Kiong Ann Brickyard : Boy from Telok Bango

My friend wrote how he admired my grandfather and my extended family when he was a young boy, coming over to our brickyard to collect discarded charcoal from the kiln. The wood charcoal could not be reused because they could not give the right temperature. My grandfather used only fresh timber for the firing. Each firing took ten days.

My grandfather, Tiong Kung Ping was an entreprenuer in the traditional Foochow sense as he was able to create a business from free resources available to him during this time. According to elders, one of the first enterprises he had was to make ice from free water. He was the first Foochow man in Sibu to have an ice mill. Water, was a free resource from the Rajang River. Besides the capital outlay was not huge as he had acquired some very cheap and low lying land in Pulau Kerto.

His other business was creating wealth  out of milling rice because he was able to assemble a milling engine he bought with the help of Rev Hoover. He and my grandmother assembled the milling engine under kerosene lights according to another elder. Though he had already wired his ice factory and connected wires to every house in his property, he was still very frugal in order to save the more expensive gasoline. He often worked under kerosene lamp lights.

Siblings and in laws visiting their father in the brickyard.

Grandpa  made a small profit out of the timber resoures in lower Rajang. He was one of the first Foochow man to have a small timber concession. But in those days export of timber was very controlled by the Rajah Government. He would personally log the permissible amount of timber with his workers and took the log rafts to Binatang to be sewn into planks for house construction. It was not a lucrative but a supportive business. He was so honest that he did not steal any timber outside his concession. And with the little profit he earned, he bought land, which was his real estate acumen. He was to gift the pieces of land to his 6th daughter, 5th son, 6th son, saving the main family plot for the other sons (which was only distributed in 2019)

He  invested in concrete shop houses in Binatang too and had bought three shop houses for his three sons who lived there with him. I would always remember how happy he was to walk to the second floor to see his second son and his family, with me and a few other aunties, following a few steps behind. It was a nice reunion and we enjoyed the roof top gathering. He had brought me to see Binatang!! It was quite an honour in the 1950's, and from the eyes of a little child.

Several years later, he sold off our Pulau Kerto property and invested in his last business, the Kiong Ann Brickyard.

This again was what our relatives said - he was able to turn free (resources) soil in to cash. But in reality he had bought the land with his savings. 

the Brickyard was named Kiong Ann meaning Building PEACE. My grandfather having come out of Qing Era in China prayed for peace and prosperity, safety, and the progress of his people. The names of his sons reflected his vision for his people and country.

My father was Poh (to protect), Second uncle was Siu (to maintain stablity), Third Uncle was Hua (Chinese nation), fourth Uncle was Pang (nation). The four names put together form a motto - Protect the Chinese Nation.

My third aunt, Pearl, standing next to one of the kilns.

His brick factory was the first mechanized brick making factory in Sarawak and was often visited by the colonial officers. It was even reported in the government news and local news.

A friend, Sia Yu Leong, recently wrote about his childhood and how he as a child came to the brick yard to collect reusable charcoal and old broken bricks from the yard!.

It was a nostalgic virtual conversation with him. He was my junior at university and now both of us are greying.

He wrote, "The brick factory was located on a hilly, undulating site adjacent to Bukit Aup." 

Yu Leong remembered that there were a few kilns which would fire the well made bricks. He lived in Telok Bango, and it would take him 30 minutes to paddle his boat to Sg. Aup to collect the discarded charcoal.

My grandfather was a frugal man and he had obtained cheap discarded wood debris, out layers of trees for the firing of his bricks. Each kiln would fire the bricks for 10 days.

Yu Leong and his brother would know when to come to collect the discarded charcoal which could not be recycled for the firing of bricks.

It was nice of him to write that he admired my grandfather. The two brothers had even told each other how nice it was to be like the grand children of the towkay...to be born with a golden (silver) spoon in the mouth.