches were also built to serve the educational and religious needs of the settlers.

On the financial front, however, things were not looking good. Wong’s funds from the loans were shrinking fast. In addition, one of his partners had absconded with a huge sum of money. To repay the loan, Wong started to impose taxes on the settlers. The disgruntled farmers were unhappy and accused him of collecting taxes without the rajah’s permission. According to historian Chang Pat Foh in Legends and History of Sarawak (1999), Wong was subsequently arrested but released soon afterwards. Matters deteriorated further when he objected vehemently to the local opium trade and gambling dens. Opposition to his leadership gradually became louder and more intense.

Soon, his position as leader became untenable. In June 1904, he decided to return to China. Reverend James Hoover, who had been appointed as the first foreign missionary to Sibu by the Methodist Episcopal Mission in 1903, replaced him. Hoover persuaded the rajah to waive all the previous outstanding loans. New crops like rubber and pepper were introduced and became a success. 

Wong revisited Singapore numerous times. While in Singapore again in June 1906, he met Sun Yat-Sen and joined Sun in the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance. Both men shared similar values on political reformation and selfless public service based on Christian teachings. They became close friends while trying to revolutionise China. 

In 1909, the Chinese government began to promote the establishment of a constitution and Wong was elected as a committee member for Fujian province. During his term, he promoted farming and industrialisation and a prohibition on the sale of opium. In 1910, he became chairman of the Fujian YMCA.

Two years later, he relinquished his provincial position due to ill health although the politics of the times could have played a part. He was a vocal opponent of opium but, in 1914, he was arrested and given a life sentence for obstructing the “smoke ban” campaign. He was set free a few months later after pressure from abroad. 

In 1920, Sun Yat-Sen made Wong a consultant in the Grand Marshal’s Office and later, at the Fujian Provincial Office. However, Wong was diagnosed with a liver ailment in July 1923 and he returned home to Minqing county.

Wong died on September 22, 1924 at the age of 75. His four short years of pioneering work in Sarawak had a huge and lasting impact, and members of the Fuzhou community went on to play important roles in the development of the state’s economy. In Sibu, his legacy is commemorated through the Wong Nai Siong Memorial Garden, and he also has a school and road named after him.