Progress brings a grave threat

Key part of history: Foo’s ornate grave in Fettes Park, George Town, on roughly a quarter of a hectare, has attracted attention after her descendants revealed purported attempts by the landowner to exhume and destroy the grave to make way for a development project. A historian has suggested a relocation instead. — CHAN BOON KAI/The Star

GEORGE TOWN: Off Jalan Bunga Telang in Fettes Park here, nestled between double-storey houses and town houses is an area covered with thick green undergrowth.

Hidden beneath the undergrowth is the grave of a powerful woman, Foo Teng Nyong (circa 1816 to 1874), the third wife of Kapitan Chung Keng Kwee (1827-1901), the man who founded Taiping.