Cheong Yoke Choy

Cheong Yoke Choy, JP, OBE ( zh, c=張郁才; 16 July 1873 – 26 May 1958) was an influential Chinese pioneer businessman and philanthropist who lived through the British Malaya era; the Japanese Occupation; the armed conflict against the Communist Party of Malaya; and even witnessed the early dawn of the newly independent Federation of Malaya. During his lifetime, he became one of the early developers of Kuala Lumpur, together with several prominent figures from the Chinese community at the time. Yoke Choy stood out almost in the stature of Yap Ah Loy, Yap Kwan Seng and Loke Yew as leader of the community of his time. He adapted into a Malaya at a most crucial period of social and economic transition. He became a pioneer in many business fields such as in tin mining, banking, property and in cinema entertainment. He incorporated innovation and early technology into his tin mines and his cinemas. He setup or supported institutions where there were none before, such as schools, Chinese chambers of commerce, and clan associations. Few were recognised as a community leader in the way that he was. He was well respected, much loved, and affectionately known as 'The Elderly Philanthropist' for all the charitable work he drove and supported even at an advanced age.http://www.kwongsiew.org/aboutus03g.php It should be noted however, that Cheong was still a relatively young man at 33 when he first started to set aside time and money for what he regarded as worthy causes to help his community, and philanthropy was truly a life-long mission for him.

Early life & start under Loke Yew

Cheong Yoke Choy was born in Xinhui, China, on the 22nd of the sixth lunar month (16 July) in 1873, and came from humble beginnings. To support his family's livelihood, he moved to Guangzhou at the age of fourteen to work as a live-in servant. Although his wages were low, he benefitted from learning Cantonese, the main dialect of Guangdong, through his work. Two years later, in 1889 at the age of 16 he travelled to Malaya, where he arrived in Rawang to work as an office boy for the local council. Rawang and the neighbouring Kanching at the time were far more developed than Kuala Lumpur, as the first two Kapitan Cina focused more of their attention in this area than they did Kuala Lumpur. Yap Ah Loy the Third Kapitan Cina, however, shifted his focus to Kuala Lumpur, which drew-in the attention of pioneers at the time and subsequently led to the rapid development of the area. Even though Yap Ah Loy died in 1885, the subsequent Kapitan Cina Yap Ah Shak and Yap Kwan Seng continued to focus their attentions on Kuala Lumpur.

Therefore, six months after arriving in Malaya, Yoke Choy moved to Kuala Lumpur where he worked at the 'Tong Hing Loong Company', a provision store owned and started by Loke Yew, who had himself only recently, in 1886, become a permanent resident in Kuala Lumpur having previously focussed his business attention further north in Perak. Loke Yew who was the richest man in South East Asia at the time, and Yoke Choy's maternal uncle, took an immediate liking to him. One of Yoke Choy's closest friend in Kuala Lumpur was Chan Sow Lin, who held an important position in Loke Yew's company. Chan's high regard for Yoke Choy's work ethic and integrity saw him frequently praising him in front of Loke Yew. Even though he started off performing menial tasks, his hard-working and humble nature earned him Loke Yew's trust, who gradually handed him more important responsibilities. When Loke Yew travelled out of town for business, Cheong, although young, was left in charge of his provision store.

Cheong saw Loke Yew not only as a benefactor but also a mentor and their close relationship would endure throughout their entire lives. Despite Loke Yew's unexpected death due to malaria, Yoke Choy continued to demonstrate his loyalty and gratitude to Loke Yew and repaying his kindness by helping to look after Loke Yew's young family after his passing. As part of Loke Yew's last will and testament drawn up in 1912, Cheong Yoke Choy along with Chew Kam Chuan and Loke Yew's son-in-law Kwan Chee Woh (or Kwan King Sun) were appointed as trustees of Loke Yew's estates. Despite Loke Yew knowing many other better educated and English-speaking professionals and businessmen at the time like Loke Chow Kit, Loke Chow Thye and Choo Kia Peng, the fact that he had made Yoke Choy one of his original trustees spoke volumes for the trust that Loke Yew had in Yoke Choy. As Loke Yew's surviving children were all relatively young when Loke Yew passed away and did not have the same experience as their father, Yoke Choy also took on the role of mentor and guardian and continued to collaborate across many business ventures with Alan Loke, Loke Wan Yat and Loke Wan Tho, the sons of Loke Yew after the elder Loke's death. The ties extended beyond just business, as when one of Loke Yew's daughters Loke Yuen Peng was married to Khoo Teik Ee, son of the prominent Penang businessman Khoo Keng Hooi, Yoke Choy was given the honour to perform the wedding ceremony.

