Shih Chung Branch School building

Thursday, May 17 2012

Wednesday, 11 August 2010 12:20

LOCATED at the junction of Transfer Road and Northam Road (now Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah), once known as the Millionaire's Row or Ang Mor Loh (White Men's Road), the building which housed the old Shih Chung Branch School has had a long and fascinating journey.

Now delapidated, this once glorious mansion was called Goh Chan Lau (literally meant five-storey bungalow) by the local Chinese. It was built by millionaire Cheah Tek Soon, founder and partner of Penang Khean Guan Insurance Company (the first Chinese insurance company in the Straits Settlement in year 1885). The Cheahs are one of the big five Hokkien families in the state.

In 1908, the building was sold off to Tye Kee Yoon, another eminent personality at that period by Cheak Tek Soon’s only son-in law, Goh Say Eng. Say Eng, who was a fervent supporter of Dr Sun Yat Sen and his revolution, funded his (Dr Sun Yat Sen’s) overseas movement by selling off most of his properties. Say Eng was later on honoured by being elected as the representative of the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia to the National Convention of the Tung Meng Hui in January, 1912 in China. The mansion then housed the Chinese Residency for a point of time before it became a hotel, the Raffles-by-the-Sea. The hotel was a failure and had to be shut down.

Later on, Kee Yoon, who was a Hakka, collaborated with another millionaire Leong Fee to set up the Shih Chung School within Goh Chan Lau in the same year. Leong Fee, whose full name is Liang P'i Joo, also set up a girl's school called P'i Joo Girls' School which occupied the upper floor of Goh Chan Lau.

In 1929 Shih Chung School was shifted to Love Lane. By 1938, the school became so overcrowded that a branch had to be established and Goh Chan Lau became the choice destination again. From then on, Shih Chung existed as a main school and a branch school. The periods in between had the mansion leased to the Government Branch School. During the Second World War, Goh Chan Lau was used as an administrative headquarters for the Japanese Military and therefore the branch school had to relocate to its main body.

“There the combined school co-existed until 1949, when the Shih Chung Branch School returned to occupy Goh Chan Lau. In 1961, the launch of the Uniform Salary Scale for Teachers saw the full severance of Shih Chung Main School from Shih Chung Branch School.” (Penang Travel Tips)

The branch school again relocated, this time to its current premises at Sungai Nibong in year 2000, when “the urbanisation of Penang Island brought forth a collapse in the population of the Inner City, hence a precipitous drop in student attendance” (Penang Travel Tips). Read here for more on the history of the school.

Goh Chan Lau was later sold by the Tye family trustee, when the restriction period in the will expired (after three generations). The building had been purchased by a new owner, Malaysia Vegetable Oil Refinery Sdn Bhd in 1993.

Now an abandoned building, the new owner had initially planned to turn it into a columbarium but was met with harsh protest by the people of Penang. Read here

An interesting point to note is that the “Tye family trust was an early example of a Hakka family that left a will for the descendants, which provided that the family estate including the Goh Chan Lau cannot be sold for at least three generations, and 10 per cent of estate revenue is to be donated for education purpose. It is Chinese belief that the estate of a family cannot [be] passed more than three generations or will be finished by the third generation. The will of [the] Tye family provides clauses to mitigate the risk on that belief and provided clauses in the will, that the family estate cannot be sold prior to three generations. It also provided [for a] clause that 10 per cent of estate revenue to be used for education purpose. This reflected the wisdom of the Tye family, and their trust was able to support the Chinese education in Penang for long time.” (Teochiewkia, 15.03.09)

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