PM Lee Hsien Loong on the passing of Mr Foong Choon Hon

A PASSIONATE man who won the 'deepest respect' of the Chinese community for his efforts in bringing to life the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.

That was how Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described the late Mr Foong Choon Hon, the hall's former director, in a condolence letter sent to his wife, as well as released to the media, yesterday.

Mr Foong, a Chinese media industry veteran, died suddenly on Monday after complaining of abdominal pains. He was 80.

The one-time senior editor of Shin Min Daily News was last remembered for helping to transform a 129-year-old villa in Balestier into a museum honouring Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat Sen.

Writing in Chinese to Mr Foong's wife, Madam Wong Giat Ngoh, 74, PM Lee said he was saddened to learn the news of Mr Foong's passing.

'His efforts in recent years in establishing Wan Qing Yuan (the memorial hall) have won him the deepest respect of the Chinese community,' he wrote.

The preservation of the villa, where Dr Sun is known to have stayed in the early 20th century, has left Singapore with a 'precious piece of cultural heritage', he noted.

Calling Mr Foong's passing a 'loss to society', Mr Lee added that his cultural contributions 'deserve to be remembered by future generations'.

It was recently announced that the museum, previously run entirely by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), would be receiving major government funding and support.

Mr Foong joined the SCCCI in 1992 and handled its cultural affairs, including the management of the hall, until his retirement in 2005.

Before going into cultural heritage, Mr Foong had an illustrious track record as a journalist and television producer.

In the early 1960s, he was briefly then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's Mandarin tutor. He went into current affairs programme production and later pioneered locally produced Mandarin television dramas with the former Singapore Broadcasting Corporation in the early 1980s.

He left television in 1984 to join Shin Min Daily News as a senior editor and became known for his exclusive interview with Fang Chuang Pi, the communist leader who acted as a linkman between Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the communists in the 1950s.

In his later years, his work with SCCCI on the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall kept him busy.

In his letter to Mr Foong's widow, PM Lee recalled how he and his wife Ho Ching had visited the memorial hall in 2002, at Mr Foong's invitation.

He hosted the Lees during their visit and was 'as familiar and knowledgeable about the personalities and artefacts on display as with one's family valuables', wrote PM Lee.

'We felt like we had just received an invaluable history lesson, and we could feel how much passion and painstaking effort he had invested in his work.'

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