Place frequented by legends: It is widely known and reported that it is at this padang where some of the greatest Malaysian footballers used to train and play in the 1960s and 1970s

DATO Keramat Road is not part of the George Town heritage area but it is surely one of the most important and recognisable main roads on the island.

Depending on which direction you come from, the road begins from the heart of the city centre and ends at Air Itam.

It is a busy road but not many Penangites today are familiar with its history.

The word “keramat” usually refers to a shrine dedicated to a holy man or ascetic of the Muslim faith.

It is said that there was once a Muslim settlement in the area, and the link probably refers to Kampung Makam, a Malay village located along Dato Keramat Road.

Kampung Makam, which has existed since around 1840, began as an Acheenese settlement founded by a religious teacher named Haji Kassim.

Despite the ongoing development, the village has retained its kampung-like ambience in the heart of the city.

Brown Memorial: This memorial was erected in memory of David Brown, who donated the land on which Padang Brown is located.

According to Timothy Tye, who blogs on streets of Penang, at one time, the people could travel to the settlement by sampans along Sungai Pinang.

“At that time, it was known as Pengkalan Haji Kassim, after the pier built by Haji Kassim for sampans to berth at the settlement. Haji Kassim also built the village mosque, now known as Masjid Haji Kassim,” Tye wrote.

“It is still in existence today, and is accessed from Jalan Datuk Keramat. The village was only renamed Kampung Makam after the demise of Haji Kassim, as it then began to be referred after the mausoleum or makam of Haji Kassim.”

Driving along the main road, one is unlikely to see the significance of this urban village, which has managed to keep its charm and identity.

There used to be a cinema located next to the turnoff to Kampung Makam. This was the Federal cinema where I spent much time with my only Chinese-educated brother, Wong Chun Sang, watching countless Hong Kong sword-fighting movies produced by Shaw Brothers.

It is now home to the Federal Place Chinese Restaurant but in the 1970s, come every Sunday, my brother would take me on his motorcycle to Federal cinema.

It was here that I entered into the amazing world of flying swordsmen with the likes of Wang Yu, David Chiang, Ti Lung, Chen Kuan Tai, Fu Sheng and Lo Lieh.

I was then in primary school, and like the rest of the world, I was also swept away by the movies of another legendary martial arts exponent — Bruce Lee with his unique kung fu skills.

Now, going to the cinema means having popcorn and carbonated drinks but in those days, at the Federal, for example, we could have either lok lok (small bits of food on skewers), steamed groundnuts, sotong bakar (grilled squid) or sweet barbecued meat buns.

Outside every cinema, there will always be an Indian man with his tray of salted peanuts and yellow kacang putih.

In some cinemas, a woman would walk along the aisle, selling ice cream in the dark while the movie was in progress.

Source of entertainment: The Federal cinema used to be located next to the turnoff to Kampung Makam.

One item which the cinema-going generation of those days will surely remember is the kuaci or sunflower seeds. Of course, cinema-goers were not particularly civic-conscious those days and sweepers had to come in between the showings to clean up.

Another iconic building in the area is the 78-year-old Convent Datuk Keramat, which was founded by Rev Mother Tarcisius.

According to a blog posting, the CDK, as it is popularly known, was founded on Jan 14, 1935 by Tarcisius, who arrived in Malaya in 1904 from England. She believed that education should not be limited to English only but should be provided according to the needs of the society.

It is at CDK that my wife, Florence, studied for 12 years, where she excelled in sport and represented the school as well as the state in athletics.

Just opposite the school is Padang Brown, as it is known to older Penangites, but is now known as Padang Dato Kramat.

It is widely known and reported that it is at this padang where some of the greatest Malaysian football legends used to train and play in the 1960s and 1970s.

They included the Bakar brothers — Ali and Isa, Shukor Salleh, Mohamad Bakar, Desmond David (the father of Nicole David) and the Abdullah brothers, Namat and Shaharuddin.

The padang was also famous for a unique game where bets were placed for anyone to shoot at goal. However, the winner was not the one who shot into the goal, but the one who could hit the goal posts.

