The Penang Po Leung Kuk: Chinese Women, Prostitution And A Welfare Organisation

This is a chronicle of the Penang Po Leung Kuk, a welfare organization founded in 1888 for the purpose of providing refuge and rehabilitation for the victims of the trafficking of Chinese women and girls. The establishment of the East India Company factory in Penang in 1786 by Captain Francis Light ushered in the advent of British colonial administration and British-led western enterprise in Penang and subsequently, Malaysia. This resulted in the mass migration of immigrant labour to George Town, Penang’s Capital city. The Chinese, being the largest ethnic group in the city since 1788, was, like other immigrant communities, allowed to administer their own affairs through their headmen in the first 25 years of the colony history. This book is devoted to describing the development of the Penang Home, from a halfway house to being the “best home of its kind in Malaya”. In the process, a history of the Chinese in Penang, the social problems related to that community and the leading personalities behind the PLK’s 89 year history is told.