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| Chew Choo Beng and Low Siew Yong |
Chew Choo
Beng was the eldest son of Chew Boon San and Toh Bok Wai. He married
Low Siew Yong in 1947 and stayed at Chew Boon San’s bungalow in Gopeng.
The couple
had three sons. Chew Oon Chuan, Chew Yuen Keat attended SK Cator Avenue and
Anderson School in Ipoh but Yuen Hin attended the Government National Type Primary School and Lower Secondary school, Kopisan, Gopeng.
 |
Chew Yuen Keat being carried by his maid
|
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| Yuen Keat, mum Low Siew Yong and Oon Chuan |
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| Oon Chuan and Yuen Keat |
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| Yuen Hin and Yuen Keat |
Chew Oon Chuan after completing his form 5 worked with Kinta Rubber Works. However he resigned shortly after to work in Kuala Lumpur with the Bank of America.
Oon Chuan
recalls that he saw photos of his father graduating in Hong Kong. However he does
not know what happened to those photos.
He used to see his father in Ban Hoe Bee. A helper who was also a neighbor used to help
him dry the tin ore in a huge wok. That usually happened on cloudy days when
there was no sun.
He also
remembered a dealer from Kg Kepayang coming to collect rubber sheets at Gopeng
and dad communicating with him.
I heard that
when he passed away a big group of dulang washers came by bus to pay their
respects. He was well known among the dulang washers and they used to call him ‘fei
lou’ .
Chew Yuen
Keat similarly started work immediately after finishing school. He was 19. He
approached his uncle Chew Choon Siew then Chairman of Ban Hoe Seng enquiring if there was a vacancy. Choon Siew
immediately invited him to come on board.
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| Yuen Keat, then 40, on the grounds of Ban Hoe Seng. |
He started
as a store keeper then later was put in charge of claims before rising to become Service Manager. He retired as Motorcycle Dealer Relationship Manager after
having worked at Ban Hoe Seng for 42 years.
 |
| The Honda motorcycles team under Agnes Chew (4th from right). Yuen Keat is at extreme right. |
Yuen Keat is
married to Annie Chum Ket Ming and they have two children Chew Lee Lean and Chew Ghim
Seng and two grandchildren.
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| Chew Yuen Keat and Annie Chum Ket Ming |
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| Family photo upon Lee Lian's graduation in Computer Science from USM. |
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| Married (l) Chew Lee Lian and Liew Yen Keat (r) Lee Lian with her children Zhen Nam and Zi Wei (with guitar) |
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| Chew Ghim Seng married Vivian Cheang Pui See. Ghim Seng has a diploma in engineering. |
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| A recent photo of Annie and Yuen Keat with Oon Chuan recuperating from an eye operation |
When Yuen
Hin was 15 years old, after his Lower Certificate Examination he was accepted into the Royal Military College. After the RMC he joined the RMAF as a cadet officer and rose to the
rank of Major. He requested for optional retirement and continued flying with national
carrier MAS until he retired this year. He
is married to Carol Chang Koon Keng.
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| Yuen Hin (l) With RMAF he flew Hercules C130 (r) Malaysia Airlines Airbus 330 |
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| Yuen Hin and Carol Chang Koon Keng |
On his
mother Low Siew Yong, Yuen Hin said she taught English tuition to the local
residents of Gopeng.
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| Low Siew Yong (seated 2nd from left) with her students. On the right, at back is the rubber factory. |
He also remembers
the factory at the back of their house. It had many workers. The collection of
tin and rubber would be at Ban Hoe Bee shop house. Then they would take the latex
to the factory for processing until drying the rubber sheets.
When my father passed away in 1966 my mother helped out in her familys’ business.The Low
family operated the Malaya Aerated Water factory located at No1 Leech Street now
Jalan Bandar Timah. They bottled the Sarsi and Orange drinks that sold for 10
cents a bottle.
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| The Low relations at 1 Leech Street where the aerated water factory was located |
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| Celebrating his grandmothers birthday at Hoong Tho restauraunt. On left is Low Siew Yong while Yuen Hin (next to grandmother) looks on. |
Yuen Hin had
fond memories of 1 Leech Street as there was four families of cousins that he could
play with once a week. Those were fun days.
End
