Gopeng - Potential Hometown Heritage Site
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www.ipohecho.com.my IPOH echoechoYour Community Newspaper FREE for collection from our office and selected outlets, on 1st & 16th of the month. 30 sen for delivery to your ISSUE MAY 16 - 31, 2009 PP 14252/10/2009(022651) house by news vendors within Perak. RM 1 prepaid postage for mailing within Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. 74 NEWS DRIVEN TO GUA TEMPURUNG BUDGET HOLIDAYS DISTRACTION MOTOR CROSS 2009 CLOSE TO HOME 6 9 10 GOPENG - POTENTIAL HOMETOWN HERITAGE SITE Clan Altar at Hainanese Association Name: Caroline Wong Occupation: Quarters for Rawa Music Teacher/ mine workers Homemaker Hobbies: Music/Dancing/ Travelling The Quality I Admire Most: Sincerity, dynamism, euthusiasm & compassion Ideals I Live By Live everyday to the fullest. Learning to love oneself & cherish family moments How I Can Make A Difference: Masjid Jamik built by Constant self Mandailing shopkeepers improvement. Always Map of Gopeng Heritage Walk learning new things in order to teach and benefit the younger generation, World Heritage day on April 18 was celebrated with the official beginning with my own opening of the Gopeng Museum in Gopeng itself. Continued on page two children. 2 IPOH ECHO MAY 16 - 31, 2009 Your Community Newspaper The large turnout on opening day Bernard turns his Gopeng family home ‘Mun Chong’ into a museum ocated at 28 Jalan Eu Kong, the mu- Lseum is a private initiative by Gopeng resident Mr Bernard Yaw whose great grand father Yaw Mun Chong leased the property from the TCM founder of Eu Yan Sang in 1897. Bernard subsequent- ly purchased the property in 1999. When the core econo- my of Kinta Valley, which was dependent on tin and rubber was devastated by falling prices, many of its residents ventured over- seas to make a living and support their family back home. Bernard, then study- Cutting the ribbon, Bernard with Perak Heritage Society Historian Phang Sai Hong explaining the history of Gopeng to the visitors ing in the USA, recalled president Law Siak Hong “hearing Manglish and Jen Shen Hakka spoken while ered at the market or at exhibits were provided and the old premises of the in New York’s Chinatown their next favourite social- by Gopeng residents. The Straits Trading Company, area called Canal Street”. ising place: the cinema.” walls are pasted with dated among many other inter- There he befriended some Several months ago photographic images of esting sites. Gopeng Chinese and they during “a lai fun and lo- places, events and person- Currently Gopeng is a fondly renamed Canal cal coffee discussion with alities that made up the popular eco-tourism des- Street as ‘Kopisan Street’ a hometown friends” they culture that was Gopeng tination and has a regular long established suburb in decided to “preserve a leg- from as early as 1850. A number of visitors weekly Gopeng. acy of Gopeng for future walk through is like a pas- to the nearby jungles and The encounter made generations by forming a sage through time. orang asli settlements. Bernard nostalgic for his Gopeng Museum”. The Perak Heritage Law envisages that hometown and growing Bernard had offered to Society (PHS), in recog- the museum will further up on Eu Kong Street. share the family’s heritage nising the contribution enhance the popularity of Memories of men tapping home ‘Mun Chong’ to be of the museum towards this eco-tourism destina- rubber in the morning the cultural centre for the hometown heritage had tion and an appreciation hours, mining tin in pal- museum. The shophouse enhanced the significance of the town’s history. He ongs; mums and daugh- was restored. The ground of the opening by creat- hopes that it will inspire ters panning for tin in floor houses the history ing a comprehensive self other shophouse owners to 6th generation Yaw, Kristin with her father Bernard their wooden dulangs for centre while the upstairs is guided heritage walk map restore their premises for a second income. He also the family living area. through the town. economic use and create helped bring economic ac- town could make Gopeng remembered the communi- With the help of local A tour of the heritage employment opportunities tivities to the town. Law’s the first hometown heritage ties then, “the Semai orang historian Phang Sai Hong, walk by PHS President for the young. vision could become a site in the country. asli, the local Malays, the the museum now houses Law Siak Hong, revealed Indeed the various pri- reality. Detailed plan- overseas Malays, i.e., the a wide selection of exhib- the Chinese association vate initiatives by several ning, preservation of the JAMES GOUGH Rawa and Mandailing, the its, all of historical