Vancouver Fong Leun Tong Society,
Sit, Seto Clans Association
溫哥華 薛, 司徒氏宗親會鳳倫堂

History

The Fong Leun Tong society of Vancouver, founded in 1916, is approaching its centenial celebration next year. The society has incorporated and was registered as a non-profit organization in 1959. We are proudly a founding member of the Chinatown key organizations, including:

  1. C.B.A(chinese benevolent association)
  2. Chinese cultural center
  3. S.U.C.C.E.S.S.
  4. Hoy Ping Benevolent Association

The society always supports and promotes good causes and activities like Chinese new year parade, charity, fundraising campaigns to assist institutions that provide services for people in need, home and abroad. Work hard to promote equality for Chinese Canadians to foster better understanding and harmony with with other ethnic communities.

Also, we are key members of the World Fung Leun Tong Benevolent Association. The organization is composed of local chapters in major cities all over the world. The late Situ Mei Tang (司徒美堂) was a pioneer of the organization and is hailed as a famous patriot in establishing the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Heritage

Before incorporating in 1959, the Gao Lun Tong (with membership of only Setos) was first set up in 1916. It quickly evolved into the Fong Lun Tong with the addition of the Sits in 1921.

The Fong Lun Tong was established as a non-profit association to promote and help safeguard the welfare of the Setos and Sits residing in Canada. This function was especially critical in the early part of the 1900's when there was little social welfare safety nets provided by the government.

The original constitution of the association was adopted by the founding directors on 14 April, 1959 and then under the name of Fong Lun Tong Society, it was filed and registered with the government of BC on 13 March, 1959. The certificate of Incorporation no. Is 5670 (Soc).

The founding directors as listed on the original constitution were,

The original premises of the society was on east Georgia street, but it was slated for expropriation by city of Vancouver for the housing project. The compensation was expected to be insufficient to purchase an appropriate premises for the Society. To improve the financial capability, the board of directors decided to launch a fund-raising campaign. A real estate acquisition committee was set up on march 25th, 1961 to conduct the business. All members of the society were encouraged to offer their support and buy charter real estate shares (called hundred children club 百子會). See Club Contributor List.

It was overwhelmingly successful. All share holders were refunded with interest in 1964. The funds enabled the society to purchase its flagship property at 1-15 East Hastings street in 1962. The property is located at the then prime business area close to Gas-town and was collecting a handsome rental income until year 1990. Another premise – on 718 East Pender Street – was bought in the 60's, shortly after the original office was closed for housing development. On march 31, 1993, a commercial unit with Strata title on 392 east Hastings was purchased as investment.

In consideration of the property at 1-9 east Hastings being 90% vacant for years, due to both business and social environments deteriorating in the area, the board of directors in 1998 made a critical decision to rent our main office located at 718 east Pender street (residential zone) to increase income and moved our office to the portion of the then-vacant premises. At the same time, the board of directors worked hard and negotiated a 10 years deal with the Portland society, a well known organization, to manage all the B. C. Government social programs in the area. In the lease they were responsible for upgrading the building and conforming to city By-laws prior to occupancy. The lease not only brings us revenue, it also minimizes our maintenance costs, to this day!

The house (old office) on 718 east Pander street sold in the 70's. Most recently, the building on 432 East Hastings Street was purchased in 2008 as our present office.

The history of our surname
司徒 Situ

Holding onto the Title

Historical records put the legendary Chinese emperor Shun as the first ancestor of the Situ clan. But the term Situ comes from an official rank, which existed in China during the western Zhou dynasty, some 4,000 years ago. The Situ clansmen were in fact descendants of the official who held this senior post. By the Shou dynasty it was listed as one of six most senior posts in the Chinese court.

A Situ was responsible for farmlands and drafting serf labour for state projects. During the Western Han dynasty, the prime ministers' post was replaced by Da Situ. Prominent figure Situ Ying (司徒映) was a court chief came from Shanxi. Situ Xu(司徒詡) was Chief of Civil Service. He came from Hebei. Situ Hua Bang (司徒化邦) was an army Chief who came from Jiangsu. Therefore, over a period of 4,000 years, the Situ clan has spread far and wide over China.

根據史籍, 司徒氏出自舜的後代, 是用官名作為姓氏.

商, 周時代之官制中, 都設有司徒部, 金文多寫作(司土), 東周時沿置此官, 在周代, 司徒為六卿之一, 其地位極高, 據

(周禮, 地官司徒) 記載:司徒之職, 是掌建邦之土, 地之圖, 與其人口之數, 以佐王及安邦國. 由此可知, 司徒官之職責

是掌管人民, 土地, 與教化諸事. 相傳在堯舜時代當過司徒官之政府官員後代, 就用他的官名 (司徒) 作為姓氏.

Different spelling of our surname (司徒) Szeto and Sit (薛)

Toy Sun(Dialect (台 山)Cantonese (廣東)Mandarin (國語)
Soo HooSeethoSituSit
SihoeSetoSytuSheh
 SzetoSzutuSeid
 Seeto  
 Cito