SUNDaY ViBES
and hoped for a miracle,” he adds, voice low.
Cho’s big break came in April 2014 when he was contacted via social media by Vincent Lee, a previously unknown relative who introduced himself as the maternal great-grandson of Boon Poo from his eldest son, Cho Kim Choon. Lee reached out to Cho after discovering that they had matching ancestors from an online Family Tree Application.
Lee, who resides in Australia, was planning a visit to Singapore at that time and sought Cho’s help to get touch with other relatives living in the city state. Eager to help, Cho spoke to his eldest aunt, Rose Cho and asked for contacts to invite the surviving members of the Cho clan for a reunion dinner.
“It was during the process of linking everyone up that I met up with Aunt Elizabeth Cho, who was the only child of Boon Poo’s fifth son, Cho Kim Hock. Kim Hock is best remembered as a famous Melaka state badminton player in the 1930s,” reveals Cho gleefully before telling me more about his conversation with Elizabeth during that dinner.
Elizabeth told him that her only visit to Boon Poo’s grave was more than half a century ago when she was just 9. The visit was a result of Kim Hock’s dream where Boon Poo asked his only surviving son at that time why he had not visited him after such a long time.
Viewing the dream as a warning from above, Kim Hock immediately brought his wife and daughter to Boon Poo’s tomb to pay respects. Since then, Kim Hock continued to visit the grave alone annually without fail until his death in 1990.
Cho pauses briefly as the taxi approaches Tampines. He looks at me and says: “You do not have to be at the airport this early. Come to my house which is just a few minutes away and I can finish this story as well as show you some of my Peranakan jewellery.”
The offer is too good to refuse. I am dying to know how Cho’s captivating story ends and the jewellery viewing session is definitely a bonus. Without a moment to lose, I nod my head and Cho quickly guides the driver in the right direction.
Once comfortably seated in his spacious living room, Cho resumes his story: “According to Elizabeth, the cemetery was about 40 minutes away from town. Despite not remembering its name, she vividly recalled that the main road divided the cemetery into two areas, and Boon Poo’s tomb was located on the right hand side.”
Elizabeth also recalled that the relatively large tomb was located on a gentle-sloping plain facing a vast padi field. She speculated that the cemetery could have been the private burial ground of the Cho clan in the early days and the land was only sold to Melaka’s Eng Choon Hway Kwan when the family fell into bad times in the latter years. Then on, it became the burial ground for the Eng Choon community in Melaka.
Elated to know that the tomb still exists, Cho began making plans to head across the causeway and have his questions answered once and for all. He surfed the Internet and began narrowing down his search using the elimination technique.
Bukit Cina was struck off first as it was located too near to town. Jelutong cemetery was struck off next as it was not sliced into two by any road.
“With my two main choices eliminated, I began looking for lesser known cemeteries. After sometime, my search ended with the discovery of the 8ha Krubong Cemetery which ticked off all the clues given by Elizabeth,” explains Cho.
For the sake of confirmation, Cho contacted a friend who lived in Melaka and, with his help, managed to get in touch with the very helpful cemetery supervisor. Cho’s search came to a successful conclusion when Boon Poo’s tomb was identified the very next day.
“I was so happy. Everything fell into place less than a week after I started piecing all the information together! It felt as though my great-grandfather had a hand in making this near-impossible quest possible! A few months later, I made the trip up with Elizabeth and her husband to pay respects at Boon Poo’s tomb,” divulges Cho with a wide grin.
Realising that it’s almost time for me to make a move, Cho gets up and quickly walks into the adjacent room. He soon reappears with several colourful cloth pouches filled with some of his prized
Peranakan jewellery pieces. Looking at the way Cho handles his precious little keepsakes is evidence of his unwavering passion for all things
Peranakan.
When quizzed about his interest in the Straits Chinese culture, Cho replies with clear conviction that it is something that’s very close to his heart.
He elaborates: “The successes in locating the lost tombs of my ancestors helped me realise the importance of maintaining our rich culture so it could be passed down to younger generations.”
“Over the years, I have witnessed many relatives getting rid of things like old furniture and other antiques that have been in their homes for years. There were bound to be things missing each time I visited their homes during Chinese New Year,” he says wistfully, adding: “I’m sure that there will come a time when the Peranakan culture will fall into peril and eventually disappear if everyone keeps on discarding their heirlooms.”
Burdened by worry, Cho took it upon himself to start collecting and embarked on a one-man crusade to help preserve the Peranakan heritage to the best of his ability. He tells me he prefers Straits Chinese jewellery as they are small and easy to keep. Furthermore, he is utterly fascinated with the fine workmanship and the way craftsmen of yore used dazzling gemstones to enhance their creations.
Since he started collecting antique Peranakan jewellery more than 20 years ago, Cho has amassed a collection of more than 300 choice pieces.
Most of them are secured in bank vaults while some personal favourites are kept under lock and key at home.
Besides inheriting them from his mother and grandmother, Cho gets his jewellery from various other sources. He buys pieces from relatives who no longer want their jewellery and then trades duplicates with other collectors to get better examples.
Cho’s leisure hours are primarily spent chatting up jewellery dealers from antique shops like Naga Arts & Antiques in Tanglin Road and Guan Antiques in Kampong Bahru Road. They would then contact him when pieces fitting his preferences surfaced.
Until about a decade ago, he used to travel up to Melaka and Penang to scour for choice pieces there. Today, he no longer pursues this avenue to enhance his collection as most of the jewellery sold there are actually modern reproductions and not antiques.
“Through experience, it’s actually quite easy to tell the difference between the old and newer pieces. The former feature old mine-cut, traditional Europeancut or transition-cut diamonds while the latter uses modern brilliant-cut ones,” Cho elaborates.
He explains that further clues can be obtained by studying the details on the jewellery pieces. Authentic Peranakan jewellery were manually crafted and they exhibit a superior polish and lustre. These desirable attributes cannot be replicated in modern pieces which are mass produced using moulds.
Despite his advanced expertise, Cho has no plans to rest on his laurels. He continues to hone his knowledge on Peranakan jewellery by speaking to fellow collectors and his elderly relatives as well as reading up on Straits Chinese culture.
Before leaving, Cho invites me to join his Facebook group called Peranakan Material Culture which he started back in 2012. Today, the group boasts of more than 2,000 members who are either advanced collectors seeking to share knowledge with like-minded people or just ordinary people who are curious about the culture and want to learn more.
Heading towards the door, I turn to take one last look around. The myriad of Peranakan beaded slippers, silverware, ceramics and furniture displayed attractively in the living space in Cho’s four-room HDB flat definitely bears testimony to his passion and dedication towards the advancement of the culture he inherited from his ancestors.
If Boon Poo and Kim Leong were alive, I am certain that they would be more than proud of Cho as a worthy descendant. In time to come, I hope that there will be more people like Cho who can help bring the Peranakan culture to much greater heights.