Chew Clan Jetty (Zhou)

A plank street stretches over the water, leading to residential doors and small shops. When large ships remained at sea, boatmen picked up passengers and goods from them to bring them to shore. While waiting for work, they first set up shelters over the water, then began sleeping in them, and in time each family acquired its own home. Domestic life still continues here behind the shop windows.

The Chew surname stands above the entrance. The same Chinese character is read as Zhou in Mandarin, and as Chew in Hokkien, the language spoken by settlers from southern Fujian. The first families here came from the village of Xinglinshe. They were united by their origin and clan name, and the jetty was named after the people who made their living there.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Chews arrived in an already established port city, George Town. Many had no money for housing. Large ships remained offshore, and clan boatmen brought people and cargo from them to shore. While waiting for work, they put up shelters over the water. They then began sleeping there for free. When the boatmen started families, the shared shelters were divided into separate homes. The wooden walkway was at once a landing place, a work yard, and the street by which relatives with the same surname reached home.

Chew Seng San lived here all his life and worked as a boatman and cargo handler. His earnings depended on ships that could not come close to shore: he collected cargo in his boat and brought it to this walkway. After a deep-water pier was built on the opposite shore, in Butterworth, ships no longer needed such help. Seng San lost the trade on which his family had grown up.

After George Town was inscribed on the UNESCO list, visitors began coming to the Chew homes. Seng San and his neighbors began learning other work. In the front part of his own home, he opened a stall selling durian puffs. In two thousand fifteen, his large fiberglass boat was still tied up beside the display case: he had once used it to carry cargo from ships.

Now shops occupy the front rooms of many homes, while family life continues behind the counters. The wooden walkway remains the only route to the residential doors of the Zhous—the very Chews who first waited here for a barge, then stayed overnight, and built homes above their working landing place.