Teck Soon Medical Hall Singapore: A Living Heritage of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- lionheartlanders
- 1 day ago
- 12 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
Teck Soon Medical Hall Singapore is more than just a shop – it is a living museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) heritage nestled in the heart of Chinatown. Established in the mid-20th century, this family-run medical hall has been serving Singapore’s community for decades, bridging ancient healing practices with modern city life. In an era where gleaming clinics and pharmacies abound, stepping into Teck Soon Medical Hall offers a rare glimpse into the past.
Its rich history, cultural significance, and continued relevance make it an invaluable part of Singapore’s heritage. And today, guided learning journeys (such as the Outdoor School Learning Journeys by Lion Heartlanders) help bring these living heritage sites to life for students and visitors, connecting them with traditions that have shaped the nation’s cultural tapestry.
Origins and Early History of Teck Soon Medical Hall
Teck Soon Medical Hall’s story began in 1963, when founder Chow Chee Yik opened a tiny shop along Sago Lane in Chinatown. Operating out of just half a rented shophouse space, Mr. Chow stocked his store with medicinal herbs and remedies, catering to the health needs of early Chinese immigrants. Sago Lane was an unlikely cradle for a healing business – the street was infamously nicknamed “Street of the Dead” because of the many funeral parlours and hospices located there. Amid this sombre backdrop, Teck Soon Medical Hall offered a source of wellness and comfort, its presence a poignant contrast of life-affirming care amid end-of-life traditions.
In those early years, the medical hall was truly a humble family enterprise. Mr. Chow, who had learned the trade by apprenticeship and hands-on experience, would dispense herbal prescriptions from wooden drawers while sharing advice in Cantonese or Hokkien with his predominantly Chinese clientele. Despite its modest beginnings, the shop gained a loyal following due to Mr. Chow’s commitment to authenticity and quality – values that would continue to define Teck Soon Medical Hall in the decades ahead.
By 1967, just a few years after opening, Teck Soon Medical Hall had grown enough to be formally established as a private limited company. However, change was on the horizon for Chinatown. The late 1960s ushered in urban renewal projects that marked the end of many old streets and trades. In 1969, Sago Lane’s “death houses” and surrounding shophouses were slated for redevelopment, prompting Teck Soon Medical Hall to relocate. The business moved a short distance to 281 South Bridge Road, a bustling thoroughfare on the edge of Chinatown.
This address – a historic shophouse just around the corner from the Sri Mariamman Temple – became the new main branch and home of Teck Soon Medical Hall. Notably, the various relocations and changes in the vicinity did not dent the medical hall’s business, thanks to the family’s adaptability and a faithful customer base.
Timeline of Teck Soon Medical Hall
To appreciate Teck Soon Medical Hall’s journey, here is a timeline of key historical milestones in its development:
Year | Milestone |
1963 | Mr. Chow Chee Yik opens the first Teck Soon Medical Hall as a small half-shop on Sago Lane in Chinatown, offering traditional herbal medicines to the local community. |
1967 | Teck Soon Medical Hall is formally incorporated as a family-run company (Teck Soon Medical Hall Pte Ltd). |
1969 | The shop relocates from Sago Lane to 281 South Bridge Road (Chinatown), where its main branch remains to this day. This move was due to urban renewal in the Chinatown area. |
1982 | A small innovation yields big results – Teck Soon begins displaying its Chinese medicinal herbs at the storefront instead of keeping them hidden in drawers, attracting customers with the sight and aroma of its products. This modern retail approach helps boost business. |
1985 | Second-generation successor Chow Khai Shui (son of the founder) graduates as a certified TCM physician from Chung Hwa Medical Institution and joins the family practice. He and his siblings gradually take over day-to-day operations, blending formal TCM training with inherited wisdom. |
2000s | Expansion years – Teck Soon Medical Hall opens additional branches. By the 2010s, the family business has grown to four outlets across Singapore, run by Mr. Chow’s children. |
2020s | Recognition as a heritage business – Teck Soon Medical Hall is featured in heritage trails and research. It is among the Chinatown old shops documented in a National Heritage Board-supported study on historic small businesses, highlighting its cultural value and resilience through the decades. |
TCM in Singapore: Cultural Heritage and Community Healing
The story of Teck Soon Medical Hall is intertwined with the broader history of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Singapore. TCM first took root locally in the 19th century with the influx of Chinese immigrants. In a new land far from home, these immigrants brought along millennia-old healing practices to treat illnesses and maintain health. Long before modern hospitals were accessible to Singapore’s Chinese community, medical halls and sinsehs (TCM physicians) were the primary caregivers for many. They provided herbal remedies, acupuncture, and comfort, all in accordance with Chinese medical theories of balancing yin and yang and harmonising the body.
By the late 1800s and early 1900s, TCM establishments ranged from humble shopfront dispensaries to large charitable clinics. For instance, the renowned Eu Yan Sang medical hall opened its first Singapore shop in 1910, offering affordable remedies to migrant workers. Eu Yan Sang’s name (“caring for mankind” in Cantonese) reflected its mission – beyond selling herbs, it even helped immigrants remit money home and wrote letters for the illiterate.
This illustrates how medical halls were not just businesses but also vital community hubs. Likewise, other institutions like the Singapore Thong Chai Medical Institution (founded in 1867) provided free TCM consultation and medicine to the poor, while the Singapore Chinese Physicians’ Association established clinics such as Chung Hwa Medical Institution by the mid-20th century. Together, these practitioners and halls laid the foundation for TCM’s enduring presence in Singapore.
Within this tapestry, family-run shops like Teck Soon Medical Hall played a crucial role at the grassroots level. Located in the heart of Chinatown’s Cantonese enclave, Teck Soon catered especially to everyday folks – hawkers, coolies, opera troupe members and housewives – who depended on traditional remedies for common ailments. In the mid-20th century, Western medicine was available but often expensive or culturally unfamiliar to the older generation.
TCM offered an accessible alternative that aligned with their beliefs and experiences. A simple visit to Teck Soon Medical Hall could help soothe a feverish child with cooling herbs, relieve an elderly person’s arthritis with a herbal poultice, or restore vitality to a tired laborer with an invigorating tonic. The medical hall was a place of solace where the scent of ginseng and angelica root wafted through the air, and where patients could speak in their mother tongues about symptoms of “heatiness” or “wind” in the body – concepts understood in the lexicon of Chinese health culture.
Notably, Teck Soon’s proprietors and staff were part of the community they served. Mr. Chow Chee Yik and later his children built trust with customers through empathetic service and word-of-mouth reputation. This community grounding is one reason Teck Soon has been able to weather changes over the years. As heritage researcher Lynn Wong observed, traditional shopkeepers in Chinatown were often “forerunners in their industry, introducing concepts that have become the norm today and working closely with the community to meet new needs.” Teck Soon Medical Hall exemplifies this spirit of innovation grounded in community service.
Evolution and Significance in the Development of TCM in Singapore
Over time, Traditional Chinese Medicine in Singapore has evolved from an ad hoc practice of itinerant sinsehs and shopkeepers to a regulated, respected complement to Western medicine. A turning point came in 1999, when Singapore’s Ministry of Health began formally regulating TCM practitioners and treatments. This move professionalised the field – TCM physicians must be licensed, and herbal medicines are subject to safety standards.
Dr. Chow Khai Shui of Teck Soon Medical Hall is a product of this professionalisation. Unlike his father who learned through traditional apprenticeship, Dr. Chow underwent structured training at the Chung Hwa Medical Institution in the 1980s and became a registered TCM physician. Armed with both ancestral knowledge and modern certification, he brought a new level of expertise to the family business.
Under the younger generation’s stewardship, Teck Soon Medical Hall has blended tradition with modern business acumen. A notable example of this was the decision in 1982 to redesign the shop’s layout – instead of keeping all the medicinal herbs tucked away in wooden drawers behind the counter (as was customary in old apothecaries), the family began displaying various roots, barks, and dried remedies openly at the storefront.
Glass jars and transparent packages showcasing ingredients like lingzhi mushrooms, ginseng slices, and dried seahorses suddenly greeted passers-by. This simple change piqued curiosity and invited customers into the world of TCM, turning the anonymous brown packets of medicine into a visual and educational experience. The sales innovation paid off, boosting business and later becoming common practice in many modern TCM shops.
Beyond store presentation, Teck Soon Medical Hall has innovated in other ways while staying true to its roots. It expanded its product range to cater to changing customer needs – offering not only raw herbs, but also convenient pre-packaged herbal soups, patent medicines (proprietary pills and syrups), and even dried seafood health foods. Today, a visitor can find items ranging from bai feng wan (Chinese medicinal pills for women’s health) to cordyceps powder, alongside dried scallops and fish maw prized in restorative soups.
This broad array reflects how TCM straddles the line between medicine and nutrition, a holistic approach to wellness. The hall also provides consultation services, with in-house physicians like Dr. Chow available to check pulses, examine tongues, and dispense personalised prescriptions for those seeking treatment.
The significance of Teck Soon Medical Hall in Singapore’s TCM development is also evident in its survival and success. While many traditional medicine shops dwindled amid rapid urban development and competition from modern pharmacies, Teck Soon not only survived but thrived. It opened branch outlets beyond Chinatown (including another on South Bridge Road and one on nearby Temple Street), expanding to four branches island-wide in response to demand. Such growth is testament to the enduring relevance of TCM in Singaporean life.
By continually earning the 信任 (trust) of customers – a value echoed in the shop’s name “Teck Soon” (德信) which connotes honesty and faith – the medical hall has helped normalize TCM as part of the healthcare landscape. Generations of Singaporeans have grown up seeing shops like Teck Soon in their neighbourhoods, making herbal tea for a sore throat or rubbing medicated oil for aches as familiar as taking a Panadol. In this way, Teck Soon Medical Hall and its peers have been quietly influential in weaving TCM into the fabric of Singapore’s multi-cultural society.
Moreover, Teck Soon’s longevity has turned it into a custodian of knowledge. The Chow family has accumulated decades worth of empirical healing wisdom – knowing which herbal combinations soothe a cough or which tonic boosts postnatal recovery. They have passed down recipes and remedies, some recorded in old ledgers and others kept alive through practice. This reservoir of intangible heritage is invaluable. Recognising this, Singapore’s National Heritage Board has identified TCM as an intangible cultural heritage of Singapore, and heritage grants have been awarded to document businesses like Teck Soon.
The medical hall’s story has been featured in oral history projects and heritage festivals, ensuring that its legacy is recorded for future generations. For example, as part of the recent Chinatown heritage research project, historians have been tracing Teck Soon’s history and highlighting how such shops contributed to the community’s resilience during challenging times. All these efforts underscore that Teck Soon Medical Hall is not only a commercial establishment but also a cultural treasure.
Educational Value and Living Heritage Experience
Visiting Teck Soon Medical Hall today is like taking a step back in time, yet with one foot firmly in the present. The sights, smells, and sounds within the shop offer an educational journey for anyone curious about Singapore’s heritage. Teachers and parents have found it a wonderful real-life classroom to introduce young people to traditional knowledge.
Instead of merely reading about herbal medicine in textbooks, students can see, touch, and even smell actual medicinal herbs – from dried ginseng roots as long as an arm to bundles of dang gui (angelica) and wolfberries used in soups. Such tangible encounters make cultural learning vivid and engaging. It is no surprise that Teck Soon Medical Hall is often included in heritage trails and learning journeys that explore Chinatown’s history.
In fact, guided tours and learning journeys have become an important way to sustain interest in these living heritage sites. Knowledgeable guides can explain the uses of obscure ingredients like cordyceps or hornbill beak (once a TCM ingredient), and recount anecdotes of how people in the past relied on the medical hall for cures. Participants might hear stories of how post-war families concocted herbal teas to fend off illness, or how during the SARS epidemic in 2003 there was a surge in demand for certain immune-boosting herbs.
By walking the aisles of Teck Soon and interacting with its shopkeepers, students gain insight into our ancestors’ way of life and the evolution of healthcare in Singapore. The Outdoor School Learning Journeys offered by Lion Heartlanders, for example, often include stops at such heritage businesses.
These educational tours allow learners to ask questions directly to second-generation owners like Mdm Elsie Chow (the founder’s daughter), who can share firsthand experiences of growing up in a family of TCM practitioners. As Elsie once explained, “TCM doesn't just cure 'heatiness'… there’s much more science and culture to it than people realise,” emphasizing the depth behind everyday notions. Through stories and demonstrations, guided visits deepen understanding of TCM’s principles and its role in our multicultural society.
The cultural relevance of Teck Soon Medical Hall extends beyond just medicine. It touches on language (many herb names and diagnoses are conveyed in dialect or Mandarin), on customs (such as the Chinese practice of zuo yue zi, the month-long postnatal confinement where new mothers consume herbal tonics to rebuild strength), and on values (filial piety often meant brewing herbal soups for elders at home). In this way, the medical hall is a gateway to discussing broader aspects of Chinese heritage in Singapore. For the Chinese migrant communities of the past, patronising a familiar TCM hall provided comfort and a sense of continuity with their homeland.