Such was Yoke Choy's personality and his loyalty to friends; he would build many more of such strong bonds in his lifetime. One of them was with Liew Weng Chee, who was a cousin on his mother's side and also Loke Yew's nephew. Weng Chee and Yoke Choy became close partners in many business and philanthropic endeavours. Their relationship was so close that when Liew Weng Chee's only son, Liew Kwong Hon, married Miss San Lin Ying, the daughter of San Ah Wing, the attesting witnesses were Cheong Yoke Choy and Choo Kia Peng.

Business interests: Tin Mining, Banking, Plantations & Newspapers

Hong Fatt Tin Mining Company

In 1897, Cheong and his fellow Guangdong clansmen Chan Wing, Chew Kam Chuan, Liew Weng Chee (or Liao Rong Zhi in mandarin) and San Ah Wing formed a kongsi called the Hong Fatt Tin Mining Company, pooling together their limited savings to prospect for tin in the area adjacent to Sungai Besi. It is today the site of The Mines Resort City. It was Cheong Yoke Choy himself who took out mining certificates from the British in 1906. This was considered quite a risky undertaking at the time, as two other Chinese kongsi and a European partnership had already attempted to mine for tin in the same area. Fortunately, through determination and luck, the group was rewarded when they discovered one of the largest tin deposits in Malaya, which subsequently became, at the time, the second largest open cast tin mine in the world. Hong Fatt would eventually be merged with the adjoining Sungei Besi Mines Ltd. to form a new company known as Hong Fatt Sungei Besi Ltd, and Yoke Choy and Chan Wing were among the five directors of the board. Now self-sufficient following the discovery of the mine, Cheong was able to send for his parents who were still living in China. Crucially, Yoke Choy also managed to diversify his businesses into other areas before the tin ore deposits in the mines were eventually exhausted.

He also held share interests in other mining ventures in Serdang and Batu Caves, although none were as prominent or successful as Hong Fatt.

Kwong Yik (Selangor) Bank

With the support of Loke Yew, Cheong and a few other partners including his brother Yoke Chong, Chan Wing, Liew Weng Chee, Chew Kam Chuan, San Ah Wing and Leong Yan Tuck co-founded Kwong Yik Bank in July 1913. Prior to that, Malaya was served only by three British banks - the Chartered Bank, HSBC and Mercantile Bank, and the Chinese business community did not find banking in these institutions particularly convenient given that few Chinese businessmen at the time spoke English. This was at a time when Malayan Chinese businessmen were drawn to a new crop, rubber, which despite its long gestation period before maturity, proved to be a lucrative investment. There was therefore a growing demand for long-term finance, but the British banks were unwilling to extend this financing given the risks associated with this crop. The stage was thus set for Kwong Yik Bank to fill this void. Since the bank's inception, and apart from a brief period between 1916 and 1917 when Loke Yew was elected chairman, Cheong held the post of chairman of the board of directors up until his death in 1958. In 1965, Malayan Banking bought 30% of Kwong Yik Bank's issued capital. Two years later, it boosted its ownership to 51.15%, thus passing ownership control from the original owners to Malayan Banking. In 1997, RHB Bank purchased Malayan Banking's share in Kwong Yik Bank, and then merged with DCB Bank (formerly the Development and Commercial Bank established in 1966 by Tun H. S. Lee), making it the biggest bank merger in the country's history up to then.

Plantations

In the first decade of the 20th century, there was a massive boom in rubber trade as a result of the spectacular upsurge in demand from the US automobile industry and the related demand for rubber tyres. As rubber prices rose sharply, rubber planting became highly profitable and rubber plantations spread across Malaya. By the 1930s, Malaya had become the world’s largest natural rubber producer.

Quick to spot an opportunity Yoke Choy and his business associates invested in rubber plantations in the 1930s including in Bentong. As rubber became less commercially lucrative, the plantations changed their main crop to oil palm. Unlike many of the other business ventures that Yoke Choy had started but eventually divested or was bought out over time, his descendants continue to operate significant privately-owned plantations across Negeri Sembilan and Pahang.

Newspapers

Very little is known or written about Yoke Choy's business interests in media publication, but at some point in his life, he had acquired shares in China Press founded by H. S. Lee; Kwong Wah Yit Poh and Malayan Newspapers Ltd.

Philanthropy

Education

Cheong understood the importance of a formal education even though he himself lacked it. It is noteworthy that whilst many of his contemporaries supported and donated extensively to English schools like Victoria Institution, Yoke Choy tended to focus more on supporting Chinese education.

Confucian school

His first involvement in Chinese education philanthropy, when he was only 33 years old and had only just begun to earn revenue generated from the Hong Fatt mines, was in the setting up of the Confucian School (Zun Kong), which was officially opened on 24 May 1907. It was to become the second-oldest Chinese school in Malaya, and Yoke Choy and nine others formed the first board of directors. In 1916, Yoke Choy and the school's board of directors found and purchased a piece of land on what was then Petaling Hill to accommodate the school's expansion and to serve as the permanent location of the school. The buildings were completed in 1922 and still survive to this day.

