My Story... I Lived Above Ban Hoe Seng, Old Town Was My Playground.

Yeoh Poh See at the handlebars with cousin Angeline. 

My name is Yeoh Poh See and I was born at the end of the war to my parents Yeoh Cheang Peng and Chew Gaik Ee. My home was at Ban Hoe Seng, Old Town, Ipoh.

That time Ban Hoe Seng was at 62 and 64 Belfield Street. It was a 3 storey building and owned by my grandfather Chew Boon Juan.

On the ground floor they had a business selling motorcycles. It was run by my Uncles Chew Choon Siew and Chew Choon Kok.

I lived at the second floor of Ban Hoe Seng

My family lived on the second floor as did my second aunt Chew Gaik Hoon and her family. I had such wonderful memories of my time Ban Hoe Seng and Old Town.  

I remember playing with my younger cousin Angeline at the square in front of my uncles shop where there was a beautiful marble water fountain. The fountain was in memory of Birch and it is a pity that it was demolished.

Poh See and Angeline at the Birch Fountain

Opposite from my house window was the shop that sold Kwan Loong Medicated Oil. In the evenings they would beat the drum to attract buyers to purchase the medicated oil.

Those days it was very safe to be a child in Old Town. My brother studied at St Michaels Institution and used to walk to school.

During my time our playground was the Birch Memorial clock tower and the surrounding grounds. The railways gardens too was always nice and pleasant.

My playground ...at the Birch Clock Tower ...

and the Railway Station gardens

We would cut across the Pakistani Mosque behind the shop to get to the clock tower.

 I remember my father taking me to eat nasi kandar at the stall under the trees in front of the post office.

A later pic of Yeoh Poh See   

I lived at Ban Hoe Seng until I was 12 before we moved away. It was a truly wonderful time.

JAG

What’s In A Name

The Johnston's at Ignatius Chew's museum 

Ignatius Chew’s museum seems to be a ‘place-of-interest’ for relatives who return from abroad. The latest visitor was Yeoh Choo San a daughter of the late Datuk Yeoh Kian Teik.

She and her husband Richard William Johnston and family comprising son William and 2 daughters Victoria and Alexandria were down for the holidays and had come by the museum for a visit.  

The Johnston's: William Pang Han Johnston, Yeoh Choo San, Richard William Johnston, Alexandra Chooi Gaik Johnston and Victoria Chooi May Johnston

Choo San at the Yeoh display section in the museum

Ignatius gave them the grand tour of the museum and elaborated at the section reserved for patriarch Yeoh Khuan Joo.

All relatives who visit are required to sign in to the visitor’s book. This family revealed an interesting fact. Their children had signed in indicating their western name together with their Chinese name. 

Alexandra and William sign into the Museum visitors book

Choo San said the name was given by her father Datuk Yeoh Kian Teik. Robert added he had no objection as they were part Chinese.

I subsequently inquired with another sister in the family Christine Yeoh also married to a foreigner. She confirmed that she too followed their father’s instruction.

“The boys use the genealogical name of Pang and the girls Chooi. It followed the Zhao Mu as tabulated by grandfather Yeoh Khuan Joo to indicate which generation they belonged to” said Christine.

It was reported that when Yeoh Khuan Joo first came to Malaya from China his forefathers did not provide a list of characters known as Zhao Mu to be used by future generations whereby he subsequently he formulated his own Zhou Mu.

JAG

A Visit To The Museum And More

The descendants. (standing) Chew Poh Chan and Chew Poh Ying (descendants of Chew Boon Hong), Ignatius Chew (descendant Chew Boon Juan)  and (seated) Chew Chow Fee and Chew Chow Khoon (descendants of Chew Boon Seong)

With Chinese New Year a month away the families from outstation come home to visit in case they are unable to make it on the actual day.

It was the same for the family members from the Chew clan specifically the descendants of Chew Boon Hong. Their visit to the Ignatius museum earned them an additional visit to another relative belonging to the line of Chew Boon Seong.

Chew Poh Chan and Chew Poh Ying grand-daughters of Chew Boon Hong were in town and took time off to visit the Chew Museum managed by Ignatius Chew.

(L) Chew Poh Chan and Chew Poh Ying (R) Ignatius giving the guests the grand tour of the museum

It was Poh Ying’s first time visiting and Ignatius gave her the grand tour taking them through the various sections of the museum.

After the tour Ignatius took them to visit another branch of cousins. Chew Chow Khoon and Chew Chow Fee, both in their eighties and nineties respectively, are the grand daughters of Chew Boon Seong the eldest of the Chew brothers.

Chew Poh Chan had visited them during her younger days when her aunt Chew Gaik Khuan brought her along on her visits.   

Cousin exchanging stories of days gone by

An early photo (middle row 3rd from left) Poh Ying followed by Poh Chan with Aunt Chew Gaik Khuan (extreme right) and their grand mother Lim Keng Bee (seated front row) 

Her Aunt used to order Ang Ku, that nyonya delicacy with “red soft kueh and green bean paste inside’ which was made by the cousins mother. 

Poh Chan remembered then their house was diagonally across from Methodist Girls School along Jalan Kampar.

At other times her aunt would take her to another relatives’ ‘wooden house along Chung Thye Phin road’ for an all nyonya cook-in.

“Other lady cousins were there all dressed in the usual nyonya white blouse and sarong and they would cook up a delicious nyonya menu”.

What good memories the trip brought back from just one visit.

JAG