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Penang
Visiting Tanjong |
An A B C of Penang George Town GEORGE TOWN is two words and not "Georgetown." Armenian Street YOUR BUS will probably dump you at the Beach Street end of Armenian Street for your tour of the Khoo Kongsi. Why Armenian? Because there were some Armenian traders from India who did business here. One of them was Dr Thaddeus Avertoom a medical practitioner who also established in the 1880's the George Town Dispensary, a wholesale and retail chemist and drugstore. After the  doctor's death in 1915 the business continued in Penang
(at Beach Street) and Ipoh (Belfield Street, now Jln Sultan Yussof)
until recently. When in
Armenian Street visit the Cheah Kongsi (Cheah surname Hall), founded
1820. For some unknown reason the Penang Heritage signboard is not on
the road but inside in the courtyard well past the gate. The Hall was
recently restored. Next to it is the Red Pinang Culture House at No 18.
A member of a Goh family whose dwelling it once was tells us that
Sun Yat Sen, the leader of the 1911 revolution that overthrew the
Manchu empire once sought refuge at No 18 after appearing at the
Cheah
Kongsi. |
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little further is the Swatow Lodging House, a rare
survivor of the
hotels of the 19th century where immigrants put up on first landing in
Penang. This one is "Swatow" meaning that it housed Teochew immigrants
from the China port of Swatow. Further on you will come across Penang's narrowest lane, the Soo Hong Lane. And you may want to visit the 162 year old Hock Teik Temple further down the road.It has recently been restored.  Beaches ONCE UPON a time the beaches of Penang were ecstatically described as golden. But don't give a damn people have turned them brown and filthy. Be warned that horse riding is allowed. So don't encourage your children to build sand  castles. As for
swimming, water scooters -
another menace - roam wildly against the rules; so be
careful. A water scooter cut into swimmers at Port
Dickson sending the two of them to hospital. A few years ago the
diving instructor of a Penang swimming club had her shoulder badly cut
by a water scooter while she was out at sea. It's safer to remain in
the hotel swimming pool.You will also notice 44 storey towering blocks of flats along Tanjung Bungah. Frightening sign posts that mark the progress of the 1985 Manhatten Project. Gradually, but slowly and surely, since the siting of the Rasa Sayang Hotel on the sea side of the main road, Penang is being shut out from the sea and enclosed in a wall of brick and steel. High rise hotels - more forbidding than the ramparts of any colonial fortress - wall us from our beaches (from Cecil Rajendra's 'Canto of Progress') |
| Cheong
Fatt Tse House THE Cheong Fatt Tse house at Leith Street (Lian Hua Ho (Pool of Lotus Flowers) ) was formerly known by its Hokkien name of Thio Tiaw Suat but someone made the change to the Cantonese pronunciation. Said to have been built in 1866 the building was restored a few years back but you will notice that the floor, relaid with tiles of the 1920s, has not been restored to the original large squares of terra cotta. One of the sources of Thio Tiaw Suat's wealth was his membership of an opium farm (an opium outlet through which the East India Company and the colonial government farmed out opium concessions). He was consul of the Chinese emperor in Penang then consul general in Singapore and then elevated to the rank of minister of the emperor. And don't swallow the yarn about the five two storeyed terrace houses opposite being the servants' quarters. Servants in 19th century Penang were lucky if they had raised platforms to sleep on. The terrace houses were only built about 1926 and were occupied by well to do people, among them a doctor. The historic road off Carnarvon Street called Hong Kong Street was renamed Cheong Fatt Tse Road when the latter road disappeared with the building of Komtar. Leith Street At the beginning of Leith Street stands the building which was once the house of Leong Fee, a wealthy tin miner . His son Ying Khean built the Italian style house at 32 Northam Road nearby. He loved Italy and even named his daughters Nice and Florence. He studied architecture at Cambridge in 1908. The bowling alley next door occupies the site of elder brother Eng Khean's bungalow. Leith Street was the street of Hakka millionaires. The bungalow which now houses the Red Restaurant was formerly the residence of Mrs Tye Keat Kwong, widow of the eldest son of Tye Kee Yoon, remembered for his 1920s drive up the jungle path to the top of Penang Hill. One of the Hakka bungalows opposite is now the Cathay Hotel whose owners generously permit viewing of the charming interior. Myths IF you are told that Baba and Nyonya are descended from Princess Hang Li Po who came sailing into Malacca on one of Ming Admiral Cheng Ho's ships to marry the Sultan, take it with a pinch of salt. Professor Wade's researches into Ming records failed to find evidence of such a princess though there was evidence of other gifts to the Sultan from the Chinese Emperor. |
Northam Road - Ranong House Ranong House, a heritage building along Northam Road, was destroyed by a developer in 1993. Today, the facade of the 1921 building has been restored from a photograph and is dwarfed by a high rise called Mayfair. Ranong House was the Penang residence of Sim Khim, son of the "Raja" or governor of Ranong, a rich Teochew named Khaw Soo Cheang, the donor of Renong Ground given to the people of George Town for football; next door was the Esplanade exclusively for White cricket. But Renong ground is no more because the short sighted authorities, I suspect in breach of trust, put up an ugly building called the Dewan Sri Penang. The house behind, facing the sea, was Chakrabong, the residence of another son Sim Bee, Siam's High Commissioner. A road, runnng parallel to Burma Road is named after him.  King Rama V appointed Khaw Soo Cheang Rajah of Ranong,