Kuan Cheng Girls School

He was considered by many to be progressive for his time because – unlike many other Chinese patriarchs at the time – he believed that girls should also receive a proper education. Consequently, at the age of 35 and barely two years after the establishment of the Confucian School, he was involved in the founding of the equally illustrious Kuen Cheng Girls School in 1908.

Pak Weng Girls School

Yoke Choy's interest in education did not end with the establishment of the premier institutions of Confucian and Kuen Cheng. He had felt that overseas Chinese children, especially those from poor families, were still not able to benefit from formal education. This prompted him to form a partnership with Mr. Liew Weng Chee in 1916 to set up and run the 'Pak Weng All Girls School' at Sultan Lane in shophouses that Yoke Choy owned – one of the few non-missionary girls school at the time. The name of the school came from the names of the founders - Cheong ''Pak'' Peng (Yoke Choy's alias) and Liew ''Weng'' Chee, and was one of the few girls' schools in Kuala Lumpur at the time.

Pak Peng Free School

In 1918 he single-handedly founded 'Pak Peng Free School', an all-boys school aimed at providing free education to students from poor families. Yoke Choy hired teachers, fully equipped the school, and recruited students regardless of age and ethnicity, but especially poor children. In order to promote education, tuition fees were waived, and school uniforms were provided. When encountering students who wanted to participate in important celebrations, he also paid out of his own pocket to provide students with canvas shoes. The school has been maintained for more than 40 years and has never asked for a penny from the public. At the peak of its enrolment, Pak Peng had some 600 students.

Pak Peng Free School and Pak Weng Girls' School, both of which were tuition fee-free and solely or partly funded by him, came to be known as Cheong Yoke Choy's 'sister schools' - a fitting testimony to his dedication to education and contribution to his community's welfare. In a commemorative school magazine to mark Pak Peng's 40th Anniversary (1917–1957), in a foreword written in Chinese, Yoke Choy explained why he had established the school. An excerpt of his foreword follows:

''I was born into a poor family with no opportunity and means to be educated. When I grew up and strived to serve society, I felt the pain of having not been educated. I became acutely aware of the fact that wherever one resides, a basic education is vital. This is especially true if one is to appreciate his own cultural roots which he must not forget. I have long harboured the thought of setting up a tuition fee free school to help poor children attend school and be of service to my community. In doing my duty to society, I never forgot my origins ... To strive for advancement while understanding your roots gives substance to the old Chinese saying: 'The past is the teacher of the future.'''

Sadly, he died not long after this but made sure that even upon his passing the school had sufficient funding for the initial years following his death. Unfortunately, this was not sustainable and Pak Peng Free School eventually had to close its doors.

Kwong Siew Free School

In 1926 he and three others – namely San Ah Wing, Liew Weng Chee and Au Yang Xue Feng – went on to help establish Kwong Siew Free School and also act as trustees for Wah Kiew Primary School. Community leaders were aware that a large number of parents were sending their children to English language schools, completely ignoring their own culture. Kwong Siew Free School was therefore founded as a 'Chinese Half-Day School', which provided English school students with the opportunity to learn Chinese in the afternoon. The school has survived to this day, testimony to the vision of its founders and the efforts of many volunteer teachers. Today, it is billed as 'Kuala Lumpur's last free school', where students are still taught to read, speak and write Chinese, as well as Chinese folklore and customs.

Other Contributions

Yoke Choy also donated to other educational institutions like Chong Hwa High School and Nanyang University.

Temples and welfare

Sin Sze Si Ya Temple

Yoke Choy's contributions to civil society spanned a wide variety of activities. Combined with his efforts in education, he was tireless in his efforts to do good for the community and played an equally active role in helping establish, run and fund Chinese associations around Kuala Lumpur. Together with Chan Sow Lin and other members of the Chinese elite at the time, he was one of the first trustees to be appointed in 1908 to the Property Trust of the Sin Sze Si Ya Temple, which was originally built by Yap Ah Loy in 1864.

The trust was formed due to a dispute over the property of the temple in 1907, because Yap Ah Loy had donated the land to build the temple in 1873 without any written documents. The Yap family still regarded the Sin Sze Si Ya Temple and its surrounding areas as family property. The dispute was brought to court. The Selangor court agreed with the judgment of the Secretary of Chinese Affairs that the Sin Sze Si Ya Temple was a public temple and ordered the temple to establish a board of trustees and a trust deed and appointed 12 representatives from different dialect groups as members, with Chan Sow Lin, Cheong Yoke Choy and Yap Thai Cheong (2nd son of Kapitan Yap Kwan Seng) representing the Cantonese. This was a role that Yoke Choy held from the age of 35 for a total of 50 years until his death, which is remarkable both in terms of the length of time he held the role but also the fact that he was still relatively young when he took on such an important role.

