Sunday, August 31, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Cheah Tek Soon
Row over the dead
By CHOONG KWEE KIMThe Star, Thursday, June 26, 2003
A columbarium project smack in the middle of the Millionaire’s Row in Penang has drawn enough flak to make the dead turn in their graves, reports CHOONG KWEE KIM.
AN auspicious golden arowana symbol and a feng shui calendar rest on the table of Datuk Nazir Ariff’s sea-facing office, as he speaks dejectedly about a controversial columbarium project looming opposite his restored heritage building on Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Penang.
The prominent businessman had enthusiastically invested in Penang’s dream of George Town becoming a Unesco World Heritage Site by restoring his mansion to reap the promised bountiful returns in tourism ringgit and increased property value.
Alas, that dream has become a nightmare in the shape of an imposing three-block columbarium-cum-religious institution of nine and 10 storeys that will soon sprout around the derelict heritage building opposite the former Shih Chung branch school to be restored and redeveloped by Stamford Raffles By The Sea Sdn Bhd.
 |
An artist's impression of the controversial three-block columbarium project at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Penang. The existing Shih Chung building in the centre will be restored. |
“I respect the state government’s decision but I will definitely never again get involved in the restoration of any heritage building in Penang because it is a thankless job and in the end, it is not appreciated anyway,” says the Escoy Holdings Bhd chief executive officer who is also past president of the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT).
Opposite his mansion is a quiet old Protestant cemetery that last had a burial in 1894. Nazir can live with that since it is “inactive” but he cannot accept it being used to justify the approval of a new columbarium to be filled with a whopping 300,000 urns at the so-called Millionaires’ Row that falls within the heritage conservation zone.
“The Millionaires’ Row was originally the home to pioneer merchants, rubber planters and tin miners who had turned Penang into a vibrant Pearl of the Orient.
“It is the best part of the island that is by the sea and within the city area,” he says.
The late Honda tycoon Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew’s mansion is also located along the road, formerly known as Northam Road, along with many other stately mansions while further down at Upper Penang Road (UPR) is the majestic E&O Hotel, The Garage and other heritage buildings now restored for adaptive reuse as entertainment outlets and restaurants.
Back in 2000 when the Rent Control Act was repealed, Nazir and his friends decided to turn their 1926 mansion, acquired from the family of a tin-miner’s son, Leong Yin Kean, into a corporate office-cum-restaurant that has come to be admired as a shining example of good corporate initiative in heritage conservation.
 |
Datuk Nazir Ariff and his friends restored this seafront mansion in 2000. He is unhappy that a columbarium is joining the neighbourhood. |
“I consulted a feng shui master who said the location was good except for the cemetery but since it was not active, it was not so bad,” says Yeoh.
To deflect the negative qi (energy) of the cemetery, he says corrections were made to shift the front door facing Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah to another entrance facing Farquhar Street apart from other minor changes.
But after having seen the approved design of the three-block columbarium project opposite, his worst fears are confirmed.
“It is loud, garish and so huge that the original Shih Chung building will be dwarfed by the new structures.
“Maybe I will need to consult a feng shui master again to see how to avoid this but it is so massive that you really can’t ward it off,” he says in despair.
He strongly believes that buildings like a columbarium emit negative yin energy that is not good for other businesses in the vicinity.
“Businesses might probably fail, they may become abandoned and left to rot and die,” he says.
He does not see any good coming out from the columbarium project in terms of better patronage at his restaurant during the festive Qing Ming (Chinese All Souls’ Day) when families visit cemeteries and columbaria to pay respects to the dead.
“Qing Ming is a time when families bring their own food to offer to the dead and then take home to eat.
“They won’t come to my restaurant for the Western and Mediterranean food but they may probably come to use our car park,” he says wryly.
Nazir and his tenant are among the aggrieved neighbours like the Taiwanese owner of the mansions rented by Canon Marketing, the Loh Boon Siew estate, the Gan Chai Leng residence and the Marina Mirage Hotel who are directly affected by the columbarium project and had openly voiced their objections.
On behalf of the business and residential community of the area, Loke Mun Kit of Marina Mirage Hotel had also sent a letter of appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi tasking for a relocation of the project and its approval to be revoked.
 |
The Shih CHung building, built before 1893, is located in a prestigious seaside neighbourhood that is being promoted for tourism. Many of the area's residents believe that the building of the columbarium will undermine the effort. |
Checks showed the four neighbours included a nondescript building rented by a used-car dealer, the Protestant cemetery, the St Joseph’s Home that shares the same compound with the St Francis Xavier’s Church and a building rented out as a warehouse.
It comes as no surprise if none of the four objected, yet the authorities chose to ignore the growing voices of dissent from the serious investors and residents opposite the project due to the fact that they are separated from the site by a road.
Loke says they are not opposing or against the construction of the columbarium but are merely emphasising that its positioning at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah is inappropriate and should be relocated to the outskirts of town or at a hillside.
He says MPPP’s current ruling of referring only to owners of property adjoining or sharing a common boundary is not appropriate for this type of controversial building.
“MPPP should also consider the impact to others by writing to property owners who are opposite, adjacent and around the proposed site.
“This columbarium will have a long-term negative effect on the image of the present prestigious commercial, financial and seafront tourist belt of Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah right from the E&O Hotel to Gurney Drive,” he says.
Loke’s company had initially planned to build a 23-storey hotel opposite the Shih Chung building but the plan is now dashed by the columbarium project that would make a hotel “suite room with a columbarium view” unappealing indeed. Loh Nam Hooi, a repr esentative of the Boon Siew estate, also raises his concerns about traffic congestion and insufficient car parks.
“The government has been promoting this area for tourism and when you suddenly have this columbarium here, it is really very unsuitable with the environment,” he says.
Loh Teng Hong, managing director of Hotel Malaysia at Penang Road, says businesses at Upper Penang Road are doing quite well with the tourism promotion but the buildings and hotels there only have a total of about 1,000 car parking lots which is insufficient.
“With 300,000 urns at the columbarium, I wonder how the traffic is going to be here during Qing Ming,” says Loh who is also the Penang Hoteliers’ Association vice-chairman.
Even the area’s Padang Kota assemblyman Teng Chang Yeow has his reservations about the project that has incurred the ire of many voters.
Teng, who is also Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon’s political secretary, says he had expressed his views and reservations to the state authorities and had also suggested that the developer scrap its earlier proposed condominium plan and build an international convention centre instead.
“I have done my part and since the council has approved the columbarium project, I leave it to the landowners to decide on their next course of action,” he says.
Dr Koh had said last year that the state was working on a conservation management plan that must be “administratively implementable, economically viable, socially acceptable and culturally compatible”.
But the approved columbarium comprising three blocks laid out in a U-shape partly blocking the Shih Chung heritage building in the centre, has been criticised as an eye-sore that is incompatible with the surroundings and a mockery of heritage conservation.
The Shih Chung building, built before 1893, was originally the residence of prominent 19th century figure Cheah Tek Soon after whom Tek Soon Road was named.
PHT council member Lim Gaik Siang says Cheah’s only daughter Cheah Liew Bee married Goh Say Eng, a strong supporter of Dr Sun Yat Sen’s revolutionary movement, and Goh eventually sold his properties one by one in support of the revolution. The building then fell into the hands of rich local merchant Tye Kee Yoon and it was used as a hotel, appearing in old postcards as Bellevue Hotel and also as Raffles-By-The Sea.
By the 1920s, it was leased to the Government English School and later became the Shih Chung branch school after the war.
In 1993, the Tye trustee was said to have sold it for RM9.5mil to the Malaysia Vegetable Oil Refinery Sdn Bhd, one of the major shareholders of Stamford Raffles By The Sea Sdn Bhd.
So, it comes to pass that this historical building will soon become a columbarium to be called The House of Remembrance.
To other investors of the heritage potential in the vicinity, they are waking up to the reality that heritage conservation does not pay so long as the state authorities do not have the proper means to ensure its sustainability for everyone.
The best of feng shui strategies offer little help without the support of a state government that is clear and transparent about its conservation management strategies towards achieving that dream of a world-class, sustainable living heritage site.
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
http://ssquah.blogspot.com/2008/05/shih-chung-branch-school-penang.htmlMonday, 19 May 2008
Shih Chung Branch School, Penang
While driving down from Tanjung Tokong towards the ferry terminal today, I had an irresistible urge to visit the Shih Chung Branch School. So, I swung my Avanza around the City Bayview Hotel and drove up Northam Road again, and turned into the school's compound just before the junction with Transfer Road.
In case you don't known, the Shih Chung Branch School is an old, abandoned building that had seen better days.
It was - still is - an imposing building. It was originally a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion belonging to Cheah Tek Soon (Tek Soon Street was named after him, so he must have been someone quite important in old Penang) in the 1880s.
The building was the first five-storey residence in the Straits Settlements and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow). Later, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Much later again, the Tye brothers turned it into the Raffles-by-the-Sea hotel in the 1910s. Again, much much later, it became the P’i Joo Girls’ School (named after another old towkay, Leong Fee or Liang P'i Joo), the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
About six or seven years ago, the building was at the centre of a storm of controversy when some association wanted to turn it into a Buddhist centre-cum-columbarium. I guess nobody would have minded a Buddhist centre there along Northam Road but a columbarium? Nobody wanted that in their midst, protests were raised and the idea was dropped like a hot potato.
Here are various views of the building's exterior:
And finally, the location of the Shih Chung Branch School as seen through the eyes of Google Maps. It's the isolated building in the lower left quadrant of the picture:
In case you don't known, the Shih Chung Branch School is an old, abandoned building that had seen better days.
It was - still is - an imposing building. It was originally a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion belonging to Cheah Tek Soon (Tek Soon Street was named after him, so he must have been someone quite important in old Penang) in the 1880s.
The building was the first five-storey residence in the Straits Settlements and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow). Later, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Much later again, the Tye brothers turned it into the Raffles-by-the-Sea hotel in the 1910s. Again, much much later, it became the P’i Joo Girls’ School (named after another old towkay, Leong Fee or Liang P'i Joo), the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
About six or seven years ago, the building was at the centre of a storm of controversy when some association wanted to turn it into a Buddhist centre-cum-columbarium. I guess nobody would have minded a Buddhist centre there along Northam Road but a columbarium? Nobody wanted that in their midst, protests were raised and the idea was dropped like a hot potato.
Here are various views of the building's exterior:
And finally, the location of the Shih Chung Branch School as seen through the eyes of Google Maps. It's the isolated building in the lower left quadrant of the picture:
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
Glimpses of colonial Penang
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/FeatureStory/20060117111007/Article/index_html
Glimpses of colonial Penang
by Alan Teh Leam Seng
NST 17, Jan 2006
THE northern intersection of Penang Road and Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah (formerly Northam Road) is a good spot to begin a walkabout of colonial George Town.
Indeed, Northam Road, the city’s first residential suburb, is still known to many locals as Millionaire’s Row, where stately and majestic European-style bungalows were once home to the rich sons of the island.
Local Chinese referred to it as Ang Mor Lor (European Road) because of the many ang mor lau (European-style bungalows) standing amidst lush gardens complete with tennis courts, stables and elaborate driveways.
Here too is the final resting place of many of Penang’s founding fathers. In use from 1789 to 1892, the cemetery houses both Protestant and Roman Catholic graves. Those of Captain Francis Light, James Scott (Light’s trading partner), Reverend R.S. Hutchings (founder of Penang Free School) and Quintin Dick Thompson (brother-in-law of Stamford Raffles) are in the Protestant cemetery. The last burial was that of Cornelia Van Someran in 1892.
You can also find the grave of James Richardson Logan, the editor, writer and publisher of the 27 volumes of the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, which were also called Logan’s Journals, from 1847-1859. Together with his elder brother, Abraham, they took over the Pinang Gazette and encouraged public opinion to end Indian rule in the Straits Settlements. This resulted in the historic Transfer of 1867 by which the Settlements obtained self-rule. Transfer Road thus was named to commemorate the event.
Among the European graves are 12 Chinese graves dating from the 1860s to the 1880s. These are the graves of Christian Hakkas who escaped to Penang after the failed Taiping Revolution in China.
Army officer Thomas Leonowens, whose widow, Anna of Anna and the King fame, was also buried here after succumbing to apoplexy.
From the cemetery, you can see the few reminders of Penang’s early suburban villas. One imposing building, a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion, was once the Shih Chung Branch School. When fully constructed in the 1880s, it was Cheah Tek Soon’s residence. It was the toast of the town as it was the first five-storey residence and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow).
Subsequently, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Later, the Tye brothers turned it into a hotel, Raffles-by-the-Sea in the 1910s.
Much later, it was converted into the P’i Joo Girls’ School, the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
Nearby is the house of the late Loh Boon Siew, a tycoon who made his fortune by importing and selling Honda motorcycles in the 1960s, and two unassuming hotels with a rather notorious past.
According to Penang Heritage Trust guide Theresa Capol, 55, the infamous striptease dancer Rose Chan used to perform at one of the hotels, called Hotel Gallant.
“Across the road is Waldorf Hotel, where American soldiers stayed when on leave during the Vietnam War. At that time the number of servicemen ‘tourists’ were numerous and the hotel had to add on an additional wing,” she says.
