YLCO Museum Held It’s Second Open Day

YLCO Museum has photographs and stories of the families

 The YLCO (Yeoh Lim Chew and Oh) family museum had held its second open museum on 29 October. Museum curator Ignatius Chew received a request from Dennis Chew a descendant of Chew Boon Seong the elder brother of Chew Boon Juan and grand uncle of Ignatius.

Dennis Chew Kean Eng, a third generation Chew lives in Melbourne, Australia and he was in Malaysia with his family and requested to see the new YLCO museum.

Visiting Chews (from left) Hannah, Wendy, Dennis and Daniel Chew

He described the exhibition which was about family heritage and lineage as unique. “I never met my grandmother but my other relatives have so we have shared memories. With these little bits of story’s I plan to write about my great grandfather Chew Boon Seong who came to Malaya in the the 1890’s and worked with his brother Chew Boon Juan at Kampong Kepayang”.

A Yeoh Lim Chew & Oh group photo 

Ignatius invited the YLCO family members again for the viewing and included other guests such as Commander Ian Anderson who also attended his former Chew museum in 2012, Chan See Foon-Koppen a director of Ipoh Echo and Chew Seng Hian a member of the Chew Association of Teluk Intan.

Besides Dennis Chew there were other overseas relatives present that day namely Yeoh Seng Hock from Melbourne, Oh Joo Hong, USA and Lim Pui See, UK.

Other visiting relatives Yeoh Seng Hock with aunt Yeoh Poh See, Oh Joo Hong and Lim Pui See with dad Lim Keng Hoo and Patrick Kwok 

Yeoh Seng Hock who also returned from Melbourne described the museum as wonderful. He described his forefathers as brave and adventurous to start a new life here and he hoped to discover more about his earlier roots. 

Commander Ian Anderson, the former director of Ipoh World for 16 years, was full of praise for Ignatius’ new museum. Anderson had seen the first Chew museum ten years before but said there was so much more to see now.

Commander Ian Anderson with Chin Meng Wai and Ignatius Chew

“Ignatius has done a wonderful job. The displays are done beautifully and so too for the layout. I am sure two hours won’t be enough to cover all the exhibits in this lovely building. Not forgetting there are four wonderful families that were raised in Ipoh”.

Ignatius had reorganized the museum and shifted the Lim family room to the 4^th floor of the building same as the other families. He also introduced ring files of each family with photographs and literature of their history though most were about the Chews at this time. All the relatives were impressed with the amount of photographs on display which took them on a walk through time.

' lovely building' ..the 4th floor has 4 rooms to house YLCO museum

'so many exhibits .. two hours won't be enough to cover all..Anderson

Amongst the ring files in the centre room of the museum was a thick yellow book written in Chinese called the Heng Lim Senior Citizens Community of Xiamen China. It was presented to Ignatius by Chew Seng Hian, a member of the Teluk Intan Khiam Thye Chew See Heng Wan Siah association who maintains close contact with the Heng Lim Community of Xiamen.

Chew Seng Hian presenting Ignatius Chew the yellow book.. December 2021. (r) a page from the yellow book with the four Chew brothers  

Chew Seng Hian with an audience

In the book are the photos of the 4 Chew brothers. The 4^th brother Chew Boon Hong was a committee member of the TI association and made contributions to their ancestral village Heng Lim which resulted in the construction of a school.

Chan See Foon with
Ignatius and Anthony Law

Seng Hian wanted to know more of Chew Boon Hong which led him to Ignatius’ Chew museum. Ignatius provided data and photos of his uncle and brothers which was passed on to the Heng Lim citizens. The information was gratefully accepted and the four brothers were included in their book. 

 Chan See Foon, the Director of Ipoh’s community paper Ipoh   Echo described Ignatius effort as an “incredible dedication to   documenting the families with so much passion and diligence.   Bravo, it is a one-man triumph and the families should honour   him” she added.

 The morning carried on with a birthday song for two relatives,   Professor Yeoh Kian Hian and Yeoh Lam Kong whose birthday  was around the corner. Ignatius bought them each a cake and all present sang for them a birthday song before taking a group photo. A video was uploaded later as both Professor Yeoh and Lam Kong live in Singapore and were unable to attend.

...the families sang the birthday song ..

It was another good morning at YLCO museum.

JAG