Tung Sin Tong was founded in 1892 and is one of the oldest, comprehensive, charitable organizations in Macao. At that time, Chinese gentry and merchants in Hong Kong and Macau felt that there was a lack of charitable services for the Chinese community in Macao, so they decided to organize efforts to establish Tung Sin Tong to carry out charitable and relief work, providing free medical treatment and medicine, relief for the poor and the needy, and civic education.
In its early days, Tung Sin Tong was located at Senado Square, but due to government land acquisition, it was relocated to its present location at no. 55, Rua de Camilo Pessanha, in 1924. Over the past century, the building has undertaken multiple service functions, fully embodying the charitable culture of Tung Sin Tong. The ground floor lobby was previously used for providing medical treatment and poverty relief. The second floor served as the meeting place of the Tung Sin Tong Board of Trustees.
The third floor was used as a space for providing free education. When the building was completed in 1924, “Tung Sin Tong Free School for the poor” was then established to provide learning opportunities for underprivileged children. Initially, the school followed a traditional Chinese private school model with tutors teaching subjects like letter-writing (Chidu) and classic texts. At its inception, the school admitted several dozens of boys, and in 1936, it began to accept girls. The following year school expanded and evolved to a general primary school system and began offering elementary curricula. In 1949, an evening primary school was added. In 1968, a new primary school building was completed across the street, providing students with a better learning environment. In 1991, the school further expanded to include secondary education, becoming an integrated school with kindergarten, primary, secondary and adult education. From its inception, Tung Sin Tong has regarded free education as one of its important missions. The establishment of Tung Sin Tong Free School has become a model for Chinese charitable organization in Macao to promote education, witnessing the evolution of Macao’s education from traditional Chinese style school to modern schools.
In 2012, to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the establishment of Tung Sin Tong and to allow the public to better understand its century-long charitable history, Tung Sin Tong Board of Trustees decided to renovate the front lobby and the third floor, turning it into the Tung Sin Tong historical archives exhibition hall, which is open to the public free of charge to visit.