From here, walk towards Farquhar Street and you’d be greeted by the famous Eastern and Oriental (E&O) Hotel. In 1927, this “Premier Hotel East of The Suez” boasted of 100 rooms, 40 of them with adjoining bathrooms, hot and cold running water, individual telephones and 842ft seafront, the longest at that time.
It’s located strategically at the intersection of Farquhar Street and Penang Road. The imposing building transports visitors back to the old world grandeur of the East India Company and one can almost expect to see colonial planters sipping their stengahs and enjoying their tiffin curry under high ceiling fans.
In the past, it was well patronised by colonial administrators, planters and wealthy locals as well as personalities like Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham. Elegant suites have been named after these great writers.
Even now, the elegant E&O, with its Moorish minarets, spacious domed lobby and sweeping seafront, has managed to retain much of its grace and charm.
It was first built in 1885 and underwent massive renovations just before the turn of the millennium which turned it into a unique and elegant five-star property complete with 101 British India-styled suites and a diverse range of exquisite dining facilities.
The Sarkies Brothers – Martin, Tigran and Arshak – from Isfahan in Persia, became the foremost hoteliers of the East by operating the Strand in Rangoon, the Raffles in Singapore and the E&O and Craig Hotel in Penang.
It was Tigran who first leased a large compound house at 1A, Light Street. On April 15, 1884 it opened as the Eastern Hotel.
Later, the Sarkies Brothers acquired the adjacent Hotel de l’Europe which they subsequently renamed as the Oriental Hotel.
But running two separate hotels within a short distance of each other proved uneconomical, so the brothers decided to merge the two. However, they realised that travellers were already familiar with the names, so they renamed it Eastern and Oriental Hotel.
The hotel is 20 kilometres from the Bayan Lepas International Airport and a stone’s throw from the ferry terminal that connects the island to the mainland. From the hotel, you can take a short walk to Fort Cornwallis, the City Hall and the Penang State Museum. A small upmarket mall called The Garage is located right across the road while a row of shophouses close by sells reasonably priced antiques.
Dining outlets at E&O include the Sarkies Corner which has a colonial, Straits-style coffeeshop setting and serves a local-international buffet or a la-carte. Farquhar’s Bar, a surviving sample of the colonial era with its dark woods and leathers, serves great pub fare. The bakery is a little nook specialising in breads, pies, pastries and great coffee.
According to its communications manager Elizabeth Dass, the E&O will be celebrating its 151st Anniversary this year. For more details, contact the E&O at 04-222 2000, fax: 04-261 6333, e-mail hotel_info@e_o_hotel.com or access www.e_o_hotel.com
THE northern intersection of Penang Road and Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah (formerly Northam Road) is a good spot to begin a walkabout of colonial George Town.
Indeed, Northam Road, the city’s first residential suburb, is still known to many locals as Millionaire’s Row, where stately and majestic European-style bungalows were once home to the rich sons of the island.
Local Chinese referred to it as Ang Mor Lor (European Road) because of the many ang mor lau (European-style bungalows) standing amidst lush gardens complete with tennis courts, stables and elaborate driveways.
Here too is the final resting place of many of Penang’s founding fathers. In use from 1789 to 1892, the cemetery houses both Protestant and Roman Catholic graves. Those of Captain Francis Light, James Scott (Light’s trading partner), Reverend R.S. Hutchings (founder of Penang Free School) and Quintin Dick Thompson (brother-in-law of Stamford Raffles) are in the Protestant cemetery. The last burial was that of Cornelia Van Someran in 1892.
You can also find the grave of James Richardson Logan, the editor, writer and publisher of the 27 volumes of the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, which were also called Logan’s Journals, from 1847-1859. Together with his elder brother, Abraham, they took over the Pinang Gazette and encouraged public opinion to end Indian rule in the Straits Settlements. This resulted in the historic Transfer of 1867 by which the Settlements obtained self-rule. Transfer Road thus was named to commemorate the event.
Among the European graves are 12 Chinese graves dating from the 1860s to the 1880s. These are the graves of Christian Hakkas who escaped to Penang after the failed Taiping Revolution in China.
Army officer Thomas Leonowens, whose widow, Anna of Anna and the King fame, was also buried here after succumbing to apoplexy.
From the cemetery, you can see the few reminders of Penang’s early suburban villas. One imposing building, a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion, was once the Shih Chung Branch School. When fully constructed in the 1880s, it was Cheah Tek Soon’s residence. It was the toast of the town as it was the first five-storey residence and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow).
Subsequently, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Later, the Tye brothers turned it into a hotel, Raffles-by-the-Sea in the 1910s.
Much later, it was converted into the P’i Joo Girls’ School, the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
Nearby is the house of the late Loh Boon Siew, a tycoon who made his fortune by importing and selling Honda motorcycles in the 1960s, and two unassuming hotels with a rather notorious past.
According to Penang Heritage Trust guide Theresa Capol, 55, the infamous striptease dancer Rose Chan used to perform at one of the hotels, called Hotel Gallant.
“Across the road is Waldorf Hotel, where American soldiers stayed when on leave during the Vietnam War. At that time the number of servicemen ‘tourists’ were numerous and the hotel had to add on an additional wing,” she says.
From here, walk towards Farquhar Street and you’d be greeted by the famous Eastern and Oriental (E&O) Hotel. In 1927, this “Premier Hotel East of The Suez” boasted of 100 rooms, 40 of them with adjoining bathrooms, hot and cold running water, individual telephones and 842ft seafront, the longest at that time.
It’s located strategically at the intersection of Farquhar Street and Penang Road. The imposing building transports visitors back to the old world grandeur of the East India Company and one can almost expect to see colonial planters sipping their stengahs and enjoying their tiffin curry under high ceiling fans.
In the past, it was well patronised by colonial administrators, planters and wealthy locals as well as personalities like Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham. Elegant suites have been named after these great writers.
Even now, the elegant E&O, with its Moorish minarets, spacious domed lobby and sweeping seafront, has managed to retain much of its grace and charm.
It was first built in 1885 and underwent massive renovations just before the turn of the millennium which turned it into a unique and elegant five-star property complete with 101 British India-styled suites and a diverse range of exquisite dining facilities.
The Sarkies Brothers – Martin, Tigran and Arshak – from Isfahan in Persia, became the foremost hoteliers of the East by operating the Strand in Rangoon, the Raffles in Singapore and the E&O and Craig Hotel in Penang.
It was Tigran who first leased a large compound house at 1A, Light Street. On April 15, 1884 it opened as the Eastern Hotel.
Later, the Sarkies Brothers acquired the adjacent Hotel de l’Europe which they subsequently renamed as the Oriental Hotel.
But running two separate hotels within a short distance of each other proved uneconomical, so the brothers decided to merge the two. However, they realised that travellers were already familiar with the names, so they renamed it Eastern and Oriental Hotel.
The hotel is 20 kilometres from the Bayan Lepas International Airport and a stone’s throw from the ferry terminal that connects the island to the mainland. From the hotel, you can take a short walk to Fort Cornwallis, the City Hall and the Penang State Museum. A small upmarket mall called The Garage is located right across the road while a row of shophouses close by sells reasonably priced antiques.
Dining outlets at E&O include the Sarkies Corner which has a colonial, Straits-style coffeeshop setting and serves a local-international buffet or a la-carte. Farquhar’s Bar, a surviving sample of the colonial era with its dark woods and leathers, serves great pub fare. The bakery is a little nook specialising in breads, pies, pastries and great coffee.
According to its communications manager Elizabeth Dass, the E&O will be celebrating its 151st Anniversary this year. For more details, contact the E&O at 04-222 2000, fax: 04-261 6333, e-mail hotel_info@e_o_hotel.com or access www.e_o_hotel.com
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
Cheah Tek Soon
Row over the dead
By CHOONG KWEE KIMThe Star, Thursday, June 26, 2003
A columbarium project smack in the middle of the Millionaire’s Row in Penang has drawn enough flak to make the dead turn in their graves, reports CHOONG KWEE KIM.
AN auspicious golden arowana symbol and a feng shui calendar rest on the table of Datuk Nazir Ariff’s sea-facing office, as he speaks dejectedly about a controversial columbarium project looming opposite his restored heritage building on Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Penang.
The prominent businessman had enthusiastically invested in Penang’s dream of George Town becoming a Unesco World Heritage Site by restoring his mansion to reap the promised bountiful returns in tourism ringgit and increased property value.
Alas, that dream has become a nightmare in the shape of an imposing three-block columbarium-cum-religious institution of nine and 10 storeys that will soon sprout around the derelict heritage building opposite the former Shih Chung branch school to be restored and redeveloped by Stamford Raffles By The Sea Sdn Bhd.
| |
An artist's impression of the controversial three-block columbarium project at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Penang. The existing Shih Chung building in the centre will be restored. |
“I respect the state government’s decision but I will definitely never again get involved in the restoration of any heritage building in Penang because it is a thankless job and in the end, it is not appreciated anyway,” says the Escoy Holdings Bhd chief executive officer who is also past president of the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT).
Opposite his mansion is a quiet old Protestant cemetery that last had a burial in 1894. Nazir can live with that since it is “inactive” but he cannot accept it being used to justify the approval of a new columbarium to be filled with a whopping 300,000 urns at the so-called Millionaires’ Row that falls within the heritage conservation zone.
“The Millionaires’ Row was originally the home to pioneer merchants, rubber planters and tin miners who had turned Penang into a vibrant Pearl of the Orient.
“It is the best part of the island that is by the sea and within the city area,” he says.
The late Honda tycoon Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew’s mansion is also located along the road, formerly known as Northam Road, along with many other stately mansions while further down at Upper Penang Road (UPR) is the majestic E&O Hotel, The Garage and other heritage buildings now restored for adaptive reuse as entertainment outlets and restaurants.
Back in 2000 when the Rent Control Act was repealed, Nazir and his friends decided to turn their 1926 mansion, acquired from the family of a tin-miner’s son, Leong Yin Kean, into a corporate office-cum-restaurant that has come to be admired as a shining example of good corporate initiative in heritage conservation.
| |
Datuk Nazir Ariff and his friends restored this seafront mansion in 2000. He is unhappy that a columbarium is joining the neighbourhood. |
“I consulted a feng shui master who said the location was good except for the cemetery but since it was not active, it was not so bad,” says Yeoh.
To deflect the negative qi (energy) of the cemetery, he says corrections were made to shift the front door facing Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah to another entrance facing Farquhar Street apart from other minor changes.
But after having seen the approved design of the three-block columbarium project opposite, his worst fears are confirmed.
“It is loud, garish and so huge that the original Shih Chung building will be dwarfed by the new structures.
“Maybe I will need to consult a feng shui master again to see how to avoid this but it is so massive that you really can’t ward it off,” he says in despair.
He strongly believes that buildings like a columbarium emit negative yin energy that is not good for other businesses in the vicinity.
“Businesses might probably fail, they may become abandoned and left to rot and die,” he says.
He does not see any good coming out from the columbarium project in terms of better patronage at his restaurant during the festive Qing Ming (Chinese All Souls’ Day) when families visit cemeteries and columbaria to pay respects to the dead.
“Qing Ming is a time when families bring their own food to offer to the dead and then take home to eat.
“They won’t come to my restaurant for the Western and Mediterranean food but they may probably come to use our car park,” he says wryly.
Nazir and his tenant are among the aggrieved neighbours like the Taiwanese owner of the mansions rented by Canon Marketing, the Loh Boon Siew estate, the Gan Chai Leng residence and the Marina Mirage Hotel who are directly affected by the columbarium project and had openly voiced their objections.
On behalf of the business and residential community of the area, Loke Mun Kit of Marina Mirage Hotel had also sent a letter of appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi tasking for a relocation of the project and its approval to be revoked.
| |
The Shih CHung building, built before 1893, is located in a prestigious seaside neighbourhood that is being promoted for tourism. Many of the area's residents believe that the building of the columbarium will undermine the effort. |
Checks showed the four neighbours included a nondescript building rented by a used-car dealer, the Protestant cemetery, the St Joseph’s Home that shares the same compound with the St Francis Xavier’s Church and a building rented out as a warehouse.
It comes as no surprise if none of the four objected, yet the authorities chose to ignore the growing voices of dissent from the serious investors and residents opposite the project due to the fact that they are separated from the site by a road.
Loke says they are not opposing or against the construction of the columbarium but are merely emphasising that its positioning at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah is inappropriate and should be relocated to the outskirts of town or at a hillside.
He says MPPP’s current ruling of referring only to owners of property adjoining or sharing a common boundary is not appropriate for this type of controversial building.
“MPPP should also consider the impact to others by writing to property owners who are opposite, adjacent and around the proposed site.
“This columbarium will have a long-term negative effect on the image of the present prestigious commercial, financial and seafront tourist belt of Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah right from the E&O Hotel to Gurney Drive,” he says.
Loke’s company had initially planned to build a 23-storey hotel opposite the Shih Chung building but the plan is now dashed by the columbarium project that would make a hotel “suite room with a columbarium view” unappealing indeed. Loh Nam Hooi, a repr esentative of the Boon Siew estate, also raises his concerns about traffic congestion and insufficient car parks.
