A Brief History of the Chee Family of Malacca

Most tourists visiting Malacca will inevitably spend time at Jonker Street (Jalan Hang Jebat) nearby the centre of this historical city. Adjacent to it is Heeren Street (Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock), which some dub as ‘Millionaire’s Row’ since many rich Malacca Baba Nyonya families used to live along this street. A stroll down this quiet and quaint row of houses eventually leads one to pass by the Chee Family Ancestral Temple. It is impossible to miss this impressive building which has a unique architectural style. It remains to this day a symbol of the Chee family in the way the Empire State Building represents New York City.

The Chee family might be one of the earliest families to set roots in Malacca with 300 years of recorded history. Our founding ancestor was Chee Soo Chan, who hailed from Tianwei village, located in Longxi district within Zhangzhou Prefecture of Fujian Province in China. Born in 1689, Chee Soo Chan was already married and had three sons in China prior to coming to Malacca. After migrating, he married a local born wife with whom he had four sons, effectively spreading the roots of the Chee Clan in Malacca. He passed away in 1752 at the age of 64 and was buried in Bukit China Cemetery.

There is very little written about Chee Soo Chan aside from being the progenitor of the Clan in Malacca. In the Chee Genealogical records, it is written that he came to Malacca to practice medicine; in other reports, he was said to have become a prosperous rice merchant. Our earliest Chee Genealogical records date back to circa 1861 and is proof of contact with our ancestral village. Back then, it was common practice for overseas Chinese to visit their ancestral village and make a copy of the records whilst updating the original records in the village.

The history of the Chee Clan in Malacca is inextricably linked with commerce. The first few generations were mainly general merchants and later generations branched out to invest in property (land and buildings). Among the later generations, there are two outstanding Chee clan members, namely Chee Yam Chuan and Chee Swee Cheng.

Chee Yam Chuan is a fifth generation Chee who was born in 1819 in Malacca. He had good business acumen and expanded the family business from trading to agriculture (nutmeg and tapioca) and then to tin mining and real estate. His foresight in relation to the lucrative tin mining business led him to become a financier to two Malay princes – Raja Jumaat and Raja Abdullah. Tin mines in Lukut, Selangor and later Perak were opened as a result. He was an extremely enterprising young man with considerable leadership skills. He was elected President of the Malacca Hokkien Association at 21 years old. Tragically, he died from a gunshot in 1862 at the age of 42.

Since Chee Soo Chan set down his roots in Malacca, the Chee family has grown and multiplied over 12 generations. Over this long span of time, contact with the ancestral village had inevitably ceased. Yet, in the last 15 years, interest in rediscovering our roots was sparked, which culminated in the undertaking of two trips to the ancestral village as well as the rediscovery of Chee Soo Chan’s grave in 2016.

AppendixI

List of Names & Places