Malaysian Chinese Community: Museum dedicated to ethnic Chinese in SE Asian country

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The first museum dedicated to the history and contributions of Chinese Malaysians is drawing visitors in Kuala Lumpur. Ethnic Chinese make up about a quarter of Malaysia's population. And as Rian Maelzer reports, the museum offers some fascinating and colorful insights.

The entrance to the Malaysian Chinese Museum is a replica of a Peranakan or Straits Chinese house.

Inside the first figure that greets you is the great Chinese explorer admiral Zheng He, whose vast fleet visited several times in the early 15th century.

LIM KAH HOE CURATOR, MALAYSIAN CHINESE MUSEUM "We are in the cabin of the Zheng He boat because we know that in Malaysia the first generation of immigration of the Chinese is from the Ming dynasty after the Zheng He voyage."

Later waves of migrants fleeing hardship and civil war arrived from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries. Many found work as coolies and more hardship.

LIM KAH HOE CURATOR, MALAYSIAN CHINESE MUSEUM "This is where we show the living space of the coolies. No doubt it is very tough but they try hard to find a better life in this country."

The tin and rubber industries were the foundations of Malaya's early economy with Chinese playing a critical role as laborers and later as tycoons.

The museum shows some of the early types of businesses the Chinese established: goldsmiths, carvers, scribes, sundry shops and pharmacies.

RIAN MAELZER KUALA LUMPUR "This is a recreation of a Chinese coffee shop or Kopitiam, a word derived from the Hokkien dialect. The word and the coffee shops have become part of the fabric of Malaysia."

Exhibits also showcase the central role local Chinese played in the resistance to the Japanese occupation of Malaya as well as the country's struggle to gain independence from Britain.

NG TECK FONG FOUNDER, MALAYSIAN CHINESE MUSEUM "My purpose is to show all the good work and progress of the community, and Chinese Malaysians contribution to the development of the country. The subject is not shown enough in text books and in schools, so the younger generations are really not as aware of the community's history in Malaysia as they should be."

And the museum should certainly go a long way toward raising that awareness – and both educating and entertaining at the same time. Rian Maelzer, CGTN, Kuala Lumpur.