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Yap Ah Loy 1837-1885 PDF

142 Pages·1989·22.577 MB·English
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YAP AH LOY 1837-1885 by S.M. Middlebrook with an introduction and three final chapters by J.M. Gullick Previously published as MBRAS Reprint No. 9 in 1983. Now reprinted in 1989. MB I REPRINT Number 9 Reprinted by Academe Art 8: Printing Services Sdn. Bhd., 282, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, 50470 Kuala Lumpur. © MBRAS 1989 I Edited for the Council of the Society by Tan Sri Data Mubin Sheppard List of Illustrations . . Group photograph. .. 1884 frontispiece . Yap Ah Loy as a young man between pages 20 & 21 Early views of Kuala Lumpur, c. 1882/1884. Frank Swettenham, British Resident Selangor, 1882-1883. between pages 88 & 89 The first row of brick shop houses in Kuala Lumpur, built by Yap Ah Loy in 1881. 77 as is as Yap Ah Loy in his Mandarin robes c. 1880 between pages 96 & 97 Sultan Abdul Sam ad and his court at Lariat, c. 1880. as 93 13 go Yap Ah Shale, friend, ally and business partner of Yap Ah Loy, and his successor aslCaptain China Kuala Lumpur, 1885-1889. between pages 98 & 99 Sze Si Yeah Temple, in Jalan Bandar, Kuala Lumpur, built by Yap Ah Loy, C. 1865. as as as 77 All photographs supplied by Muzium Negara, Kuala Lumpur. 1 Yap Ah Loy (1837-1885) by the late S. M. Middlebrook with an intl'oductioll and three final chapters by J. M. Gullick. _ Preface . . . . . . . . . 3 - Introduction . . . . . . . . . . 5 l I 1. Early Days in Malaya . . . . . . 12 l l 2. Yap Ah Loy moves to Kuala Lumpur 17 D 3. Quarrelling amongst the Malay; . . 23 I l 4. Yap Ah Loy become Capitan China . . _ | l 5. The Murder of "Sweet Potato" Ah Sze . . 32 i 6. Raja Mahdi instals Yap Ah Loy_ as Capitan China 36 '7. Mahdi is driven out of Kiang . . . . . . 41 8. Yap Ah Loy seeks help from the Sultan . . I . 44 . . . . l 9. The Kanching Massacre . . 48 . . _ I I 10. The First Attack 011 Kuala Lumpur . . 52 11. Fighting round Rawang ._ ._ . . . l .1 58 l 12. July to September, 1871 . . . 62 13. Raja Asal changes sides ._ ._ I 68 11 l 1. i 14. The loss of Kuala Lumpur . 73 . . i 15. The end of the Civil War 'Z8 16. British Intervention in Selangor . .. S3 I 17. Yap Ah Loy as an Administrator . . $9 l r 18. The Last Years . . . . . . . 96 NNootteess o01n1 ththee S Touerxcte s U.s .e d .. .. .. .. .1 .» I II 110210 | Map 1, Selangor in the 1870's . . 2 Map 2, The environs of Kuala Lumpur 54 Map 3, Ulu Selangor in the 18'70's . . 66 Map 4, Kuala Lumpur in the 1880's 92 First published in the Journal of the M.B.R.A.S., Volume 24, Part 2, in 1951. Preface The late S. M. Middlebrook joined the Malayan Civil Service to early in 1921. In March the following year he went Canton for two years to learn Cantonese. Thereafter conscien- tiously and with great tiero rnise he occupied a number of posts on the Chinese side of Civil Service until the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942. He was interned in Changi Gaol during the first half of the occupation. Then in December 1943 he was one of the unfortunate persons removed from the prison camp by members of the Keinpei Tai for their association with the distribution of the B.B.C. news bulletins: he died early the following year from injuries which he receivecl at their hands. Middlebrook's attention was first drawn to Yap Ah Loy in 1936, when he read an article in an old Chinese periodical from *which he learnt something of the prominent part that Ah Loy had pla.y ed in the Selangor Civil War of 1869-73. The state histories 'by Wilkinson (1920, 2nd ed. 1923) and Winstedt (193441) make 110 mention of Yap Ah Loy, though they deal moderately fully with his period. Initially Middlebrook planned the preparation of a paper to correct this omission. Subsequently, on the advice of several friends, he decided to turn his account into a full biography. Numerous other calls 011 Middlebrook's time (including the preparation, in collaboration with A. W. Pinprick, of a book 011 civics) delayed his work 011 Yap Ah Loy. By the end of 1940 he had collected most of the ayailable information, but had been able to write only the first draft of the first fifteen chapters of the biography as it new stands. In 1941 he began an extensive revision of this text, and started the preparation of the notes, partly as a result of sympathetic criticism which he had received from Mr G. L. Hawkins. I-Ie continued this section of the work during the first year of his internment, and at the same time sketched out the lines along which he proposed to write the 'introduction and the last three chapters. His papers were lfiscated by the Kemper Tai officers wheN he was arrested, but the majority were returned to the camp after his death, and subsequently reached his widow, new Mrs D. S. Robertson. no Much of the material surviving for this work was in manu- :no script, or in typescript heavily amended in hand-writing. was reduced to $ single typescript account by Mrs Robert OD. in 1948: without this valuable contribution little could have been done. Subsequently the sections forming chapters 1-15 were revised by 4 the present writer, who is also responsible for the notes on the sources used and the published form of the notes 011 the text. The latte % part based on MS material left by Middlehrook, and in part 011 brief notes and indications of quotations which he proposed adding. An attempt has been made to achieve uniformity of presentation, but the task has not been an easy one. The manuscript that survived the war was work in progress, not a paper ready for submission to an editor. In a few instances it has been necessary to consider and include additional information of which Middlebrook was apparently unaware. At the same time some sections dealing with aspects of the Civil War beyond Yap Ah Loy's part in it, which might perhaps have been omitted, have been retained with the object of keeping the paper in general as close as possible to the form in which he had planned it. The last three chapters (nos. 16-18) and the introductions have been added by J. M. Gullick, who has also read and criticized the earlier part of the text. The conversion of dates from the Chinese to the Gregorian ealend-are has been checked by Mr G. W. Davies. Finally Mrs D. S. Robertson, Mr David Gray and Prof. Northcote Parkinson have kindly- read through the final version of the text' and its notes, and made several helpful suggestions. Middlebrook had intended dedicating his biography to Yap Ah Loy's descendants, who had graciously placed some of the material that he at his disposal. Those of us who have assisted in preparing his work for publication and in seeing it through the press wish to dedicate our share in it to his memory 20: 2: '51. C. A. GIBSON~HILL.

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