The Marriage of Chew Gaik Hoon And Ong Kok Hoo

Chew Gaik Hoon and Ong Kok Hoo

Chew Gaik Hoon, Photo: 
Robert Lew Lee. 

Chew Gaik Hoon, the second daughter of Chew Boon Juan was married to Ong Kok Hoo a relative of Goh Lian Kee Boon  Juans wife.

After their marriage in the 1920’s they went to Teluk Intan (Teluk Anson) to assist Chew Boon Juan who had property and rubber estates in the vicinity. 

The family of Ong's returned to Ipoh in the 30's and stayed initially at 61 Chamberlain Road before moving to the upstairs of Ban Hoe Seng at 62 and 64 Belfield Street.The children were Ong Choo Tin, Arthur Ong, Ong Choo See and Ong Choo Imm.

Staying together with the Ong’s at Ban Hoe Seng was Chew Gaik Ee, 6^th daughter of Chew Boon Juan who married Yeoh Cheang Peng and family and Mrs Lim Cheng Keat nee Ong Seong Ngoh with her daughter Ninie Lim Siew Ean and grandmother Goh Lean Sim.

Cornelia Huang (l) with Yeoh Poh See at old Ban Hoe Seng, Belfield Street. Pix early 1950's

Elizabeth Ong Choò Tin, their first born daughter married Max Huang while she was still a teenager. According to cousin Yeoh Poh See, Huang asked for her hand at the marriage of Chew Gaik Swee. The couple ultimately settled in the United States. 

Max Huang and Ong Choo Tin

The marriage of Ong Choo Tin and Max Huang at the Burmah Road Gospel Hall , Penang

Aunts and bridesmaids at Choo Tins wedding.From left.Chew Gaik
Khim, Chew Gaik Heng,  Ong Choo Imm and Chew Gaik Swee

Their second daughter Ong Choo See married Goh Beng Teong.

Back row (from left) Leong Choo Hing h/o Choo Imm, Ong Choo Imm, Elizabeth Ong Choo Tin, Ong Choo See, Evelyn Goh Seok Ching, Goh Beng Teong h/o Choo See, Goh Seok May. Front row: Leong Chee Tuck, Leong Chee Keong, Chew Gaik Hoon, Goh Seok Kim, Anne Goh Seok Ling

Elizabeth Huang's family. Standing: Robert Lew Lee h/o Cornelia, Elizabeth Huang nee Ong Choo Tin, Max Huang Jr. Bottom: Cornelia Huang, Arthur Ong and May Goh Orr

Ong Choo Imm and Yeoh Poh See.
Taken in 2017 at Elim Gospel Hall.

 JAG

Chew Gaik Khim .. Chew Boon San’s First Born Child

Chew Gaik Khim (right in dark clothing) d/o Chew Boon San and cousin Chew Gaik Kuan d/o Chew Boon Hong. Taken at the family's Cameron Highland's bungalow

Chew Gaik Khim a daughter was the 1st  born child of Chew Boon San and Toh Bok Wai. She together with her two brothers were born in China.  

Chew Boon San had 4 sons and 5 daughters. His 1^st son was Chew Choo Beng, Chew Choo Peng, Chew Choo Khoon and Chew Choo Lek. His daughters were Chew Gaik Khim, Chew Gaik Khee (2), Chew Gaik Wooi (3), Chew Gaik Suan (4) and Chew Gaik Teang (5)

According to a niece Sally Chew Soak Heng aunt Khim did not marry. In our home at Gopeng our grandmother Toh Bok Wai was handicapped and had a servant to look after her. Our 4^th aunt Gaik Suan too was bedridden and had a servant to tend to her.

But 1^st and 2^nd aunts Gaik Khim and Gaik Khee looked after their 4th sister. Although there was a servant to tend to her the 2 sisters were around the whole day looking after her”.

After our grandmother & 4th aunty passed away aunts Khim and Khee stayed in Ipoh with our 5th aunt Helen Chew Gaik Teang. Aunt Teang had married and had 2 sons.

Niece Adeline Chew Soak Leng said her aunt was conservative but mixed freely only when she was with her cousins.

She said that Gaik Khim was especially friendly with cousins Chew Gaik Kuan d/o Chew Boon Hong and Chew Gaik Looi d/o Chew Boon Juan.

Amongst Cousins. Standing (from left) Chew Gaik Looi, Chew Ah Heng, Kwan lu-Foon, Chew Gaik Choo, Chew Gaik Khim, Chew Gaik Kuan. Seated: Chew Ah Pik, Chew Gaik Tiew, Chew Gaik Poh, Chew Gaik See.          Photo: Goh Kwee Leng album.

Occasionally she would spend the day with the cousins in Ipoh. At other times she would join her cousins during school holidays at Chew Boon Juan’s Penang home, their holiday homes at Penang Hill or Cameron Highlands. In later years she would go along cruises to Hong Kong with her cousins.

Yeoh Poh See, another relative, said that Aunt Gaik Khim always mixed with us. She would bring her youngest sister Gaik Teang along. Because of their difference in years of their ages we would tease “Kimmee (Gaik Khim) your daughter is crying”.

Yeoh Saw Kin a relative said that she remembered that Aunt Gaik Khim had lived in Gopeng. She visited Chew Boon San with her mother Chew Gaik Tiew as a little girl during Chinese New Year.

"Khim wanted to look after her mother so she missed the chance of getting married. She was a beautiful girl. When she was in Penang there would be a lot of cars that would come around to No 4 North Beach road, Chew Boon Juan's home"

Another relative confirmed that one of her uncles was very interested in Khim and considered her very beautiful but alas it was one sided.

Above (from left) sisters Helen Chew Gaik Teong, Chew Gaik Khim and Chew Gaik Poh. Seated niece Chew Woon Teng, Helen's son and Chang Poh Yoke wife of Choo Peng

Saw Kin said that aunt Khim was adventurous. "Sometime in the mid 70’s Gaik Khim and Gaik Looi visited me in London. That year I came home to Ipoh and told her to get the key to my house from my neighbor. I also had a good English housekeeper who used to cook for me and she took just the 2 of them for a tour round London". 

In the early 2000's Khim and Khee were placed in a nursing home. Khim had a stroke and needed support while Khee had dementia. Both aunts passed away not long after.  According to nephew Chew Pete Cheung, his aunt Khim was in her 90’s.

JAG

Marriage of Goh Beng Teong and Ong Choo See

Who’s who list.

Bride. Ong Choo See daughter of Chew Gaik Hoon (2^nd daughter of Chew Boon Juan and Goh Lean Kee) and Ong Kok Hoo.

Groom. Goh Beng Teong son of Chew Gaik Poh (4^th daughter of Chew Boon Juan and Goh Lean Kee) and Goh Kim Sai

Best Man. Choong Ewe Hock son of  Chew Gaik Tau (daughter of Chew Boon Hong)

Bridesmaids

1        1. Grace Ooi daughter of Chew Gaik Choo (9^th daughter of Chew Boon Juan and Goh Lean Kee) and Wong Kim Bee

2        2. Mimi Ang daughter of Chew Gaik See (8^th daughter of Chew Boon Juan and Goh Lean Kee) and Charles Ang

1)    Flower girls. Dorothy and Sophia Lo daughters of Chew Gaik Swee (10^th daughter of Chew Boon Juan and Goh Lean Kee) and Lo Chung Liang.

Chew Choo Beng - The Eldest Son of Chew Boon San

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

Yuen Keat, mum Low Siew Yong and Oon Chuan

Oon Chuan and Yuen Keat 

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. 

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. 

Chew Yuen Keat  and Annie Chum Ket Ming

Family photo upon Lee Lian's graduation in Computer Science from USM.

Married (l) Chew Lee Lian and Liew Yen Keat (r) Lee Lian with her children Zhen Nam and Zi Wei (with guitar)

Chew Ghim Seng married Vivian Cheang Pui See. Ghim Seng has a diploma in engineering.

