The destination: This is the place in Sitiawan in Sept 1903 where 363 Foochows from China landed after surviving the perils of sea and a cholera outbreak.
Jan 15, 2023
By Foong Pek Yee
THE year was 1903 in Malaya, against a backdrop of erratic weather conditions and plunging rice yields.
And a rice growing community in Foochow, China, became the colonial government’s target- recruit them for a rice growing project in Sitiawan, Perak.
The Methodist Episcopal Mission (MEM) was tasked to bring in the Foochows, and Rev Ling Ching Mi and Rev HLE Dr Luering went to China for the mission.
And in Sept 1903, 363 Foochows landed in Sitiawan – the pioneer batch of Foochow settlers.
But the rice growing project never took off.
The land and facilities like irrigation and drainage for the project as promised to them were not there.
They were instead made to trek about six kilometers into the jungle where they stayed in seven longhouses for the next six months.
While Rev Dr Luering was stationed in Ipoh about 80 km away from Sitiawan, Rev Ling Ching Mi also got a transfer back to China in Dec 1903.
Ling Ching Mi got his nephew Ling Ti Kong to take care of the settlers.
And Ling Ti Kong also roped in Ding Chin Seng (husband of his father’s sister) to help him.
Ling Ching Mi, Ling Ti Kong and Ding Chin Seng were Foochows.
By Jan 1904, the Foochows had set up a day school under an attap shed with 22 pupils and a Foochow speaking teacher Ling Ding Jug for an eight hour class daily including an hour long break.
This is true to the Chinese who subscribe to: ” Education for and the wellbeing of the children must never be compromised due to poverty.
The shed also doubled as a church on Sundays.
By early 1904 each family was given a three-acre- plot for them to build their own house and reared pigs, poultry and plant vegetables and fruits for a living.
The Foochows also went into rubber planting not long after.
Forever grateful: Ling Leong Choong, 62, says this was one of the three wells that fed the villagers for decades until piped water came to Sitiawan in the 1970s. The wells are in the compound of the house for Pioneer Methodist Church pastors or “Muk Su Lao” in Chinese.
Showcase: Set up in 2003, Sitiawan Settlement Museum was formerly the ” Muk Su Lao”along Jalan Lin Chen Mei in Sitiawan. It provides a glimpse of life in Sitiawan in the good old days and the missionary work in then Malaya.
One-stop-centre: The” Muk Su Lao” was the place for the Chinese to go for help in the old days.
Great job: Shih Toong Siong who wrote the book “The Foochows of Sitiawan ” is a Foochow born and educated
in Sitiawan.
Hall of Fame: Some of the prominent figures in Malaysia and Singapore who are descendants of the Foochows in Sitiawan and documented in the book – The Foochows of Sitiawan.
While the Sitiawan Settlement Museum gives a glimpse of history, the book ” The Foochows of Sitiawan” by Shih Toong Siong is most enlightening.
Rev B.F. Van Dyke who became the first resident missionary in Sitiawan together with Ling Ti Kong and Ding Chin Seng were credited for building a church costing $900( to replace the attap shed) and an orphanage in Sitiawan in 1905
Rev Van Dyke – an American of Dutch origin- was a missionary school teacher from the Anglo Chinese School, Singapore in 1900 before his posting to Sitiawan in March 1904.
Unfortunately Rev Ding Chin Seng passed away in 1906. He was 41.
Ours is 289: Ling Leong Choong who was born and bred in Sitiawan says the rubber tappers had labels engraved on to the latex sheets to prove ownership. And 289 was the label for his family, pointing to the samples on the wall.
Way of life: Bicycle was the most common and only mode of transport for the poor in the old days. The equipment used by rubber tappers are among items displayed at the Sitiawan Settlement Museum.
Simple lifestyle: A typical kitchen of the Foochows in the old days.
With their farming background, the settlers were also among the first to go into rubber planting in 1905.
And that perhaps is also one of the reasons for many Foochow oil palm smallholders in Sitiawan today.
This pioneer batch of Foochows may be small in numbers but they definitely had earned an important place in history.
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