“The government has been promoting this area for tourism and when you suddenly have this columbarium here, it is really very unsuitable with the environment,” he says.
Loh Teng Hong, managing director of Hotel Malaysia at Penang Road, says businesses at Upper Penang Road are doing quite well with the tourism promotion but the buildings and hotels there only have a total of about 1,000 car parking lots which is insufficient.
“With 300,000 urns at the columbarium, I wonder how the traffic is going to be here during Qing Ming,” says Loh who is also the Penang Hoteliers’ Association vice-chairman.
Even the area’s Padang Kota assemblyman Teng Chang Yeow has his reservations about the project that has incurred the ire of many voters.
Teng, who is also Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon’s political secretary, says he had expressed his views and reservations to the state authorities and had also suggested that the developer scrap its earlier proposed condominium plan and build an international convention centre instead.
“I have done my part and since the council has approved the columbarium project, I leave it to the landowners to decide on their next course of action,” he says.
Dr Koh had said last year that the state was working on a conservation management plan that must be “administratively implementable, economically viable, socially acceptable and culturally compatible”.
But the approved columbarium comprising three blocks laid out in a U-shape partly blocking the Shih Chung heritage building in the centre, has been criticised as an eye-sore that is incompatible with the surroundings and a mockery of heritage conservation.
The Shih Chung building, built before 1893, was originally the residence of prominent 19th century figure Cheah Tek Soon after whom Tek Soon Road was named.
PHT council member Lim Gaik Siang says Cheah’s only daughter Cheah Liew Bee married Goh Say Eng, a strong supporter of Dr Sun Yat Sen’s revolutionary movement, and Goh eventually sold his properties one by one in support of the revolution. The building then fell into the hands of rich local merchant Tye Kee Yoon and it was used as a hotel, appearing in old postcards as Bellevue Hotel and also as Raffles-By-The Sea.
By the 1920s, it was leased to the Government English School and later became the Shih Chung branch school after the war.
In 1993, the Tye trustee was said to have sold it for RM9.5mil to the Malaysia Vegetable Oil Refinery Sdn Bhd, one of the major shareholders of Stamford Raffles By The Sea Sdn Bhd.
So, it comes to pass that this historical building will soon become a columbarium to be called The House of Remembrance.
To other investors of the heritage potential in the vicinity, they are waking up to the reality that heritage conservation does not pay so long as the state authorities do not have the proper means to ensure its sustainability for everyone.
The best of feng shui strategies offer little help without the support of a state government that is clear and transparent about its conservation management strategies towards achieving that dream of a world-class, sustainable living heritage site.
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
http://ssquah.blogspot.com/2008/05/shih-chung-branch-school-penang.htmlMonday, 19 May 2008
Shih Chung Branch School, Penang
While driving down from Tanjung Tokong towards the ferry terminal today, I had an irresistible urge to visit the Shih Chung Branch School. So, I swung my Avanza around the City Bayview Hotel and drove up Northam Road again, and turned into the school's compound just before the junction with Transfer Road.
In case you don't known, the Shih Chung Branch School is an old, abandoned building that had seen better days.
It was - still is - an imposing building. It was originally a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion belonging to Cheah Tek Soon (Tek Soon Street was named after him, so he must have been someone quite important in old Penang) in the 1880s.
The building was the first five-storey residence in the Straits Settlements and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow). Later, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Much later again, the Tye brothers turned it into the Raffles-by-the-Sea hotel in the 1910s. Again, much much later, it became the P’i Joo Girls’ School (named after another old towkay, Leong Fee or Liang P'i Joo), the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
About six or seven years ago, the building was at the centre of a storm of controversy when some association wanted to turn it into a Buddhist centre-cum-columbarium. I guess nobody would have minded a Buddhist centre there along Northam Road but a columbarium? Nobody wanted that in their midst, protests were raised and the idea was dropped like a hot potato.
Here are various views of the building's exterior:
And finally, the location of the Shih Chung Branch School as seen through the eyes of Google Maps. It's the isolated building in the lower left quadrant of the picture:
In case you don't known, the Shih Chung Branch School is an old, abandoned building that had seen better days.
It was - still is - an imposing building. It was originally a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion belonging to Cheah Tek Soon (Tek Soon Street was named after him, so he must have been someone quite important in old Penang) in the 1880s.
The building was the first five-storey residence in the Straits Settlements and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow). Later, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Much later again, the Tye brothers turned it into the Raffles-by-the-Sea hotel in the 1910s. Again, much much later, it became the P’i Joo Girls’ School (named after another old towkay, Leong Fee or Liang P'i Joo), the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
About six or seven years ago, the building was at the centre of a storm of controversy when some association wanted to turn it into a Buddhist centre-cum-columbarium. I guess nobody would have minded a Buddhist centre there along Northam Road but a columbarium? Nobody wanted that in their midst, protests were raised and the idea was dropped like a hot potato.
Here are various views of the building's exterior:
And finally, the location of the Shih Chung Branch School as seen through the eyes of Google Maps. It's the isolated building in the lower left quadrant of the picture:
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
Glimpses of colonial Penang
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/FeatureStory/20060117111007/Article/index_html
Glimpses of colonial Penang
by Alan Teh Leam Seng
NST 17, Jan 2006
THE northern intersection of Penang Road and Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah (formerly Northam Road) is a good spot to begin a walkabout of colonial George Town.
Indeed, Northam Road, the city’s first residential suburb, is still known to many locals as Millionaire’s Row, where stately and majestic European-style bungalows were once home to the rich sons of the island.
Local Chinese referred to it as Ang Mor Lor (European Road) because of the many ang mor lau (European-style bungalows) standing amidst lush gardens complete with tennis courts, stables and elaborate driveways.
Here too is the final resting place of many of Penang’s founding fathers. In use from 1789 to 1892, the cemetery houses both Protestant and Roman Catholic graves. Those of Captain Francis Light, James Scott (Light’s trading partner), Reverend R.S. Hutchings (founder of Penang Free School) and Quintin Dick Thompson (brother-in-law of Stamford Raffles) are in the Protestant cemetery. The last burial was that of Cornelia Van Someran in 1892.
You can also find the grave of James Richardson Logan, the editor, writer and publisher of the 27 volumes of the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, which were also called Logan’s Journals, from 1847-1859. Together with his elder brother, Abraham, they took over the Pinang Gazette and encouraged public opinion to end Indian rule in the Straits Settlements. This resulted in the historic Transfer of 1867 by which the Settlements obtained self-rule. Transfer Road thus was named to commemorate the event.
Among the European graves are 12 Chinese graves dating from the 1860s to the 1880s. These are the graves of Christian Hakkas who escaped to Penang after the failed Taiping Revolution in China.
Army officer Thomas Leonowens, whose widow, Anna of Anna and the King fame, was also buried here after succumbing to apoplexy.
From the cemetery, you can see the few reminders of Penang’s early suburban villas. One imposing building, a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion, was once the Shih Chung Branch School. When fully constructed in the 1880s, it was Cheah Tek Soon’s residence. It was the toast of the town as it was the first five-storey residence and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow).
Subsequently, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Later, the Tye brothers turned it into a hotel, Raffles-by-the-Sea in the 1910s.
Much later, it was converted into the P’i Joo Girls’ School, the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
Nearby is the house of the late Loh Boon Siew, a tycoon who made his fortune by importing and selling Honda motorcycles in the 1960s, and two unassuming hotels with a rather notorious past.
According to Penang Heritage Trust guide Theresa Capol, 55, the infamous striptease dancer Rose Chan used to perform at one of the hotels, called Hotel Gallant.
“Across the road is Waldorf Hotel, where American soldiers stayed when on leave during the Vietnam War. At that time the number of servicemen ‘tourists’ were numerous and the hotel had to add on an additional wing,” she says.
From here, walk towards Farquhar Street and you’d be greeted by the famous Eastern and Oriental (E&O) Hotel. In 1927, this “Premier Hotel East of The Suez” boasted of 100 rooms, 40 of them with adjoining bathrooms, hot and cold running water, individual telephones and 842ft seafront, the longest at that time.
It’s located strategically at the intersection of Farquhar Street and Penang Road. The imposing building transports visitors back to the old world grandeur of the East India Company and one can almost expect to see colonial planters sipping their stengahs and enjoying their tiffin curry under high ceiling fans.
In the past, it was well patronised by colonial administrators, planters and wealthy locals as well as personalities like Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham. Elegant suites have been named after these great writers.
Even now, the elegant E&O, with its Moorish minarets, spacious domed lobby and sweeping seafront, has managed to retain much of its grace and charm.
It was first built in 1885 and underwent massive renovations just before the turn of the millennium which turned it into a unique and elegant five-star property complete with 101 British India-styled suites and a diverse range of exquisite dining facilities.
The Sarkies Brothers – Martin, Tigran and Arshak – from Isfahan in Persia, became the foremost hoteliers of the East by operating the Strand in Rangoon, the Raffles in Singapore and the E&O and Craig Hotel in Penang.
It was Tigran who first leased a large compound house at 1A, Light Street. On April 15, 1884 it opened as the Eastern Hotel.
Later, the Sarkies Brothers acquired the adjacent Hotel de l’Europe which they subsequently renamed as the Oriental Hotel.
But running two separate hotels within a short distance of each other proved uneconomical, so the brothers decided to merge the two. However, they realised that travellers were already familiar with the names, so they renamed it Eastern and Oriental Hotel.
The hotel is 20 kilometres from the Bayan Lepas International Airport and a stone’s throw from the ferry terminal that connects the island to the mainland. From the hotel, you can take a short walk to Fort Cornwallis, the City Hall and the Penang State Museum. A small upmarket mall called The Garage is located right across the road while a row of shophouses close by sells reasonably priced antiques.
Dining outlets at E&O include the Sarkies Corner which has a colonial, Straits-style coffeeshop setting and serves a local-international buffet or a la-carte. Farquhar’s Bar, a surviving sample of the colonial era with its dark woods and leathers, serves great pub fare. The bakery is a little nook specialising in breads, pies, pastries and great coffee.
According to its communications manager Elizabeth Dass, the E&O will be celebrating its 151st Anniversary this year. For more details, contact the E&O at 04-222 2000, fax: 04-261 6333, e-mail hotel_info@e_o_hotel.com or access www.e_o_hotel.com
THE northern intersection of Penang Road and Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah (formerly Northam Road) is a good spot to begin a walkabout of colonial George Town.
Indeed, Northam Road, the city’s first residential suburb, is still known to many locals as Millionaire’s Row, where stately and majestic European-style bungalows were once home to the rich sons of the island.
Local Chinese referred to it as Ang Mor Lor (European Road) because of the many ang mor lau (European-style bungalows) standing amidst lush gardens complete with tennis courts, stables and elaborate driveways.
Here too is the final resting place of many of Penang’s founding fathers. In use from 1789 to 1892, the cemetery houses both Protestant and Roman Catholic graves. Those of Captain Francis Light, James Scott (Light’s trading partner), Reverend R.S. Hutchings (founder of Penang Free School) and Quintin Dick Thompson (brother-in-law of Stamford Raffles) are in the Protestant cemetery. The last burial was that of Cornelia Van Someran in 1892.
You can also find the grave of James Richardson Logan, the editor, writer and publisher of the 27 volumes of the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, which were also called Logan’s Journals, from 1847-1859. Together with his elder brother, Abraham, they took over the Pinang Gazette and encouraged public opinion to end Indian rule in the Straits Settlements. This resulted in the historic Transfer of 1867 by which the Settlements obtained self-rule. Transfer Road thus was named to commemorate the event.
Among the European graves are 12 Chinese graves dating from the 1860s to the 1880s. These are the graves of Christian Hakkas who escaped to Penang after the failed Taiping Revolution in China.
Army officer Thomas Leonowens, whose widow, Anna of Anna and the King fame, was also buried here after succumbing to apoplexy.
From the cemetery, you can see the few reminders of Penang’s early suburban villas. One imposing building, a unique Anglo-Chinese mansion, was once the Shih Chung Branch School. When fully constructed in the 1880s, it was Cheah Tek Soon’s residence. It was the toast of the town as it was the first five-storey residence and local Hokkiens called it goh chan lau (five storey bungalow).
Subsequently, it was named the Chinese Residency when Tek Soon’s brother lived there in the 1900s. Later, the Tye brothers turned it into a hotel, Raffles-by-the-Sea in the 1910s.
Much later, it was converted into the P’i Joo Girls’ School, the Government Girls’ School and finally, the Shih Chung Branch School.
Nearby is the house of the late Loh Boon Siew, a tycoon who made his fortune by importing and selling Honda motorcycles in the 1960s, and two unassuming hotels with a rather notorious past.
According to Penang Heritage Trust guide Theresa Capol, 55, the infamous striptease dancer Rose Chan used to perform at one of the hotels, called Hotel Gallant.
“Across the road is Waldorf Hotel, where American soldiers stayed when on leave during the Vietnam War. At that time the number of servicemen ‘tourists’ were numerous and the hotel had to add on an additional wing,” she says.
