Ban Hoe Seng Sdn Bhd : The Chew Museum, A Legacy Of Joy Remembered.

Chew Boon Juan the one who started it all.

In Malaysia there are many families that have stories of having come over at the end of the 19^th century and had carved a name for themselves in various fields a century later.

They came here penniless with only the clothes on their back and through hard and work and a perhaps some luck they managed to survive and prosper.

But that was just the break. It was how they managed to take that first opportunity and move forwards that would determine where their future generations would take them.

The house at Kampong Kepayang, outside Ipoh, where it all began. (inset) Ignatius Chew at the lot just before it was demolished in 2014.

This is the story of Chew Boon Juan a Chinese migrant who first worked as a cook and then owned a sundry shop at a village of Kampong Kepayang just outside Ipoh.

Through a series of opportunities which included owning a tin mine, also in the vicinity of Kampong Kepayang, he became a millionaire. In the course of that time he brought his brothers from China over to help out in his businesses.

In the year 1912 at the age of 37 he retired to his mansion on North Beach Road (now Gurney Drive) in Penang where he stayed for the rest of his life.

In the span of three generations the Chew’s intermarried. Whether by design or not now they have inherited a family of personalities that include actress Tan Sri Dato' Michelle Yeoh and the late politician Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

Ignatius Chew (top) and his former home at 61 Chamberlain Road (below left, now Sekolah Raja Perempuan) and the former Ban Hoe Seng located at Belfied Street (below right)

Now a great grandson of Chew Boon Juan, Ignatius Chew Eng Lin, the Managing Director of Ban Hoe Seng Sdn Bhd, has converted one of his bungalows in Ipoh into a museum to house the history of the Chews and their relatives .

Ignatius' interest in his family tree began since 1984 when he used to note down stories told to him by his Uncle Chew Choon Siew. Together with an autobiography by his Grand Uncle Chew Boon Hong, a China born graduate whose dates, facts and figures matched with his Uncle he was able to start the project.

Ban Hoe Seng's Honda showroom on Jalan Kampar. At back is located the Chew Museum.

At the start he turned a bungalow located behind Ban Hoe Seng office and showroom at Jalan Kampar into a museum to display his family photos and those of his related family members.

Ignatius Chew is related to Ipoh’s prominent families of Yeoh’s (the late Dato Yeoh Kian Teik and his daughter Tan Sri Dato Michelle Yeoh) and the Lim’s (the late Dato KK Lim and Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik).

Together these three families of “Yeoh-Lim-Chew” would denote to being ‘brilliant, sociable and very successful’.

The relationship of Chew to the Yeoh and Lim 'denotes brilliant, sociable and very sucessful'

As he gradually built up his family tree he was now able to show it off. On the 24^th November 2012 he opened the doors of the the museum to the families.