Just down the padang is the City Stadium, built in 1956 by the British government, and was known for its “Keramat Roar.”

Significant landmark: Dr Sun Yat Sen’s residence in Penang. His family used to live here when he was in exile in Penang in 1910. — Khoo Salma Nasution’s Sun Yat Sen in Penang.

“The land on which Padang Brown is located was donated by David Brown, one of the wealthiest landowners in Penang. A Scot from Edinburgh, Brown came to Penang in the early 19th century to join his fellow countryman, James Scott, who was the trading partner to Francis Light,” wrote Tye.

“After Light’s death, his business passed into Scott’s hands, and in turn the businesses passed to Scott’s junior partner, David Brown. Brown eventually became one of the wealthiest person in Penang as well as the largest landowner, with plantations and estates throughout the island.”

To Penangites, it is the hawker centre next to the field that matters most. They probably have no idea of the Brown Memorial, erected in his memory, at the hawker centre.

The hawker centre is divided between the halal and non-halal sections.

The Penang-styled poh piah, with its generous wrapping of crab meat and roe, is certainly the best in the state, if not Malaysia. Here you can also have the Penang-styled yong tau foo, Chinese pasembor and ais kacang. The Padang Brown hawker centre remains one of my all-time favourite eating spots in the state.

If you wish to try one of the better known char koay teow in Penang, then just look for Ah Leng’s stall at Café Khoon Hiang opposite Federal Place, which opens in the morning until late afternoon.

Another important historic fact about Dato Keramat Road is that the Father of Modern China and the First President of the Republic of China, Dr Sun Yat Sen, and his family, used to stay there when he was exile in Penang in 1910.

Until the 1970s, the house still existed and I would pass by this derelict home each time I travelled home on the bus.

It never occurred to me the significance of the house as it was never given the attention that it deserves.

According to Khoo Salma Nasution, in her book, Sun Yat Sen in Penang, Dr Sun, together with his first wife Madam Lu Muzhen and two daughters, Sun Yan and Sun Wan, lived there. The girls attended school at nearby St George’s Girls School. His second wife, Chen Cuifen, would to join him in Penang later.

“When Dr Sun’s family was living in Penang, they could not even afford to pay their monthly house rent of $20. The Penang supporters discussed Dr Sun’s situation and undertook to provide his family with $120 and $130 each month for their living expenses,” she wrote.

Dr Sun would take a third wife, Soong Qingling, in his later life. May Ling, the youngest sister, married the late Chiang Kai Shek, the president of Taiwan, and eldest sister, Ai Ling, married HH Kung, one of the richest men in China then.

Who would have imagined that a simple main road in Penang would have such great stories, involving so many giant personalities, to tell? Hopefully from now, as we pass through this busy thoroughfare, we will give some thoughts to these people.

Big complex: There are nine blocks spread over 16.7ha with 3,888 units

THE Rifle Range Flats is one of the most densely populated areas in Penang.

Penangites can tell you if you choose to park your car near the flats in the evening, the chances of your car being blocked by other cars is almost 100%.

The likelihood is that the unsuspecting motorist would never be able to get his stuck vehicle out.

The best way would be to return in the morning when the other cars have left.

That’s how sardine-packed the area is.

The almost non-existent parking bays at the flats is simply because the architects of the country’s first high-rise, low cost flats never imagined that the dwellers would be able to afford a car as low-wage earners.

They probably never believed that the living standards of Penangites living at the mostly single-room flats, would improve.

According to blogger Lim Thian Leong, there are nine blocks of 17-storey buildings within an area of 16.7ha, with every floor consisting of 20 units of single bedrooms and four two bedroom units.

With a total of 3,888 units within the flats, the average size of a unit is merely 340 sq ft!

It is not unusual for the rest of the family members to sleep in the living room while the parents take up the only room in the flat.

Because of its high density, the flats remain a politician’s delight, or nightmare, depending on the crowds you can command come election time.

Almost all the big guns (pun intended) show up at Rifle Range during the last leg of the campaign.

Rifle Range Road or Jalan Padang Tembak is one of the main roads connecting Air Itam and George Town.

