Tjong A Fie Mansion, Medan

Tjong A Fie Mansion, Medan.


Tjong A Fie Mansion is a heritage mansion located along Jalan Jendral A Yani in the historic core of the city of Medan. It is the mansion of the Chinese Indonesian tycoon, Tjong A Fie, nephew of the equally (or perhaps even more) imminent Chinese immigrant, Cheong Fatt Tze @ Tio Tiauw Siat @ Chang Pi Shih of Penang. I explored the Tjong A Fie Mansion when I was working on the documentation on Medan for AsiaExplorers.

I cross referenced my research with my study on Cheong Fatt Tze, whose mansion in Penang is also a tourist attraction. I found out that Tjong A Fie's double-storey mansion was completed in 1900. It was laid out in the style of a Chinese courtyard mansion with a gateway. Justaposed to the overall Oriental design are European and Art Nouveau design elements including concrete columns with ornamental capitals, and chandeliers suspended from a decorated ceiling. Standing alongside these Western ornamentation is a traditional Chinese ancestral altar, carved and gilded timber filigree doors, and colourful chien nien porcelain shard work.

The main gate to Tjong A Fie Mansion fronts busy Jalan A. Yani.


Tjong A Fie (1860-1921) is of Hakka ancestry. He was born poor in the village of Moy Hian, in the Southern Chinese province of Guangzhou in 1875. Arriving in Sumatra with only a few pieces of silver sewn into his belt, he started off right at the bottom of society, opening a shop called "Ban Yun Tjong", but proceeded to make his fortune on Sumatra's east coast in the plantation industry. Around the turn of the century, he is said to own 75% of the land in Medan. He, and his brother Tjong Yong Hian, were instrumental in the recruitment of Chinese labourers to work in the Sumatra plantations. Between 1870 and 1933, the number of Chinese immigrant coming to work in the estates totally over 300,000.

In addition to being a planter, he was a banker and industrialist, not to mention the owner of the opium trade monopoly in northern Sumatra. At that time, Medan region was under the Deli Sultanate. Tjong A Fie had good relationship with the Sultan of Deli, Makmun Al Rasjid, and contributed funds to the building of the Mesjid Raya. Together with his elder brother Tjong Yong Hian, he became the main supplier to the plantations.

Jalan A Yani in front of Tjong A Fie Mansion is turned into a pedestrian zone at night.


After his brother died in 1911, Tjong A Fie succeeded him as Major, the head of the Chinese community and intermediary between the locals and the Dutch. The Tjong brothers were prominent philantrophists in the early days of Medan. Tjong A Fie's contribution uplifted him to the level of a legendary figure in Medan society. Like his uncle Cheong Fatt Tze, he was also awarded a royal title from the Emperor of China. Tjong A Fie died of stroke in 1921. His tomb can be found on Pulau Berayan in Medan.

Acknowledgement

I am thankful to Dirk A Buiskool of Trijaya Travel and Abdur-Razzaq Lubis for assisting with information on Tjong A Fie for this article.

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