Tung Shin Hospital

Whilst Yoke Choy did not play a role in the founding of Tung Shin Hospital - its founding as Pooi Shin Tong in 1881, predated his arrival in Malaya - but he donated a large sum to the hospital in 1917. The donation was spent on his brainchild, what was then Ward One, a new single-storey ward building, which was the first of three major historical buildings for the hospital in the first half of the 20th century. This large donation encouraged other fellow Chinese businessmen to donate towards the other hospital buildings, including the Loke Yim Female Ward funded by Yoke Choy's friend Liew Weng Chee; and the Haw Par Building donated by Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, the famous Haw Par brothers and founders of Tiger Balm and '' Sin Chew Jit Poh''. He also played a major role in the hospital's board of trustees and served as its Treasurer.

Today, Tung Shin Hospital is highly regarded by Chinese communities not just in Malaysia and Singapore, but throughout South-East Asia and China as well.

Selangor Chin Woo Athletic Association

The Chin Woo Gymnastics School was initially established in Shanghai, China in 1909 by Huo Yuanjia a Chinese martial arts expert. The school was subsequently reorganised into the Shanghai Chin Woo Athletic Association for the purpose of teaching martial arts, strengthening physical fitness and promoting physical, intellectual and moral education. The association grew in reputation and acclaim and the 'Chin Woo Five Envoys' were sent in 1920 to further promote the Chin Woo spirit and demonstrate Chin Woo wushu. Thanks to the efforts of Yoke Choy and some associates, the Selangor Chin Woo Athletic Association was formally established in September 1921 and Yoke Choy was its first president. He served in this capacity for over 20 years, advancing funds whenever the association fell short, to the point of donating the association's pool tables.

King George V Silver Jubilee Home

A key aspect of Yoke Choy's character was that he never forgot that he, as well as others, had endured hardships before achieving success. This, aligned with his long-held belief that women should be treated fairly led him along with Liew Weng Chee to found the Selangor King George V Silver Jubilee Home in Kuala Lumpur, which was originally intended as a shelter for poor and aged Chinese women who came to Malaya and devoted their whole lives to work as ma chehs''' (or maid servants) in the households of wealthy businessmen. Some of these were found sleeping along five-footways in the late 1930s – from raiding Japanese armies during the Second World War. Yoke Choy wrote to the British monarch at the time to request for funds to help set up the home and Yoke Choy's noble intentions became a reality in 1940, when the home named after King George V was established (after King George V's passing in 1936). Although funds were secured to set up the home, the operating expenses were all met by Yoke Choy and Liew until the latter passed away.

Other contributions & participation in community organisations

Kwong Siew Association

One of the community associations with which Yoke Choy was closely associated was the Selangor and Federal Territory Kwong Siew Association, one of the oldest community associations in the federal capital and Selangor with a long history of 120 years. The association was initially formed to strengthen the bonds and mediate disputes among people from the Guangdong province and was the largest Cantonese organisation in the Klang Valley. The association was named after the two Guangdong prefectures of Guangzhou and Zhaoqing, where many of the members of the association originated from.

Cheong Yoke Choy along with other trustees including Loke Yew, Yap Kwan Seng, Loke Chow Kit and Liew Weng Chee agreed to fund the purchase of properties for the association free of interest. Properties acquired by the association include the Taoist Guan Di Temple on Jalan Tun H S Lee that was built in 1899.

One of the crowning achievements of the Kwong Siew Association was the establishment and development of the Cantonese cemetery, the Kwong Tong Cemetery. Between 1916 and 1933 Yoke Choy acted as the Treasurer for the cemetery. During this period, he funded the construction of "Qing Jia Ting" (), one of the ten pavilions in the Kwong Tong Cemetery built so that people who paid respects to the dead could take short rests.http://www.kwongsiew.org/aboutus01f.php

Kong Chau Association

Another clan association that Yoke Choy was heavily involved in and helped finance was the Selangor Kong Chau Association, which was mooted in February 1949 for clansmen from Guangzhou to come together, which was much later than other similar associations in Perak, Pahang and Singapore. Yoke Choy was the first chairman and permanent honorary curator and property trustee when the association officially opened in 1952. Liew Weng Chee's son, Liew Kwong Hon, then assumed the chairmanship between 1953 and 1956 before he became ill. Despite his elderly years, Yoke Choy re-assumed the position of chairman in his final few years between 1957 and 1958.

Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce

While Yoke Choy was heavily involved with and led his clansmen in associations founded along regional and dialect lines, he and other Chinese businessmen realised very early on of the need to also work with Chinese of other dialect groups. Indeed, in those early years, Chinese businessmen while largely associated with their dialect compatriots also worked across dialect lines. The suppliers of goods, the labour force in tin mines and rubber estates, and market customers were Chinese from different dialect groups. In 1904, th
Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce
one of the first institutions to represent Chinese of all dialect background in Malaya was formed. This provided a much-needed forum where the Chinese could raise various issues affecting their business and to have an organisation to give them a united voice when dealing with the colonial administration. Yoke Choy served as its Treasurer from 1916 and held that position right up to 1955, and was also the Vice-President between 1931 and 1935.

Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall

The idea of establishing th
Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
the highest organization for Chinese in Selangor, was proposed in the 1910s, and initiated by prominent miners such as Loke Yew, Cheong Yoke Choy and Choo Kia Peng. Kapitan Yap Kwan Seng applied for a plot of land from the British colonial government for what was initially to be for the offices of the Selangor Miners Association, but passed away before the building could be constructed. The building was eventually completed and Yoke Choy, along with Choo Kia Peng, Low Leong Gan and Alan Loke Wan Wye became the four trustees for the land title deed. On August 23, 1923, the Selangor Miners Association and the Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce, along with representatives from other societies and regional associations, convened a Chinese assembly in the building, which at that time served as the offices of the Selangor Miners Association. At the meeting, the attendees agreed with the intention to establish an assembly hall for all Chinese, which led to the birth of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. The hall would serve to bridge the Chinese communities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur across various industries, dialects, and regions, and served as the leading organisation for the Chinese community in the area before political parties, like MCA, were even formed. Yoke Choy was elected the Assembly Hall's first president in 1935 and served until 1948. The building was designated as a national heritage building in 2007.

Other contributions

In addition to the above, Yoke Choy held many other posts, including the Treasurer of the Kwong Tong Association (as distinct from the Kwong Siew and Kong Chau associations) Kuala Lumpur between 1939 and 1953; President of the Chinese Maternity Hospital Kuala Lumpur to which he contributed to the construction of a wing that is named after him; and trustee for Chik Sin Tong Funeral Parlour and Wah Kiew Primary School.

It is not an exaggeration to state that Yoke Choy contributed immensely to Chinese schools, associations and society in the early days of Kuala Lumpur. Despite living the later years of his life coinciding with the Japanese occupation of Malaya, followed by the armed conflict against the Communist Party of Malaya, Yoke Choy showed no concern for his personal safety. Unlike many other wealthy businessmen today and of his time, Yoke Choy employed no bodyguards. His safety was guaranteed only by the charitable work he had devoted his life to and for which he was known. In the evenings, he would sit alone in his residence's compound enjoying the evening breeze while watching the world go by.

Services to the Crown

Although best known for his social welfare work, Yoke Choy also played a role in the administrative and legislative institutions of the state following the abolition of the Kapitan Cina system in Kuala Lumpur by the British in 1902. Yoke Choy served both in the Selangor State Council and the Chinese Advisory Board. The Selangor State Council was the state's executive body of the colonial government, which is equivalent to the Selangor State Executive Council today, while the Chinese Advisory Board was the key official body that exercised indirect control over the Chinese in the colonial administration before the Second World War. Other prominent members of these institutions include Loke Yew, Chan Sow Lin, Chan Wing and H. S. Lee. Yoke Choy also served as a member of the Selangor Po Leung Kuk Committee.

Yoke Choy was not one to chase after titular awards and official recognition and the reasons behind his philanthropic endeavours have already been explained above. Nevertheless, the important role he played amongst the Chinese community in Kuala Lumpur, was duly recognised by both the local British government, who appointed him as a Chinese counsellor and an Officer of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire (OBE); and the Sultan of Selangor who made him a Justice of the Peace (JP). The OBE was received on 13 June 1946 and awarded by King George VI "for services prior to and during the Japanese occupation of Malaya".

Perhaps one of the best descriptions of Cheong Yoke Choy by an external observer was by RIMBA who published his reminiscences in ''Bygone Selangor'' around the time of HRH Prince of Wales visit to Malaya in 1922:

"Towkay Cheong Yok Choy is said to be the present wealthiest
Chinese Resident of the Federal Capital, is a Director of the
Kwong Yik Bank of Selangor, and a trustee of the estate of the
late Towkay Loke Yew. He is the owner of many town properties
tin mines and estates, but is of a very retiring disposition. His purse is always open to philanthropic works, and he is today supporting the Pak Peng Boys School entirely also the Girls School at Pudu in conjunction with Towkay Liew Weng Chee. Cheong Yok Choy always comes forward for any good clause, and is indispensable to several Committees and Boards for the public benefit, though he always hides his light under a bushel. "

Japanese Occupation of Malaya

Never forgetting his roots and a known patriot to his ancestral homeland, Yoke Choy sprang into action the moment Japan invaded China in 1937 during the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The call went out in various states of Malaya to raise funds to aid China in fighting the Japanese. In Selangor, the Selangor China Relief Funds Committee was established and Tun Lee H.S. was appointed its president, and Yoke Choy its treasurer and a member of the standing committee.

