Strategic Moves and Devotion:

  A Vignette of the Pang Family in WWII 

Kang Cheong Neo ( Chinese) 1863 -1941 Zhao’An (Chinese)
Choo Peck Lian (Chinese) 1890 -1967 Yujiang (Chinese)
Pang Cheang Yean (Chinese) 1890 – 1967 Longxi (Chinese)
Koh Toh Neo (Chinese) 1889 – 1951 Longxi (Chinese)

Banker Pang Cheang Yean was such a fervent supporter of the China Relief fund in the Sino-Japanese wars, he used his eldest son’s wedding to raise  $2000.  The wedding of Pang Leong Chwee to Tan Poey Quee took place on June 23rd,1940 at the Pang family home at 1 Balmoral Road. It was a marriage of two eminent families, the bride was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Tan Chong Teck, and a granddaughter of Tan Kheam Hock, the  Municipal Commissioner.  Both the groom and his father presented cheques of $1,000 each to the fund after the wedding.

As Vice President of a musical group called the Merrilads, Pang staged musical plays at entertainment centers, raising money through ticket sales.  The Merrilads Musical Association  were a  Chinese amateur group who specialised in “bangsawan” and “kerochong”  part of high Malay culture, that  was also  enjoyed by the wealthy Straits Chinese. 

Who they were, where they lived and who they supported, politically  were widely reported in newspapers. The Pangs had to make preparations with the threat of impending war.

The eldest son Pang Leong Chwee and his wife, Tan Poey Quee were sent to take charge of  the family’s pawn broking business in Kelantan. Japan began the war   dropping bombs on Pearl Harbour on 8th December 1941  and on the other side of the world, the first bombs were dropped in the capital of Kelantan, Kota Bahru. The couple was to find refuge in a Malay village, melding into the community.

The family of Tan Kheam Hock was also to play a part in helping the Pang family. As  in-laws in Singapore, it was difficult to refuse, but it was also going to be dangerous to accede to the Pangs request.

The request was a plea to the Tans to hide a substantial amount of British pounds until the war was over. In an interview with Pang Kim Hin, he said he was told by his mother,  his maternal grandfather Tan Chong Teck” trembled with fear and his hands shook”  The repercussions if the money was found by the Japanese would be swift and bloody. But Tan’s wife,  Chua Yong Neo, Kim Hin’s grandmother said yes. They were family after all. 

If the request had been audacious, the hiding place for the money was a stroke of genius, in full sight  buried in a huge flower pot in the courtyard, placed almost like a fengshui feature. As to which member of the Pang family had made that request of the Tans’, Pang Kim Hin, speculated it was one of the women, either his grandma Choo or his great grandma Koh. 

His great grandmother Koh Toh Neo was a devout Taoist. She had arrived as a child bride from Longxi to be the third wife to the family Patriarch.  Before the war, she made a vow of devotion to a deity and became vegetarian, in return for the safe passage  of the whole family.  When she died, the nuns of the temple she worshiped dressed her also as a nun as she had been so devout, and positioned her seated to be buried. There was a special  coffin for her.  This was witnessed by  Kin Hin, who was a teenager at that time.  

The Pang family survived the war, intact. The sum of money hidden by their in laws was also returned, intact,  a sum so large, it was enough for the Pangs to recover the fortunes swiftly. 

* In 2015, Raymond Goh found the tombs of the family Patriarch Pang Tek Teng and one of his wives in Lau Sua , in the Greater Bukit Brown area. 

Newspaper advertisement for a performance by The Merrilads Musical Association. (Photo Credit: Peter Pak)