Singapore is now so safe that secret societies no longer exist: what we have on the streets (or shopping malls / void decks) are teenage gangsters pretending to be tough but will run at the sight of a cop.

But if you’ve watched Long Long Time Ago, or heard from your parents, you will know that secret societies in the fifties to sixties in Singapore posed a serious threat to our nation’s security: in many instances, they “owned” and “fought” for territories like those you see in Hong Kong movies, and commit crimes that you’ll seldom see in modern Singapore.

While most of the secret societies in the past comprised male members, there was one that was unique: known as Red Butterfly, they consisted of an all-female team and was influential during their heydays in the late fifties and early sixties.

Also known as Ang Hor Tiap, they were made up of girls in their teens to their mid-twenties. All members would have a butterfly tattoo on them, and only the gang leader would have a red butterfly.

Known by many then as the gang wearing tight-fitting black clothes, their violence was notorious, from using belts to sharp objects. Their method of inflicting injury wasn’t just a random hit: they would focus on disfiguring others.

People who refused to pay them protection money, or girls who refused to join them, were often their targets. Many members were women who had lost hope in men, and sought to get an identity in the gang.

Like any secret societies, getting out was not easy—Red Butterfly would beat up the member severely and disfigure her if she wanted to quit, or refused to join. In an interview, it turned out that some of the members were impressed with the power of the gang, and joined it to get “a sense of power”.

As the male secret societies have taken most territories (or were fighting for them) to seek for protection money, Red Butterfly has another way to make money: they would be engaged by women whose husband or boyfriend were cheating on them.

Red Butterfly members would seek out those third parties or mistresses and threatened to harm them if they continued the affair. Victims were so afraid of them that when the police arrested some members of the Red Butterfly, they did not dare to testify against them. This gave them more time to terrorize more people until the mid-sixties, when the police cracked down on most secret societies in Singapore, including the Red Butterfly.

In an interview with The New Paper, one ex-Red Butterfly member, who was 62 years old during the day of Interview, believed that small gangs nowadays were very “bo liao”. Another ex-member, a then gang leader of the Red Butterfly, added, “Look, these girls don’t know the difference between being tough and acting tough. They’re just craving for attention, which they get when they hang around in a group and make noise.”

Anyway, shouldn’t we all be grateful now that we’re now free from all these deadly gangs?

This Singapore love story set in the 90s shows you why you should never wait for tomorrow. Watch it without crying: