History Background

Kuching Sarawak is one of well-known place for tourism in Malaysia. There are many beautiful and interesting places in Kuching that can attract more tourists to come to Sarawak. One of the places is Carpenter Street. Carpenter Street is one of the oldest streets in Kuching that is behind the back street of the Main Bazaar (Chin L., 2010). It started from Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, where the General Post Office is located, to Jalan Ewe Hai to east, ended behind the Main Bazaar. Due to its location, this street is considered as the backstreet to the Main Bazaar, which are the main thoroughfare fronting the Sarawak River (Glyn L., 2010). Carpenter Street was called “Attap Street” as in the Mandarin wording on the red arch in the old days. This was because of the thatch houses on both sides of the road. This road is where carpenters set up theirs workshop in the old days and this is how the street earn it name (Chin L., 2010).

Today, Carpenter Street is a mark to the entrance of the Kuching Chinatown. There is a big Chinese-inspired red archway that indicates the entry point of the Kuching Chinatown. This arch is known as Harmony Arch (亲善门) which was officially launched on 7 March 2007 by the Chief Minister. This arch indicated the multi-ethnic groups in Sarawak co-existed serenely. The launching was organized by 25 Community Associations of Kuching Division (Jo Ann., 2013). Along this street there will be many shops for shopping and eating. The shops are mostly selling non-touristy stuff such as bicycles, books, hardware and antique furniture. This is where tourists can witness the city dwellers go about their daily life. Other than that, there are also many Chinese temples in this area.

Along the Carpenter Street, there are two Chinese temples with delicate stone carvings, pagoda and prayer places. The most popular temple there is the Tua Pek Kong temple which located along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. This temple is the oldest Chinese temple in the city. The temple is believed to be built back in 1843 even though the city’s official records show it was exist only in 1876. Opposite of it is the Chinese History Museum which is also located along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (malaysiahotelreview, n.d.) This temple was believed to be built by the Chinese migrants from Kalimantan, Indonesia. In the olden days, this temple overlooked the mouth of the Kuching stream. This stream ran between the temple and the Old Chinese Court which now known as Chinese History Museum, to the Sarawak river. There are numerous additions and renovation works had been done for the original structure of the temple (Sarawak Travel Borneo, 2012).

The second temple which also located along the Carpenter Street is Hiang Thian Siang Ti temple. This temple was a very simple building when it was first built by the Teochew immigrants who came from China more than a century ago. This temple was re-sited to its present location in 1889 after it was razed by fire in 1884. According to The Borneo Post Online, 2012, Kuching Teochew Association president Kapitan Tan Kit Leng said that : “It is important to maintain the majestic and original look of the building. Hiang Thian Siang Ti temple is the most original and valuable historical cultural Teochew building. It is part of the history of the Chinese in Kuching, especially as a meeting place for the Teochews in the past”. The Shang Ti Temple now has become a popular historical interest not only for the Kuching people but also for the tourisms.

The end of the Carpenter Street lies another temple named Feng Shan Shi temple( Hong San Temple).This temple was launched approximately 1840. However, it was lately renovated back in 2003,and so it looked again. The compound of this temple is moderately small yet the decorations hanged there are really striking.

In the olden days, there are many Chinese immigrants that stayed here. Most of them come from Canton, Fujian and other southern Chinese provinces (Yipsufen, 2007). They came to Sarawak as traders, explorers and labors. They belong to a very wide range of dialect groups such as Foochow, Hakka, Teochew, Hokkien and Hainanese (Wikipedia, 2013). Each of them will follow their associations. For example like Teochew Association, Foochow Association, Hainan Association and Hakka Association. Some of them open some business and some of them worked as labors at the dork yard. Most of the labors live together in Carpenter Street (Dave A., 2012). The Chinese immigration brought various types of cultures and handcrafts skills together with them, blended with the society and environments to create the current unique multi-cultural characteristics (Life Café, n.d.).

In 1884, a facelift took place in Carpenter Street where a big fire burned all the wooden houses along the street. Charles Brooke, the then White Rajah Sarawak, give out a decree that henceforth all the houses to be rebuilt with non-inflammable material. This lead to the construction of the more permanent brick shop houses along Carpenter Street where a few of them survive till today. During those days, Carpenter Street was a lower working class neighborhood. It’s a hub for trading, place for the people to get their necessities. It fills with opium dens, gambling places brothels and other clandestine activities. In 1964, the port become a popular place for Chinese and local people to get opium supply. They can easily get their opium supply at Carpenter Street also during that time because of the location of the street that near to the port. Then it was eventually cleaned up by the British during the British colonization (Dave A., 2012).

This street also connected with another old street, Ewe Hai Street at the junction of the remains of Bishop Gate, as well as a gateway to Main Bazaar’s Bishop Gate Road. Bishopgate Road derived its name after the gate of the Anglican Mission complex in the 18^th and 19^th century. The Anglican Mission complex was separated from the shop house of the bazaar by a brick wall. The stout ironwood doors of the Bishopgate were used for pedestrian access to the Kuching’s main thoroughfares, the bazaar and the Waterfront. Today, most part of the wall had to make way for a new road. The official access to the Cathederal compound was from the front; from Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg. In the old days, the Bishop’s watchman locked the gate at dusk, both to keep the mission staff and families in and unwelcome visitors out. There is one oldest tea house in Kuching which is Life Café. This café is the first tea house on the oldest street. Ewe Hai Street was built by a Chinese businessman, Ong Ewe Hai (1830-1889) in 1885. There are many furniture shops on Ewe Hai Street. One of the world’s famous Shanghai’s carpenter also doing a carpentry business here during the early days. 

Other than that, there is also one famous food court, Lau Ya Keng located at Carpenter Street after the Harmony Arch, opposite Hiang Thian Siang Ti temple. Lau Ya Keng means temple in local dialect. This food court has been around for decades and is famous for local foods. Pork satay and fish-balls soups are among the famous foods here. People can also have the delicious Kolo Mee and Laksa Sarawak here (TripFactory, 2013). Besides that, there are also bookstores, dental clinic, coffee shops, herbal shops and other shops here. These shows there are many color and liveliness on the streets (Life Café, n.d.). These become one the factors why there are many tourists came to this interesting streets. The antiqueness of the buildings, the friendly Sarawakians, the uniqueness taste of the foods and also the histories of these old streets attract many tourists from other countries and also the local people to come here.

Nowadays, the Chinese maintain their ethnic heritage and culture and celebrate all the major cultural festivals. The most notably is the Chinese New Year, Mooncake Festival and the Hungry Ghost Festival. They will celebrate it here at Carpenter Street every year. This street will look merrier with the red lanterns hang above the buildings, tiger dance and also dragon dance. Many tourist and also local people come to celebrate and see the event that happens at this street (Wikipedia, 2013). This is why this place is called Kuching’s Chinatown.