Text: Pan Banana (Cac Truc)
Photos: Penang Global Tourism
Upon arriving in Penang, I seems fitting to shout open sesame so that it might open up and reveal its secrets. It enchants me whenever I have a chance to open doors of the old houses which chock full of centuries old tales…
Pinang Peranakan Mansion
This is one of the most gorgeous mansions in George Town, the capital of Penang. Built by one of the most famous people in 19th century Malaysia, the house has a long and vivid history. After having been abandoned for many decades, Pinang Peranakan was bought and rebuilt by a real estate developer before becoming a museum for Peranakan antiques.
Peranakan is a special community of mix-raced people within the former British Straits Settlement of Penang. The other three trade centers were Singapore, Malacca, and Labuan. The Peranakan people in Penang have created their own lifestyle harmoniously blending British, Malaysian and Chinese cultures. They have inherited a huge treasure of language, culinary art, and land.
Photo: Wikipedia
With more than 1,000 antiques and collectors items, the Pinang Peranakan Mansion demonstrates the Peranakans’ extravagant wealth and lifestyle in the 19th century. In this house, you can find a picture of the first owner, Mr. Chung Keng Quee, and his descendants. There are also rare and precious silk clothes, powder boxes, and lipsticks on the 200-year-old dressing table, as well as a collection of Victorian ceramics.
Photo: Banana
Pinang Peranakan Mansion
29 Church Street, 10200 Penang
Open time: 9:30 am to 5:00 pm everyday
Website: www.pinangperanakanmansion.com.my
Free for children under 6 years old.
Chong Fatt Tze Mansion
The Chong Fatt Tze Mansion, also known as the Blue Mansion because of its distinctive blue walls, is a special historic house. Its first owner, Cheong Fatt Tze, was a talented politician and one of the wealthiest businessmen in Southeast Asia at that time. He had 8 sons with his 8 wives from China, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Of all these wives, he loved the 7th one most. This was the reason for the house’s crisis.
Before Cheong Fatt Tze died, he left his whole fortune to his 2-year-old child, the youngest son of the 7th wife. The boy was too young to save such a huge fortune. He grew up looking upon his brothers arguing over his best interest and became reliant upon the house. After he died, the house was usurped and abandoned. Later on, when the government sold it, there was nearly nothing left in the house.
Nowadays, after restored, Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion serves as a boutique hotel called The Blue Mansion by Samadhi. Spend a stay here and you can learn all about the luxurious lifestyle in the first years of the 20th century.
Chong Fatt Tze Mansion
14 Leith Street, 10200 Penang, Malaysia
Website: www.thebluemansion.com.my/www.cheongfatttzemansion.com
Clan Jetties
Recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site, these wood houses were built in the mid-19th century by immigrants from Fujian, China. This place used to be Malaysia’s most bustling seaport in the 19th century with ships and merchants from around the world. The Clan Jetties consisting of 75 preserved houses are an integral part of Penang’s heritage. Even before you’ve entered these houses, you feel the antique atmosphere of the narrow wooden pathways, and the old fans sound like they are from the 1980s. The old men lie in old chairs waving paper pans. Some old houses sell home-made durian ice-cream or durian puff cakes along the jetties.
It might surprise you that the families living in these houses aren’t required to pay any kind of land tax because… they don’t live on the land. The best time to visit the Clan Jetties, and Chew Jetty in particular, is during sunset when you can relax on the wooden bridge and watch the sparkling jade sea with fishing boats under the yellow orange sun beams.
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