In the following year, Selangor Chinese originating from Guangdong
Province organized the Kwang Tung Chinese Home-Relief Association. At its inaugural
congress, H. S. Lee, one of the sponsors of the movement, gave a speech in which he explained why the
association was to be formed. As a prominent leader of the anti-Japanese movement in particular at that time, Yoke Choy, was appointed as its president, while H. S. Lee and Chong Khoon Lin were appointed as vice-presidents. The Congress resolved to send messages to the Chairman of the Chinese Nationalist government,
Lin Sen, and the powerful former president, Chiang Kai Shek, to encourage them to fight Japanese
without any compromise and to show their full support to the Chinese government.

Notwithstanding Yoke Choy's Kuomintang sympathies, towards the end of 1938, Yoke Choy and a Fui Chiu leader Wong Pak Choy, devoted themselves to forming the Dongjiang Overseas Chinese Returning Home Service Troop (DOCRHST) (東江華僑回郷服務團), which joined the Dongjiang Column (東江縱隊）of the Chinese Communist Party. This was because the Chinese overseas generally saw the Japanese invasion as an existential threat to their homeland and therefore were prepared to work with the CCP to overcome the threat. The objective of the DOCRHST was to recruit youths originating from Fui Chiu and to dispatch them to their homeland in order to directly participate in the anti-Japanese war. Within the troop, they organized a unit called the Two Choys Troop (兩才隊）named after Yoke Choy and Pak Choy. This activity was highly
praised as patriotic by the CCP.

The Cheong family had planned to leave for India to avoid the arrival of the Japanese troops. However, unlike some of his contemporaries like Chan Wing and H.S. Lee that managed to flee before the Japanese occupation, Yoke's Choy plan was derailed by the Japanese bombing of Singapore, where the family was supposed to board a ship bound for India. The family had little choice but to return to Kuala Lumpur, which was under the Japanese Military Administration (JMA).

Many of those that were stuck in Malaya and were known to have previously carried out anti-Japanese activities, including Yoke Choy, faced demands to compensate for their former 'crimes' by co-operating with the Japanese. Most often, they were appointed as committee members of various organizations initiated by the JMA. The largest and most influential one was the Oversea Chinese Association (OCA) (華僑協会）formed in July 1942. This was not, however, the first organization. Prior to this, immediately after the Japanese armies occupied Selangor, a Peace Maintenance Committee (維持会）had been formed, and in April 1942, a Gift Presentation Committee (奉納委員会）was formed to collect money to be offered to the JMA. In December 1943, the Sanjikai (参事会), an advisory council was set up. In February 1944, the Pacification Committee (Syoan Kai, 招安会) was established to suppress anti-Japanese activities, especially those of the anti-Japanese guerrilla army, the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). Most of the Chinese community leaders of Selangor who had led the anti-Japanese movement were forced to co-operate with the JMA during the occupation period, including Yoke Choy, who was treasurer of the OCA and a member of the Pacification Committee.

The occupation lasted three years, and at a personal level, the Cheongs' verbal account of the occupation years told of Yoke Choy being taken under the wing of and protected by a Japanese officer of the Kempeitai before the war ended. Almost all of the Chinese leaders, including Yoke Choy, that were coerced by the Japanese, resumed their socio-political activities without criticism of their role during the Japanese occupation, which was widely understood and accepted to have been forced upon them.

Other interests

Chinese opera

Yoke Choy revealed his love for the cultures in later life. In Cantonese opera he was happy to host visits to Malaya by well-known artistes from Hong Kong, including Fong Yim Fun and Leung Sing Poh. He was also involved in the annual charitable performance of the Cantonese opera 'Mook Kwai Ying' at the Chinese Assembly Hall, of which the lead performers were Cheong Mee Sin (his niece who was married to Leong Hoe Yeng, a prominent rubber industry leader and first local to be elected chairman of th
Malayan Industrial Development Finance Ltd
and Gladys Loke (the granddaughter of Loke Yew and a tennis champion).

