23 Feb 2009
penang architecture heritage trail
Remember that I’ve gone to a research project last semester? well, I’m going to write about that today. since I couldn’t get on hold of those photos my seniors took, I guess I’ll have to rely on some flickr photos and sketches, which are done by the team. I really regret I can’t stay with them until the very end – anyhow, here it goes.
in that project, we were tasked to come up with a architectural heritage trail and some sort of brochure to go with it.
alright, basically the trail attempts to rediscover the georgetown during the end of the 19th century. as we know it, francis light found georgetown and invited different communities to settle there – among them are; chinese, indian, achehnese and armenian traders. the result was a cosmopolitan environment filled with groups trying to overpower each other.
khoo kongsi
the chinese arrived in georgetown through family clans- like the khoo and cheah’s. chinese clans owed their history to tiandihui secret society, yeah similar to triads you may say. therefore their activities are shrouded in mystery, and occasionally – blood.
cheah kongsi
yeah, clan wars was fought in the old georgetown, and it was not a good one. there were two sides; the white flag and the red flag.
sketch by catherine
it happened to be that both khoo kongsi and cheah kongsi was on the red team. what nested among their enclaves was a complex web of backstreets and secret passages, all facilitated for the war; offensive, defensive and evasive.
cannon street with acheen mosque in vicinity
the border of the war is the cannon street, separating the white and red flags. the war climaxed in a riot in 1867, during when the British fired a cannon towards the Acheen mosque – thus the name of the street.
nanyang kopitiam
however, there was a neutral side among the communal conflicts, the kopitiam – simply translated as the coffee shop. mostly hainanese, they take no side in the cantonese-hokkien-hakka conflict. their kopitiams gained reputation as a gathering location – which tells us why they are always located in the corner shoplots.
acheen street by suzy sulaiman
similar to the cannon street, the name of the streets reveal a little history of what it was a long time ago. acheen street for example, was brewing with muslim community founded by tengku syed hussain al-aidid. it was once the location of hajj preparation and travel services. stone carving activities was also widespread, with the noises of stone carving attributed to acheen street. on the other hand,
beach street. this is the street where one side is supposed to be the white sandy beach of the shoreline exactly one hundred years ago. unbelievable? believe it – the khoo kongsi has a door facing the beach street, faciliting a quick exit towards the sea in times of emergency.
the history of georgetown is dark, eerily mysterious yet interesting on how change impacted the streets in the name of time.
well, if you want to get on hold of the architecture heritage trail’s brochure, you’ll need to buy it from georgetown tourism office. but nevertheless;
An architectural student from malaysia, studying in Curtin University, pursuing his Master in Architecture. Contact at yang(at)yangsquare.com
im an architecture student from uitm, perak.i was wondering if you guys have information regarding the cheah family. i was doing research on bangkok lane for my final and found out that the cheah family have some connection towards it. thanks.
ahnafrudin jalaludin
March 10th, 2009 at 10:30 ampermalink