Celebrity chef Datuk Redzuawan Ismail, better known as Chef Wan, turned a museum visit in Kuching into a genuine family moment. During a trip to the Sarawak capital, he toured the Chinese History Museum and realised that one of the men featured in its displays — Ong Tiang Swee, a prominent Kuching merchant and community pioneer — was his great-grandfather.
The connection runs through his mother's side: Ong Tiang Swee was the father of Chef Wan's maternal grandmother. He shared the discovery on Instagram in a video filmed with Datuk Zunaidah Idris, chairwoman of Sarawak Women of Tomorrow, walking past exhibits on early Chinese migration to Sarawak from provinces such as Guangdong and Fujian. He described his maternal line as coming from an aristocratic, well-off family — Ong even had a Kuching road named after him and received a state funeral when he died in the city in 1950.
The visit got more personal. Younger members of the Ong family turned up at the museum with vintage photo albums documenting Ong Tiang Swee and the extended family, and later hosted the chef for lunch. The family's history wasn't all glory: Chef Wan recalled that during the Japanese occupation in World War II, relatives were captured and their property seized. His great-grandmother and grandmother were sent to Singapore during the invasion, and he himself was born there in 1958. "What a small world," he remarked, thanking the museum for preserving his family's story.
For travellers, the story is a nice reminder of what makes Kuching rewarding beyond its food scene (though, in Chef Wan's hometown, the food is reason enough). The Chinese History Museum, on the Kuching Waterfront, traces the waves of Chinese migration that shaped Sarawak — merchants, miners, farmers and community leaders whose descendants still run businesses in the old shophouse streets around Carpenter and Bishop Streets. Wandering those exhibits, you get a sense of how layered Kuching's identity is: Malay, Chinese, Iban and other indigenous threads woven into one relaxed river city.
It's also a nudge to treat museums as more than rainy-day fillers. Local history museums across Malaysia often hold records, photographs and displays that connect directly to living families — and for visitors with Malaysian or Chinese-Southeast Asian roots, a stop like this can be surprisingly emotional. Even without a famous ancestor inside, you'll come out understanding the city you're walking through.
If you're planning a Kuching trip, put the Chinese History Museum on an itinerary that also takes in the waterfront, Fort Margherita and the Brooke-era buildings nearby — Sarawak's colonial and merchant past sits close together in a very walkable centre. And keep an eye out for Jalan Ong Tiang Swee while you're there; as of this month, it has a famous name attached to it in more ways than one.
