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Perak Kwang Tung Association Membership Booklet
This is a membership booklet of the Perak Kwang Tung Association (also known as Kwan Tung, Kwantung or Kwangtung). On 26 September 1935, it was issued by the Association to Tang Zhong Xian, a 30-year-old businessman from Nanhai District, Guangdong, China. The image on the right shows the inside of the booklet containing the photo of the man whom this booklet belonged to and his personal particulars written in Chinese including his name, age, occupation, nationality and address.
Ipoh Remembered shared the following article with us, regarding the Kwang Tung Association:
New Straits Times
June 26, 1999, p. 4
"History of Kwangtung Association"
[…]
In Ipoh, Perak Kwangtung Association president Datuk Cheng Yit Weng said
the organisation provides support to its clansmen in the cultural and
educational fields and fostering co-operation and unity.
Cheng, 59, who is also deputy president of the Federation of Kwangtung
Associations of Malaysia which oversees the 38 Kwangtung associations in
Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, said the association's constitution
stressed on friendship, co-operation and unity among its community and the
promotion of racial harmony in the country.
It also stresses on fostering goodwill and upholding their rights and
privileges. "We are a non-political organisation," he said.
Most of the 800 members in Ipoh are Cantonese, but the association also
caters to the Hainanese and Teochew speaking community, as they all come
from 24 areas within Kwangtung Province in China.
Since all speak different dialects, Mandarin is spoken at all meetings.
Most of its members are middle-class businessmen involved in trade,
wholesale and retail businesses.
Some are from the lower income group including hawkers and petty
traders.
Cheng who has been president for the last five years, said among the
branches in Perak were those in Batu Gajah, Sitiawan, Taiping, Kuala
Kangsar, Pangkor Island and Teluk Intan.
Among its famous sons in Perak are the late Tan Sri Chong Kok Lim, Datuk
Seri Lau Pak Khuan, Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng, Datuk Seri Liew Why Hone, Tan
Sri Leong Ah Kow and Choong Choo, a well known tin miner in the 1950's.
"The Kwangtung is one of the larger Chinese communities," he said.