The Teochews have played an important role in the course of Malaysian history, David Tan reports in the first of a three-part story.
The Teochew community in Malaya was a formidable social and political force in the annals of local history by the mid-l9th century.
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| ■Boo Aun's house in Bukit Tambun that was built in 1866.- Pix courtesy of Penang Teochew Association. |
Malaysian Chinese History & Relic Survey (MCHRS) deputy director Ong Seng Huat said Teochews were involved in the political intrigues of Johor during the reign of Sultan All ibni Sultan Husain Syah in 1844 and in the Larut Wars (1860-1874).
The wealth accumulated by the community was also commensurable with the influential social and political status it has achieved.
"In 1860, from Province Wellesley (Butterworth) to Perak, the Teochews owned 20,235ha of sugarcane plantation, employing about 9,000 workers," he said.
The Teochew communities living in Malaysia and Southeast Asia today are from the Tai Pu, Cheng Hai, Pu Ning and Zhou An districts of the Teochew county in Guangdong.
"Cheng Hai and Zhou An, located at the river mouth of the Han Chiang River, are well-known sugarcane-producing areas since the Qin Dynasty(255BC-206BC).
"Tai Pu, which was once known as Ghee Aun, was regarded as the hometown of the Teochews during the reign of Qin emperor Shih Huang Ti," Ong said.
In 1736, the Teochews began emigrating from Cheng Hai, Tai Pu, and Zhou An to Southeast Asia, including Malaysia.
By the early 19th century an estimated 1.5 million Teochews had left their hometowns.
"According to Victor Purcell, a scholar of Southeast Asian history as early as the late 18th century the Teochews were already working as sugarcane planters in Batu Kawan."
"The chief police officer of Penang, Capt James Low, also showed in his Dissertation on the Soil and Agriculture of the British of Penang that in 1836, the Teochew community owned 364ha of land in Batu Kawan," said Ong.
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| ■Ghee Hin leader Boo Aun. - Pix coutesy of Penang Museum. |
Although they stayed on the mainland, the Teochews also asserted their presence as a significant dialect group on the island when they contributed $234 (Spanish dollars) for a Quangdong-Tengchew cemetery in Mount Erskine in 1828.
"The Teochews donated to the cemetery because the Teochew districts are in Guangdong."
"The Hokkiens from Tengchew had no problems with the Teochews donating to a joint cemetery because they share a similar cultural background and speak the same dialect.
"Furthermore, Tengchew, a district in the Hokkien province, is located very close to the border of the Tai Pu district," Ong added.
There is also a Quangdong Teochew pavilion in the cemetery donated by the two dialect groups.
"Among the donors is a Teochew, Khaw Lau Hup, who contributed $6, which is three times the amount of a monthly salary earned by a worker at that time."
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| ■Kee's residence in Sungai Bakap. - Pix courtesy of Penang Teochew Association. |
"Khaw is the father of Ghee fin leader Khaw Boo Aun who was later involved in the Larut Wars," Ong said.
In 1860, Boo Aun managed 2,428ha out of the 20,235ha of sugarcane plantations owned by the Teochews in Province Wellesley and Perak.
"As the saying goes at that time, not even a bird can fly out of Boo Aun's estate due to the tight security imposed," Ong said.
Boo Aun later hired a fellow Teochew named Kee Lye Huat to manage his estate in Province Wellesley.
"Kee, who later became Boo Aun's brother-in-law, subsequently founded the Sungai Bakap town."
In 1844, the Teochew dominated the Ghee Hin secret society which played an important role in shaping the outcome of Johor's history.
The society was entangled in the web of intricate power politics involving Temenggung Daeng Ibrahim and Sultan Au ibni Sultan Husain Syah.
"That year, Ibrahim had attracted the Teochews to settle in Johor by giving them land to develop under the Kang Chu system."
The same year, .the Teochews in the Ghee Hin secret society under Tan Kai Soon backed Ibrahim against his political enemies.
Subsequently with Ghee Hin's support, Ibrahim was appointed by the Sultan to be the minister in charge of police. Tan was later appointed as the top police official of Johor.
"In March 1855, with the support of the 400-strong Ghee Bin members, Ibrahim founded Johor Baru. In that year, Sultan Ali also surrendered his powers to Ibrahim," Ong said.
The other major historical episode in which the Teochews were involved was the 14-year-long conflict known as the Larut Wars.
When the Perak and Province Wellesley governments exempted export-oriented businesses from taxes in 1860, they also attracted many Teochew, Cantonese and Hokkien settlers.
Such taxes were removed because the governments wanted to encourage the exportation of items such as sugar to Penang and other British colonies.
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| ■Kee.. founder of Sungai Bakap. - Pix coutesy of Penang Museum. |
The policy prompted the Teochews, Cantonese, anti Hokkiens to clash over plantation and tin mining rights in Perak, leading eventually to the bloody Larut Wars involving the two main secret societies, the Ghee Hin and Hai
San.
The Teochews in the Ghee Hin secret society were joined by their fellow kinsmen from See Jip, Sin Neng, San Wui, Hoi Pang and Yan Peng, which are also districts in the Guangdong province. Their allies were the Hakkas from the Huizhou county in Guangdong.
The Hal San was dominated by the Cantonese from Nam Hoi, Pun Yue, Shun Tak, Tung Kwun, Heung Shan and Zhen Shang which are districts in Guangdong.
They were joined by Hokkien-speaking Hakkas from Yung Ting and Hokkiens from Zhangzhou, which are cities in the Hokkien province.
The British at first hesitated to intervene.
But when Boo Aun imposed a blockade for about six months in the water route stretching from Perak to Penang, preventing tin ore from being shipped out of Klian Pauh controlled by the Hai San, the British forced the two warring secret societies to sign the Treaty of Pangkor in 1874 which ended the bloody conflict.
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