THERE is actually no Sungai Merah on the map of Sarawak.
As kids, we enjoyed singing the folk song, Red River Valley, thinking of our own Sungai Merah.
We respected its origin and the existence of the Foochows. The pioneers named the river Sungai Merah in the early 1900s because of its reddish water after Rajah Charles Brooke permitted the new arrivals to settle in the area.
Geographically Sungai Seduan flows from the interior to join the huge tributary of the Rajang known as the Igan.
Historically, the settlements of Sungai Seduan have seen several development phases and ushered in a dynamic period for growth, prompting calls for faster development from local leaders, entrepreneurs, and politicians.
Awakening period
The pre-Second World War period can be considered a slow awakening for Sungai Merah Bazaar or ‘Sin Chu San’.
The bazaar was set up by the 1,118 pioneering Foochows, who arrived in three batches, led by their pastor-scholar Wong Nai Siong. They settled on the land secured through an agreement with Brooke, who saw the potential of the Foochows as agriculturalists.
Brooke strategised that importing this immigrant labour force into Sarawak would create a vast rice bowl for his kingdom.
An old Hin Hua kotak.
His government built six hostels of attap and wood on the banks of Seduan River. From there, the Foochows gradually spread to Ensurai, Paradom, Engkilo, Sungai Bidut, and Sungai Lebaan to grow rice, then rubber and pepper.
At first, Brooke granted five acres to each of the pioneering families and later more titles to those who could clear more land. This practice was stopped in 1926.
While the bigger Rajang Basin was being opened up as Sibu started to expand, the quaint Sungai Merah Bazaar grew very slowly in comparison.
An elder, Tiong Mee Lang, said, “My father told me from 1901 until the late 1930s, most people walked from Sibu to Sungai Seduan through Kampung Nangka and Sungai Antu and later, the Telephone Road. The Sungai Merah bridge, built by the Brooke administration, still stands in its renovated structure.”
Over the next few decades, the buildings in Sungai Merah were mainly wooden houses, including the Methodist Parsonage of Rev James Hoover, the family homes of the Ting and Wong families, and a few others along the banks of the Seduan.
Sing Ang Tong and Guong Ann Primary school were set up in 1903.
The new Hin Hua immigrants also settled in Sungai Merah and the nearby areas.
A modern seagoing boat berthed along Sungai Seduan.
War and post-war periods
During the war years, the Foochows and the Hin Huas planted rice, rubber, and some pepper.
The land was bought and sold. Many started owning land in Sungai Aup and Sungai Teku. Some made a fortune while others went into hiding over unsuccessful deals in Kapit, Kanowit, Bintangor, and even Mukah.
While the Japanese turned the construction of the Sibu Airport into that of a forced labour camp, Sungai Merah’s growth stagnated for some years. Shops shuttered but burials of POWs continued.
Coffins had to be carried from the banks of the Rajang through Queensway to Sungai Merah or brought by a small sampan to the jetty. Relatives then transferred the coffins to the nearby Methodist Cemetery.
To the Foochows, Sungai Merah became synonymous with a cemetery. The Hokkiens, Cantonese, and Teochews had their own burial grounds at Lanang Road or Bukit Lima.
Occasionally, the Foochows even joked about “going to Sungai Merah” as a reference to death.
Since the old Sibu Airport was located at the end of Sungai Merah Road, people had to drive through the cemetery to get to the former.
It was also the furthest a car owner could take his children ‘sightseeing’ in the evening. And when passing by Sungai Merah Bazaar, the family could pick up some bananas and Foochow pastries for which the bazaar was well known.
During Ching Ming or Tomb Festival, Sin Chu San became a bustling town where Foochows and Hin Huas all over the world and other parts of Sibu would come to clean their ancestors’ tombs.
Shopkeepers enjoyed brisk business as brooms, cangkul, and kopi O were in high demand over the few days of generational gatherings.
Back then, Sungai Merah was like the wild East of Sibu, a preferred hideout of lawbreakers and a den for illegal gambling.
The present Nang Sang Primary School, a far cry from the six-classroom wooden block of the 1950s.
Slow awakening
After 1963, there was a period of high anxiety and fear with CCO (Clandestine Communist Organisation) spreading terror in protest against the formation of Malaysia.
But the Malaysian government was able to subdue the guerrillas and forced them to surrender in 1974.
Soon after, the people returned to their farms and rubber gardens and started to develop the area with government help or on their own.
It took more than 20 years for development to be seen. Land was opened up along the Seduan Valley.
Ulu Sungai Merah/Seduan now has its own secondary school while Nang Sang Primary School was renovated to become a multi-block, three-storey modern school – so different from its old wooden structure.
