It was a dark, drizzly morning in Georgetown, and the warm tropical air blowing in off the sea felt muggy and damp. Despite the weather, I was ready to continue exploring Penang Island's old town!
I arrived in a taxi in front of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, more commonly called the "Blue Mansion" for obvious reasons. The mansion is one of the city's most iconic landmarks, and I had signed up for a morning self-guided audio tour around the historic old home.
Built between 1897 and 1904, the mansion was the private residence of the extraordinarily wealthy merchant Cheong Fatt Tze (1840-1916), known as the "Rockefeller of China".
Born in Guandong China to a very poor Hakka Chinese family, Cheong Fatt Tze left China during the Red Turban Rebellion in 1854 and set off to seek his fortune in Southeast Asia. He began his career as a water carrier and then became a shopkeeper in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), eventually opening his own shop, acquiring his own fleet of trading vessels, and even purchasing a bank. It's a real rags-to-riches story. Throughout his life, he even served as a Consul-General to the colonial government in Singapore and an Imperial court mandarin to the Qing emperor.
His house is a traditional courtyard-style Chinese mansion which he painted entirely in expensive indigo-blue, which helped to dispel moisture and cool the home, while also showing off his great wealth. Indigo-blue dye was very popular in the colonial period and the dye was imported from India to Penang by the British. It was also very expensive, and the completely blue mansion was a definite status symbol.
It was also meticulously constructed according to the prescriptions of several feng shui masters - something to which Cheung Fatt Tze attributed his great wealth. Geomancy was used to calculate the design and layout of the mansion, and caches of golden coins were buried beneath all 8 of the main courtyard's brass columns with the belief that they would pull wealth into the house. It seems to have worked.
Today the mansion is also a boutique hotel - a pretty expensive one at that! While visitors are allowed in the central courtyard, the two big wings off to either side are off-limits to hotel guests only.
Eventually, when his associate Dr. Sun Yat-sen's rebellion overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China, Cheung Fatt Tze was appointed as a member of the Legislative Assembly and the Chairman of the Chinese national Chamber of Commerce. During his life, Cheung Fatt Tze rose from poverty to become the richest man in Malaysia at the time.
His house is a traditional courtyard-style Chinese mansion which he painted entirely in expensive indigo-blue, which helped to dispel moisture and cool the home, while also showing off his great wealth. Indigo-blue dye was very popular in the colonial period and the dye was imported from India to Penang by the British. It was also very expensive, and the completely blue mansion was a definite status symbol.
The tiles in the mansion were imported from Stoke-on-Trent, the brass spiral staircases were custom-made in Scotland, and the home has dozens of Art Nouveau stained glass windows. The mansion has the mansion has 38 rooms, 5 granite-paved courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 windows.
It was also meticulously constructed according to the prescriptions of several feng shui masters - something to which Cheung Fatt Tze attributed his great wealth. Geomancy was used to calculate the design and layout of the mansion, and caches of golden coins were buried beneath all 8 of the main courtyard's brass columns with the belief that they would pull wealth into the house. It seems to have worked.
The mansion has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and had been used as a filming location in tons of popular Asian films - most famously the 2018 blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians.
Today the mansion is also a boutique hotel - a pretty expensive one at that! While visitors are allowed in the central courtyard, the two big wings off to either side are off-limits to hotel guests only.
We were able to peek in, however, to see two additional courtyards as well. Interestingly, each wing is painted a slightly different shade of blue. The left wing, which is paler and lighter, was originally the women's wing of the mansion, where the wives (plural!) and girls would live. The right wing was the men's wing. Old fashioned Chinese mansions like this one were separated by gender, and the family did not typically all live together.
I had an iced coffee in the hotel's cafe before leaving. After lunch, I headed back to my hotel. I've got some work to do this week, and I'm trying to take care of as much of it as I can before tomorrow. My wife will be flying in for a few days to join me during her days off of work this week, and we are really looking forward to exploring the city together. I don't want to do too much before she gets here!
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