Cheong Fat Tze Mansion, Georgetown, Penang. December 2005
On Leith Street in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia there was a striking blue old house that I visited over and over on my many travels to that, my favorite island. This was the residence of the "Rockefeller of the East" who was so respected and influential that upon his death, even in the colonial era, the British and the Dutch both ordered flags flown at half-mast to honor his passing.
I visited Mr Cheong's old residence on my first trip to Malaysia with Masaaki back in 1986. I vaguely recall it being interesting but kind of run down. We had seen so many Chinese temples and clan houses in Georgetown by that time, it was just "another Chinese building". What stuck out about the place was its vivid blue exterior. The story of that blue is akin to the story of red as the color for barns in the USA. Whitewash was cheap and affordable as house paint, but an entirely white world would become dull indeed. In the US, after butchering, farmers had a lot of blood and it mixed well with lime whitewash to make lovely red barns. In tropical Asia, indigo was readily available and made for a regal, deep blue/purple wash for homes. Red barns were for common farmers in the USA, but indigo-washed homes in Southeast Asia were for the elite.
Hence, the forever blue-washed home of Cheong Fat Tze became a landmark in Penang. These days it is a museum/hotel and is listed as an historic property.
But who was Cheong Fat Tze?
A poor boy made good! He was born in 1840 in Guangdong Province of China of lowly agrarian beginnings. His family fled the region (as did many) during the Opium Wars with the UK and they fled to Batavia, Dutch East Indies (present-day Jakarta). There he started as a shopkeeper, became successful, and moved his operations to Medan on Sumatra Island. With his increasing success, he started trading with British Malaya and set up shop in Georgetown, Penang, the capital. He got into banking and then his fortunes skyrocketed.
His success was noticed by the Chinese government and he was called "home" and served as a high ranking minister to the Qing Emperor. Even after the Chinese Revolution kicked out the emperor, the new republican government wanted Cheong onboard with their regime. He was appointed a member of the legislative assembly and then came to represent the "new China" in Southeast Asia via his connections in Medan and Penang.
Upon his death, he was worth in today's money approximately 2.4 billion dollars. For those who think upward mobility is a recent phenomenon, perhaps they should think again. The poor boy who started life as a cowherd in Southeast China ended it (back in Jakarta succumbing to pneumonia) as a politically influential power-broker in a place where Asians were second class citizens.
Cheong Fat Tze, may your house stand on Leith Street, Georgetown, Penang for many years to come!
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