Book on ancestral home launched
KUALA LUMPUR: A third book on Tun Tan Siew Sin’s ancestral home, in appreciation and perservation of the unique heritage of Malacca’s Baba Nyonya he left behind, has been launched.
Although Siew Sin and his father Tun Sir Tan Cheng Lock were not Chinese literate, they collected and kept numerous memorabilia from their ancestors’ homeland since the 1770s.
The book, Within the Walls of Tun Tan Siew Sin’s Ancestral Home, is co-authored by Siew Sin’s daughter Datin Paduka Tan Siok Choo and family friend Datuk Dr Lee Yow Ching. It is a follow-up to the previous publication “Ancestral Home of Tun Tan Siew Sin” in 2015.
The book showcases the cartouches, paintings, calligraphy, embroideries, lanterns, carvings, figurines and photographs found within the walls of Siew Sin’s ancestral home.
In launching the book, International Trade and Industry Minister II Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan related the special connection he shares with Siew Sin, who was the first minister of his portfolio, then known as the commerce and industry ministry.
“By reading this book and looking at the photographs, I can fully appreciate all the items in the ancestral home that have belonged to the Tan family since 1875,” he said.
Speaking on the artifacts at the ancestral home, Ong said some of the carvings depict scenes from the Three Kingdoms novels, which were translated into the Baba language for the enjoyment of non-Chinese speaking Babas and Nyonyas.
Also present at the launch was former Gerakan president Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon, who was instrumental in the research, translation and documentation of all the items in both Chinese and English.