Popularly known as pak cheng poh, in Hokkein, is so named because the area used to be a shooting range, according to writer-photographer Timothy Lye.

“It was once an open space used as a shooting range by the police and the military.

“The namesake shooting range located next to the Batu Gantong Cemetery made way for the low-cost flats,” he wrote.

The flats were built by the late Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu when the then opposition Gerakan party swept into power in 1969.

Through the Penang Development Corporation, the Rifle Range flats, designed by a German firm, was built.

Faced with the problems of housing needs for the poor, more flats were then constructed in other areas.

When he took over Penang, unemployment was running at 16% but he created plenty of jobs through the setting up of the Penang Free Trade Zone in Bayan Lepas.

But according to Farouk Gulsara, in his blog posting, in 1964, the national Ministry of Housing and Local Government had already identified two pilot projects in order to try out the industrialised building or prefabrication system (known as IBS).

The first of these projects was in Kuala Lumpur along Jalan Tun Razak (Jalan Pekeliling).

The second pilot project was set in Penang, consisting the construction of six blocks of 17-storey flats and three blocks of 18-storey flats comprising 3,699 units and 66 shop lots along Rifle Range Road.

“The project in Penang was awarded to Hochtief/Chee Seng using the French Estiot System and took 27 months to complete, inclusive of the time taken in setting up the precast factories.

“When Rifle Range Flats were completed in the early 1970s, they were the tallest buildings in Penang.

“None of the units were big ‑ on average they were approximately 36 sq m for intermediate one bedroom units and 38.7 sq m. for two bedroom end units.

“Nonetheless, they provided housing for many hardcore poor. “

The Rifle Range Flats area where Dr Lim chose as a site for the construction of the buildings was not the more preferred choice for residence.

Located next to the Batu Gantong cemetery, it is said that the ground where the flats now stands used to be the burial plot for the mass burying of those massacred by the Japanese during the Occupation.

As a child growing up in nearby Jalan Kampung Melayu, I used to cycle to the flats to meet up with friends.

Even in the late 1970s, there were still cow herds along Boundary Road, which I had to cycle past to reach Rifle Range.

News reports of residents jumping to their death, or more precisely, committing suicide, were regular and when I finally joined The Star as a reporter in the 1980s, the suicides still did not stop, with residents often bringing up stories of those who were buried underneath!

The suicides there were the subject of a book by anthropologist Jean Elizabeth De Bernardi The Way That Lives in the Hearts: Chinese Popular Spirits and Mediums where a medium purportedly claimed that the spirits had to take away 16 lives although at the time of research, there were already 20 victims.

Her cynical research assistant concluded that it was more likely that the victims had taken their lives because they had no work or money.

But less talked about is actually the large number of hawkers and coffeeshops, located at the ground floors of the flats.

There is also a wet market nearby.

As a child, my brother Wong Chun Fong, and I would to go the market every Saturday morning to buy the economy fried bee hoon and the Penang style pan cake, ban chang kuih, made from flour and sprinkled with sugar and groundnuts.

Nothing much has really changed in Rifle Range Flats today.

There would likely be new occupants, as those who have fared better in their lives moved out.

It has remained crowded with a host of social problems from drugs, thefts to gangsterism but the majority of the people are law-abiding, helpful and friendly people.

Despite the density of the area, Rifle Range has remained home to thousands and thousands of Penangites.

In remembrance: A residential neighbourhood, located just next to the school, has been rightly named Taman David Chen in his honour.

THE screaming headline on the front page of The Straits Times on Feb 5, 1952 was “Gunman Kills Principal of Chung Ling”.

It was no ordinary murder because the victim in question was David Chen Chong Ern, the principal of the country’s biggest and most famous Chinese school, the Chung Ling High School.

Chen, who hailed from Suzhou, China, and a graduate of the prestigious University of Nanking, was at that time also the president of the Federation of Chinese Teachers Association.

He was shot dead at Macalister Road in front of the Penang Chinese School Teachers Association, where he was about to chair a meeting.

The assailant shot Chen in the head before he could even alight from his car with his other colleagues.

