Sibu Central Market 1960's

When we moved from Pulau Kerto to Sibu, in 1956, when this was just a plan on the desk of the Sibu District Council. Sibu was shaping up and the colonial government had some budget for urban development. My father was selected to be Councillor. We as kids did not really know much about his stature and his status in the Sibu social circle.

He was nevertheless a very quiet man but a man of scholarly pursuits. He did not unnecessarily go around mixing with a lot of people.


It seemed that it was 1960 that we started to have an occasional meal upstairs. We would seldom eat out because mum was a stay at home housewife and my father was stern about eating at home.

The building was considered very new. And there were water taps every where. Some people even went there to collect water for their home use I was told.

My father would buy vegetables every day, very early in the morning before he went to work in the office. He would enjoy a fresh cup of coffee in Lok Huong, and a good chat with the coffee shop owner, his friend, talking about local politics.

My mother had a few friends in the vegetable market downstairs. Her cousins sold salted fish in the middle section.  This section also sold bean sprouts, tofu, salted vegetables and  salted fish. Another section was the fresh fish section. There were two brothers who were friends of my father. They sold fish and would bring the best to our house with great enthusiasm. Their home delivery service went on for years even after my father passed away in 1965. It was also sometime in the late 60's that Tiong Su Kuok started his Frozen Fish business and he cornered the middle section of the Central Market.

From that time onwards, Sibu people began to enjoy frozen fish and prawns.

We seemed to have a bit of pork every day and during the weekends, we had pork leg from Ah Jor or Shi Ping (both were Lau relatives). The pork section was at the other end of the building, away from the Palace Theatre.

What I remember was the very wet floor and at night many of the hawkers slept on top of their stuff, covered by cloth or canvas. That was the kind of life in Sibu Central Market.

How tough life was for the men. They had no soft pillow to rest their head and yet they raised a very successful generation.