Sophia Song, a second-generation Chinese immigrant to Singapore, recounts the story of her forefathers. [Photo by Zhao Xu/China Daily]

"The heads of these associations were also community leaders who took under their wings men from their hometowns," she says, pointing to the two-storey buildings in Chinatown that used to house these associations.

"These days, they have largely turned into venues for the study of traditional Chinese art and culture, opera and instrument-playing, for example," she says.

From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, Chinese immigrants in Singapore, especially affluent businessmen, concerned themselves with the fate of their "motherland".

They offered financial support first to topple the Qing Dynasty, China's last feudal rulers, and then to the Chinese fighting the invading Japanese between 1937 and 1945.

After the end of World War II and the founding of the People's Republic of China the focus shifted. Starting in the 1950s, some local Chinese community leaders advocated the setting up of a Chinese university.

Prominent among the leaders was Tan Lark Sye, a rubber tycoon.

The university that came into being, in 1955 was called Nanyang University, with Nanyang, or the South Sea, referring to southeast Asia that includes today's Singapore and Malaysia.

Speaking of the project, Soon says: "We have black-and-white pictures showing people from all walks of life - from tricycle-pullers to dance girls - donating for 'our university'.

"Nanyang was the pride of all Chinese in Singapore."