From here, walk towards Farquhar Street and you’d be greeted by the famous Eastern and Oriental (E&O) Hotel. In 1927, this “Premier Hotel East of The Suez” boasted of 100 rooms, 40 of them with adjoining bathrooms, hot and cold running water, individual telephones and 842ft seafront, the longest at that time.
It’s located strategically at the intersection of Farquhar Street and Penang Road. The imposing building transports visitors back to the old world grandeur of the East India Company and one can almost expect to see colonial planters sipping their stengahs and enjoying their tiffin curry under high ceiling fans.
In the past, it was well patronised by colonial administrators, planters and wealthy locals as well as personalities like Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham. Elegant suites have been named after these great writers.
Even now, the elegant E&O, with its Moorish minarets, spacious domed lobby and sweeping seafront, has managed to retain much of its grace and charm.
It was first built in 1885 and underwent massive renovations just before the turn of the millennium which turned it into a unique and elegant five-star property complete with 101 British India-styled suites and a diverse range of exquisite dining facilities.
The Sarkies Brothers – Martin, Tigran and Arshak – from Isfahan in Persia, became the foremost hoteliers of the East by operating the Strand in Rangoon, the Raffles in Singapore and the E&O and Craig Hotel in Penang.
It was Tigran who first leased a large compound house at 1A, Light Street. On April 15, 1884 it opened as the Eastern Hotel.
Later, the Sarkies Brothers acquired the adjacent Hotel de l’Europe which they subsequently renamed as the Oriental Hotel.
But running two separate hotels within a short distance of each other proved uneconomical, so the brothers decided to merge the two. However, they realised that travellers were already familiar with the names, so they renamed it Eastern and Oriental Hotel.
The hotel is 20 kilometres from the Bayan Lepas International Airport and a stone’s throw from the ferry terminal that connects the island to the mainland. From the hotel, you can take a short walk to Fort Cornwallis, the City Hall and the Penang State Museum. A small upmarket mall called The Garage is located right across the road while a row of shophouses close by sells reasonably priced antiques.
Dining outlets at E&O include the Sarkies Corner which has a colonial, Straits-style coffeeshop setting and serves a local-international buffet or a la-carte. Farquhar’s Bar, a surviving sample of the colonial era with its dark woods and leathers, serves great pub fare. The bakery is a little nook specialising in breads, pies, pastries and great coffee.
According to its communications manager Elizabeth Dass, the E&O will be celebrating its 151st Anniversary this year. For more details, contact the E&O at 04-222 2000, fax: 04-261 6333, e-mail hotel_info@e_o_hotel.com or access www.e_o_hotel.com
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
==========OOOOOOOOOO==========
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Translation Anyone? 增城是一个多亭之邑，历代修志均有“亭篇”，全邑十二都，都都有亭。有的都亭五六，有的都亭四五，平均一都有亭五，全邑亭近八十。据《辞海词典》之《园治·亭》：亭者，停也，所以停憩游行也。多用竹、木、石等材料建成，平面一般有圆形、长形、六角形、八角形。
http://gz.pclady.com.cn/life/history/0803/257681.html
增城是一个多亭之邑，历代修志均有“亭篇”，全邑十二都，都都有亭。有的都亭五六，有的都亭四五，平均一都有亭五，全邑亭近八十。据《辞海词典》之《园治·亭》：亭者，停也，所以停憩游行也。多用竹、木、石等材料建成，平面一般有圆形、长形、六角形、八角形。
增城是一个多亭之邑，历代修志均有“亭篇”，全邑十二都，都都有亭。有的都亭五六，有的都亭四五，平均一都有亭五，全邑亭近八十。据《辞海词典》之《园治·亭》：亭者，停也，所以停憩游行也。多用竹、木、石等材料建成，平面一般有圆形、长形、六角形、八角形。
抗日战争前，全县七八十个亭均较齐全。抗日战争后，仅存二三十个，由于长期失修，现尚存几个。现在将亭存名存的，或亭亡名存的亭列举于后，以资纪念。
里汾亭 位于增城西里汾村边，亭成长形，长12米、宽6米。亭内面积为72平方米，为南洋侨领郑景贵出资建成。郑景贵（1821～1898），乳名嗣文，号慎之。增城绥福都（今福和镇）郑新村人。父兴发，参加洪秀全起义被通缉，于咸丰年间飘洋至马来 亚谋生。及后，郑景贵寻父去了南洋，助父经营小本生意，40多岁的郑景贵已跻身富商行列。据《增城县志》人物列传：嗣文资望至深，侨民皆倚以为重，思解其 纠纷，乃亲诣星嘉坡谒英吉利兵帅，乞师定乱，后治岛有方，善营矿业，英官方嘉奖嗣文功，授以“甲必丹”职。甲必丹者，乃英武弁衔，授之以抚侨治氓。李鸿章 督直隶时，值水灾，贻嗣文书。即助以巨款50万两，声言归其善举于母亲。鸿章请于朝，以“急公好义”牌坊表其闾，并旨封其母赖氏为一品夫人。张之洞督两广 时，有法越之役，嗣文出于“有国才有家”之忧，献财赡于军事，张之洞一举受其50万两银，再加20万两，超出张之洞之需。张在广州办教育，又投书勉郑义 举，郑能达其所愿，动张之心，奏于朝庭，旨偿郑品衔，封赠三代。广州御史冯显胜谓：在海外得英授官，在内蒙朝廷授官，岭表乃郑公始矣。自此，海内外参观其 家乡人多，沿路建亭，不过以“里汾亭”建筑得有特色，又坚固耐用。“里汾亭”匾落款为郑嗣文撰，冯显胜书。原来有一副木楹联：“金鸡山鸣云晓日，玉童钟响马启程。”联中嵌入了当地名胜“金鸡山”和古寺“玉童寺”。
虎跳亭 位于庆福都（今荔城镇）与崇贤都（今小楼镇）交界处的虎跳径。径长15公里，大山狭谷，加之山高林密，古时有老虎出没，故名。清光绪戊申三十四年 （1908），由棠下村贡生潘祖志和县城坊荫生郭瑞怀倡建，亭六角形、2米柱距，占地28平方米。当任知县胡光镛筹建，于次年十月竣工。胡光镛，江西人， 光绪四年进士，由他建亭并撰联云：“无处不可栖身，最喜四面云山，细领略罗浮帽岭；此间何妨小住，况当一亭风雨，漫驰驱虎跳龙墟。”联中将名山罗浮帽岭以及地名虎跳径和二龙墟嵌入。
Translation Anyone? 增城是一个多亭之邑，历代修志均有“亭篇”，全邑十二都，都都有亭。有的都亭五六，有的都亭四五，平均一都有亭五，全邑亭近八十。据《辞海词典》之《园治·亭》：亭者，停也，所以停憩游行也。多用竹、木、石等材料建成，平面一般有圆形、长形、六角形、八角形。
http://gz.pclady.com.cn/life/history/0803/257681.html
增城是一个多亭之邑，历代修志均有“亭篇”，全邑十二都，都都有亭。有的都亭五六，有的都亭四五，平均一都有亭五，全邑亭近八十。据《辞海词典》之《园治·亭》：亭者，停也，所以停憩游行也。多用竹、木、石等材料建成，平面一般有圆形、长形、六角形、八角形。
增城是一个多亭之邑，历代修志均有“亭篇”，全邑十二都，都都有亭。有的都亭五六，有的都亭四五，平均一都有亭五，全邑亭近八十。据《辞海词典》之《园治·亭》：亭者，停也，所以停憩游行也。多用竹、木、石等材料建成，平面一般有圆形、长形、六角形、八角形。
抗日战争前，全县七八十个亭均较齐全。抗日战争后，仅存二三十个，由于长期失修，现尚存几个。现在将亭存名存的，或亭亡名存的亭列举于后，以资纪念。
里汾亭 位于增城西里汾村边，亭成长形，长12米、宽6米。亭内面积为72平方米，为南洋侨领郑景贵出资建成。郑景贵（1821～1898），乳名嗣文，号慎之。增城绥福都（今福和镇）郑新村人。父兴发，参加洪秀全起义被通缉，于咸丰年间飘洋至马来 亚谋生。及后，郑景贵寻父去了南洋，助父经营小本生意，40多岁的郑景贵已跻身富商行列。据《增城县志》人物列传：嗣文资望至深，侨民皆倚以为重，思解其 纠纷，乃亲诣星嘉坡谒英吉利兵帅，乞师定乱，后治岛有方，善营矿业，英官方嘉奖嗣文功，授以“甲必丹”职。甲必丹者，乃英武弁衔，授之以抚侨治氓。李鸿章 督直隶时，值水灾，贻嗣文书。即助以巨款50万两，声言归其善举于母亲。鸿章请于朝，以“急公好义”牌坊表其闾，并旨封其母赖氏为一品夫人。张之洞督两广 时，有法越之役，嗣文出于“有国才有家”之忧，献财赡于军事，张之洞一举受其50万两银，再加20万两，超出张之洞之需。张在广州办教育，又投书勉郑义 举，郑能达其所愿，动张之心，奏于朝庭，旨偿郑品衔，封赠三代。广州御史冯显胜谓：在海外得英授官，在内蒙朝廷授官，岭表乃郑公始矣。自此，海内外参观其 家乡人多，沿路建亭，不过以“里汾亭”建筑得有特色，又坚固耐用。“里汾亭”匾落款为郑嗣文撰，冯显胜书。原来有一副木楹联：“金鸡山鸣云晓日，玉童钟响马启程。”联中嵌入了当地名胜“金鸡山”和古寺“玉童寺”。
虎跳亭 位于庆福都（今荔城镇）与崇贤都（今小楼镇）交界处的虎跳径。径长15公里，大山狭谷，加之山高林密，古时有老虎出没，故名。清光绪戊申三十四年 （1908），由棠下村贡生潘祖志和县城坊荫生郭瑞怀倡建，亭六角形、2米柱距，占地28平方米。当任知县胡光镛筹建，于次年十月竣工。胡光镛，江西人， 光绪四年进士，由他建亭并撰联云：“无处不可栖身，最喜四面云山，细领略罗浮帽岭；此间何妨小住，况当一亭风雨，漫驰驱虎跳龙墟。”联中将名山罗浮帽岭以及地名虎跳径和二龙墟嵌入。
Legendary Taiping
Legendary Taiping
Malaysian Business, Feb 16, 2007 by Vithyaa Ramiah
BEFORE 1937, Taiping was the capital of the state of Perak. It was moved from Bandar Baru (New Town) to here after Datok Maharaja Lela killed JWW Birch at Pasir Salak in 1875. In 1937, the capital of Perak was moved from Taiping to Ipoh.
The town's mining industry continued to thrive, and the country's first railway was built to transport tin from Taiping to the coast for export. By 1900, an English language school, a newspaper and the Perak Museum (the oldest in Malaysia) were established.
Although Taiping's economy declined with the dwindling tin deposits, the metal still remains an important industry in the area, as do rubber and rice.
Taiping is 88km from Penang, 80km from Ipoh and 302km from Kuala Lumpur. It is about an hour's drive from Ipoh via the highway. There are frequent bus services from all major towns in Peninsular Malaysia and even from Singapore. But if you prefer, you can get there by train or by air. Malaysia Airlines flies to Ipoh from Kuala Lumpur and Penang. When on the road, Changkat Jering is your exit point on the Plus Highway. Turn right at Simpang's main traffic light, and this will take you straight to the town centre, where streets are grid-like and strung together by the Main Road and Kota Road. Driving around is easy.
Anytime is a good time to visit Taiping. Weekends are normally crowded, as people from the nearby districts of Selama, Matang, Kamunting and Simpang come here to shop and eat.
The Casual Market, named by the British colonial administrators for its laid-back ambience in the 19th Century, is the town's busiest spot. Try the ais kacang mesin or what a seller describes as ais kacang blended here! Colourful bits of cendol, red beans, jelly, peanuts, sweetened corn, shaved ice and everything you'd find in ais kacang are blended before being served in a tall glass for a truly sweet and refreshing experience.
Other choices of dishes that have to be on your must-try list would include char kuay teow, nyonya savouries, popiah, pasembur, nasi kampung and nasi briyani. Hawkers take their own sweet time to get even the simplest of dishes prepared. Then again, being caught in a `time-warp' is also what makes Taiping famous. Therefore, don't expect your orders to come fast.
Other than setting aside some cash for the hotel room, you need very little for everything else. If you are planning for some shopping, of course, you will need allocation for that. Not short of hotels, among the places you could stay in include Sri Malaysia Hotel; Golf View Inn - Taiping Resort; Hotel Furama; Jana View Condotel; Peking Hotel - Town Centre; and Legend Inn.
Taiping has a long list of places to visit. Among them:
* Taiping Lake Gardens, with hills in the background
* Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill)
* The Perak Museum
* Kwan-Tung Hui-Kuan (Cantonese Association), founded in 1887 by Chung Keng Quee and others
* Taiping Zoo & Night Safari
* The All Saints Church
* The Commonwealth War Cemetery
* The British Resident's Residence (1877)
* Kapitan Chung Keng Quee's Townhouse on Barrack Road (it is now an antique shop)
* Bukit Jana Country Golf Resort, Kamunting
* Bukit Merah Laketown Resort
* Buddhist Retreat in Tupai Cemetery (travelling to this retreat requires a semi four-wheel drive vehicle, but the view from the retreat is spectacular and very peaceful)
* Coronation Swimming Pool (located at the foothill of Bukit Larut with very cold mountain stream water even on hot days)
* The Taiping Public Library, which has numerous old and new book collections.
