Sunday, October 18, 2009

Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum


Johor Bahru has just added a new attraction with the founding of the "Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum". The museum is owned by the Johor Bahru Tiong Hua Association which is made up of 5 main Chinese dialect associations - Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainan. Apparently, the predecessor of JB Tiong Hua Association was the once influential Ngee Heng Society.

I decided to pay this new museum a visit as I am always quite fond of history. It was a small but nice museum depicting the origins of the Chinese community in JB as well as their contribution to nation-building. The Chinese apparently settled in JB through the "Kangchu" system which saw the opening of gambier and pepper plantations. Naturally, the Chinese were very dialect-centric and thus the formation of various societies and dialect associations. Ngee Heng was one of the Chinese societies which was extremely influential due to its good ties to the Johor royal family. The museum has exhibits of various Chinese wares, items and heritage stuffs. It is also has a showcase of how the Chinese fared throughout different periods of the Johor history - colonial period, WWII, communist insurgency and finally merdeka.

I would recommend any visitor to JB not to miss out this little museum located on Jalan Tan Hiok Nee.

No comments: