HAI SAN

A Chinese secret society influential in commerce and tin mining in 19th-century Malaya.

The Hai San had its origin in southern China and was transmitted to Malaya by inmigrant labourers.

Cantonese originally dominated the society but between 1845 and 1860 Hakka inmigrants gained pre-eminence.

The society itself was a semilegal organization internally controlled by impressive rituals, oath taking and harsh penalties for infranctions of rules. These rules included helping fellow members in times of need keeping society affairs secret and aiding members in quarrels.

The Hai San was primarily centred in the Larut tin-mining district of Perak. Its activities which included robbery, extortion and warfare with other societies aroused the British authorities who curbed the greatest abuses by the end of the 19th century.

By 1890 the Hai San had been absorbed into the Toh Peh Kong society known as the Sa Tiam Hui in presentday Malaysia.