The Yeoh Jetty

My brother and I were driving past Weld Quay in Penang when I spotted a sign that said, “Yeoh Jetty”.

Perhaps the signs had always been there and I wasn’t ready to see them; but this time they caught my eye. There were also the “Tan Jetty” and the “Mixed Surname Jetty”, signifying the different piers where the various Chinese clans had first landed on their voyage from their homeland to the then-Malaya.

My father left Hainan for Penang at the age of 12 in the early 1900s. His choice was to leave or die from starvation. It was a turbulent period in China’s history – the clash between the Communist Party and Kuomintang, and the Great Depression. His older brother had already made the journey.

They both landed at the “Yeoh Jetty”, where I imagined that they would have been taken in by members of the Yeoh clan and spent their first few weeks or months in this spot before their fates were decided.

The village at Yeoh Jetty

My brother and I took a walk out on the pier and into the village. A few families still live here in wooden houses and shacks. It’s low tide and it’s muddy. I imagine my father’s first sighting of Penang and wonder what he must have felt.

The Weld Quay area is now being cleaned up and restored. Since Penang received UNESCO World Heritage status, there’s been increased effort to preserve the island’s history.

Weld Quay waterfront with Hainan Town

The old ferry terminal, which used to be the only link between Penang and the mainland before the Penang Bridge was built, has been converted into a marina with a restaurant called “Hainan Town”.

The Wisma Yeap Chor Ee building, built in 1882 and named after one of Penang’s most prominent philantrophists, stands elegant and all spruced up, and there’s a café inside for travellers in search of nostalgia and coffee.

Wisma Yeap Chor Ee

I spot a group of men sketching the coastal scene on their canvases. It feels good to see this part of Penang coming back to life. The “Star Pisces” cruise ship is docked, ready for its first sailings from Penang, following the announcement by Star Cruises that it would be operating cruises from the island.

A few blocks away from the Yeoh Jetty is the Hainanese clan temple where my father lies at rest. My father wasn’t much of a traveller – perhaps it was that first boat journey at the age of 12 that made him wary of long journeys.

The Hainanese Clan temple at Jalan Muntri

He never ventured beyond Malaysia and Singapore, and his first trip beyond those borders was back to his village in Qionghai county in Hainan in 1991, almost 50 years after he left. My brother, who accompanied him with my mother, said that was the first time he saw his father cry. Dad made a second trip a couple of years later. (View video below)

At the temple, an Italian woman asked me if she could buy the “Chinese national song”. I told her this was Malaysia and that the national song was in Malay. “Not Chinese?” she asked. She then asked where she could buy the Malaysian national song and I have to say I was stumped for an answer. No one has ever made that request of me before.

The Hainanese clan temple sits on Jalan Muntri, part of the heritage area of Georgetown that’s being gentrified. The shophouses here are precious and beautiful, many of them still housing clans and associations. Some have been converted into backpacker hotels. I spot one called “W&O”, advertising rooms from RM1.

The shophouses on Jalan Muntri

Ten days later, I am onboard a flight for Haikou, capital of Hainan, with the intention of re-visiting my father’s village. I had made the first journey in 2005. I found it with nothing more than an address written on a piece of paper that said “Mountain Leaf Village, Qionghai” and the name of my cousin, my family’s last remaining direct link with Hainan, Yeoh Siew Thong.

Travelling with me was Willy Foo, a photographer friend and fellow Hainanese, on his first trip to Hainan. He has relatives he’s never met. Like me, he had never thought of them, growing up. Willy is fourth generation – his great-grandfather arrived from Hainan to Singapore. He’s lost contact with that part of his family, but his mother maintains contacts with her relatives who live in a place called Baolo in Wenchang county.

Meeting us in Haikou was Lucas Peng, another Singaporean Hainanese. Lucas plays a special part in my father’s story because he helped me locate “Mountain Leaf” village during my first visit.

Lucas speaks Hainanese and Mandarin fluently and became a frequent visitor to Hainan after his first visit in 1991 when he re-established ties with his half-older brothers and their families, also in Wenchang county. He has since built a home in their village and it’s become his second home.

Our mission: To visit our three families in 24 hours.

Next week: Discovering Haikou and ancestral roots

* Photos courtesy of Yeoh Siew Hoon

Thanks Siew Hoon for sharing this part of your life with us. I enjoyed it, it was emotional and inspiring. Looking forward to part II.