The Packing Business

CHNG TEOW KIAN 莊朝乾 (1880–1944) Place of Ancestry: Yin Tung (銀同)

Chng Teow Kian was a Hokkien businessman who dealt with gunny bags and tin cans, which were used to pack various commodities and preserved food.

Chng picked a sector that was lucrative during colonial times. Gunny sacks were a common sight at the Singapore River, where bare-bodied coolies carried ceaseless streams of the jute-woven bags filled with rice, potatoes, spices and other goods. Tin cans of condensed milk, cut pineapples and other processed food decked the shelves of sundries shops and provision stores across Singapore.

His business Chop Heap Leong Seng was strategically located at 77 Rochor Canal Road, which was renamed in 1858 from Canal Road and an area with a thriving cattle trade and many supporting sectors in the domestic market.  The road, which runs along part of the Rochor River that empties into the Kallang Basin, was built in the early 1800s and played host to several industries. Hence, many roads in the vicinity had names related to the cattle industry, such as Belilios Road (named after a famous cattle trader I.R. Belilios), Buffalo Road, Desker Road (named after Andre Filipe Desker, owner of the largest slaughterhouse and butchery), Lembu Road and Kerbau Road (Malay for cow and buffalo), and finally Kandang Kerbau Hospital (“kandang kerbau” refers to a pen for buffalo or cattle in Malay).

Other industries grew as a result, and that must have created a flourishing business network for Chng. The first municipal incinerators were built along Jalan Besar, and more municipal abattoirs followed. Further down the canal were the ice works and secondhand goods markets. On Sungei Road was the Thieves’ Market – Singapore’s first flea market, which closed in 2017 to make way for Jalan Besar MRT Station..

Chng passed away on 21 April, 1944 during the Japanese Occupation. As such, in a legal notice in the daily Shonan Times, his death date was also recorded using the Japanese Showa calendar. After his death, his interest in Chop Heap Leong Seng was paid to his son Chng Chin Huat.

Coolies with their gunny sacks embarking on what has been euphemistically dubbed as “walking the plank” photo credit National Archives of Singapore