Shop No. 57 close to the heart of retired teacher
THE historic shophouses in Old Kuching precinct hold precious childhood memories for many.
Even as the city continues to be enveloped in development year after year and decade after decade, the nostalgia remains for those who had lived here in a different era.
It is the same for a retired school teacher Sim Siew Kee, more fondly known as Mrs SK Lim to her former students at St Mary’s.
No. 57 Upper China Street is a place close to her heart. A doublestorey shophouse of modest size, it was where she had lived as a baby in 1936 until she got married in her early 20s.
In a recent visit to the shophouse, the 80-year-old fondly remembered the common area where she had shared with her parents and three sisters.
“There was a round table here. This was where we had our family gatherings during festivals.
“There was another smaller table where we had our meals. I was usually the last to eat lunch as I came home from school around 1pm. Mother would leave my portion of food on that table,” she told thesundaypost as she gestured to where the tables were once placed.
She vaguely remembered the stories of an old well at the end of the road which was locally known as Tua Zhey Hang, as she was too young to have any solid memory of it.
Sim shared that one of her best memories growing up at the shophouse was the close proximity to St Mary’s where she attended school.
“I didn’t have to go to school very early as the school was so close. My father was doing hawker business so we sisters had to help him with food preparation every morning.
“It was usually almost bell time when I ran all the way to school, barely making it but mostly on time,” she recalled, with a chuckle. She thought her father was ‘a very great man’ for believing in education for his daughters at that time.
“He came from China on his own when he was only 10. He set out as an apprentice, went to learn his trade in Singapore before coming back here to start his own hawker business.
“He chose to settle here because there were many coffeeshops around where he could rent a stall. I remember his kueh tiaw and noodles were famous for the fresh ingredients.
“Many of his friends questioned his decision to let his daughters go to school when they could have helped out at his stall full time instead of part time. But my father was far-sighted and believed education was important for us.
“He even taught us to manage our finance – by giving us one dollar every day. Some of those went to our school expenses,” she said.
Even though Sim had moved out after her marriage, her family continued to rent at No.57 until as recently as three years ago when the shophouse was returned to the owner at that time. “It was funny in a way. The shophouse changed owners many times but each time, the owner would let us continue our rental, so I got to come back to my childhood home all the time, especially during festivals.
“Even after I retired and went to stay with my eldest daughter in Hong Kong in the 1990s, I still came back here every year to visit my mother and sister,” said the mother of four.
These days No. 57 Upper China Street is Lima Tujoh Cafe and Guesthouse which was opened in August this year.
Sim said everyone in her family was excited when they heard the place they lived in would be turned into a cafe and guesthouse.
“My sister held her birthday celebration here not long after the cafe opened. We like how the cafe owners chose to maintain most parts of the shop with little layout changes.
“There are even some of our old stuff we left here now reused as decoration items. It really feels nostalgic just looking at them.
“It feels like coming home to a familiar place,” she enthused, as she showed a couple of black and white photos of the shophouse from her childhood.
Meanwhile, Lima Tujoh coowner Averil Hon loved how everything had fallen into place when she and her friends set up the cafe without much deliberate planning.
“We got inspired when we went to Hoi An, Vietnam, in April this year where we came across a little cafe that we really like. We thought it would be great to have a place like that to hang out in Kuching.
“Right after we came back from our holiday, we found this place through a friend and decided to take a look. We signed the lease on that day itself because it was perfect with its old, unrenovated character. We did not have an initial plan on what we wanted to do with it,” she laughed.
Hon said eventually they restored some of the areas that needed repairs but did not change the structures much.
“It’s our main reason to get the place. We are trying to bring the old back, very much moving towards maintaining the heritage part of it like those vintage cafes you see in Penang or Ipoh.
“There were also a lot of old items left behind by the past occupants (Sim’s family), some from the 1980s or 1970s even, such as posters, calendars and suitcases. It was truly amazing. We tried not to throw out the items but chose to use them as decorations instead.
“We also keep the lot number 57 as a name to remind us of the history of this shophouse, with a local twist,” she added.
Lima Tujoh Cafe and Guesthouse is co-owned by Hon, her sister Christina, Joyce Lee, Phung Howe Yin, Jessica Then and Kenny Lai. The cafe serves mostly local dishes with nasi lemak among its specialties.