Shocking: The  article on Chen’smurder published in The Straits Times on Feb 5, 1952. — News clipping image from The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Chen had travelled to Malaya in 1930 to join Chung Ling High School, founded by supporters of the Kuomintang party, but his anti-communist views irked members of the Communist Party of Malaya, especially his stand in education.

In his dissertation, “Chinese-ness in Malaysian Chinese Education Discourse: The Case of Chung Ling High School”, Jin Pei Goh wrote that the school was influenced by the Chinese nationalist movement in China.

The fate of the school, the academician wrote, was connected to the turbulent years of the Sino-Japanese war, the Chinese civil war in 1927-1945 and the formation of the People’s Republic of China.

During the troubled years of the Emergency, Chen was the third Chung Ling teacher to be killed.

In 1949, a teacher, Boey Eng Eng, was shot dead in front of his house at Kek Chuan Lane, off Chulia Street and in 1951, Chan Chong Yuk, who was the school’s acting principal, was killed on his way to his Kampong Kolam home.

Those were the years of living dangerously, where Chinese community leaders, teachers and police officers who were deemed to go against the CPM were high on the hit list.

In the case of Chen, there are those who believed in the conspiracy theory that the British intelligence service was responsible for his murder. Apparently, they were uncomfortable with his push for Chinese education while the British preferred the mission schools, where English was the medium of instruction.

A year after Chen’s killing, two persons were charged for his murder. They were Lee Khuan Koa and Chan Kwong Siew, both 22 years old, but ironically, the news was just a filler or a simple short news story on page 4.

In 1954, The Straits Times reported on a ceremony that was held to commemorate the assassination of Chen.

Tribute to teachers: The memorial is to commemorate the death of former teachers and students of CLHS who were killed during the Japanese Occupation in Malaya for sending monetary and other contributions to China during Japan’s all-out invasion against China in 1937

In the article, it reported that three men were involved in the shooting. One was said to have committed suicide when cornered, another “fatally wounded trying to avoid recapture after a gaol break” and the third man convicted in Malacca in 1953 and hanged.

According to an article written by Timothy Tye of Penang Travel Tips, Chung Ling School, as it was originally known, was founded by supporters of Chinese nationalist Dr Sun Yat Sen, among them Tan Sin Cheng, Khoo Beng Cheang, Chu Yeo Aik, Khaw Seng Lee and Lim Joo Teik.

The school, he wrote, was originally located at 18, Malay Street and in 1918, Chung Ling School moved to occupy 65, Macalister Road, which was the Penang Philomatic Union and is today the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall housing the Penang Sun Yat Sen Centre.

Chung Ling School, which has produced some of the best Malaysian personalities today, finally settled at its present location in Jalan Air Itam in 1923.

The school was once a hotbed of activism against the Japanese during the Occupation, where the idealistic teachers and students suffered harsh treatment from the Japanese forces for their refusal to switch from Chinese to Japanese studies.

During the difficult years, many were executed. They paid a heavy price for their patriotism, buoyed by the events in China.

In fact, Chen, who helmed the school for 20 years, escaped to Cameron Highlands where he posed as a vegetable farmer.

Today, the school has continued to be in the limelight for producing top scorers in public examinations.

Great contributor: A painting ofChen that is featured in Chung Ling High School’s magazine.

It has produced some of the best known alumni including former Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, former Senate president Tan Sri Michael Chen, former Nanyang University vice-chancellor Dr Wu Teh Yao, former Singapore minister Lee Khoon Choy and controversial financier Jho Low.

A residential neighbourhood, located just next to the school, has been rightly named Taman David Chen in his honour.

Chen is likely to be known by students of the school but he is non-existent in the history books on Penang. For the English-educated, he is also likely to be an unfamiliar name.

But Chen surely deserves a place in the history of Penang for his contributions of over two decades to one of the best schools in the region.

For all the complexities of the school’s history and its teachers, Taman David Chen is known among foodies for a simple dish – its popular “economy fried bee hoon” – which attracts large crowds to the stall every morning.

The stall is located just opposite the Kampung Baru wet market and is known to most residents in Air Itam.

Further down the road is my family home, in Jalan Kampung Melayu, off the main thoroughfare of Jalan Air Itam.