Today, for younger generations who may be more accustomed to air-conditioned malls and clinics, visiting Teck Soon offers a chance to reconnect with those traditional practices. It bridges the generational gap – grandparents can recount how remedies from Teck Soon cured their ailments in youth, while grandchildren learn to appreciate these traditions anew.
Teck Soon Medical Hall in Modern Times: Preserving Tradition Amid Change
Despite the march of progress, Teck Soon Medical Hall stands as a resilient survivor in modern Singapore. Its main outlet on South Bridge Road, framed by a black sign with gold Chinese characters, continues to draw a steady stream of customers – from long-time patrons who have been coming for decades to curious tourists wandering in from the nearby Chinatown Food Street. The business is now helmed by the founder’s children, who each contribute to different aspects: sourcing quality products, managing the branches, providing medical consultations, and keeping alive the personable customer service that sets traditional medical halls apart from chain pharmacies. Under their care, Teck Soon has kept pace with the times in subtle ways.
Packaging has been updated with clearer labels and dosage instructions (important for younger, English-speaking customers), and the shop has even explored online sales for certain health products. According to the younger Mr. Chow, embracing such modernization is key to staying relevant, and plans are afoot to produce educational social media videos on TCM health tips – a far cry from the era of hand-written herb labels, yet perfectly in line with Teck Soon’s ethos of educating customers.
What makes Teck Soon truly special today is that it remains a “living heritage” business. It is not frozen in time as a mere museum exhibit, but actively practices the trade it helped pioneer. Customers still come in with real aches, pains, and health goals, and they leave with packets of herbs or bottles of tincture that will be brewed and consumed at home. The continued patronage indicates that traditional remedies still hold a place in the lifestyles of Singaporeans, whether as alternative treatments or complementary alongside Western medicine.
In an age when one can get generic supplements at a pharmacy, many still prefer consulting a trusted sinseh for a holistic diagnosis – “Is my body too heaty? Too damp?” – and receiving a customised prescription of herbs. Teck Soon Medical Hall fulfils this niche expertly, validating the ongoing relevance of TCM. Its endurance also highlights Singapore’s commitment to multiculturalism: just as Ayurvedic clinics serve the Indian community and Jamu shops cater to Malay traditions, TCM halls like Teck Soon preserve and propagate the Chinese community’s healing heritage, enriching the nation’s diverse healthcare landscape.
The Singaporean authorities and cultural organizations have acknowledged the importance of preserving such heritage businesses. Teck Soon Medical Hall’s participation in the Street Corner Heritage programmes and the NHB-funded research is part of broader efforts to document and support long-running family businesses that contribute to cultural identity.
Conservation of the shophouse it occupies and the continued vibrancy of the Chinatown historic district also provide an environment in which Teck Soon can flourish. In turn, Teck Soon Medical Hall adds character and historical depth to Chinatown, offering something authentic amidst the area’s trendy cafés and tourist shops. It reminds us that Chinatown is not merely a backdrop of restored buildings, but a locale where traditions are actively lived and breathed.
A Treasure of TCM Heritage and an Invitation to Explore
In our fast-paced modern city, stepping into this medical hall invites a moment of reflection on the remedies and wisdom of old. The next time you wander through Chinatown, take a detour into Teck Soon Medical Hall: inhale the earthy scent of medicinal roots, observe the interactions between the sinseh and customers, and you’ll witness a slice of Singapore’s heritage alive before your eyes. To explore Singapore’s rich cultural heritage firsthand, consider joining an Outdoor School Learning Journey. These guided experiences provide an invaluable opportunity to delve into places like Teck Soon Medical Hall and other living heritage sites – allowing participants to not just learn history, but to experience it. Through such journeys, one can truly appreciate the tapestry of traditions that make up Singapore, and help ensure that treasures like Teck Soon Medical Hall continue to be cherished for generations to come.
Sources:
National Heritage Board – Roots.sg: Traditional Chinese Medicine (Intangible Cultural Heritage)
Teck Soon Medical Hall – Company History and Profile
The Straits Times – “Innovation amid tradition: How Chinatown merchants move with the times” (26 May 2024)
National Library Board – BiblioAsia: “Sago Lane: Street of the Dead” (2013)
Eu Yan Sang Museum Exhibit – Roots.sg (Street Corner Heritage Galleries)
Heritage Interviews – Quote from Mdm Elsie Chow, Teck Soon Medical Hall (as reported by Bridging Generations project)
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