Penang Chinese Swimming Club: Birthplace of Olympians

By Eugene Quah

November 2023 LEST WE FORGET
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Completed in 1954, the three-storey modernist flat-roofed club house is still in active use today.
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THE MELBOURNE SUMMER OLYMPICS of 1956, held in Victoria, was a game with many historic firsts. It was the first Olympics ever held in the southern hemisphere and outside Europe and North America, and the first to be held in November—summertime for the Australians. It was also Malaya’s first Olympic Games. (In fact, Malaya’s independence was still eight months away).Among the 30-member strong contingent from the emergent country was a 19-year-old swimmer, Fong Seow Hor. Standing 162cm tall and weighing...

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References
  • [1] “Chinese Swimming Club,” Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, August 21, 1928, pg. 6.
  • [2] “Chinese Swimming Club,” The Straits Echo (Mail Edition), September 12, 1928, Page 580.
  • [3] “Club Needs $300,000,” The Straits Budget, June 26, 1952, pg. 18.
  • [4] “CSC a Club for the Family—Says Heah,” The Straits Times, January 2, 1953, Page 11.
  • [5] “Education in Penang,” The Straits Echo (Mail Edition), December 12, 1928, Page 827.
  • [6] “Heah Gives $50,000 to Penang CSC Pool Fund,” The Straits Times, December 4, 1952, pg.10.
  • [7] “Life Saving Competition,” Malaya Tribune, December 1, 1924, pg. 8.
  • [8] “Local Chinese Sports Personalities,” Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, February 5, 1937, pg. 5.
  • [9] “Mainly About Malayans,” The Straits Times, July 9, 1939, pg. 8.
  • [10] “Penang C.S.C. 21 Years Old Next Month,” The Straits Times, July 17, 1949, pg.16
  • [11] “Penang C.S.C. Opens Swim Pool Fund,” The Straits Times, August 19, 1947, pg. 12
  • [12] “Penang Chinese Swimming Club,” Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, August 7, 1928, pg. 5.
  • [13] “Penang Chinese Want to Own Pool,” Malaya Tribune, May 5, 1941, pg. 2.
  • [14] “Penang in 1853,” Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, July 20, 1933, pg. 46.
  • [15] “Penang Used to Frown on Girl Swimmers,” The Singapore Free Press, July 30, 1949, pg. 4.
  • [16] “Penang—Home of Swim Stars,” The Singapore Free Press, July 23, 1949, pg. 4.
  • [17] Aplin, N.G., & Quek, J. J. (2002), "Celestials in Touch: The Development of Sport and Exercise in Colonial Singapore," The International Journal of the History of Sport, 19(2-3), 66-98.
  • [18] Chen Kien Lai (2005), “Concrete/Concentric Nationalism, The Architecture of Independence in Malaysia, 1945-1969,” pg. 185Government of the Straits Settlements (1926), “Annual Departmental Reports of the Straits Settlements for the Year 1926,” pg. 217.
  • [19] Ho Seng Ong (1965), “Methodist Schools in Malaysia: Their Record and History,” pg. 267.
  • [20] International Olympic Committee (1956), Official Report of the 1956 Summer Olympics, pg. 581, 585, 602.
  • [21] National Archives of Singapore (1998), “Kee Soon Bee - Oral History Interview,” Interviewed on February 4, 1998, by Chong Ching Liang.
  • [22] New Straits Times, “Olympian Seow Hor Dies at 85,” March 9, 2022, Accessed: [https://www.nst.com.my/sportsothers/2022/03/778437/olympian-seow-hor-dies-85]
  • [23] Olympedia, “Fong Seow Hor,” Accessed: [https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/49078] (https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/49078).
Eugene Quah

is an independent researcher and writer who is working on a book tentatively called “Illustrated Guide to the North Coast of Penang”. He rediscovered the joys of writing after moving back to Penang from abroad.


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