IPOH: In a quiet corner of Ipoh’s Old Town, a century-old craft is getting a second life thanks to an unlikely apprentice – a mechanical engineer determined to keep a fading tradition alive.
What began as an effort by Leong Hing Wah to save an abandoned workshop has evolved into a personal mission to preserve one of the city’s last remaining Chinese wooden calligraphy plaque makers.
The 60-year-old, who works full-time as a manufacturing plant manager, now spends his weekends handcrafting traditional wooden plaques using techniques he painstakingly taught himself after reviving the workshop in 2018.
“This workshop is believed to be about 100 years old. It was operated by three generations of craftsmen before the last owner, Chow Hock Kan, suffered a stroke in 2015 and later passed away in 2020.
“With no successor willing to continue the trade, the shop was left abandoned for about three years,” he said when met at the workshop along Lorong Bijeh Timah here.
Leong and his business partner decided to rent the premises rather than watch another piece of Ipoh’s heritage disappear.
When they entered the neglected premises they found decades of accumulated belongings.
Among the discoveries was an estimated 80-year-old wooden plaque that had been used as a makeshift platform over a puddle of water from the leaky roof.
“When we turned it over and saw the beautifully carved words underneath, it inspired us to continue the craft,” he said.
Initially, Leong and his partner hoped to recruit young artists to take over the trade but those plans were disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Faced with unfinished customer orders, Leong decided to learn the craft himself.
Drawing on woodworking skills acquired during his engineering career, he studied photographs of old plaques, examined carving marks left by previous craftsmen and learned through trial and error.
Today, he completes every stage of production himself, from Chinese calligraphy and carving, to painting and finishing.
“I am not an artist by training. I simply wanted to ensure this craft survives for future generations,” he said, adding that he still uses many of the tools left behind by Chow.
Each plaque takes between two and three weeks to complete, with commissions coming from temples, law firms, medical clinics and families seeking plaques bearing their ancestral place of origin.
While modern computer-controlled machines can produce similar plaques quickly and cheaply, Leong believes handmade work carries a character that technology cannot replicate.
“You can still see the craftsman’s touch in every carving. Every piece is unique.”
He estimates only a handful of traditional wooden plaque craftsmen remain in Malaysia and believes he is now the only one practising the trade in Ipoh’s Old Town.
“If this craft disappears, visitors will only see old buildings without understanding the stories behind them.
“These plaques tell people where their ancestors came from and preserve traditions that many younger Chinese no longer understand. We want to keep this culture alive so Ipoh does not lose another piece of its heritage.”
Among the workshop’s treasured relics are the 80-year-old plaque hanging on the wall, the wooden workbench once used by Chow and even a section of wall stained by decades of paint splashes from craftsmen rinsing their brushes.
“The layers of dried paint have gradually formed a unique pattern over time, almost like an artwork created by generations of craftsmen,” Leong said.
