How was Yap Ah Loy as a person?

56 Pages·2000·0.37 MB·English

by  Tan Weng Kit

The History of Yap Ah Loy,
Kapitan Cina of Kuala
Lumpur and Klang (1867-
1885)
A Production by Kongsi NetWorks in the year 2000
Content
Page
Introduction 3
Our Mission 4
How was Yap Ah Loy as a person? 5
The History of Yap Ah Loy 8
• Before Malaya (1837-1854) 8
• Humble Beginnings (1854-1860) 9
• Hiu Siew and Yap Ah Sze set up shop in Kuala Lumpur 12
• Yap Ah Loy inherits the Kapitanship 13
• The Selangor Civil War 16
§ The Death of Sultan Muhammad 16
§ Raja Mahdi regained Klang 18
§ Raja Mahdi is ousted from Klang 18
§ The Death of Yap Ah Sze 19
§ The Defection of Syed Mashhor 22
§ The First Attack on Kuala Lumpur: The Battle of Ampang 22
§ The Second attempt to capture Kuala Lumpur: The Battle of 25
Rawang
§ The Betrayal of Raja Asal and the Fall of Kuala Lumpur 30
§ The Recapture of Kuala Lumpur and the End of the Selangor 34
Civil War
• Rebuilding Kuala Lumpur 37
• The Adminstration of Yap Ah Loy 39
• The Death of Yap Ah Loy 42
Life in early Kuala Lumpur 45
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• What does Kapitan Cina mean? 45
• Weapons and Armours used 46
• The Camps 46
• How the Chinese mined tin 46
• The Sin Sze Si Ya Temple of Kuala Lumpur 47
• The Mystery of Kuala Lumpur’s name 50
• Why are Junks called Junks? 51
The Dictionary 53
References 54
The Project Team 55
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Introduction
This site is about the story of Kapitan Cina
(Chinese Captain) Yap Ah Loy, the man who
governed the city of Kuala Lumpur during
her founding years and laid the foundations
of her development to become the capital of
Malaysia and an international city.
He was one of thousands of Chinese who
had left China for foreign shores in search of
better lives. Through hard work,
entrepreneurship and perseverance, he
became a rich and powerful person in
Malaya. He also contributed to Malaya, and Yap Ah Loy in Qing Dynasty
Costume
specifically to Kuala Lumpur by building
many public amenities, like schools, hospitals, temples, home for the aged etc.
We have put together many interesting articles and pictures in this site about the
life and times of Yap Ah Loy and life in Kuala Lumpur in the late 19th century.
Please feel free to browse through what we have compiled for you. You will
probably find that Malaya then was just like the Wild West in America, with its
share of tales of adventure, romance (maybe) and enterprise!
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Our Mission
Our objectives in publicizing Yap Ah Loy's contributions to the development of
Kuala Lumpur, is to highlight to the world and Malaysians in particular, the
achievements of our ancestors, including Yap Ah Loy, in building a prosperous
and civil nation. They worked under the sun, in a hot, humid and new
environment to have a better living. Their working conditions can hardly be
imagined by our generation.
Yap Ah Loy's contributions were extraordinary in that not only did he built Kuala
Lumpur, he was also a good example in economic cooperation between the
Malays, Indians and Chinese.
He encouraged the Malay population to migrate to Kuala Lumpur and convert the
undeveloped land around Kuala Lumpur into rice fields and other farms, so as to
provide the Kuala Lumpur population with a stable source of food.
After gaining his wealth, Yap Ah Loy and many other Chinese tycoons, did not
forget the others. They built many schools, hospitals, temples etc as a service to
society.
Despite Yap Ah Loy's contributions, there is no mention of his role nor those of
the early Chinese immigrants in the development of Kuala Lumpur and Malaya in
modern Malaysian history school books. Hence, our intention is to highlight their
achievements and concrete contributions to the people of Malaya.
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How was Yap Ah Loy as a person?
Yap Ah Loy's family name is Yap. His father's name was Yap Luan Hoi, and his
mother's name was Fan Shi.
Yap Ah Loy's official name given at birth was Yap Tet Loy. His other names Yap
Mao Lan and Yap Ah Loy were informal names used by his family and peers.
According to records, he used the name Yap Tet Loy in his correspondence.
Yap Ah Loy was physically described as of
medium height but was exceptionally strong.
He had a scar between his eyebrows like the
Chinese character "man" which was the
result of a childhood incident.
He was the third and most prominent
Kapitan Cina of Kuala Lumpur. Under his
administration, Kuala Lumpur grew from a
collection of attap houses to become a major
town in Malaya. After his death, the power of
the next two Kapitan Cinas was further cut
Wife of Yap Ah Loy, Kok Kang
Kweon
back by the British to the extent that the Kapitan no longer had overall authority
in Kuala Lumpur, but was merely a figurehead of the local Chinese population.
Yap Ah Loy was known for his indefatigable energy, his generous hospitality and
his adventurous spirit. He seemed to be genuinely liked by people who knew
him.
Swettenham, the Resident of Selangor, who on a visit to Kuala Lumpur in the last
months of Yap Ah Loy's administration of Kuala Lumpur reported to Singapore as
follows:
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"The Capitan China, Ah Loi, is still the leading spirit in Selangor, his energy and
enterprise are extraordinary. During the disturbances before the inauguration of
the Residential System, this town was three times burnt down by the Malays and
rebuilt by the Capitan China, who in spite of disaster held the place at the earnest
