19th century · 1837–1885
Yap Ah Loy
葉亞來 Yap Ah Loy · Malaysia
Third Kapitan Cina of Kuala Lumpur, 'the Father of Kuala Lumpur'
Born in a poor village in Guangdong, he came to the Malay Peninsula at 19 and worked as a miner and small trader. As Kuala Lumpur's third Kapitan Cina he led the Chinese community and acted as its link with the Malay rulers. After the Selangor Civil War left Kuala Lumpur almost destroyed and its mines flooded, he set about rebuilding the town and reviving tin mining, and opened brickworks in today's Brickfields. A street in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, Jalan Yap Ah Loy, is named after him.
Where the story happened
Los lugares que dejó
Historia · Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur
Yap Ah Loy and the muddy river mouth
Kuala Lumpur means 'muddy confluence' in Malay; the city began around 1857 as a tin-mining town where the Gombak and Klang rivers meet. Yap Ah Loy from Guangdong came to the Malay Peninsula as a miner at 19 and later became Kuala Lumpur's third Kapitan Cina. The Selangor Civil War nearly razed the town and flooded the mines, and fires, floods and disease followed repeatedly — in 1881 a great fire was followed immediately by a flood. Yap Ah Loy led the rebuilding of the town and the revival of tin mining, and also opened brickworks. Today's capital beneath the Twin Towers grew out of that muddy confluence.
