Kapitan China Kapitan Cina, also spelled Kapitan China or Capitan China ( en, Captain of the Chinese; ; nl, Kapitein der Chinezen), was a high-ranking government position in the civil administration of colonial Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo and the ...

Yap Ah Shak (;

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Pha̍k-fa-sṳ is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geogr ...

: ''Ya̍p Â-sa̍k'') of

Petaling The Petaling District is a district located in the heart of Selangor in Malaysia. Petaling is not to be confused with the city of Petaling Jaya located in it, nor the ''mukim'' of Petaling under Petaling Jaya City. The district office is located ...

served as the fourth and penultimate ''

'' of nineteenth-century

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

. He was a wealthy Huizhou

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hun ...

merchant and a

Hai San The Hai San Society (), which had its origins in Southern China,Encyclopædia Britannica was a Penang-based Chinese secret society established around 1820 and in 1825 led by Low, Ah ChongTriad Societies: Western Accounts of the History, Sociology ...

leader. Yap Ah Shak was selected by Wong Ying, a prosperous Cantonese miner and several others to take over from Kapitan China Shin (Sheng Ming Li) of Sungai Ujong six months after the disturbances there had died down. The late Kapitan Shin was slain in the 1860 uprising of the Chinese miners at Sungai Ujong attributed to excessive taxation by the local Malay chiefs. Yap Ah Shak then passed the title to

Yap Ah Loy Kapitan China Yap Ah Loy (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Ya̍p Â-lòi'', Jawi: ; 14 March 1837 – 15 April 1885), also known as Yap Tet Loy and Yap Mao Lan, is an important figure of early Kuala Lumpur. He served as the third '' Kapitan China'' of Kua ...

in 1859. Yap Ah Shak moved from Sungai Ujong to Kuala Lumpur in 1870 and, even after passing on his title to Yap Ah Loy, continued to serve as magistrate for the settlement of Chinese disputes and as High Court Assessor.Kuala Lumpur: 100 years By Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Dewan Bandaraya By 1880 Yap Ah Shak had 10 tin mines around Kuala Lumpur. Yap Ah Loy died in the middle of April 1885 and (in 1885/1886), after consulting representatives of different dialect groups in Kuala Lumpur, the British chose Yap Ah Shak, who had passed the title to Yap Ah Loy twenty-six years earlier, to serve as Selangor's new Kapitan China and

state councillor A state councillor () is a high-ranking position within the State Council, the executive organ of the Chinese government (comparable to a cabinet). It ranks immediately below the Vice-Premiers and above the ministers of various departments. Si ...

. Yap Ah Shak died in 1889 and his title passed to

Yap Kwan Seng Kapitan China Yap Kwan Seng (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Ya̍p Kôn-sṳ̀n''; 1846 – 1902) was the fifth and last ''Kapitan China'' of Kuala Lumpur from 1889 to 1902. Kapitans were appointed chiefs or headmen of the various ethnic communities duri ...

.Histories, cultures, identities: studies in

Malaysian Chinese Malaysian Chinese (; Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority constituting 22.4% of the Malaysian p ...

worlds By Sharon A. Carstens Yap Ah Loy was the protégé of Yap Ah Shak. His life, which began with him running from problem to problem, was transformed when he met Yap Ah Shak, who put him in charge of his gaming farm in Sungai Ujong.

Legacy

A street just outside the LRT Dang Wangi in the

Medan Tuanku Medan Tuanku is a major area in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Jalan Medan Tuanku and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman are the primary roads in this area. Medan Tuanku borders Dang Wangi to the east and south and Chow Kit to the north. Attractions The Maju Junct ...

ward in downtown Kuala Lumpur is named after him.

Legacy

Sources/Citations

Further reading