Grandfather's Love for Cars and Machinery

My grandfather Tiong Kung Ping was born in 1886 in the hilly upland area of Wun Chieh or Wen Chieh, about 1 hour from the town of King Sar in Minqing. The Min River flows and meanders in this rich, fertile area which supports a large population of Foochows surnamed Tiong . 

Today my direct cousins continue to live off the farm lands on the hills, take care of the cemeteries of five or six generations. Many of the young generation of the Tiongs from King Sar and Wun Chieh are now working far away from home. Some even as engineers in Beijing.

My grandfather's line in Sarawak has also spread far and wide, in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.

One of my grandfather's love in life was machinery. He was a skillful engineer even though he did not attend any formal school. According to many grand uncles and uncles who had later come from Minqing to join my grandfather , they were all tutored in the village before they migrated to Sibu in 1901-3, led by Wong Nai Siong, with some coming to Sibu as late as the 1940's.

Foochows in Sibu in those days had reckoned my grandfather as a miracle worker : a man who could turn water into money (making of ice), a man who could turn the lowly soil into cash (manufacturing of bricks) and a man who could make an engine move a boat along the river (he was the man behind Rev Hoover's first motor launch in Sibu). In his later life, he operated the first automated brickyard in Sg. Aup and collected good Made in Britain cars, like the one in the photo and a Land rover for the Kiong Ann Brickyard.

And it was no wonder that he inspired three of his own sons to be engineers, one with a degree from the UK(electrical), one from Australia (civil) and one from Singapore (automative).

Seen driving this vehicle is our Uncle Sia Kie Ming who worked in Singapore and was one of the first young man in Sibu to earn a driving licence.

My grandmother Siew was probably the first Foochow woman in Sibu to drive a car.