Chew Hoe Kean - First Time Visitor To Chew Museum

From left: Andrew Chew, Chew Yew Kong, Chew Hoe Kean, Noelle Chew and Jordan Tan

Chew Hoe Kean and his family were first time visitors to the Chew Museum. He was accompanied by his son Andrew and daughter Noelle and son in law Jordan Tan on his maiden visit.

He had heard of the museum from his cousins Datin Sharizan and Chew Hoe Peng and had wanted to drop by for some time.

Hoe Kean is the grandson of Chew Boon Hong, the youngest of four brothers that Chew Boon Juan brought over from China to help him with his business.

He was given a tour of the museum by cousin Chew Yew Kong, a grandson of Chew Boon Juan as Ignatius Chew, the museum’s curator was away.

(L) Cousins Yew Kong and Hoe Kean (R) Hoe Kean keenly viewing over the family photos

As he walked around the exhibits Hoe Kean reminisced about his young days when he lived at his grandfather’s house at 33 Gopeng Road (now Jalan Nazrin Shah).

He described the house as large with a main hall and two dining rooms.

“Uncle Chew Choon Siew (the son of Chew Boon Juan) used to visit often. There were twenty of us staying at No 33 at the time. These included all the married brothers and the unmarried sisters too.

Grandfather's house at  33 Gopeng Road was 'large ...with two dining rooms'. Seated are grandparents Lim Keng Bee and Chew Boon Hong

Chew Hoe Kean (extreme left) and grandfather Chew Boon Hong (sixth from left) with uncles,aunts and cousins

At dinnertime  we would join our grandfather. We had two dining rooms and used the one closer to the kitchen which had two tables.

At one table grandfather would sit in the middle joined with the sons and grandsons while the daughters would be at the next table.

My dad Chew Beng Hee was the eldest and had to sit next to grandfather and I was forced to sit in between them” laughing as he recalled good memories from long ago.

  

Hoe Kean described the museum as a great place to relive and understand our family history of the Chews.

Andrew Chew, Chew Hoe Kean, Noelle Chew and Jordan Tan

He thanked Ignatius Chew the curator for doing a wonderful job of reuniting the families of the four brothers.

JAG