Horse racing and ownership

Yoke Choy also spent time, especially on weekends, on horse racing. Together with his brother, Yoke Chong, they owned a total of 23 horses, which enjoyed moderate success and was a member of the Selangor Turf Club. Among their prominent horses were Distinguished, First Lady, Turnover, Paramount, August Blessing and Victory. Of the two brothers, Yoke Chong had the larger and more successful stable to the extent that his son-in-law, prominent banker and tennis player Leong Hoe Yeng, eventually gave up banking to look after the turf interests of his father-in-law.

Death & funeral

Yoke Choy passed away after a brief illness at the age of 85 years in his residence at 216 Jalan Pudu, on 26 May 1958, and like his father, Cheong Keng Yu, was buried in a simple grave identified only by a tombstone in the family plot Kwong Tong Cemetery Kuala Lumpur.http://www.kwongsiew.org/graves02.php

His journey to his final resting place was said to be "one of the grandest of the time. There were as many as 10,000 who participated to pay their last respects. Another 29,000 lined the route, some climbing onto rooftops to watch."

The mourners included government officials, community leaders, business leaders and school delegates along with schoolchildren in their uniforms. Delegates from nearly 50 Chinese guilds and associations also attended. Members of the St. John's Ambulance Brigade, including their ambulance unit, accompanied the procession. There were 15 funeral bands in attendance on that day and there were traffic jams as the funeral procession was a 4.8-kilometre-long affair. There was also a 3.6-metre-high effigy of a deity.

Those who came to mourn the passing of this octogenarian, the Elderly Philanthropist, were not all celebrities nor representatives of high officialdom but also petty traders, small shopkeepers and the needy to whom he had lent or donated generously. Whilst Yoke Choy himself would probably have been saddened by the number of people attending what, for all the time involved, amounted to a ritual that contributed little value; he would have no doubt at the same time been touched by the thousands of attendees from all walks of life, whose lives had been touched by him.

Legacy

It has now been nearly 140 years and five generations since Yoke Choy made that fateful move from China in 1889. Despite being illiterate and lacking in formal education himself, the importance that Yoke Choy placed on education, has left an indelible mark on his descendants. Yoke Choy's descendants have attended prestigious world-class educational institutions such as Harvard Law School, Oxford University, Cambridge University, London School of Economics, Universiti Malaya and the National University of Singapore - with some going on to earn doctorate and master's degrees.

Other lifelong lessons that the elder Cheong left to his descendants were humility; honesty; to never forget your roots; and loyalty to your friends and benefactors. Long after Yoke Choy had passed, his descendants would continue to visit and pay respects to the descendants of Loke Yew especially during festive seasons. The bounds and partnerships that Yoke Choy built with his other fellow pioneers would also survive him. For example, the bound between the elder Cheong and Liew Weng Chee continued into the next generation with Yoke Choy's only son, Cheong Wing Chan, and Liew Kwong Hon (Weng Chee's son) continuing to advance their fathers' philanthropic endeavours including matching donations to the Morib T.B. Settlement Fund.

The Cheong family descendants also continue to support charitable and philanthropic causes including gifting the Cheong Wing Chan & Kwok Yuet Ling Bursary (2012), which benefits students at Tembusu College, NUS UTown. Yoke Choy's daughter-in-law, Kwok Yuet Ling, was also very active in philanthropic endeavours and was a key patron o
Pusat Kebajikan Ci Hang-Chempaka Selangor
a registered welfare organization providing services to the poor, abandoned, aged and physically challenged individuals.

His only son, Cheong Wing Chan, inherited his father's estate and corporatised the family's assets under Cheong Wing Chan Sdn Bhd in 1963. The company continues to be owned and controlled by Cheong Yoke Choy's descendants and has significant interests in real estate, cultivation of oil palm, and other financial investments. Its investment property portfolio includes shophouses within KL Chinatown occupied by notable tenants such as RexKL, Mingle Hostel KL, PS150, Merchant's Lane, Cafe etc., Pucks Coffee and Rimbar.

Streets named after Cheong Yoke Choy

He has a street (Lorong Cheong Yoke Choy) in Kuala Lumpur posthumously named after him. There was also another street near Peel Road / Cochrane Road named after him, Jalan Cheong Yoke Choy, located within the government quarters (for its civil service staffs). However, the entire government quarters area was demolished to make way for development, and so did the road that was named after him.

Notable properties

216 Jalan Pudu

The land that Berjaya Times Square currently sits on used to belong to Cheong and his descendants before it was sold to Berjaya Group's Tan Sri Vincent Tan just before the Asian Financial Crisis hit Malaysia. The grand colonial mansion sat on what was classified as 12 acres of agricultural land before it was demolished to make way for Berjaya Times Square, had previously housed officers from the Japanese Army when Japan controlled Malaya during the Second World War. Despite the many rumours flying around, the Japanese did not torture or execute any of their prisoners in the compound. The large backyard behind the mansion did however house a well-equipped bomb shelter.Cheong Family Archive

The mansion was situated diametrically opposite Pudu Jail, which has since also been redeveloped into a new development called Bukit Bintang City Centre by a consortium led by Eco World Malaysia.

Cinemas

Yoke Choy was also known for owning a stable of large-screen cinemas in Kuala Lumpur, namely Rex (originally known as Pak Peng Theatre), Madras, Federal and Capitol. The most iconic, and among the oldest was the Rex (), located along Jalan Sultan in the Chinatown/ Pasar Seni ward of Kuala Lumpur, which has been written about repeatedly including one description which noted that:

''"Pak Peng was originally known as the Great China Theatre. Yoke Choy later leased it to the Shaw family, and the rental income was used as the funding Pak Peng's free school. Therefore, Great China was renamed as the Pak Peng Theatre ... Since it opened for business in 1947, it had gone through 55 years. Pak Peng Theatre was divided into upper and lower seats, with a total of 2,000 seats. The Great China Theatre was demolished in 1930. After World War II, the new theatre was rebuilt in situ, and that is now the Pak Peng Theatre ..."''

The original Pak Peng Theatre burned down in 1972 and was rebuilt and reopened in 1976 as Rex, a 1,100-seater single-screen cinema designed by Kington Loo, the famous modernist Malaysian architect who also designed Dayabumi and was one of Loke Yew's great grandsons. In its heyday it was a front-runner amongst Malaysian cinemas and had the distinction of being the first cinema in Malaysia to install Digital Sound Processors. As a result of this, when Jurassic Park was first shown in Malaysian cinemas, movie-goers queued for hours for the tickets, and the box-office was sold-out for weeks on end. Sadly, multi-screen cineplexes have since all but driven stand-alone cinemas – showing a single movie at a seating – out of business; and after more than 25 years in operation Rex closed its doors for the final time on 15 November 2002, leaving behind many fond memories. The building was later repurposed first as a hostel; since 2020 it now houses an arts and cultural centre calle
RexKL
that is slowly but surely regaining some of its former glory as it transitions to a new role: an "urban living room" or a community space for Malaysian creatives and entrepreneurs, marking the rebirth and regeneration of KL Chinatown.

Receiving less publicity were Yoke Choy's/the Cheong's other cinemas, namely the Madras, Capitol and Federal, which by the 1960s were all contracted out to Shaw Brothers before Capitol and Federal were subsequently moved across to Golden Screen Cinemas.

Back in the 1960s, the synergy between Madras, Rex and other nearby theatres made Petaling Street an entertainment hub, and its largely working-class residents were quick to capitalise on the crowds they drew. Businesses thrived around these venues; patrons of the Madras cinema enjoyed a convenient cluster of street food stalls and a wet market (known as Lee Lam Thye Wet Market) which still exist today. Unfortunately, the Madras cinema, co-owned by Shaw Brothers faced the same calamity that befell Rex and burned down in 1978. However, unlike the Rex, it was never rebuilt but its previous site is still a popular food haunt for its famous Madras Lane Curry Laksa and Yong Tau Foo and also the new site of the Petaling Street Pasar Karat flea market in the mornings.

Bangunan Pak Peng

There stands an office and retail building () built after Yoke Choy's death named Bangunan Pak Peng (after Yoke Choy's alias). The building is still owned by Cheong Wing Chan Sdn Bhd, which is also headquartered there.

Wisma Cheong Wing Chan

There stands a corporate building () along Jalan Maharajalela (formerly Birch Road), that is named after his son, called Wisma Cheong Wing Chan. Located across the Maharajalela Monorail station, the facade of the building is akin to those buildings (double storey) that once stood in that area, which belonged to the family of Cheong Yoke Choy (known as Woh Sang Garden – named after a famous Qing era imperial officer).

Wen Yuan Gong Guan (The Literature Club)

Despite owning multiple properties in his time, there is a shophouse of particular significance to Yoke Choy, which was built in the early 1900s on 53 Jalan Sultan (). The property was built as private club where he would entertain his business partners and he continued to use it until he passed away. In its heyday, it even had a 'literature room' that gave the club its popularly known name.

After he passed on, it became the site of Kwong Yik Finance and over time the area had deteriorated because of disuse, with drug addicts and vagabonds sleeping along the veranda. Since then, the property has been given a new lease of life and converted into a budget hostel called Mingle Hostel KL, with the ground floor occupied by a cafe.

Honours

Foreign honours

* :
** Honorary Officer of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) (1946)

References

External links

Selangor and Federal Territory Kwong Siew AssociationKwong Tong CemeteryThe KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheong Yoke Choy
1873 births
1958 deaths
Chinese emigrants to British Malaya
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Malaysian people of Cantonese descent
Malaysian philanthropists
People from Xinhui District