Chew Marries Yeoh –The Start Of The Generation Of Yeoh Lim Chew

The marriage of Chew Gaik Tiew and Yeoh Ghim Cheow. 1929

Chew Gaik Tiew was the third daughter of Chew Boon Juan that married Yeoh Ghim Cheow the second son of Yeoh Khuan Joo and Lim Siew Tong.

It was an arranged marriage as was the norm. The matchmaker initially arranged Chew's 4^th daughter Gaik Poh to the families.  The family of Chew Boon Juan was shocked saying that daughter no3 Gaik Tiew was not yet married. With that choice of bride straightened out the marriage proceeded.

Chew Gaik Tiew, 18 and Yeoh Ghim Cheow, 24 were married in 1929. The only photo of their marriage shows a young couple in modern 1920's wedding dress.

Ghim Cheow had on a double breasted suit and pin striped trousers while Gaik Tiew wore “a pale green silk gown embroidered with gold thread and a veil which was adorned with 12 beautiful birds".

This was described by their daughter, Yeoh Saw Kin,80 told to her by her cousins and aunties.Saw Kin took her mothers dress back to England in the 70’s in hopes of restoring it. Unfortunately the thread had become brittle and the dress could not be saved.

She added that Gaik Tiew's father Chew Boon Juan gave mum a cupboard which had a hand crafted Phoenix, which is a female dragon and a dragon on the headboard. "It was a very auspicious wedding gift but to me it sounded like 'Mr and Mrs Dragon' " laughed Saw Kin. 

The auspicious wedding gift from Chew Boon Juan ..the headboard

..the hand crafted cupboard. Pix by YLS

“Mum also had a mole above her bridge. She didn’t want her future father in law  to see it so she burnt it off before her marriage. This was told to me by my cousins Mimi and Nana Saw.

My parents almost celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1979 but unfortunately that year  my grandmother Lim Siew Tong passed away so it was postponed. 

The handsome couple on a coach up Penang Hill

Elegant. Mrs Yeoh Ghim Cheow nee Chew Gaik Tiew

Avid photographer Yeoh Ghim Cheow with his cameras (right) with his father Yeoh Khuan Joo

The couple was very handsome in all the pictures captured together or individually. Yeoh Ghim Cheow was an avid photographer and must have taken most of the photographs of Gaik Tiew.

The marriage of the couple was a significant event as it had brought three families together ie Chew, Yeoh Khuan Joo and his wife Lim Siew Tong who was the sister of Lim Seok Tan of Tapah

The marriage which brought three families together

The families had since the beginning in the 1930’s been close and engaged in business till the present time.

The bond between the families was further strengthened twenty years later when Chew Boon Juan's 5th son, Chew Choon Kok married Yeoh Suan Bee. But this marriage wasn't arranged but was a beautiful love marriage and the growth of the families had grown ever since. 

JAG