• Charitable halls in Singapore are mainly founded and managed by the Teochew community, and centre on the worship of the Song-dynasty monk, Master Song Dafeng.
• Born in 1039, Master Song (whose secular name was Lin Ling’e) travelled to Chaoyang county, Chaoshan, where he built a stone bridge to help the villagers cross a river. To honour him and promote his values, the locals erected a charitable hall, which they named “报德堂”, and carried out various charitable deeds. By the end of the Ming dynasty, charitable halls had proliferated and contributed significantly to society.
• In 1916, the first charitable hall in Singapore, Seu Teck Sean Tong Yiang Sin Sia, was officially established. Its origins can be traced to its parent temple (大吴修德善堂) in Chao’an county, Chaozhou.
• Charitable halls carry out charity work while promoting Master Song Dafeng’s spirit of helping those in need through Birth, Ageing, Sickness, Death and Suffering.
• In addition to providing free medical care and medication, and establishing dialysis centres and nursing homes, charitable halls also help families manage funeral arrangements. In addition, some charitable halls provide services for the placement of ancestral altars and ashes within the hall.

During the Japanese Occupation, almost all community organisations were banned from conducting activities. However, charitable organisations such as charitable halls were allowed to continue operations. (Lianhe Zaobao, 11/12/2017)

• In 1942, during the Japanese Occupation, several charitable halls in Singapore jointly established the Blue Cross Charitable Institution to provide aid to the wounded, help the poor, and assist in the collection and burying of corpses.