Readers Write

L.L. Loh-Lim and L. Loh write: Thank you for your article on Cheong Fatt Tze last week. It was much appreciated. In particular, we appreciate your comments that this legendary figure in the early development of Penang — and indeed of the region — has been entirely left out of our history books.

His stunning philantrophy and critical contributions and visions in the development of the state have had scant official acknowledgement. Except for Jalan Cheong Fatt Tze, removed in the development of Komtar and hastily replaced with Carnavon Street when the Teoh Kongsi pressured the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP), no one has ever highlighted the significance of the man, before the restoration of his home in Leith Street.

Besides building the first Chinese school in South-East Asia in Penang and helping Sun Yat Sen overthrow the Manchus, Cheong Fatt Tze aka Chang Pi-Shih aka Thio Tiaw Siat donated extensively to schools, hospitals, temples and all worthy charities of the day.

Among other things, he was:

●the main donor of the Kek Lok Si (where his larger-than-life statue sits in a room apart from the statues of the lesser donors);

● one of the main donors of the Penang Free School (the donors plaque is on the wall of the current State Museum);

● the main donor of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for destitute women, setting up a trust for the premises, to be used by non-profit
organisations (currently also being used by the State Museum in Macalister Road);

● the founder of the Teoh Kongsi; and

● Vice-Consul for China in Penang and Consul-General in Singapore

In 1916, British and Dutch authorities had ordered flags to be flown at half mast on the death of this exemplar of hard work and vision, and yet, like you, we students of St Xavier’s were given neither knowledge of the man nor the mansion in Leith Street.

It was reputed to be his favourite home because it was where his favourite wife No. 7 resided and where his last son was born when he
was aged 74.

In 1989, the mansion came on the market upon the death of this son.

Tourist attraction: Cheong was the main donor to the Kek Lok Si Temple

 

Potential buyers were all developers, and conservation consciousness as well as regulations were non-existent. The Mansion was certainly in danger of demolition followed by some minor fine and slap on the wrist for the perpetrator.

Perhaps the spirit of Cheong Fatt Tze sought out protectors? It was certainly against public opinion of the day to conserve on such valuable land and to undertake a restoration of international best practice standards.

We are very gratified that today, the Blue Mansion (testifying to its original indigo colour) is acknowledged as among the 10 greatest mansions in the world (Lonely Planet 2011).

It has set benchmark standards of conservation, having won Unesco’s Most Excellent Project Award in 2000 and most importantly, it has bought time for George Town at its most critical point at the turn of the century.

Today, museums and interpretation tours for visitors and site visits for school children ensure that oral history is given life and the early contributions of our forefathers are forever remembered. Indeed, as you called him, “Penang’s Greatest Mogul”, offers us continuing lessons in hard work, vision and globalthinking.

The Cheong Fatt Tze mansion won Unesco's 'Most Excellent' Heritage Conservation Award in 2000. – filepic

From harbouring revolutionaries to founding schools, Cheong Fatt  Tze made his mark on history.

THE Cheong Fatt Tze mansion sits opposite my alma mater, the St Xavier’s Institution.

For more than 10 years, I had to walk past the building every time I went to school and I never knew about its historical significance.

Neither did anyone tell me about its once legendary owner.

It was never in the history books that I had to study in school.

None of the school teachers even mentioned him. They probably did not know too.

No one taught me that Cheong built the first Chinese school in South-East Asia in Penang and that it was the first such school – sanctioned by the Qing Dynasty, complete with royal seals – outside China.

Neither could I find in my textbook that Cheong Fatt Tze – despite being a highly decorated official of the Manchu imperial palace – also secretly financed the work of Dr Sun Yat Sen, the Father of Modern China, who was in exile in Penang, presumably because he was disgusted with the corrupt practices of the palace.

But it’s better late than never.

Thanks to the Unesco World Heritage status accorded on Georgetown, Penang, in 2008, there is now a revival in the state for its glorious legacy and a desire to find out more about the early fathers of Penang who built the state to what it is today.

The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, located at Leith Street, has become a must-stop for tourists.