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.

Yuen Hin (l) With RMAF he flew Hercules C130 (r) Malaysia Airlines Airbus 330

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.

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. 

The Low relations at 1 Leech Street where the aerated water factory was located

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.

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Surprise! We Found Our Ancestral House In Xiamen China

Surprise find, the Chew's ancestral house. No 231. (l-r) Chew Hoe Kean, Chew Po Lian, Angeline Chew and daughter Cornelia Tan 

“Totally surprised” was the reaction of the descendants of Chew Boon Juan and Chew Boon Hong when they were shown their ancestral house in 2007.

The descendants were Chew Poh Lean and her brother Hoe Kean the grand children of Chew Boon Hong while Angeline Chew was the grand daughter of Chew Boon Juan. Angeline was accompanied by her husband and daughter. 

The Chew cousins had no plans that year end in 2007. A close friend of Poh Lian named David Chew invited her to join him and his cousin Chew Beng Hian to Xiamen China. David and Poh Lian were close friends and related but Poh Lian didn’t know by which connection. Xiamen China was where their ancestors came from and  a visit was interesting but seeing an ancestral house was furthest from their mind.

David Chew however was a regular visitor to Xiamen and had relatives there. He alerted his relatives about the four Chew brothers Boon Seong, Boon Juan, Boon San and Boon Hong and to find if any of their ancestors were still around. The relatives found contacts who were familiar about Chew Boon Hong and the brothers.

At Xiamen, Hoe Kean recalled he was taken back when they were met on arrival by five local China men. .

One of the men asked if we were the relatives of Chew Boon Hong. We acknowledged we were. Then they asked if we wanted to visit our ancestral house to which we replied we didn’t know we had one.

The Chews with the five local clansmen

That was the surprising part. It was a reception that we didn’t anticipate and after that we were eager with anticipation. The next day they took us to Heng Lim village and showed us our ancestral home.

David Chew was scheduled to meet his relatives the next morning so we had to split up. The split was unfortunate as none of us spoke Mandarin and the ‘Penang’ Hokkien we knew could not be understood by the China hosts. Nevertheless, we were just happy to have discovered our ancestral house.

Chew Ancestral Home

Hoe Kean said the ancestral house had a number No 231. It was a corner house which could be accessed through a side lane leading in. The house size was estimated to be around 1500sq ft.  It was not occupied and the door was not locked.

As you enter there is a grill door with bird decoration which then opens to a courtyard. Around the courtyard there are rooms.

To the right was the kitchen, the left is a small store room and so on. There was a room with a bed and outside it a pantry with cutlery inside and in another room a safe. My sister and I took photos.

An overview of No 231 and where 'everything' was located. Sketch and photos by Chew Hoe Kian.

This was in 2007.There were household items all over the place and everything was covered in thick dust. I would have loved to take some item back. When we went back in 2008 all these items were gone.

Ancestral House No 231

the courtyard

in one of the rooms a bed ...

nice carving ..

the pantry ?

Kitchen

While checking out the house Poh Lian enquired aloud if this single storey house was the only one that belonged to our grandparents. One of the men replied pointing to a tall house and said that belonged to Chew Boon San.

Did this house belong to
Chew Boon San

Chew Boon San who was an uncle that lived in Gopeng whom we visited during Chinese New Year. I shouted to the others to tell them but they were busy talking to the locals.

Boon San’s house was directly behind No 231.It was not a long house. I was advised not to go in because it was occupied so I took a photograph of the house. I then wanted to go round to get a frontal view but was told it was late and it was time to leave.  

Poh Lian was glad to have seen the ancestral home where her great grandmother lived with her grandfather and his brothers. It was a most fruitful visit.

When we returned we told our cousins. They were excited and arranged a trip for February two months later.

Return Trip Sees House 231 Occupied

The next visit was in February 2008. The group consisted of Chew Hoe Soon, Chew Hoe Guan, Chew Po Sim, Chew Beng Kah and Chew Hoe Kean all descendants of Chew Boon Hong.

February 2008. (l-r) Chew Hoe Soon, Chew Hoe Guan, Chew Po Sim and Chew Beng Kah

No 231 was occupied by a new owner and they could not enter. Whilst looking around someone had called the owners, a couple, who turned up. The wife said she was a Chew and related to one of the brothers. Again our Mandarin was bad so I didn’t fully understand said Hoe Kean. The owners subsequently rented out the property.

We then met a house owner, not a relation, who rebuilt his unit into a 5 storey building. This owner took us to an adjacent building diagonally opposite the 231 House.

He introduced us to an old lady, possibly a caretaker who she said was a relation. She said the house belonged to one of the brothers but she didn’t know which one. This house was bigger than No 231.

At the adjacent house (l-r) The gentleman house owner, Chew Hoe Guan, the Caretaker / relative, Chew Hoe Soon, Chew Beng Kah, Chew Hoe Kean and Chew Po Sim . 

This 'adjacent ' house was bigger than No 231

The entrance and the'family altar' with a lot of photos 

The poster at the side wall told of donations contributed for the damaged roof due to a typhoon. Translation by Chew I Wen.

As we entered the house we saw the ‘family altar or an ancestors box’. It had a lot of photos, not arranged nor taken care of. On the side wall was a wall poster that stated the donations contributed to the repair of the roof that was damaged due to a typhoon.

The location of the houses in Heng Lim Village. Sketch by Chew Hoe Kean

The old lady then told us of another address that belonged to the brothers. She didn’t have proof of documents and could not make a claim but she encouraged us to return and find the documents and file a claim.

Coincidentally the new owners of No 231 met with us at our hotel that day. The wife had brought along the house documents she used for the claim and a photo of my grandfather and his house to prove that she was a relative. I took photos of the documents with which they made the claim. Herbert Chew the son of Chew Choon Siew must have given the documents for his name was on the documents.

The Chews with the new house owner of  No 231 (1st and 2nd from right). The lady said she was a relative.

....she brought along a photo of my grandfather and his bungalow  to prove that she was a relative

Among the documents was the address that the old lady mentioned earlier. We traced the address to a vacant plot of land, under 4000 sq ft and located on Gulangsoo island.

We went to the local land office but they would not entertain us. They instructed us to approach our village headman to identify us as bona fide relatives and return with relevant reports and related documents.  

Our last site visit 

Our last stop was visiting the ancestral grave site which was within the Heng Lim village.

Below are the documents the owner of No 231 passed to  Chew Hoe Kean. A note of thanks for Chew I Wen who translated all the documents.

4A Report /Application saying …’ my ancestors are from Fujien to Gulangsoo..the descentdants are overseas Chinese and living in Malaysia and America engaged in business..My grandfather Chew Boon Juan before liberation stayed here. Now our ancestral house is in Gulangsoo, No 22 something ??.. used to be a 3story building and a garden .. subsequently the whole family shifted oversea  and the house was passed to a relative to administer the said house.

Based on the open policy the government welcomes the overseas Chinese to return to China. Xiamen is Special Economic Zone and would like to return and claim the house to invest in this place.Yours Truthfully

Signed by Herbert Chew

5A. A letter from the Perak Hock Kean Association verifying that Chew Choon Siew is the son of Chew Boon Juan and a legitimate claimant.....Signed and Chopped by the Perak Hock Kean Kong Hoey..dated 15.5.1993

6A. Copy of Herbert Chew US passport and 7A Birth Certificate 

10A. Letter giving Power of Attorney to 2 individuals in Gulangsoo, Fukian to handle the claim to the property, 1) Chan Jee Wen, an American chinese and 2) Chan Wooi Kwan a Professor in a medical university in Fujian China. Signed by Herbert Chew, County Clerk, Notary Public...and (Inset 8A): Acknowledgement by Chinese Embassy in USA. 

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