Eu Chooi Yip (; 2 December 1918 - 4 October 1995) was a prominent member of the anti-colonial and Communist movements in Malaya and Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. Eu Chooi Yip was born in Kuantan, Malaysia.
He was the Secretary of the Malayan Democratic Union (MDU), Singapore's first political party. He actively engaged in Anti-British League, established by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and was responsible for pro-communist propaganda productions. After Eu Chooi Yip joined the MCP, he was responsible for the underground communist movement in Singapore from the 1950s to 1960s. He was the Secretary-General of the United Front of the MCP, called the Malayan National Liberation League, which set its office in Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution, he was one of the directors taking in charge of the radio station, the voice of Malayan Revolution. In 1990, he returned to Singapore after receiving the invitation from the Singapore government. Eu Chooi Yip served as a senior research fellow at Institute of East Asian philosophy in Singapore. He died on 4 October 1995, aged 76.
Biography
Early life and education
Eu was born on 2 December 1918 in Kuantan, Malaysia. Eu's parents came from Taishan, Guangdong, and operated a medicine shop in Malaysia. He came to Singapore to study with his brother and sister. He attended Victoria School while his sister went to Nanyang Girls' High School. As a child, he was taught by his sister about Sino-Japanese War, and he understood how Chinese people suffered under Japanese occupation. At that time, the Chinese Communist Party established a Nanyang branch which organised communist movements among overseas Chinese and also influenced Eu. In 1938, Eu received an entrance scholarship to enter Raffles College. Eu was a brilliant student who is good at economics and became one of the top graduates at Raffles College. He was a close friend of Goh Keng Swee, who will become Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister, whom he knew during his Raffles College days. As a Chinese student, Eu was politically aroused by China's struggle against Japan. He became interested in politics and developed Chinese nationalism. Although he also read Edgar Snow's Book, Red Star over China and developed respect toward the Chinese Communist Party, he did not totally accept communism.
Malayan Democratic Union
After graduation in 1940, Eu worked as a Labour Inspector for the colonial government in Kuala Lumpur. When Japanese attack Kuala Lumpur in 1942, Eu moved to Singapore and worked as a clerk for Overseas Insurance Company. When Japanese occupied Singapore, he worked in statistical offices for a while. After Japan surrendered, he went back to work for the colonial government. When the Chinese leftist writer, Hu Yuzhi, published an article in Fengxia magazine in 1945 which criticised slavish colonial mentality, he felt ashamed for his experience of serving the British and Japanese colonial government.