request of Tunku Dia Udin. The Capitan China has connected the chief mines
with Kuala Lumpur by long roads, his perseverance alone, I believe, has kept the
Chinese in the country, and until quite recently, his exertions have kept the peace
in Kuala Lumpur and the vicinity without, the Superintendent of Police informs
me, one single serious crime being committed. He has provided the sick with an
Asylum, administered justice to the satisfaction of his countrymen, opened a
brickfield where he is doing excellent work and planted a tapioca estate larger
than any in the Colony (i.e. Straits Settlement), the flour being obtained by
machinery put up at Kuala Lumpur and now under the supervision of an English
engineer.
I have mentioned these matters to show
that there is prosperity and progress in
Kuala Lumpur, to show to whose efforts
this is mainly due, and to record the past
history of the place......"
He was a leader of the local Hai San gang,
which had members in major Chinese
settlements in Malaya. This part of his
history has remained controversial in that
he was a member of a secret society,
however his contributions to the building of
Sir Frank Swettenham Kuala Lumpur remained undisputed despite
his shady background.
At Yap Ah Loy's death, the then acting Resident, Rodger, reported to Singapore
that:
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"by his death the Government has lost one of its most able and faithful officers;
personally I have lost a friend for whom I had the most sincere liking and
esteem."
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The History of Yap Ah Loy
The history of Yap Ah Loy is intrically related to the history of Kuala Lumpur. On
one hand, Yap Ah Loy was an inexhaustible personality who was committed to
the development of a thriving mining establishment and commercial centre in
Kuala Lumpur, on the other hand, the rich tin-fields of Kuala Lumpur provided a
stage for Yap Ah loy to make history as the most influencial man in Kuala
Lumpur, Klang and the state of Selangor.
Before Malaya (1837-1854)
Yap Ah Loy was born in Tam Shui village in the Kwai Yap district of the Fui Chui
prefecture in the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong, on the eighth day of
the second moon of the seventeenth year of the Emperor Tao Kong. that is on
14th March 1837. He was therefore by descent, a Hakka of the Fui Chui clan.
At this time, the Qing Dynasty was already in its decline. Yap Ah Loy was 3 years
old when the Opium War broke out between China and Great Britain at the
battlefield of Dongyuan Wumen, not far from his village. When he was 15 years
old, worsening poverty and limited fertile land fueled the Taiping uprising in the
Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. The put down of the uprising by the Qing
army was particularly bloody, and few families were left unscathed.
In the midst of this tumultuous time, thousands of Chinese left their home to
escape in search of better lives in foreign lands. In 1854, Yap Ah Loy left for
Malacca in Malaya from Macao with 80 bronze coins.
His journey was described as follows:
"At Macao, he embarked in a junk, and voyaged out over the deep, wide ocean.
The junk sailed southwards to Malaya. He was full of hope, though his property
consisted of no more than eighty dollars in Chinese currency and a few cheap
pieces of luggage. The junk sailed for more than a month, and passed through
many dangers, before it reached Malacca. When at last he landed he found
himself in a place very different from China. The scenery, with the tall coconut
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and betel palms and the small attap houses, was new and attractive to him. The
unhappy time he had experienced during the long voyage was totally forgotten.
He was as peaceful and at ease as the blue sky over the Southern Ocean."
Humble Beginnings (1854-1860)
When Yap Ah Loy landed in Malacca, he was received by a distant relative, Yap
Ket Si. It was usual for the Chinese to help their newly-arrived relatives or
clansmen settle down in a foreign land, they would accommodate them until they
had found a job. If their passage money was unpaid, the passengers were not
allowed onshore, and the relatives would have to pay for the passage money on
their kinsmen's behalf. With eighty dollars, Yap Ah Loy probably had enough to
pay for his passage money.
Yap Ket Si found Yap Ah Loy a job at a tin mine in Durian Tunggal, Malacca.
Trade however was bad in Durian Tunggal, and after 4 months, Yap Ah Loy went
to Kesang to work in a shop owned by another distant relative, Yap Ng. Yap Ah
Loy remained in Kesang for a year. Then, either business was not good or Yap
Ah Loy was not a good shop assistant, Yap Ng gave Yap Ah Loy his own savings
of about one hundred dollars, and instructed him to return to China. Yap Ah Loy
dared not disobey the commands and sailed for Singapore to catch a ship back
to China.
On his way to Singapore, Yap Ah Loy lost his money in gambling. Unable to
return to China and too ashamed to seek further help from his relatives, he
walked with Yap Fook, a cousin of Yap Ng's, to Lukut in the state of Selangor in
search of a living.
At that time, Lukut was the busiest town in Selangor. In the 1840s, rich tin fields
were found in Lukut. Raja Jumaat, a Riau royalty and son-in-law to Sultan
Muhammad, allowed the mining of the area and with the arrival of Chinese
workers, tin mines were opened and Lukut flourished. In 1860, Captain
Macpherson, Resident Councillor of Malacca described Lukut as follows:
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