Phuket Thai Hua Museum, the pioneering era of Phukets economy. According to the saying "Phuket people are lucky, they can find delicious food", this information comes from the exhibition inside the museum, which is an old building in the middle of Phukets old town, built in 1934, and used to be the building of the Phuket Thai Hua Chinese School. It is considered a good starting point.
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The Phuket Thai Hua Museum building was originally a Chinese school. The building combines architecture from many eras, including Europe, Asia, and China. The building is horizontally symmetrical, with a gable and hip roof. Notice the bat with wings spread on the gable, called Hung Pian Fu, which means that being able to study is a great fortune. The roof is shaped like a turtle shell to ensure that the residents are happy forever (turtles are auspicious animals for the Chinese). This is one of the beautiful buildings in Phuket Old Town.
The Thai Hua Chinese School was founded by several Hokkien wealthy families in Phuket who had achieved success in business through different business ventures. They all started out as tin miners in Phuket and later joined together to form the Thai Hua Association to provide public services to Phuket.
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A picture of a Chinese printer that had to be ordered from Singapore in 1967, which the school received as a donation from a wealthy person to print various types of documents, such as invitation cards and certificates. The schools principal assigned a young teacher to use it. It was quite difficult to use because many characters had to be entered in the boxes.
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In addition to telling the story of the Thai Hua Chinese School, the exhibition also shows models of the lives and activities of the members inside the Chinese Tiem Chu, which are shophouses and residential buildings that are also used as shops.
Phuket people are lucky because they can find a variety of delicious food. Nom and Kopi are examples of Phukets diverse food that came from the mining era. The flour and sugar in the snacks provide energy, while the caffeine in coffee stimulates. It is also the origin of the coffee shop.
Locals often eat dry snacks in the sense of snacks that are eaten instead of rice. This is because the Chinese are very skilled in using flour to make various snacks, especially snacks eaten with kopi. There are many of these snacks, such as Kanom Sai Kai, kanom Chuag Kwai, Kanom Kai Kapae, and Kanom Gong Giw. There are many famous snack shops, such as Keng Tin and Ah Tak Gae which are still open today.
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The exhibition helps to understand the various occupations of Phuket people in the past, such as the production of timber to supply mines for the construction of office buildings, and interestingly, the construction of the worlds first mining ship in Phuket by the Tungka Harbour Company.
Of interest is the story of Ka Le, a puppet show of the Hokkien Chinese, in which the last performer in Phuket was Pae Thao (Thiansak Ongphrueksa). It is usually performed to ask for blessings from the gods. It is played as a story about the journey home of a person taking the imperial examination who was announced as having passed the selection process, so he invited the villagers to perform a ceremony to thank the heavens. There are three puppets: the Red-Faced Puppet (Seng Kang Eia), the Jon Guan Puppet, and the Lady Puppet.
For those interested, a video of a Chinese puppet show in Hokkien language "Ka Le" by Pae Thao from the Facebook of "Kim Sin - 金身 and History" can be viewed from the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14wjTAnzPuF/
