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Lee Nyan Choong, The 5th Son Of Towkay Lee Kwee Foh
*An interview with Mr. Lee Nyan Choong, the 5th son of Towkay Lee Kwee Foh
In 1923, the first wife of Towkay Lee Kwee Foh (he had three wives), Madam Chen Kon Moy, gave birth to the couple’s 5th child, a son. Towkay Lee met her in Malaya after he came from China, Madam Chen herself was a Malayan as her family had been in Malaya for a couple of generations. Ipoh at the time was still in its developmental stage, where the new town was just starting to come up. Born into a family of 7 children including himself, Nyan Choong had 2 brothers and 4 sisters. The family lived in a bungalow at Lahat Road where staying with them was the 3rd wife of Towkay Lee (or 3rd mother as Mr. Lee would address her). At age 7, a young Nyan Choong studied in Min Tet Primary School for the next 6 years and at age 13, he went to Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) where he took up the English Language. “Being born into a family of tin miners, I was interested in tin mining.” , this was the response given by Mr. Lee (Nyan Choong) when asked of his interests and his dreams in his younger days.
“How was Towkay Lee like as a father?” was our question to Mr. Lee in which he responded by saying that he was a very strict man. He was also a hardworking man who saved some of his money and after his contract expired, he started looking out for mining lands and as described by Mr. Lee, “He was very lucky as he bought mining lands from the company and from there he became a tin miner.” When the Second World War broke out and the Japanese occupied Malaya, they stopped mining for tin, at that time Mr. Lee wanted to further his studies overseas but wasn’t able to due to the war. He worked odd jobs outside Ipoh until the war ended and came back to Ipoh where he began helping Towkay Lee with matters related to mining.
The Silibin mine was where Mr. Lee first started getting involved in tin mining helping his elder brother, this was after the Second World War when he was in his 20’s. Towkay Lee Kwee Foh had 7 mines at that time; in Silibin, Lahat, Malim Nawar, Bidor, Sitiawan, one near Lumut and another which Mr. Lee couldn’t recall. When Towkay Lee first started the mines, manual labor was used to run the mines but later on they started using diesel pumps and motor pumps. The use of diesel pumps and motor pumps all depended on how deep they had to dig; the deeper they had to dig, the more they used the motor pumps. Mr. Lee also mentioned that the number of workers all depended on how big the mine was, for the Silibin mine in which he helped out at, had about 100 over workers.
Mr. Lee’s eldest brother who was able to complete his further studies, the one who took over managing the mines from Towkay Lee while Towkay Lee supervised the mines. Mr. Lee was the one who would go to the mining offices and land offices to make sure the documents and paperwork are in order but it was not every day that he went to the mines, “It all depended on the situation”, he replied. The responsibility of managing the mines that Towkay Lee owned were shared among the brothers and the daughters were never involved in the mines. As all mining activities stopped in Malaya during the Japanese Occupation, the miners found it very hard to restart the mines when the British came back to Malaya but through borrowing some money from the government only then were they able to restart the mining industry in Malaya or Ipoh for that matter.
Being a member of a family of tin miners, Mr. Lee was also a prominent member of the Hakka Tin Miners Club. During his school days on weekends in particular, he would follow Towkay Lee to Han Chin Pet Soo (Han Chin Villa) as Towkay Lee was also a member of the club being a tin miner. He mentioned that most of the members of the club were retired tin miners who were in their middle ages and as some of them were fond of playing mahjong, they started playing mahjong on the first floor of the Villa.
In the year 1960, Mr. Lee became the President of the Hakka Tin Miners Club and continued to serve as the president of the club for the next 53 years, making him the longest serving president of the club as the older members of the club passed on. He continued serving as the president of the club by request from the members as they were happy with him being the president and also because there were no extra funds.
One of the important event of the Hakka Tin Miners Club would be the club’s anniversary dinner which is celebrated annually on May the 5th. In 1993, Mr. Lee, aged 70 was the still president at the time when the club celebrated their 100 year anniversary. They celebrated the anniversary at the Ka Yin Association, but didn’t do anything special in particular as the number of members were small, at only about 70 to 80 members. In 2013, Mr. Lee was named the Honorary president of the club as passed on the torch to the current president of the club, Dato’ Hew Choy Kon.
When we discussed the topic of ‘His Life’ (Mr. Lee’s Life), he laughed and said that he was just an ordinary citizen of Malaysia and that there was nothing special about his life. He married his one and only wife Madam Tye Yoon Phin in 1948 after the Second World War, and had 4 children (1 son and 3 daughters). The family lived along Tambun Road, where the Ipoh Specialist Hospital is at, at the moment. According to Mr. Lee, the Lahat Road bungalow where he stayed in as a child is still where it is but they have since sold the land and that shop houses are being developed at the location.
A committee member of the Hakka Tin Miner’s club who was present during our interview session with Mr. Lee mentioned that Mr. Lee neither drinks any form of alcohol nor smokes but only drinks orange syrup. Mr. Lee added that he only drank once which was during his wedding night, the experience made him vow to never drink again and he never did.
Editors Note:
Mr Lee passed away on 24 December 2019. He was 96.
To see a photo of the committee members of the Hakka Tin Miners Club in 1993, click here
To read more about Towkay Lee Kwee Foh, click here
To read more about Han Chin Pet Soo, click here