Third generation pau-wering the Tanjong Rhu Pau legacy

SIX decades ago, a new immigrant from China set up a coffee shop in Tanjong Rhu; today, his grandchildren are bringing the family’s steamed pau legacy into the modern age.

Hokchew dialect-speaking Yap Kim Kow came to Singapore in the 1960s and set up Chin Sin Huan Eating House at Jalan Batu, where the popular coffee shop still operates today. Some years later, his son, then 18 years old, started a steamed pau business Chin Wah Bak Pau with a business partner, at the side of the eating house. By the 1990s, this had become so popular that it was simply known as Tanjong Rhu Pau.

Now, third-generation siblings Yap Wei Jie and Yap Hsiao Cheng are taking the Chin Sin Huan brand name forward, on a mission to modernise the pau business and gain younger customers.