conferring upon him the title, Phraya Damrong Sucharit Mahisornphakdi
(Head of Palace Official). The king also decreed that his second son,
Khaw Sim Kong, who was given the title Phraya Ratanasethi, should
succeed him in due course.Following his death, his second son, Khaw Sim Kong assumed the title Phraya Damrong Sucharit Mahisornphakdi and became the second Raja of Ranong. His other sons were also enobled by the King and appointed governors of three of the southern provinces of the country. Khaw Sim Khim, his fourth son, became Governor of Kraburi; Khaw Sim Teik, his fifth son, was appointed Governor of Langsuan; while his youngest son, Khaw Sim Bee, was made Governor of Trang. In 1892 Khaw Sim Bee was appointed High Commissioner of South Siam, governor of Kraburi, of Trang and of Monthon (Phuket). He was conferred with Thailand's highest honour, the title Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahisornpakdi or The Grand Cross of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant. In Trang is the Phraya Ratsadanupradit Monument, the only public monument in Thailand to be dedicated to a Chinese businessman. In 1916 when the Chinese in Siam were required to have Siamese names in order to be citizens of that country, Rama VI (King Vajiravudh) issued a Royal Decree on 1st July, 1916, giving the surname "Na Ranong" ("of Ranong") to all the descendants of Khaw Soo Cheang living in Siam. Thenceforth all the Khaws of Ranong in modern day Thailand are known by that name. It was a rich and powerful family in Thailand whose properties included estates in Trang and a house on Penang Hill. |
.  Next door, being restored, is Northam Lodge, the home of Heah Swee Lee, a rich sugar cane farmer. His was a remarkable family. A son, Seng Whatt, was captain of the polo team, a remarkable appointment, given that it was in the days of the colonial colour bar. He must have been exceptionally good at the game. The Heah Swee Lee Cup was one of the trophies to be won in Penang and continued to be a fought-for prize for many years after the war. He was also one of the first in Penang to take up flying when the Penang Flying Club was formed. He was also a founder of the Penang Wireless Society which had its broadcasting station at Perak Road in a building which was recently pulled down, a typical act of vandalism by a state which knows nothing of its history. The 5th son, Heah Seng Poh, was a wild game hunter and taxidermist and a member of the Flying Club. Northam Road - Goh Chan Lau  You will see a building in ruins along the left side of Northam Road. This used to be the residence of Cheah Tek Thye (b. 1860) who was educated at the Penang Free School, the St Xavier's Institution and Doveton. He 
had interests in
insurance,
coconut and rubber estates and was a municipal commissioner as well a a
member
of the turf club. Popularly known as Goh
Chan Lau
(Five storeyed house),
it became a hotel and in the late twenties became the Government
English School where kids learnt to spell out D O G - dog and C
A T - cat before graduating to the Hutchings School (now the
State
Museum). |
Northam
Road - Lim Kia Joo Further down the road you will come to the Maple Gold restaurant. This was Columbia Lodge, formerly the home of Lim Kia Joo, a well remembered house with sweet memories of its cakes and laksa. Mrs Kia Joo, a Nyonya, was typical of their traditions. Her rich counterparts in Malacca did not think it infra dig to sell chinchalok behind curtained windows for pocket money. She too made it a profitable hobby making laksa and nyonya koay which became so popular that she employed as many as three persons to hawk her cooking along Northam Road and the newly opened coast road (now called Gurney Drive) where the evening walkers were enthusiastic customers. Lim Kia Joo bought the house from Quah Beng Kee, OBE, munipical commissioner, one of the favoured millionaires of the Straits Chinese British Association who was the owner of a fleet of coastal steamers that called at ports of Rangoon and Amoy. He is listed in Julius S Fisher's "Who's Who in Malaya - 1925" as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art and of the Royal Meteriological Society. He and Lim Cheng Kung were directors of the historic Criterion Press. Penang YOU will be told that the island of Penang is named after the pinang (areca nut) tree. However, the researches of Dr David Jones of Adelaide University show that the name Penang derives from the Tanjong Penaigre Cape, after the ironwood tree (Mesua ferea) growing on the land. Today, old people on the Butterworth side still refer to George Town as "Tanjong." Ironwood trees used to line both sides of the road into the Botanic Gardens and it was from here that the Straits Settlements counsellor, Lim Cheng Ean, obtained the plants which he planted along the Chung Ling School boundary when the new school building was opened before the second world war. NOTE: Going up Penang Hill. Tourists are now offered 4-wheel car rides up Penang Hill. We would advise that they ask whether they are covered by insurance before accepting Acknowledgments: Respected Citizens by Dasia H Wright, Amassia, 2003 Photos: George Town Dispensary, Beach Street by Gryffindor; Goh Chan Lau today - TPF; Goh Chan Lau as residence of Cheah Tek Thye - Twentieth Impressions of Britsih Malaya. |
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| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Index page Animal & Insect Act Book review Calvin Chua 'Clare Street' on 'Gold in the South' Control of societiesFood guide Gold in the South (5) J B Jeyaratnam Lau Tat Hong Penang ABC Redressing imbalance Samad Ismail Unknown history - exhibition |
| ____________________ The Penang File Issue 62 |
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