5. Initial Success in Taiping

In Taiping, our grandfather Chan worked as a kepala (or manager/supervisor) overseeing other migrant workers in the tin mines of some rich Chinese towkays. Unlike the majority of migrants, who were mostly illiterate, grandfather Chan probably got the job because he had some years of education in the traditional Chinese language back home in China.

Other than keeping daily records of the workers, his responsibilities included buying the rations such as rice and vegetables, supervising the preparation of the meals, and paying out the wages to the workers. Chung Chow recalled that his father was also involved with some trading of essential goods and that he was "quite rich and had some land planted with rubber trees". This piece of information was confirmed by aunty Kan Wan.

Since the discovery of tin in the Larut district in 1840s, most of the ground surface deposits were taken out and miners had to reach deeper and deeper into the ground to extract the ore. As the availability of good mining land in the Larut district declined and operating costs escalated, mining activities in the Larut area declined. Some mines were forced to close and work became scarce. These circumstances forced grandfather Chan to look for opportunities elsewhere.

In 1919, he left Taiping for Chemor in the Kinta Valley where rich tin deposits were rumoured to be in abundance since it was first discovered in 1884. Our father Chung Chow was then about 3 years old.

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