Due to its booming tin-mining industry in the 19th Century and its previous position as the capital of Perak, Taiping is the pioneer in many fields, achieving many `firsts' in the country. The list given by the Taiping Municipal Council records a total of 40 firsts in the country under Taiping's belt. Dated as early as 1844, these firsts are either in the form of monuments or events (see table).
Taiping's firsts in the country
Open tin mining activity in the peninsula (1844)
Hill resort - Maxwell Hill (1844)
Swimming pool - Kolam Renang Kemahkotaan (1870)
Mosque - Masjid Tengku Menteri (1870)
Rest house (1870)
Artillery warehouse (1870)
Magistrate Court (1874)
Balai penghulu (1875)
Resident's house (1877)
Port - Port Weld (1877)
English school - Central School Kamunting (1878)
Police Force team (1879)
Government offices (1879)
Telegraph and post office (1880)
Lake gardens - Taman Tasik Taiping (1880)
Hospital, private and government (1880)
Club - New Club (1880)
Railway station and warehouse (1881)
Museum - Muzium Negeri Perak (1883)
Market building - Taiping Market Square (1884)
Prison - Penjara Taiping (1885)
Railway track - from Port Weld to Taiping (1885)
Turf club - Perak Turf Club (1886)
Anglican church - All Saints Church, Taiping (1886)
English girl's school - Treacher Girls' School (1889)
Clock tower - Menara Jam Besar (1890)
Esplanade - Padang Esplanade (1890)
Malay newspaper - Seri Perak (June 1893)
English newspaper - Perak Pioneer (July 4, 1894)
Tamil newspaper - Perak Verthamani (1894)
Armed Forces - Malay States Guides (1896)
Teaching college - Maktab Perguruan Melayu
Ceylon association (1899)
Punjabi association - Khalsa Diwan Malaya Association (1903)
Indian association (1906)
Recreation park - Coronation Park (1920s)
Airfield - Padang Kapal Terbang Tekah (1930)
Golf course (some claim it as a first in Southeast Asia as well)
Library - Perpustakaan Merdeka
Fire brigade
Copyright 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Bibliography for "Legendary Taiping"
View more issues:
Jan 16, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070116
Feb 1, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070201
Mar 1, 2007 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070301
Vithyaa Ramiah "Legendary Taiping". Malaysian Business. Feb 16, 2007. FindArticles.com. 13 Aug. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070216/ai_n24910760
Malaysian Business, Feb 16, 2007 by Vithyaa Ramiah
BEFORE 1937, Taiping was the capital of the state of Perak. It was moved from Bandar Baru (New Town) to here after Datok Maharaja Lela killed JWW Birch at Pasir Salak in 1875. In 1937, the capital of Perak was moved from Taiping to Ipoh.
The town's mining industry continued to thrive, and the country's first railway was built to transport tin from Taiping to the coast for export. By 1900, an English language school, a newspaper and the Perak Museum (the oldest in Malaysia) were established.
Although Taiping's economy declined with the dwindling tin deposits, the metal still remains an important industry in the area, as do rubber and rice.
Taiping is 88km from Penang, 80km from Ipoh and 302km from Kuala Lumpur. It is about an hour's drive from Ipoh via the highway. There are frequent bus services from all major towns in Peninsular Malaysia and even from Singapore. But if you prefer, you can get there by train or by air. Malaysia Airlines flies to Ipoh from Kuala Lumpur and Penang. When on the road, Changkat Jering is your exit point on the Plus Highway. Turn right at Simpang's main traffic light, and this will take you straight to the town centre, where streets are grid-like and strung together by the Main Road and Kota Road. Driving around is easy.
Anytime is a good time to visit Taiping. Weekends are normally crowded, as people from the nearby districts of Selama, Matang, Kamunting and Simpang come here to shop and eat.
The Casual Market, named by the British colonial administrators for its laid-back ambience in the 19th Century, is the town's busiest spot. Try the ais kacang mesin or what a seller describes as ais kacang blended here! Colourful bits of cendol, red beans, jelly, peanuts, sweetened corn, shaved ice and everything you'd find in ais kacang are blended before being served in a tall glass for a truly sweet and refreshing experience.
Other choices of dishes that have to be on your must-try list would include char kuay teow, nyonya savouries, popiah, pasembur, nasi kampung and nasi briyani. Hawkers take their own sweet time to get even the simplest of dishes prepared. Then again, being caught in a `time-warp' is also what makes Taiping famous. Therefore, don't expect your orders to come fast.
Other than setting aside some cash for the hotel room, you need very little for everything else. If you are planning for some shopping, of course, you will need allocation for that. Not short of hotels, among the places you could stay in include Sri Malaysia Hotel; Golf View Inn - Taiping Resort; Hotel Furama; Jana View Condotel; Peking Hotel - Town Centre; and Legend Inn.
Taiping has a long list of places to visit. Among them:
* Taiping Lake Gardens, with hills in the background
* Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill)
* The Perak Museum
* Kwan-Tung Hui-Kuan (Cantonese Association), founded in 1887 by Chung Keng Quee and others
* Taiping Zoo & Night Safari
* The All Saints Church
* The Commonwealth War Cemetery
* The British Resident's Residence (1877)
* Kapitan Chung Keng Quee's Townhouse on Barrack Road (it is now an antique shop)
* Bukit Jana Country Golf Resort, Kamunting
* Bukit Merah Laketown Resort
* Buddhist Retreat in Tupai Cemetery (travelling to this retreat requires a semi four-wheel drive vehicle, but the view from the retreat is spectacular and very peaceful)
* Coronation Swimming Pool (located at the foothill of Bukit Larut with very cold mountain stream water even on hot days)
* The Taiping Public Library, which has numerous old and new book collections.
Due to its booming tin-mining industry in the 19th Century and its previous position as the capital of Perak, Taiping is the pioneer in many fields, achieving many `firsts' in the country. The list given by the Taiping Municipal Council records a total of 40 firsts in the country under Taiping's belt. Dated as early as 1844, these firsts are either in the form of monuments or events (see table).
Taiping's firsts in the country
Open tin mining activity in the peninsula (1844)
Hill resort - Maxwell Hill (1844)
Swimming pool - Kolam Renang Kemahkotaan (1870)
Mosque - Masjid Tengku Menteri (1870)
Rest house (1870)
Artillery warehouse (1870)
Magistrate Court (1874)
Balai penghulu (1875)
Resident's house (1877)
Port - Port Weld (1877)
English school - Central School Kamunting (1878)
Police Force team (1879)
Government offices (1879)
Telegraph and post office (1880)
Lake gardens - Taman Tasik Taiping (1880)
Hospital, private and government (1880)
Club - New Club (1880)
Railway station and warehouse (1881)
Museum - Muzium Negeri Perak (1883)
Market building - Taiping Market Square (1884)
Prison - Penjara Taiping (1885)
Railway track - from Port Weld to Taiping (1885)
Turf club - Perak Turf Club (1886)
Anglican church - All Saints Church, Taiping (1886)
English girl's school - Treacher Girls' School (1889)
Clock tower - Menara Jam Besar (1890)
Esplanade - Padang Esplanade (1890)
Malay newspaper - Seri Perak (June 1893)
English newspaper - Perak Pioneer (July 4, 1894)
Tamil newspaper - Perak Verthamani (1894)
Armed Forces - Malay States Guides (1896)
Teaching college - Maktab Perguruan Melayu
Ceylon association (1899)
Punjabi association - Khalsa Diwan Malaya Association (1903)
Indian association (1906)
Recreation park - Coronation Park (1920s)
Airfield - Padang Kapal Terbang Tekah (1930)
Golf course (some claim it as a first in Southeast Asia as well)
Library - Perpustakaan Merdeka
Fire brigade
Copyright 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Bibliography for "Legendary Taiping"
View more issues:
Jan 16, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070116
Feb 1, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070201
Mar 1, 2007 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070301
Vithyaa Ramiah "Legendary Taiping". Malaysian Business. Feb 16, 2007. FindArticles.com. 13 Aug. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070216/ai_n24910760
Legendary Taiping
Legendary Taiping
Malaysian Business, Feb 16, 2007 by Vithyaa Ramiah
BEFORE 1937, Taiping was the capital of the state of Perak. It was moved from Bandar Baru (New Town) to here after Datok Maharaja Lela killed JWW Birch at Pasir Salak in 1875. In 1937, the capital of Perak was moved from Taiping to Ipoh.
The town's mining industry continued to thrive, and the country's first railway was built to transport tin from Taiping to the coast for export. By 1900, an English language school, a newspaper and the Perak Museum (the oldest in Malaysia) were established.
Although Taiping's economy declined with the dwindling tin deposits, the metal still remains an important industry in the area, as do rubber and rice.
Taiping is 88km from Penang, 80km from Ipoh and 302km from Kuala Lumpur. It is about an hour's drive from Ipoh via the highway. There are frequent bus services from all major towns in Peninsular Malaysia and even from Singapore. But if you prefer, you can get there by train or by air. Malaysia Airlines flies to Ipoh from Kuala Lumpur and Penang. When on the road, Changkat Jering is your exit point on the Plus Highway. Turn right at Simpang's main traffic light, and this will take you straight to the town centre, where streets are grid-like and strung together by the Main Road and Kota Road. Driving around is easy.
Anytime is a good time to visit Taiping. Weekends are normally crowded, as people from the nearby districts of Selama, Matang, Kamunting and Simpang come here to shop and eat.
The Casual Market, named by the British colonial administrators for its laid-back ambience in the 19th Century, is the town's busiest spot. Try the ais kacang mesin or what a seller describes as ais kacang blended here! Colourful bits of cendol, red beans, jelly, peanuts, sweetened corn, shaved ice and everything you'd find in ais kacang are blended before being served in a tall glass for a truly sweet and refreshing experience.
Other choices of dishes that have to be on your must-try list would include char kuay teow, nyonya savouries, popiah, pasembur, nasi kampung and nasi briyani. Hawkers take their own sweet time to get even the simplest of dishes prepared. Then again, being caught in a `time-warp' is also what makes Taiping famous. Therefore, don't expect your orders to come fast.
Other than setting aside some cash for the hotel room, you need very little for everything else. If you are planning for some shopping, of course, you will need allocation for that. Not short of hotels, among the places you could stay in include Sri Malaysia Hotel; Golf View Inn - Taiping Resort; Hotel Furama; Jana View Condotel; Peking Hotel - Town Centre; and Legend Inn.
Taiping has a long list of places to visit. Among them:
* Taiping Lake Gardens, with hills in the background
* Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill)
* The Perak Museum
* Kwan-Tung Hui-Kuan (Cantonese Association), founded in 1887 by Chung Keng Quee and others
* Taiping Zoo & Night Safari
* The All Saints Church
* The Commonwealth War Cemetery
* The British Resident's Residence (1877)
* Kapitan Chung Keng Quee's Townhouse on Barrack Road (it is now an antique shop)
* Bukit Jana Country Golf Resort, Kamunting
* Bukit Merah Laketown Resort
* Buddhist Retreat in Tupai Cemetery (travelling to this retreat requires a semi four-wheel drive vehicle, but the view from the retreat is spectacular and very peaceful)
* Coronation Swimming Pool (located at the foothill of Bukit Larut with very cold mountain stream water even on hot days)
* The Taiping Public Library, which has numerous old and new book collections.
Due to its booming tin-mining industry in the 19th Century and its previous position as the capital of Perak, Taiping is the pioneer in many fields, achieving many `firsts' in the country. The list given by the Taiping Municipal Council records a total of 40 firsts in the country under Taiping's belt. Dated as early as 1844, these firsts are either in the form of monuments or events (see table).
Taiping's firsts in the country
Open tin mining activity in the peninsula (1844)
Hill resort - Maxwell Hill (1844)
Swimming pool - Kolam Renang Kemahkotaan (1870)
Mosque - Masjid Tengku Menteri (1870)
Rest house (1870)
Artillery warehouse (1870)
Magistrate Court (1874)
Balai penghulu (1875)
Resident's house (1877)
Port - Port Weld (1877)
English school - Central School Kamunting (1878)
Police Force team (1879)
Government offices (1879)
Telegraph and post office (1880)
Lake gardens - Taman Tasik Taiping (1880)
Hospital, private and government (1880)
Club - New Club (1880)
Railway station and warehouse (1881)
Museum - Muzium Negeri Perak (1883)
Market building - Taiping Market Square (1884)
Prison - Penjara Taiping (1885)
Railway track - from Port Weld to Taiping (1885)
Turf club - Perak Turf Club (1886)
Anglican church - All Saints Church, Taiping (1886)
English girl's school - Treacher Girls' School (1889)
Clock tower - Menara Jam Besar (1890)
Esplanade - Padang Esplanade (1890)
Malay newspaper - Seri Perak (June 1893)
English newspaper - Perak Pioneer (July 4, 1894)
Tamil newspaper - Perak Verthamani (1894)
Armed Forces - Malay States Guides (1896)
Teaching college - Maktab Perguruan Melayu
Ceylon association (1899)
Punjabi association - Khalsa Diwan Malaya Association (1903)
Indian association (1906)
Recreation park - Coronation Park (1920s)
Airfield - Padang Kapal Terbang Tekah (1930)
Golf course (some claim it as a first in Southeast Asia as well)
Library - Perpustakaan Merdeka
Fire brigade
Copyright 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Bibliography for "Legendary Taiping"
View more issues:
Jan 16, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070116
Feb 1, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070201
Mar 1, 2007 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070301
Vithyaa Ramiah "Legendary Taiping". Malaysian Business. Feb 16, 2007. FindArticles.com. 13 Aug. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070216/ai_n24910760
Malaysian Business, Feb 16, 2007 by Vithyaa Ramiah
BEFORE 1937, Taiping was the capital of the state of Perak. It was moved from Bandar Baru (New Town) to here after Datok Maharaja Lela killed JWW Birch at Pasir Salak in 1875. In 1937, the capital of Perak was moved from Taiping to Ipoh.
The town's mining industry continued to thrive, and the country's first railway was built to transport tin from Taiping to the coast for export. By 1900, an English language school, a newspaper and the Perak Museum (the oldest in Malaysia) were established.
Although Taiping's economy declined with the dwindling tin deposits, the metal still remains an important industry in the area, as do rubber and rice.
Taiping is 88km from Penang, 80km from Ipoh and 302km from Kuala Lumpur. It is about an hour's drive from Ipoh via the highway. There are frequent bus services from all major towns in Peninsular Malaysia and even from Singapore. But if you prefer, you can get there by train or by air. Malaysia Airlines flies to Ipoh from Kuala Lumpur and Penang. When on the road, Changkat Jering is your exit point on the Plus Highway. Turn right at Simpang's main traffic light, and this will take you straight to the town centre, where streets are grid-like and strung together by the Main Road and Kota Road. Driving around is easy.
Anytime is a good time to visit Taiping. Weekends are normally crowded, as people from the nearby districts of Selama, Matang, Kamunting and Simpang come here to shop and eat.
The Casual Market, named by the British colonial administrators for its laid-back ambience in the 19th Century, is the town's busiest spot. Try the ais kacang mesin or what a seller describes as ais kacang blended here! Colourful bits of cendol, red beans, jelly, peanuts, sweetened corn, shaved ice and everything you'd find in ais kacang are blended before being served in a tall glass for a truly sweet and refreshing experience.
Other choices of dishes that have to be on your must-try list would include char kuay teow, nyonya savouries, popiah, pasembur, nasi kampung and nasi briyani. Hawkers take their own sweet time to get even the simplest of dishes prepared. Then again, being caught in a `time-warp' is also what makes Taiping famous. Therefore, don't expect your orders to come fast.
Other than setting aside some cash for the hotel room, you need very little for everything else. If you are planning for some shopping, of course, you will need allocation for that. Not short of hotels, among the places you could stay in include Sri Malaysia Hotel; Golf View Inn - Taiping Resort; Hotel Furama; Jana View Condotel; Peking Hotel - Town Centre; and Legend Inn.
Taiping has a long list of places to visit. Among them:
* Taiping Lake Gardens, with hills in the background
* Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill)
* The Perak Museum
* Kwan-Tung Hui-Kuan (Cantonese Association), founded in 1887 by Chung Keng Quee and others
* Taiping Zoo & Night Safari
* The All Saints Church
* The Commonwealth War Cemetery
* The British Resident's Residence (1877)
* Kapitan Chung Keng Quee's Townhouse on Barrack Road (it is now an antique shop)
* Bukit Jana Country Golf Resort, Kamunting
* Bukit Merah Laketown Resort
* Buddhist Retreat in Tupai Cemetery (travelling to this retreat requires a semi four-wheel drive vehicle, but the view from the retreat is spectacular and very peaceful)
* Coronation Swimming Pool (located at the foothill of Bukit Larut with very cold mountain stream water even on hot days)
* The Taiping Public Library, which has numerous old and new book collections.
Due to its booming tin-mining industry in the 19th Century and its previous position as the capital of Perak, Taiping is the pioneer in many fields, achieving many `firsts' in the country. The list given by the Taiping Municipal Council records a total of 40 firsts in the country under Taiping's belt. Dated as early as 1844, these firsts are either in the form of monuments or events (see table).
Taiping's firsts in the country
Open tin mining activity in the peninsula (1844)
Hill resort - Maxwell Hill (1844)
Swimming pool - Kolam Renang Kemahkotaan (1870)
Mosque - Masjid Tengku Menteri (1870)
Rest house (1870)
Artillery warehouse (1870)
Magistrate Court (1874)
Balai penghulu (1875)
Resident's house (1877)
Port - Port Weld (1877)
English school - Central School Kamunting (1878)
Police Force team (1879)
Government offices (1879)
Telegraph and post office (1880)
Lake gardens - Taman Tasik Taiping (1880)
Hospital, private and government (1880)
Club - New Club (1880)
Railway station and warehouse (1881)
Museum - Muzium Negeri Perak (1883)
Market building - Taiping Market Square (1884)
Prison - Penjara Taiping (1885)
Railway track - from Port Weld to Taiping (1885)
Turf club - Perak Turf Club (1886)
Anglican church - All Saints Church, Taiping (1886)
English girl's school - Treacher Girls' School (1889)
Clock tower - Menara Jam Besar (1890)
Esplanade - Padang Esplanade (1890)
Malay newspaper - Seri Perak (June 1893)
English newspaper - Perak Pioneer (July 4, 1894)
Tamil newspaper - Perak Verthamani (1894)
Armed Forces - Malay States Guides (1896)
Teaching college - Maktab Perguruan Melayu
Ceylon association (1899)
Punjabi association - Khalsa Diwan Malaya Association (1903)
Indian association (1906)
Recreation park - Coronation Park (1920s)
Airfield - Padang Kapal Terbang Tekah (1930)
Golf course (some claim it as a first in Southeast Asia as well)
Library - Perpustakaan Merdeka
Fire brigade
Copyright 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Bibliography for "Legendary Taiping"
View more issues:
Jan 16, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070116
Feb 1, 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070201
Mar 1, 2007 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070301
Vithyaa Ramiah "Legendary Taiping". Malaysian Business. Feb 16, 2007. FindArticles.com. 13 Aug. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn6207/is_20070216/ai_n24910760
Friday, August 8, 2008
Chung Thye Phin in Chinese Business in Southeast Asia: Contesting Cultural Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship By H. Hsiao, Edmund Terence Gomez, Xinhuang Xiao, Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Chung Thye Phin in Chinese Business in Southeast Asia: Contesting Cultural Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship
By H. Hsiao, Edmund Terence Gomez, Xinhuang Xiao, Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Published by Routledge, 2001
ISBN 0700714154, 9780700714155
205 pages
Page 21
The enterprises of a number of prominent tin miners in Malaya and Singapore, who emerged in the early part of this century, including Chung Thye Pin, Lau Pak Khuan and Leong Sin Nam, are no longer major companies.
Page 65
Among the most prominent Chinese businessmen who emerged during this period were Eu Tong Sen, Lau Pak Kuan, Chung Thye Phin, Loke Yew and Tan Kah Kee and his son-in-law, Lee Kong Chian.[4]
Page 169
[4] Chung Thye Phin started out as a revenue farmer and later ventured into the tin mining and rubber plantation sectors.
By H. Hsiao, Edmund Terence Gomez, Xinhuang Xiao, Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Published by Routledge, 2001
ISBN 0700714154, 9780700714155
205 pages
Page 21
The enterprises of a number of prominent tin miners in Malaya and Singapore, who emerged in the early part of this century, including Chung Thye Pin, Lau Pak Khuan and Leong Sin Nam, are no longer major companies.
Page 65
Among the most prominent Chinese businessmen who emerged during this period were Eu Tong Sen, Lau Pak Kuan, Chung Thye Phin, Loke Yew and Tan Kah Kee and his son-in-law, Lee Kong Chian.[4]
Page 169
[4] Chung Thye Phin started out as a revenue farmer and later ventured into the tin mining and rubber plantation sectors.
Chung Thye Phin in Chinese Business in Southeast Asia: Contesting Cultural Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship By H. Hsiao, Edmund Terence Gomez, Xinhuang Xiao, Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Chung Thye Phin in Chinese Business in Southeast Asia: Contesting Cultural Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship
By H. Hsiao, Edmund Terence Gomez, Xinhuang Xiao, Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Published by Routledge, 2001
ISBN 0700714154, 9780700714155
205 pages
Page 21
The enterprises of a number of prominent tin miners in Malaya and Singapore, who emerged in the early part of this century, including Chung Thye Pin, Lau Pak Khuan and Leong Sin Nam, are no longer major companies.
Page 65
Among the most prominent Chinese businessmen who emerged during this period were Eu Tong Sen, Lau Pak Kuan, Chung Thye Phin, Loke Yew and Tan Kah Kee and his son-in-law, Lee Kong Chian.[4]
Page 169
[4] Chung Thye Phin started out as a revenue farmer and later ventured into the tin mining and rubber plantation sectors.
By H. Hsiao, Edmund Terence Gomez, Xinhuang Xiao, Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Published by Routledge, 2001
ISBN 0700714154, 9780700714155
205 pages
Page 21
The enterprises of a number of prominent tin miners in Malaya and Singapore, who emerged in the early part of this century, including Chung Thye Pin, Lau Pak Khuan and Leong Sin Nam, are no longer major companies.
Page 65
Among the most prominent Chinese businessmen who emerged during this period were Eu Tong Sen, Lau Pak Kuan, Chung Thye Phin, Loke Yew and Tan Kah Kee and his son-in-law, Lee Kong Chian.[4]
Page 169
[4] Chung Thye Phin started out as a revenue farmer and later ventured into the tin mining and rubber plantation sectors.
Chung Thye Phin in Chinese Business Enterprise By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown
Chung Thye Phin in
Chinese Business Enterprise
By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown
Published by Taylor & Francis, 1996
ISBN 0415142938, 9780415142939
Page 61, 62, 63, 64
Chapter 3: The Khaw group: Chinese business in early twentieth-century Penang by J. W. Cushman
The Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd
Having acquired a reliable supply of ore and an expanded shipping service to carry it, all that was lacking was an up-to-date smelting plant. Tin from Thai mines had traditionally been smelted in small Chinese blast furnaces made of clay known as relau Tongka (lit. a Tongkah furnace).[78] The principal advantage of these smelters over the more sophisticated western smelters was cost: the Chinese-style smelters required little capital outlay whereas the technologically advanced western smelting plant required large capital inputs. The principal disadvantage of Chinese smelting methods was that the smelted product contained a high impurity content which required further treatment to achieve the "almost theoretical purity ... demanded for ... the [European] tin plate trade."[79] Nor were the Chinese smelters able to effect the economies of scale possible to the bigger smelting enterprises.
In addition to the "vast numbers of small Chinese smelting works scattered all over the various centres of tinstone production",[80] some Chinese were experimenting with more modern smelting methods. The most important of these was the plant begun in Penang by a close associate of the Khaws, Lee Chin Ho b 1863).[81] He opened the Seng Kee Smelting Works in 1898 on an acre of land off Dato Kramat Road. With four reverbaratory furnaces, electrically driven equipment and a laboratory for testing ore samples,[82] the Seng Kee smelter provided an alternative to the Butterworth smelter of the Straits Trading Company, and a solid base from which the Chinese-run smelting industry could expand.
Lee Chin Ho's works were purchased towards the end of 1907 by the Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd. a new company formed in that year with a capital of $1,500,000. The company's object as expressed by its secretary, James Donald, was "to encourage the miner in the development of his property, and to stimulate the tin industry so far as we possibly can."[83] It's first Board of Directors read like a Who's Who of the FMS and Thai mining industries: Eu Tong Seng, Chung Thye Phin, Ng Boo Bee, Ong Hung Chong, Khaw Joo Tok and his nephew Khaw Bian Kee.[84] Its Managing Director, Herman Jessen, had , moreover, gained extensive experience in the smelting business during his years with Behn, Meyer and Co. Besides smelting the ore from their own mines, the new company also hoped to attract ore from the many small mines that were continuing to use traditional methods of smelting.
One of the first steps the new company took was to open ore-buying agencies throughout the FMS. These proved to be popular with the miners who, in the past, had felt that the Straits Trading Company did not always offer the fairest prices for their tin.[85] Because Eastern Smelting was backed by the Chinese, most of whom were themselves mine owners, it had an advantage over the Straits Trading Company when doing business with other Chinese miners. Its success in gaining the confidence of the mining community can be judged by Eastern Smelting's dramatic increase in production figures over the three years it was in operation. In 1908 it smelted 11,400 tons of ore and unrefined tin, or 18 percent of the tin shipped from the Straits; by 1910 it was smelting 16,000 tons or 29 percent of total shipments.[86] (See Figure 2.2.)
