Lim Lian Geok memorial, KL - Chinese educationist

Some time ago, when I was taking photos in the Kwong Tong cemetery in Kuala Lumpur, I made a point of looking at the Lim Lian Geok memorial. This is at the start of the cemetery near the Alice Smith School. At that time I didn't know anything about Lim Lian Geok, who is regarded as the most revered Chinese educationist in Malaysia.

In April 2015, Hong invited me to join him on a visit to the LLG memorial in KL, so I readily agreed. This memorial is at LLG: 89 & 91, Jalan Maharajalela in KL, not far from the Chinese Assembly Hall.

We were given a tour of the exhibits about Lim Lian Geok, housed on the 4th floor. The displays were in Chinese, Malay and English.

Lim Lian Geok, (1901-1985) was a revered Chinese educationist and was the pioneer of the civil society movement in Malaysia.

He arrived in Malaya in 1927 but then went to Java for a while and also back to China.

trunk with clothes used by Lim

 

He was a teacher at the Confucian School in KL from 1935-1961. In 1951 he was active in the protest against the Barnes Report that wanted to abolish Chinese and Tamil schools. This led to the formation of the United Chinese Schools Teachers' Association and Lim became president from 1953.

Extract from the Barnes Report / Education Ordinance 1952

In his Hari Raya Aidifitri message in 1956, he said "Every ethnic community should be accepted as a member of this nation's family, equal in their rights and in their national duty. They should share the nation's abundance and stand together to face all challenges in building a strong and sound nation."

At that time he was a supporter of Malay mother tongue eduction.

He wanted all citizens of Malaya to be united and work together to build the nation. He advocated that Malayan Chinese must be loyal to the country and the Chinese school text books must reflect the true situation in Malaya.

Lim was aware of the socio-economic disparity between ethnic groups and that those groups lagging behind was due to the colonial government's economic segregation policy. Believing in equality he urged the government to address this difference.

He was opposed to the 1960 Razak Report and 1961 Education Act that required all secondary schools to teach in English or Malay.

As a result, his citizenship and teaching permit were revoked by the government due to his strong
opposition against conversion of Chinese secondary schools. 54 out of 70 Chinese schools converted to 'national type secondary schools'. However he refused to return to China.

When he died in 1985 his funeral procession in KL was the largest ever seen for any Malaysian Chinese. He was honoured by the Malaysian Chinese.

In his honour, the LLG Cultural Development Centre was set up. One of their objectives is "To promote mother tongue education and foster traditional ethnic cultures".

The last part of the display is a long way with 'cartoon' pictures depicting the history of Malaya during Lim's time -

See more on the LLG Cultural Development Centre.

All Souls Day, Cheng Beng, 2015

All Souls Day, or Qing Ming aka Cheng Beng fell on 4 April in 2015. It is held 15 days after the spring equinox.

It is the time when the Chinese clean the graves of their ancestors. For 10 days either side of the date they visit the cemeteries. It is a very noisy time as they let off fire crackers. This year these started on 26 March, and often just before sunrise.

The weekend before and after there is a major traffic jam leading to the huge Kwong Tong cemetery near me. On the Saturday before, at the end of March, the traffic jam started before dawn, around 6.45 am and was solid for more than 3 hours. Luckily I went to Thailand after that weekend so missed the rest of the festival.

As well as the firecrackers and the grave cleaning, the Chinese burn paper offerings. This means there is a lot of smoke in cemetery, which was already hot and dry and hazy due to the lack of rain.

Yap Ah Loy in Kwong Tong cemetery

I went back to the Kwong Tong cemetery to find Yap Ah Loy's grave, as Papanjones had pinpointed it for me on the Chinese map.

And during my drive round I explored a part of the cemetery which is new to me. This is an area of new graves, all of the same design and colour and arranged in neat rows. Modern section, 2005 -

2008
Right by these are some apartment blocks -

living & dead side by side

Further over is an area of relatively new graves that are rather overgrown.

Yap Ah Loy is known as being the founder of Kuala Lumpur. He was born in China in 1837, arrived in Malacca in 1854, and moved to Selangor in the 1860s. At that time lots of Chinese had arrived to seek their fortune in the tin mines. The local sultan needed a 'Kapitan China' to control these Chinese, and Yap Ah Loy was appointed and did such a good job that he became the founder of KL. He died of illness in 1885.

Sometimes it is hard to imagine that KL is only about 150 years old. Yap Ah Loy was the 3rd kapitan China, and has a road named after him, located in Chinatown off Jalan Tun Perak.

I wasn't very sure of the exact location of Yap Ah Loy's grave (section C2) and saw a large plot with a freshly painted yellow surround and wondered if it was that, but it wasn't. Then I spotted some workmen and a new marker stone indicating the memorial site.

There is a new plaque in 3 languages, but nothing in English to indicate which was the actual grave.

A Chinese worker showed me which is Yap Ah Loy's grave,

and said the neighbouring ones belong to his wife, son and father. I don't know if this is correct, anyone know if Yap's father came to Malaya?

wife's grave

father's grave

son's grave

by the family plot

Overgrown neighbouring grave

view of family plot

not sure about this one
If someone can read Chinese please correct me if I have the wrong captions.
Don't know who is buried here -

died 1926 aged 100

don't know what this is, all in Chinese

nice colour frangipani

the signs are good as they accurately tell you where you are, and are easy to follow. Just wish they were in English!
Back in the old part -

I've been told by Cheah via Papanjones that this is Zhao Yu, who built the railways Kuala Lumpur to Klang, Kuala Lumpur to Ampang.

rubbish dump

lorries must dump large items

What an eyesore.

Now I have to look for Yap Kwan Sen's grave.

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Found this piece of history on the internet :

Over the past 100 years, the relationship between the Selangor and Federal Territory Kwong Siew Association and Kwong Tong Cemetery had been very close indeed. In the initial stages when the association for the cemetery was formed, Yap Kuan Seng, Zhao Yu, and Loke Yew, spared no effort in planning and building the cemetery.

The temple in Jalan Lapangan Terbang Lama, Kwong Tong Temple, was completed in 1909. In 1925, the management of the cemetery built 10 pavilions, so that the people who paid respects to the dead could take a short rest.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission