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A Company Lorry Of Chan Chin Fong, Batu Gajah, Advertising The Khian Guan Biscuit Manufacturing Co Ltd

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Subject :A Company Lorry of Chan Chin Fong, Batu Gajah, Advertising the Khian Guan Biscuit Manufacturing Co Ltd
Published By : None 
Location : Malayan Tin Dredging (MTD) Village, Batu Gajah, Perak
Estimated Year : 1957
Media Type : Photograph
Source : Ian Anderson, Ipoh / Kinta Properties Group
Remark :

This photograph by Tai Loo Art, shows a lorry owned by Chan Chin Fong A/L Chong Woh Seng of MTD Village, Batu Gajah. The van features signwriting painted by local signwriters Tai Loo Art, 61 Hume Street, Ipoh and was photographed by Tai Loo before it was delivered to the customer. The lorry registration is AA 5372.

The painting advertises (in both English and Chinese characters) the Khian Guan Biscuit Manufacturing Company Limited and displays a picture depicting a wide variety of their products alongside a smiling woman, which is probably their trademark. While no trace has yet been found of Chan Chin Fong, Khian Guan Biscuit Manufacturing Company Sdn Bhd, still exists today (2007) at 3738, Jalan Siram, Butterworth Penang 12100 Malaysia.

In the 1960s the tin price reached levels it had not seen since 1951 and life was good in Perak. Many families could afford motorcars like the Morris Minor and the Ford Popular/Anglia and family outings from home were a way of life for many families. Similarly small traders like Chan Chin Fong could also afford to have a lorry or van to deliver their goods rather than relying on other people's vehicles. Chan Chin Fong's village, MTD, was named after the Malayan Tin Dredging Company, first founded in London in 1911. The village is believed to have been sited close to that company's Batu Gajah tin fields where the inhabitants formed the bulk of the labour force.

The company are famous for being the first to bring bucket dredging into Malaya and they did this at their Batu Gajah site. This was so successful that other companies soon followed suit so that by 1915 there were 13 dredges operating in the Federated Malay States (FMS) of which 4 belonged to Malayan Tin Dredging.

To read more about Dredges, click here.

Filename : 20070730-030