Malaysian activists yesterday mourned the demolition of an old house with architecture blending three cultures, saying authorities are letting the country's heritage fall victim to commerce.
The legendary Bok House, built in 1929 with a mix of Chinese, Malay and Western architectural forms, was one of the last stately mansions on a downtown Kuala Lumpur street now lined by steel-and-glass skyscrapers, hotels and a disco.
Dominating the street are the 86-story Petronas Twin Towers, once the world's tallest buildings and now a symbol of Malaysia's modernity.
The Bok House's demolition began on Friday. By Sunday, the two-story, red-tile-roof house -- fronted by a grand portico on two pairs of neo-classical capitals -- was reduced to a rubble with City Hall's approval.
"It is so shocking. It is so appalling. No competent authority would have agreed to it," said Elizabeth Cardosa of the voluntary group Heritage Board of Malaysia.
"It isn't a political issue. It is about our legacy," she said.
The Star and the New Straits Times newspapers published letters from residents outraged by the destruction of the house by its owners, the family of entrepreneur Chua Cheng Bok, who died in 1940.
"Why are we sacrificing our treasured assets when our neighbor is busy salvaging them?" wrote Wong Weng Yew in the Star, referring to Singapore's drive to save old buildings.
The owners are not breaking any law by taking it down.
Rais Yatim, the Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister, was quoted as saying: "The government cannot take over all buildings considered by many as having heritage value."
However, Cardosa said the ministry does have the power under the National Heritage Act.
Activists say a profitable high-rise will likely be built on the site.
When Japan occupied Malaysia in World War II, Bok House was occupied by the Yokohama Specie Bank. It became a boarding house in the late 1940s and in 1958 it was turned into Le Coq d'Or, then considered the city's finest restaurant.
The eatery shut down in 2001, and the building languished behind an overgrown yard.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
RSS