inter- houses, a mosque built by groups around Gopeng, surrounding environment email:ipohecho.jag@ Indian and Sikh all gath- est. Almost all of the 300 Mandailing shopkeepers similar to Bernard’s, have and the restoration of the gmail.com Your Community Newspaper IPOH ECHO MAY 16 - 31, 2009 3 HERITAGE NO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL ot long before the would take in parts of Old and lanes, unless you and rebuilding apparently NChristmas break last Town as well including have tunnel vision, rather going forward with no year, Ipoh was agog with Lorong Panglima (aka than the Datuk Bandar’s overall design or thought tales of tunnels galore. Concubine Lane). Council vision of a tunnel, you for the future. Surely it Most fanciful of all was was to bring in experts to will have noticed how is time to call a halt and the suggestion of a tunnel find the apparently sealed- the buildings continue to seriously consider where between the Main Convent up tunnel and open it to deteriorate? It really seems our city is going. (Convent of the Holy tourism as part of an Ipoh that nobody cares about Perhaps the City Infant Jesus as it would Heritage Walk. Clearly our city anymore. Empty Fathers could let us know have been called then), and this was going to be great and derelict shophouses their thoughts. WR St Michael’s Institution. news for Ipoh which, as tourists to traverse a tunnel should be pointed out that A kind of subterranean we all know is sadly short and then walk around the article “The Heartache ANNOUNCEMENTS boy meets girl, perhaps of tourists spending their Old Town needs careful of Heritage” (Ipoh Echo For jazz lovers: “16th Place Quartet” a group of 4 not dissimilar to what the dollars here. We could thought. One may wonder Issue 63) referred to a talented musicians will be performing different genres young Viet Cong might hardly wait to hear more, if the Datuk Bandar or philanthropist’s effort of music on May 16 at Jazz & Bits at Mike’s Place, have got up to in their particularly as the State any of his advisers have to do something about a Greentown. Củ Chi tunnels of South Government’s annual actually tried to do the small historic part of the Vietnam, but with the budget deficit was being latter on a normal day for, town, but this was knocked Perak Women for Women Society will be holding a Nuns and Brothers being lamented at the time and apart from the heat, and back by the refusal of the “Nature’s Secret for Women” session on Saturday, 23 their enemy rather than the the subject of bringing in regular torrential rain, it is property owners to even May 2009 commencing 3 pm. Venue: PWW office 48, Americans. more tourists (and their far from an easy evolution respond. Perhaps now is Jalan Dato Lau Pak Khuan. Bring food along for a Pot But, there was one money) into Perak was a with motorcycles parked on the time to reveal that this Luck. Call 05-5469715/012-5212480 for details. Ipoh tunnel spoken about burning issue, as it seems pavements and shop goods project planned to revitalise in high places, complete to have been since time and kopitiams spilling out Lorong Panglima, by Perak Women for Women Society together with with an eye witness to the immemorial. into the 5-foot way. Then restoring it to its original- Sisters In Islam will be holding a workshop titled existence of the same. But However, as we all one has to cope with the built state and opening a “Know Your Rights: Women’s Rights Under Islamic this tunnel had no romance know pronouncements in ever-changing height range of tourism-related Law. Venue:Impiana Casuarina Hotel on Sunday, May associated with it, for it was a similar vein have been of the walkways from attractions. The proposal 31, 2009 commencing at 9 am. Call Cecelia (013- to move criminals to the made many times before, shophouse to shophouse was based on an option for 4384388) for details. Ipoh High Court from the but failed to bear fruit and, and the difficulty in the owners of an outright Town Hall or, as suggested to all intents and purposes, crossing the busy streets. purchase or a 21-year lease PSPA’s International Ensemble will be presenting at the time, maybe further it seems that this great In addition, are we really arrangement. It foundered “Moonlight Serenade” a performance by 7 talented afield, perhaps from the new project has also gone sure that we are ready to due to a total lack of musicians playing a repertoire of classical, Broadway Railway Station or the the way of many of its show our ‘dirty washing’ interest of the owners who and jazz pieces. Venue: Ballroom, Syuen Hotel on Police Headquarters. What predecessors, passing into of dilapidated buildings generally could not even Thursday, June 4, 2009 beginning at 8 pm.