Wong Kee Yun: A legacy across generations

Family history launched on the third day of the Lunar New Year adds a valuable chapter to local history

KOTA KINABALU (Feb 19): Wong Kee Yun: A Legacy Across Generations, a family history combining academic rigour with human warmth, was launched in Kota Kinabalu on the third day of the Lunar New Year. The event, held amid Spring Festival celebrations, was attended by nearly 200 family members, relatives and friends.

The launch was made especially meaningful by the presence of Wong Kee Yun’s only surviving daughter, Wong Yuk Kui, aged 87. Also present were his grandsons—Wong Ting Sung, Wong Tain Foh, Wong Vui Kok and Wong Kok Tseh—and a fourth-generation descendant, Wong Dyi Sheng, highlighting the family’s continuity across generations.

The Guest-of-Honour, Professor Datuk Dr Wong Tze Ken of the University of Malaya, praised the author, Datuk C.L. Chan, for his sustained efforts in documenting local and family history. He said research rooted in historical sources and personal memory forms a vital foundation for local and social history, particularly in immigrant societies.

Datuk C.L. Chan said that while the book focuses on one family, it reflects broader social conditions and historical change. He noted that many aspects of local history are absent from official archives and survive instead in family memories, oral accounts and everyday life, which risk being lost if not recorded.

He added that family history restores the human dimension to history, revealing how ordinary people navigated colonial rule, war, social change and economic transition, and in doing so shaped collective memory.

The author expressed his gratitude to his wife, Datin Connie Wong, for her steadfast support during the years of writing and research, and to his secretary, Lo Sheau Yin, for completing the final digital proofreading.

He concluded by expressing the hope that the story of one family might offer readers insight into the wider history of Kota Kinabalu and North Borneo. The launch ended on a warm and festive note and was well received by those present.