TAN HENG SOON (1894-1962), a Straits-born Baba, was a comprador for the Danish East Asiatic Company, a prestigious European company established in 1897 by H.N. Andersen with extensive operations in Southeast Asia. The company, where Tan served from 1930 to 1953, operated at No.3, Weld Quay in George Town, Penang.

The word “comprador” is derived from the Portuguese word for “buyer”, i.e., employed as an agent by European houses. A comprador was characterised by a proficiency in English, possessing of business connections, displaying personal trust and playing a special role as mediator. These bicultural middlemen were social leaders, cosmopolitan and their children were Western educated. As such, they fulfilled the role of critical agents in the colonial enterprise. Penang’s colonial society was very cosmopolitan with the strategic advantage of being on the route of the larger Western shipping lines.

Who was this Peranakan comprador, who, together with his large family, called Lone Pine in Batu Ferringhi, home? Dear reader, in seeking to answer this question, permit me to let you in on a little secret: This is the family I married into, and researching the history of my father-in-law, a comprador for the Danish East Asiatic Company, grew from a fascination with the connections between Europe and a Peranakan family in Penang.

Over the years as I informally did my research, my late husband, the second youngest of Tan Heng Soon’s 10 children, would often share memories of his father’s role as comprador, going to school in the large family car with a driver, the shipping and teak interests of the company, and the added detail that, “There was always Carlsberg beer in the house.” Indeed, the EAC were the sole importers of the Denmark’s Carlsberg beer, according to an advertisement in Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle on 12 June 1934.

Tan Heng Soon and his large family lived at Lone Pine throughout the 1930s until the Japanese occupation prompted them to move further inland. Hearing rumours that the Japanese would invade Malaya by sea and were raping young girls, he sold his Lone Pine home to an Australian doctor. Fearing for the safety of his three young daughters, he bought the house at No.1, Ayer Rajah Road (renamed Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman) and they moved closer to town; the house is now the Thai Embassy.

Family memories of Lone Pine were blissful, with the sea forming a backdrop for their many activities, water sports and escapades. The property remains a spiritual home to the Tans. The ashes of six of Tan Heng Soon’s children have been scattered at sea opposite Lone Pine—most recently in November 2023, when the youngest, Robert, passed. (Robert was born at Lone Pine in 1938). Meanwhile, Tan Heng Soon and his wife, Khoo Gaik Eong, are interred in the columbarium beneath the Reclining Buddha in the Thai Buddhist Temple at Lorong Burma, Pulau Tikus.

The family can be seen as a microcosm of that hybridity known as Peranakan. The migratory route which began in China, then moved south and would continue to ripple transnationally with my husband and a few of his siblings migrating to Australia and the UK. Successive generations have continued the migration trail and may be found in Europe, the UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Ireland and Indonesia.