Kwangtung & Tengchow Association

Kwangtung & Tengchow Association, Penang Street, George Town

Kwangtung & Tengchow Association is a Cantonese association based at the intersection between Penang Street and Church Street, within George Town's UNESCO World Heritage Site. While it had existed since the early 19th. century, the fortress-like Art Deco style association building was only completed in 1941.

The association, originally founded as a joint fraternity between immigrants from Guangdong and Fujian Provinces in southern China, also manages the Mount Erskine Cantonese Cemetery at the Pulau Tikus suburb, and organises the annual Hungry Ghost festivities for its community members.

History

The land on which the association building now stands was already granted to the Cantonese community as early as 1801. However, the immigrants from the two different Chinese Provinces of Guangdong and Fujian only entered a formal partnership in 1828, and the association finally came into being in the 1920s.

Kwangtung & Tengchow Association then began constructing the current Art Deco style building in 1938, funded by donations from a handful of shop owners and the Cantonese Grocers' Association, which contributed $4,000 (Straits dollar). Designed by Charles Geoffrey Boutcher, who by then had also developed theStandard Chartered Bank Building and the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Building, the stout, fortress-like building was completed in 1941, just before the Japanese Invasion of Penang.

Today, the association runs the Cantonese Cemetery at Mount Erskine, Pulau Tikus, as well as holding the yearly Hungry Ghost festivities for its Cantonese members.

Political Representation

Penang State Government

N.26 Padang Kota State Assemblyman : Chow Kon Yeow (Democratic Action Party)

Malaysian Federal Parliament

P.049 Tanjong Member of Parliament : Ng Wei Aik (Democratic Action Party)

References

1. Tan K.H., 檳榔嶼華人史圖錄. Areca Books, Penang.
2. http://www.penang-traveltips.com/kwangtung-and-tengchow-association.htm