Eastern Smelting did not remain under Chinese direction for long, however. In 1911 the company, "an established and thriving business" according according to the Pinang Gazette,[87] was sold to British interests headed by the former Resident of perak, Sie Ernest Woodford Birch. Birch's involvement with the concern predated the takeover in 1911. Birch had visited the Seng Kee works in the early 1900s and afterwards suggested to Lee Chin Ho that "it would be an excellent idea if a large company could be formed" involving the "leading mineowners as shareholders" so their ore "could be smelted down at one place, at cheaper rates."[88] He had also been among the guests at the formal opening of the company by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir John Anderson, on 17January 1908.
Birch may well have acquired an option on the Eastern Smelting Company after the one held by George Meudell, an Australian entrepreneur, had lapsed when tin prices fell in 1908-1909.[89] Meudell remarked in his memoirs that the company he had "bonded for sale in London only needed more capital" and that after he had let his option go, "somebody else floated the tin smeltery and bagged the profit."[90] The "somebody else" appears to have been Ernest Birch and his associates, Cecil Budd and David Currie.
The original firm's lack of capital was emphasised in all the contemporary discussion of the company's sale. The 1911 Prospectus noted, for instance, that "the principal object of this issue is to provide working capital for extending the said business." Business had even been refused "owing to the lack of the necessary capital."[91] The Chinese directors argued that with the company's shares trading on the London market, "they could get fresh capital there more easily than they could locally".[92] Fresh capital was also needed if they were to compete with the Straits Trading Company which was planning to expand. It was expected that the new subscription would provide sufficient funds to overcome past financial shortfalls.
[78] Wong Lin Ken, The Malaysian Tin Industry to 1914 (Tuscon, 1965) pp 157-158
[79] Arnold Wright and Thomas Reid (eds) The Malay Peninsular; A record of British Progress in the Middle East (London, 1912) page 276
[80] C. G. W. Lock, Mining in Malaya for Gold and Tin (London, 1907) pp 161-162
[81] On Lee Chin Ho, see "Pinang Gazette" Centenary Number (1933): Feldwick. pp 856-857
[82] Wright p 817
[83] PG, 18 January 1908
[84] PG, 17 March 1908
[85] PG, 17 July 1901
[86] Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd, Prospectus, July 1911 (Lim Keong Lay Collection, Rare Book Room, Penang Public Library)
[87] PG, 31 August 1911
[88] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
[89] Wong, p 243; Birch 156-157
[90] George Meudell, The Pleasant Career of a Spendthrift (London, 1933) p 136
[91] Prospectus, 1911
[92] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
Chinese Business Enterprise
By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown
Published by Taylor & Francis, 1996
ISBN 0415142938, 9780415142939
Page 61, 62, 63, 64
Chapter 3: The Khaw group: Chinese business in early twentieth-century Penang by J. W. Cushman
The Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd
Having acquired a reliable supply of ore and an expanded shipping service to carry it, all that was lacking was an up-to-date smelting plant. Tin from Thai mines had traditionally been smelted in small Chinese blast furnaces made of clay known as relau Tongka (lit. a Tongkah furnace).[78] The principal advantage of these smelters over the more sophisticated western smelters was cost: the Chinese-style smelters required little capital outlay whereas the technologically advanced western smelting plant required large capital inputs. The principal disadvantage of Chinese smelting methods was that the smelted product contained a high impurity content which required further treatment to achieve the "almost theoretical purity ... demanded for ... the [European] tin plate trade."[79] Nor were the Chinese smelters able to effect the economies of scale possible to the bigger smelting enterprises.
In addition to the "vast numbers of small Chinese smelting works scattered all over the various centres of tinstone production",[80] some Chinese were experimenting with more modern smelting methods. The most important of these was the plant begun in Penang by a close associate of the Khaws, Lee Chin Ho b 1863).[81] He opened the Seng Kee Smelting Works in 1898 on an acre of land off Dato Kramat Road. With four reverbaratory furnaces, electrically driven equipment and a laboratory for testing ore samples,[82] the Seng Kee smelter provided an alternative to the Butterworth smelter of the Straits Trading Company, and a solid base from which the Chinese-run smelting industry could expand.
Lee Chin Ho's works were purchased towards the end of 1907 by the Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd. a new company formed in that year with a capital of $1,500,000. The company's object as expressed by its secretary, James Donald, was "to encourage the miner in the development of his property, and to stimulate the tin industry so far as we possibly can."[83] It's first Board of Directors read like a Who's Who of the FMS and Thai mining industries: Eu Tong Seng, Chung Thye Phin, Ng Boo Bee, Ong Hung Chong, Khaw Joo Tok and his nephew Khaw Bian Kee.[84] Its Managing Director, Herman Jessen, had , moreover, gained extensive experience in the smelting business during his years with Behn, Meyer and Co. Besides smelting the ore from their own mines, the new company also hoped to attract ore from the many small mines that were continuing to use traditional methods of smelting.
One of the first steps the new company took was to open ore-buying agencies throughout the FMS. These proved to be popular with the miners who, in the past, had felt that the Straits Trading Company did not always offer the fairest prices for their tin.[85] Because Eastern Smelting was backed by the Chinese, most of whom were themselves mine owners, it had an advantage over the Straits Trading Company when doing business with other Chinese miners. Its success in gaining the confidence of the mining community can be judged by Eastern Smelting's dramatic increase in production figures over the three years it was in operation. In 1908 it smelted 11,400 tons of ore and unrefined tin, or 18 percent of the tin shipped from the Straits; by 1910 it was smelting 16,000 tons or 29 percent of total shipments.[86] (See Figure 2.2.)
Eastern Smelting did not remain under Chinese direction for long, however. In 1911 the company, "an established and thriving business" according according to the Pinang Gazette,[87] was sold to British interests headed by the former Resident of perak, Sie Ernest Woodford Birch. Birch's involvement with the concern predated the takeover in 1911. Birch had visited the Seng Kee works in the early 1900s and afterwards suggested to Lee Chin Ho that "it would be an excellent idea if a large company could be formed" involving the "leading mineowners as shareholders" so their ore "could be smelted down at one place, at cheaper rates."[88] He had also been among the guests at the formal opening of the company by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir John Anderson, on 17January 1908.
Birch may well have acquired an option on the Eastern Smelting Company after the one held by George Meudell, an Australian entrepreneur, had lapsed when tin prices fell in 1908-1909.[89] Meudell remarked in his memoirs that the company he had "bonded for sale in London only needed more capital" and that after he had let his option go, "somebody else floated the tin smeltery and bagged the profit."[90] The "somebody else" appears to have been Ernest Birch and his associates, Cecil Budd and David Currie.
The original firm's lack of capital was emphasised in all the contemporary discussion of the company's sale. The 1911 Prospectus noted, for instance, that "the principal object of this issue is to provide working capital for extending the said business." Business had even been refused "owing to the lack of the necessary capital."[91] The Chinese directors argued that with the company's shares trading on the London market, "they could get fresh capital there more easily than they could locally".[92] Fresh capital was also needed if they were to compete with the Straits Trading Company which was planning to expand. It was expected that the new subscription would provide sufficient funds to overcome past financial shortfalls.
[78] Wong Lin Ken, The Malaysian Tin Industry to 1914 (Tuscon, 1965) pp 157-158
[79] Arnold Wright and Thomas Reid (eds) The Malay Peninsular; A record of British Progress in the Middle East (London, 1912) page 276
[80] C. G. W. Lock, Mining in Malaya for Gold and Tin (London, 1907) pp 161-162
[81] On Lee Chin Ho, see "Pinang Gazette" Centenary Number (1933): Feldwick. pp 856-857
[82] Wright p 817
[83] PG, 18 January 1908
[84] PG, 17 March 1908
[85] PG, 17 July 1901
[86] Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd, Prospectus, July 1911 (Lim Keong Lay Collection, Rare Book Room, Penang Public Library)
[87] PG, 31 August 1911
[88] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
[89] Wong, p 243; Birch 156-157
[90] George Meudell, The Pleasant Career of a Spendthrift (London, 1933) p 136
[91] Prospectus, 1911
[92] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
Chung Thye Phin in Chinese Business Enterprise By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown
Chung Thye Phin in
Chinese Business Enterprise
By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown
Published by Taylor & Francis, 1996
ISBN 0415142938, 9780415142939
Page 61, 62, 63, 64
Chapter 3: The Khaw group: Chinese business in early twentieth-century Penang by J. W. Cushman
The Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd
Having acquired a reliable supply of ore and an expanded shipping service to carry it, all that was lacking was an up-to-date smelting plant. Tin from Thai mines had traditionally been smelted in small Chinese blast furnaces made of clay known as relau Tongka (lit. a Tongkah furnace).[78] The principal advantage of these smelters over the more sophisticated western smelters was cost: the Chinese-style smelters required little capital outlay whereas the technologically advanced western smelting plant required large capital inputs. The principal disadvantage of Chinese smelting methods was that the smelted product contained a high impurity content which required further treatment to achieve the "almost theoretical purity ... demanded for ... the [European] tin plate trade."[79] Nor were the Chinese smelters able to effect the economies of scale possible to the bigger smelting enterprises.
In addition to the "vast numbers of small Chinese smelting works scattered all over the various centres of tinstone production",[80] some Chinese were experimenting with more modern smelting methods. The most important of these was the plant begun in Penang by a close associate of the Khaws, Lee Chin Ho b 1863).[81] He opened the Seng Kee Smelting Works in 1898 on an acre of land off Dato Kramat Road. With four reverbaratory furnaces, electrically driven equipment and a laboratory for testing ore samples,[82] the Seng Kee smelter provided an alternative to the Butterworth smelter of the Straits Trading Company, and a solid base from which the Chinese-run smelting industry could expand.
Lee Chin Ho's works were purchased towards the end of 1907 by the Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd. a new company formed in that year with a capital of $1,500,000. The company's object as expressed by its secretary, James Donald, was "to encourage the miner in the development of his property, and to stimulate the tin industry so far as we possibly can."[83] It's first Board of Directors read like a Who's Who of the FMS and Thai mining industries: Eu Tong Seng, Chung Thye Phin, Ng Boo Bee, Ong Hung Chong, Khaw Joo Tok and his nephew Khaw Bian Kee.[84] Its Managing Director, Herman Jessen, had , moreover, gained extensive experience in the smelting business during his years with Behn, Meyer and Co. Besides smelting the ore from their own mines, the new company also hoped to attract ore from the many small mines that were continuing to use traditional methods of smelting.
One of the first steps the new company took was to open ore-buying agencies throughout the FMS. These proved to be popular with the miners who, in the past, had felt that the Straits Trading Company did not always offer the fairest prices for their tin.[85] Because Eastern Smelting was backed by the Chinese, most of whom were themselves mine owners, it had an advantage over the Straits Trading Company when doing business with other Chinese miners. Its success in gaining the confidence of the mining community can be judged by Eastern Smelting's dramatic increase in production figures over the three years it was in operation. In 1908 it smelted 11,400 tons of ore and unrefined tin, or 18 percent of the tin shipped from the Straits; by 1910 it was smelting 16,000 tons or 29 percent of total shipments.[86] (See Figure 2.2.)
Eastern Smelting did not remain under Chinese direction for long, however. In 1911 the company, "an established and thriving business" according according to the Pinang Gazette,[87] was sold to British interests headed by the former Resident of perak, Sie Ernest Woodford Birch. Birch's involvement with the concern predated the takeover in 1911. Birch had visited the Seng Kee works in the early 1900s and afterwards suggested to Lee Chin Ho that "it would be an excellent idea if a large company could be formed" involving the "leading mineowners as shareholders" so their ore "could be smelted down at one place, at cheaper rates."[88] He had also been among the guests at the formal opening of the company by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir John Anderson, on 17January 1908.
Birch may well have acquired an option on the Eastern Smelting Company after the one held by George Meudell, an Australian entrepreneur, had lapsed when tin prices fell in 1908-1909.[89] Meudell remarked in his memoirs that the company he had "bonded for sale in London only needed more capital" and that after he had let his option go, "somebody else floated the tin smeltery and bagged the profit."[90] The "somebody else" appears to have been Ernest Birch and his associates, Cecil Budd and David Currie.
The original firm's lack of capital was emphasised in all the contemporary discussion of the company's sale. The 1911 Prospectus noted, for instance, that "the principal object of this issue is to provide working capital for extending the said business." Business had even been refused "owing to the lack of the necessary capital."[91] The Chinese directors argued that with the company's shares trading on the London market, "they could get fresh capital there more easily than they could locally".[92] Fresh capital was also needed if they were to compete with the Straits Trading Company which was planning to expand. It was expected that the new subscription would provide sufficient funds to overcome past financial shortfalls.
[78] Wong Lin Ken, The Malaysian Tin Industry to 1914 (Tuscon, 1965) pp 157-158
[79] Arnold Wright and Thomas Reid (eds) The Malay Peninsular; A record of British Progress in the Middle East (London, 1912) page 276
[80] C. G. W. Lock, Mining in Malaya for Gold and Tin (London, 1907) pp 161-162
[81] On Lee Chin Ho, see "Pinang Gazette" Centenary Number (1933): Feldwick. pp 856-857
[82] Wright p 817
[83] PG, 18 January 1908
[84] PG, 17 March 1908
[85] PG, 17 July 1901
[86] Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd, Prospectus, July 1911 (Lim Keong Lay Collection, Rare Book Room, Penang Public Library)
[87] PG, 31 August 1911
[88] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
[89] Wong, p 243; Birch 156-157
[90] George Meudell, The Pleasant Career of a Spendthrift (London, 1933) p 136
[91] Prospectus, 1911
[92] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
Chinese Business Enterprise
By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown
Published by Taylor & Francis, 1996
ISBN 0415142938, 9780415142939
Page 61, 62, 63, 64
Chapter 3: The Khaw group: Chinese business in early twentieth-century Penang by J. W. Cushman
The Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd
Having acquired a reliable supply of ore and an expanded shipping service to carry it, all that was lacking was an up-to-date smelting plant. Tin from Thai mines had traditionally been smelted in small Chinese blast furnaces made of clay known as relau Tongka (lit. a Tongkah furnace).[78] The principal advantage of these smelters over the more sophisticated western smelters was cost: the Chinese-style smelters required little capital outlay whereas the technologically advanced western smelting plant required large capital inputs. The principal disadvantage of Chinese smelting methods was that the smelted product contained a high impurity content which required further treatment to achieve the "almost theoretical purity ... demanded for ... the [European] tin plate trade."[79] Nor were the Chinese smelters able to effect the economies of scale possible to the bigger smelting enterprises.
In addition to the "vast numbers of small Chinese smelting works scattered all over the various centres of tinstone production",[80] some Chinese were experimenting with more modern smelting methods. The most important of these was the plant begun in Penang by a close associate of the Khaws, Lee Chin Ho b 1863).[81] He opened the Seng Kee Smelting Works in 1898 on an acre of land off Dato Kramat Road. With four reverbaratory furnaces, electrically driven equipment and a laboratory for testing ore samples,[82] the Seng Kee smelter provided an alternative to the Butterworth smelter of the Straits Trading Company, and a solid base from which the Chinese-run smelting industry could expand.
Lee Chin Ho's works were purchased towards the end of 1907 by the Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd. a new company formed in that year with a capital of $1,500,000. The company's object as expressed by its secretary, James Donald, was "to encourage the miner in the development of his property, and to stimulate the tin industry so far as we possibly can."[83] It's first Board of Directors read like a Who's Who of the FMS and Thai mining industries: Eu Tong Seng, Chung Thye Phin, Ng Boo Bee, Ong Hung Chong, Khaw Joo Tok and his nephew Khaw Bian Kee.[84] Its Managing Director, Herman Jessen, had , moreover, gained extensive experience in the smelting business during his years with Behn, Meyer and Co. Besides smelting the ore from their own mines, the new company also hoped to attract ore from the many small mines that were continuing to use traditional methods of smelting.
One of the first steps the new company took was to open ore-buying agencies throughout the FMS. These proved to be popular with the miners who, in the past, had felt that the Straits Trading Company did not always offer the fairest prices for their tin.[85] Because Eastern Smelting was backed by the Chinese, most of whom were themselves mine owners, it had an advantage over the Straits Trading Company when doing business with other Chinese miners. Its success in gaining the confidence of the mining community can be judged by Eastern Smelting's dramatic increase in production figures over the three years it was in operation. In 1908 it smelted 11,400 tons of ore and unrefined tin, or 18 percent of the tin shipped from the Straits; by 1910 it was smelting 16,000 tons or 29 percent of total shipments.[86] (See Figure 2.2.)
Eastern Smelting did not remain under Chinese direction for long, however. In 1911 the company, "an established and thriving business" according according to the Pinang Gazette,[87] was sold to British interests headed by the former Resident of perak, Sie Ernest Woodford Birch. Birch's involvement with the concern predated the takeover in 1911. Birch had visited the Seng Kee works in the early 1900s and afterwards suggested to Lee Chin Ho that "it would be an excellent idea if a large company could be formed" involving the "leading mineowners as shareholders" so their ore "could be smelted down at one place, at cheaper rates."[88] He had also been among the guests at the formal opening of the company by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir John Anderson, on 17January 1908.
Birch may well have acquired an option on the Eastern Smelting Company after the one held by George Meudell, an Australian entrepreneur, had lapsed when tin prices fell in 1908-1909.[89] Meudell remarked in his memoirs that the company he had "bonded for sale in London only needed more capital" and that after he had let his option go, "somebody else floated the tin smeltery and bagged the profit."[90] The "somebody else" appears to have been Ernest Birch and his associates, Cecil Budd and David Currie.
The original firm's lack of capital was emphasised in all the contemporary discussion of the company's sale. The 1911 Prospectus noted, for instance, that "the principal object of this issue is to provide working capital for extending the said business." Business had even been refused "owing to the lack of the necessary capital."[91] The Chinese directors argued that with the company's shares trading on the London market, "they could get fresh capital there more easily than they could locally".[92] Fresh capital was also needed if they were to compete with the Straits Trading Company which was planning to expand. It was expected that the new subscription would provide sufficient funds to overcome past financial shortfalls.
[78] Wong Lin Ken, The Malaysian Tin Industry to 1914 (Tuscon, 1965) pp 157-158
[79] Arnold Wright and Thomas Reid (eds) The Malay Peninsular; A record of British Progress in the Middle East (London, 1912) page 276
[80] C. G. W. Lock, Mining in Malaya for Gold and Tin (London, 1907) pp 161-162
[81] On Lee Chin Ho, see "Pinang Gazette" Centenary Number (1933): Feldwick. pp 856-857
[82] Wright p 817
[83] PG, 18 January 1908
[84] PG, 17 March 1908
[85] PG, 17 July 1901
[86] Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd, Prospectus, July 1911 (Lim Keong Lay Collection, Rare Book Room, Penang Public Library)
[87] PG, 31 August 1911
[88] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
[89] Wong, p 243; Birch 156-157
[90] George Meudell, The Pleasant Career of a Spendthrift (London, 1933) p 136
[91] Prospectus, 1911
[92] PG Centenary Number on Lee Chin Ho
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
My latest Wikipedia post: The Hai San Secret Society
Hai San Secret Society
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hai San (Chinese:海山) Society which had its origins in Southern China[1] was a Penang-based Chinese secret society established around 1820 and in 1825 led by Low, Ah Chong[2] and Hoh Akow (also spelt Ho Ah Kow or Hok Ah Keow), its titular head. At that time the society's headquarters was located at Beach Street (Ujong Passir).[3]
Secret societies existed well before the establishment of the Hai San Society and their existence in Penang can be traced back to the founding of Penang (1799). Thomas John Newbold (1807-1850), an officer in the 23 Regiment, Madras Light Infantry, in Malacca (1832-1835) noted:
The secret fraternities in which they (the Chinese settlers) enroll themselves for mutual protection and support, prove powerful engines for political combinations, as the Dutch have repeatedly experienced during their long administration in Java and in the Malay States. In China itself, these societies are deemed so dangerous to the Government as to be interdicted under penalty of death. At Pinang in 1799, they set the administration in defiance and strong measures were necessary to reduce them to obedience. Even in the present-day, the ends of justice are frequently defeated both at Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore: by bribery, false swearing, and sometimes by open violence, owing to combinations of these fraternities, formed for the purpose of screening guilty members from detection and punishment. In European Settlements, they are under the general control of an officer, or headman styled "Capitan", who receives a salary from the Government and is responsible in some measure, for the orderly conduct of his countrymen, whose representative and official organ he is. Their interior affairs, disputes, and private interests are arranged by the heads of their respective "Kongsis" or fraternities.
Bolton et al making use of, among other things, an 1829 account by I. Pattullo, then Superintendent of Police and later Government Secretary, Notes on the Chinese of Pinang J. I. A. VIII (1854 and expanded in 1879) by J. D. Vaughan a Superintendent of Police and a Grandmaster of the Freemasons (1878 and 1879) and the Rule 11 (Appendix II) in the Rules of the Kian Tek (Toh Peh Kong) society dated 30 December 1844, suggest that the Hai San society started out mostly Cantonese and pro-Ghee Hin but by around 1854 had absorbed the Wah Sang society, become almost exclusively Hakka and anti-Ghee Hin.[5]
The Hai San society figure prominently in the Larut Wars of 1862-1873 and by that time was headed by Chung Keng Quee.
Notes
Sources
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Triad Societies: Western Accounts of the History, Sociology and Linguistics of Chinese Secret Societies By Kingsley Bolton, Gustaaf Schlegel, Herbert Allen Giles, Christopher Hutton, J. S. M. Ward, Mervyn Llewelyn Wynne, W. P. Morgan, William Stanton, W. G. Stirling; Contributor Kingsley Bolton, Chris Hutton; Published by Taylor & Francis, 2000; ISBN 0415243971, 9780415243971
- ^ Straits Settlements Factory Records Vol 101 (1825) Page 1476-1480 and 1604
- ^ Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, Viz: Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore By Thomas John Newbold, Published by J. Murray, 1839, Pages 13-14
- ^ Triad Societies: Western Accounts of the History, Sociology and Linguistics of Chinese Secret Societies By Kingsley Bolton, Gustaaf Schlegel, Herbert Allen Giles, Christopher Hutton, J. S. M. Ward, Mervyn Llewelyn Wynne, W. P. Morgan, William Stanton, W. G. Stirling; Contributor Kingsley Bolton, Chris Hutton; Published by Taylor & Francis, 2000; ISBN 0415243971, 9780415243971
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- Hakka secret society in Malaya - Hai San
- Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, Viz: Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore By Thomas John Newbold, Published by J. Murray, 1839
 | This Malaysia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
My latest Wikipedia post: The Hai San Secret Society
Hai San Secret Society
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hai San (Chinese:海山) Society which had its origins in Southern China[1] was a Penang-based Chinese secret society established around 1820 and in 1825 led by Low, Ah Chong[2] and Hoh Akow (also spelt Ho Ah Kow or Hok Ah Keow), its titular head. At that time the society's headquarters was located at Beach Street (Ujong Passir).[3]
Secret societies existed well before the establishment of the Hai San Society and their existence in Penang can be traced back to the founding of Penang (1799). Thomas John Newbold (1807-1850), an officer in the 23 Regiment, Madras Light Infantry, in Malacca (1832-1835) noted:
The secret fraternities in which they (the Chinese settlers) enroll themselves for mutual protection and support, prove powerful engines for political combinations, as the Dutch have repeatedly experienced during their long administration in Java and in the Malay States. In China itself, these societies are deemed so dangerous to the Government as to be interdicted under penalty of death. At Pinang in 1799, they set the administration in defiance and strong measures were necessary to reduce them to obedience. Even in the present-day, the ends of justice are frequently defeated both at Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore: by bribery, false swearing, and sometimes by open violence, owing to combinations of these fraternities, formed for the purpose of screening guilty members from detection and punishment. In European Settlements, they are under the general control of an officer, or headman styled "Capitan", who receives a salary from the Government and is responsible in some measure, for the orderly conduct of his countrymen, whose representative and official organ he is. Their interior affairs, disputes, and private interests are arranged by the heads of their respective "Kongsis" or fraternities.
Bolton et al making use of, among other things, an 1829 account by I. Pattullo, then Superintendent of Police and later Government Secretary, Notes on the Chinese of Pinang J. I. A. VIII (1854 and expanded in 1879) by J. D. Vaughan a Superintendent of Police and a Grandmaster of the Freemasons (1878 and 1879) and the Rule 11 (Appendix II) in the Rules of the Kian Tek (Toh Peh Kong) society dated 30 December 1844, suggest that the Hai San society started out mostly Cantonese and pro-Ghee Hin but by around 1854 had absorbed the Wah Sang society, become almost exclusively Hakka and anti-Ghee Hin.[5]
The Hai San society figure prominently in the Larut Wars of 1862-1873 and by that time was headed by Chung Keng Quee.
Notes
Sources
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Triad Societies: Western Accounts of the History, Sociology and Linguistics of Chinese Secret Societies By Kingsley Bolton, Gustaaf Schlegel, Herbert Allen Giles, Christopher Hutton, J. S. M. Ward, Mervyn Llewelyn Wynne, W. P. Morgan, William Stanton, W. G. Stirling; Contributor Kingsley Bolton, Chris Hutton; Published by Taylor & Francis, 2000; ISBN 0415243971, 9780415243971
- ^ Straits Settlements Factory Records Vol 101 (1825) Page 1476-1480 and 1604
- ^ Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, Viz: Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore By Thomas John Newbold, Published by J. Murray, 1839, Pages 13-14
- ^ Triad Societies: Western Accounts of the History, Sociology and Linguistics of Chinese Secret Societies By Kingsley Bolton, Gustaaf Schlegel, Herbert Allen Giles, Christopher Hutton, J. S. M. Ward, Mervyn Llewelyn Wynne, W. P. Morgan, William Stanton, W. G. Stirling; Contributor Kingsley Bolton, Chris Hutton; Published by Taylor & Francis, 2000; ISBN 0415243971, 9780415243971
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- Hakka secret society in Malaya - Hai San
- Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, Viz: Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore By Thomas John Newbold, Published by J. Murray, 1839
| This Malaysia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)