Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is an grand Chinese-style mansion that once belonged to one of the richest men in Southeast Asia. It is located along quiet Leith Street in the middle of George Town, Penang. Erected in an age when men sailed the seas, and women stayed cloistered behind the scene, Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion bore witness to its owner's involvement in regional history, not only events that took place in Penang, but those unraveling as far afield as China. After the man had passed on, his beautiful home was left to decay. For more than half a century, it was a pitiful structure, host to numerous occupants, until one day, a few insightful individuals banded together to return it to its former glory. The painstaking project was executed with much care and love, but in the end, it garnered the ultimate recognition: the Unesco Asia Pacific Heritage Award 2000 as the "Most Excellent Project" for authentic restoration.
Timothy Tye, founder of AsiaExplorers, at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion.
No 14, Leith Street is no ordinary address. The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is the biggest Chinese courtyard houses to be found in Southeast Asia, and is possibly the most exquisite of its kind anywhere in the world outside of China. I can say that it approaches the Chinese response to the English Manor Houses for the past centuries.
As photography is not allowed in Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion during the guided tours, I had to make special arrangement with the owner of the mansion to take the photographs that appear in AsiaExplorers.
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Penang.
Erected over a period of seven year between 1897 and 1904, it is also one of the many houses belonging to Cheong Fatt Tze, whose vast estate stretched from Java to Sumatra, to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. But of all these properties, this is his favourite. All eight of his sons were raised under the roof of No.14, and were sent to receive a Western education at the St Xavier's Institution nearby. The house was also home to wives No. 3, 6 and 7.
Although the Hakka formed a minority among the Chinese in Penang, they welded enormous economic power, controlling much of the property and trades in Penang. To the other Chinese communities, they were called khek or khek lang, which means guests - only they called themselves as Hakka. Usually close-knit, they also chose to build their homes in proximity with one another.
Leith Street at the turn of the 20th Century was an enclave for the Hakka upper crust. In addition to Cheong Fatt Tze himself, a number of his business associates and relatives had their homes built nearby, including his cousin Chang Yu-Nan, Kapitan China of Medan; Cheah Choon Seng, Kapitan China of Acheh, tin-mining tycoon Leong Fe, who was Cheong's son-in law, and Tye Kee Yoon. But while the rest opted for Western-style abodes, Cheong decided on a very traditionally Chinese look for his home and office.
But while the mansion looked decidedly Oriental, its fixtures and furnishings were a fusion of Oriental and Western architectural concepts. Alongside Chinese-style doors, filigree and latticework are contemporary Western introductions including louvred windows, even stained-glass windows, and floor tiles imported from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.
The mansion occupies a site which is 56,000 square feet, with the built-up area totalling 33,000 square feet. The complex includes the five terrace houses in front of the mansion. These housed the maids, gardeners, cooks, stable-boys, grooms, even the concubines and handmaidens who were out of favour. Occupants of the complex can more or less determine how favoured they are to the master of the house: the closer your station to the centre of power, the more favoured you are.
A keen observer will note that the mansion as well as the terrace houses on the opposite side do not align to Leith Street. Although, in all likelihood Leith Street - which was named after the Lieutenant-Governor of Penang, George Leith - had been around at the time the mansion was built, the reason it doesn't observe the alignment of the street has more to do with geomancy than geography. The choice alignment, with the mansion facing southeast, is regarded as more auspicious by the law of feng shui. A person as rich and powerful as Cheong Fatt Tze would not risk his fortune as far as feng shui is concerned. In all probability, a master geomancer was employed to calculate everything from the right time to built, to the choice of material, right down to the direction of wind flow and water flow. All these geomancy secrets were revealed one by one when the mansion underwent restoration.
The result of the unusual alignment of the plot are rhombus-shaped gardens. The mansion, however, was entirely symmetrical. It was built in stages starting from the centre bay, with the wings added over it later on.
To ensure that the mansion stays in the family and in a good state of repair, Cheong took pains to draw up an iron-clad will that prevented the sale of his estate until the passing on of his last son. He also put aside funds to ensure that the house is properly maintain. Sadly, it was an exercise in futility. The funds set aside for the maintenance were not adequately disbursed - and was a fixed sum was did not take inflation into account. As a result, the mansion fell into disrepair. Cheong's last daughter-in-law, Thong Siew Mee, lived by her own wits in trying to make ends meet and still upkeep the huge mansion. She let out rooms, corridor spaces, halls, stores, every inch of the mansion that can earn her rental.
With the death of the last son, Kam Loong, in 1989, the trust under which the mansion was held was finally terminated, and it came on the market. A group of local conservationists, fearing that it faced demolition, stepped forward to purchase it. Beginning in 1991, the mansion was restored, bit by bit, from top down, employing techniques that are sympathetic to the traditional methods in which the mansion was first constructed. It was also a journey of rediscovery for the conservationists, as the mansion revealed the secrets of its workmanship.
Floor Plan of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
The sections which are closed to the public is shaded.
Downstairs floor plan at Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
You would enter the mansion and arrive at the Entrance Hall. In front of you is the Reception Hall, where guests are received. A timber filigree panel separates the Reception Hall from the inner courtyard of the mansion. Passing through the passage behind the panel, you arrive at the Air Well, or what I call the Central Court. On the far end of the air well is the dining room. There are two flights of stairs going up to the first floor near the air well.
Upstairs floor plan at Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
On the upstairs floor, there are rooms used to showcase the garment and other home appliances from that period. Also found here is the ballroom with its stained glass windows.
When restoration work on Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion was finally completed in 1995, the project won the Malaysian National Architectural Award for Conservation. International recognition came five years later, when the top award of "Most Excellent Project" by given to it by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
This site is the Most Excellent Project award winner of the 2000 Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation.
Cross Reference: While researching the article on Cheong Fatt Tze, I learn about another heritage mansion located across the Straits of Malacca, in Medan, Indonesia, built by an equally imminent personality, Tjong A Fie, who happened to be Cheong Fatt Tze's nephew. I call it the Tjong A Fie Mansion.
Acknowledgement
AsiaExplorers wishes to thank Loh-Lim Lin Lee for her assistance in the preparing of the material for this article.
Members of AsiaExplorers with proprietor, Loh-Lim Lin Lee, at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion on 28 February, 2004.
Cheong Fatt Tze Biography
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion Exterior Gallery
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion Ground Floor Gallery
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion Upper Floor Gallery
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion Side Wings Gallery
Tjong A. Fie Mansion, Medan
The mansion of Tjong A. Fie, nephew of Cheong Fatt Tze, in Medan, Indonesia.
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