Roads were built from Sungai Merah Bazaar and Sungai Teku became a pricy residential area.
With better roads and a stable government, Sungai Seduan saw greater development after the 1980s. Several blocks of concrete shops were added and new homes built.
The Wong Nai Siong Memorial Garden was built in 2002 as part of the Centenary Celebration of the Foochow Settlement in Sibu.
More concrete shops were built in Sungai Merah and a little memorial known as The Garden was set up near the river to mark first Foochow settlement in Sarawak. It’s maintained by the Sibu Municipal Council
Sibu is probably the biggest Foochow settlement outside Fuzhou and Fujian in China.
The Hoover Memorial Garden was set up in 2012 to commemorate the contributions of the American missionary, James Matthew Hoover, who came to teach and manage the mostly Christian Foochow immigrants.
He lived in Sibu for more than 30 years and with his wife, Mary, set up 41 churches and 40 schools in the Rajang Basin.
Born in 1872, Hoover was a highly educated missionary who spoke Foochow.
He had so impressed Brooke that the Rajah recognised him as ‘the manager of the Foochows’ and the official representative of the Foochows to the government.
He was also known as Tuan Hoover of Borneo. When he passed away, the Sarawak flag flew at half-mast.
There is also the Sungai Seduan Heritage Walk, now fitted with LED lights for people to enjoy an evening walk and watch the sunset, attracting not only locals but also foreign tourists.
At the Kuala Seduan, a few Shell storage tanks are still standing as a testimony to Shell operations of the 60s and 70s.
Pau produces honey from his stingless bees.
Petroleum deport
A fisherman told thesundaypost there was a jetty for Shell boats and other watercraft but it was, in reality, a depot for petroleum which has since been moved to Tanjung Manis.
Many Shell staff lived around the area in those days, turning it into a sort of village.
A complex of factories is growing to create job opportunities and the sawmills which opened in the 1950s on the left bank are continuing to operate.
Timber products such as plywood and veneer are transported along the Seduan River and the Igan River to the Tanjung Manis Port for export.
Boats berthing along the banks of Sungai Seduan near the Sungai Merah bridge provide a lovely sight. Old Hin Hua kotaks used to berth here.
Site visits
At Lorong 22 Ulu Sungai Merah or Sungai Seduan is the remnant of an old 1940s Foochow village across the river. The wooden bridge was built probably long before the Second World War.
A small shop at the end of the bridge sells old coconuts. The absent proprietor had left the shop open – and even his old axe on the block.
One side of the shop is actually above the river where boats can berth at the jetty and customers can buy old coconuts right at the doorstep. The other door opens to a plank walk which is good enough for motorbikes.
The business must be more than 40 years old.
An octogenarian named Pau introduced us to his medicinal plants and fruit garden. He arrived in Sarawak with his parents as a child and is now more than 87 years old. He worked for Ta Kiong, a relative’s business, until he retired.
“I was a young man then. During weekends or holidays, I would come to the shop to store up planks and belian posts.
“The wooden items were transported here by a small boat and I carried them to the store. It took me and my helpers a few years to complete building my house.
“I have been staying at Ulu Seduan since the 1950s. My parents went back to China and left me, still a teenager, with my uncles, in Sibu,” he recalled.
That was how the older generation settled in the areas around Ulu Seduan in the early days. These areas were formerly called Nang Sang and Kern Tou.
Besides growing fruits and medicinal plants, Pau produces honey from stingless bees or kelulut. Many of his hives have been stolen, so now he has to chain them to concrete posts.
A fisherman stopped by Pau’s jetty in his boat. He came to check his fish traps in a small stream on the opposite bank. He gave everyone a happy wave before setting off to the Ulu or the upper part of the river.
River valley
Local tour agent, Ling How Kang felt that much could be done to promote tourism in the river valley.
A good package could include a boat trip, starting at the Kuala Sungai Seduan Melanau cemetery, a photo-shoot at the Heritage walk, and a visit to the Wong Nai Siong Memorial Garden and the Hoover Memorial Garden, followed by followed by a Foochow lunch in a selected restaurant at Sungai Merah Bazaar.
A boat trip up the Seduan River could be an exciting adventure. On their return, tourists could catch a beautiful sunset – and a dinner offering tasty local cuisine in Sungai Merah.
There are other potential attractions such as hiking, trekking, and cycling in the areas surrounding the Seduan River.
More can be done to promote this beautiful Red River Valley with its interesting history, beautiful equatorial features, quaint villages on stilts, riverine shops, boat rides, and culinary delights.