But for a long time, it was rundown and almost derelict.

It was never the Blue Mansion, as it is dubbed today, when I was a student at the SXI.

In fact, it looked haunted and most of us, worried by its imposing but frightening look, stayed away.

We instead remembered the state’s first real disco called Unit One, located at the basement of a hotel, just behind the mansion.

The other hotel next door used to bring in Thailand’s “tiger shows,” which essentially showed women performing various sexual acts in a somewhat acrobatic manner.

As students in a school located in an entertainment area and near a beach front, we certainly had the best exposure to the real world.

I can bet that most students in other states never had such experiences. Well, we grew up faster for sure.

But for me, the real education of Cheong Fatt Tze only came in my adult years.

Penangites surely need to know one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century in old Malaya better, now that they appreciate the true value of the protected heritage building.

He was born in 1840 in Dabu, Guangdong Province in China, where he grew up working as a cowherd in a backward, poverty-stricken Hakka village.

It was a time when civil war had broken out in China.

Like many, Cheong Fatt Tze migrated to South-East Asia, hopeful for a change in fortune.

He started as a water-carrier and then became a shopkeeper in Jakarta, Indonesia.

After his marriage, he started a trading company with the help of his father-in-law.

Through hard work and perseverance, he soon expanded his business to Medan, the nearest Indonesian city to Penang, where he traded agricultural products such as rubber, coffee and tea. Soon after, he bought a bank.

In 1886, he expanded to Penang and ran a lucrative business with the three ships he owned which plied between Penang and Medan.

The Chinese community in both towns to this day use identical hokkien.

Dubbed the “Rockefeller of the East”, he occasionally resided in Penang, so it made sense for him to own the mansion in Leith Street, which has 38 rooms, five granite-paved courtyards, seven staircases and 220 windows. It even had horse stables.

He also built a row of houses opposite the mansion for his army of servants.

The mansion has won several awards, including Unesco’s “Most Excellent” Heritage Conservation Award in 2000.

It has also been used as a location for various films.

In 1890, in recognition of his hard work and contributions, Cheong was appointed the Chinese Consul, to be based in Penang.

He was accorded the status of a first class Mandarin by the Manchu government and also served as economic advisor to the Empress Dowager.

According to reports, in 1899, he was summoned to China twice by the Emperor of China, where he was asked to present a national development plan.

He was subsequently appointed Minister for Agriculture, Industries, Roads and Mines for the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong.

But he also contributed much to Penang.

In 1904, he established the first Chinese school in Southeast Asia, the Chung Hwa Confucian School in Penang, which was founded in 1904, and has today become a premier school in the state.

It is now located at Green Lane, now called Jalan Masjid Negeri.

It is the only overseas Chinese school to be sanctioned by the Qing Dynasty Government of China then, which officially presented it with royal seals bearing the school’s name through its consulate because of its founder, Cheong Fatt Tze.

The original site of the Chung Hwa school was at the Penang Chinese Town Hall – opposite The Star office – at Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Keling or Pitt Street. It later moved to Maxwell Road, now Jalan Dr Lim Chwee Leong.

Older Penangites would remember that the school was located next to Paramount cinema, which has since been demolished.

Cheong also provided shelter and financial backing for Sun Yat Sen, the Father of Modern China, when the latter was in exile in Penang for six months in 1910.

Sun used 120, Armenian Street (now converted to be the Sun Yat Sen Museum) as his base to plot his 1911 Revolution.

While in Penang, he enrolled his daughters to study at the St George’s Girls School.

Sun also founded the Kwong Wah Jit Poh, one of the oldest Chinese newspapers in the world.

The masthead of the newspaper, still in use today, was written by Sun himself.

The mansion of Cheong Fatt Tze, who made Penang his base, certainly had plenty of room for his eight wives and six sons.

Cheong died in Indonesia in 1916.

The former Hong Kong Street, which is off Carnarvon Street, has been aptly renamed Cheong Fatt Tze Road in recognition of his contributions to Penang. Interestingly, this road is just a short walk to Armenian Street.

Certainly, if you have a good grasp of history, walking in this part of the heritage zone will be quite an experience.