Loke Cheng Kim

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Loke Cheng Kim (1895-1981; born Lim Cheng Kim) was the eldest daughter of a Chinese family which had been established in Malaya for generations. She was born in Penang on the 5th Day of the 5th Month of the Lunar Year in 1895.

Her mother, Soon Kui Sim, was a great influence on her life. In spite of being unable to read and write, Madam Soon took over the management of her husband's tin mines in Rawang, Selangor when he was forced to retire through illness, quickly devising her own system of hieroglyphics in order to keep the accounts. Madam Soon was determined that her own daughter, Cheng Kim, would not be illiterate and sent the young girl to Kuala Lumpur to school, an unusual step for a girl in the early twentieth century and one which necessitated a long train journey daily from her home in Rawang.

Lim Cheng Kim was married to Loke Yew in 1914 after the death of Loke Yew's third wife, Madam Lim Shuk Kwei, a distant cousin. Only 3 years later after the birth of 3 children, she was widowed. Concern for the health of her son, Loke Wan Tho, led her to take all her children to Switzerland in 1929 on her own where they attended school for 4 years.

On her return to Kuala Lumpur she took an interest in social affairs becoming President of the Chinese Women's Athletic Association. She was particularly interested in the welfare and education of children especially girls. When war broke out in China she became President of the Chinese Relief Fund Ladies' Section in Kuala Lumpur.

In 1936 she incorporated Associated Theatres Ltd (later renamed Cathay Organisation) with her son Dato Loke Wan Tho and built the group's first cinema, the Pavilion, in Kuala Lumpur.

In 1937 she purchased the site at Dhoby Ghaut in Singapore and started the construction of the Cathay Building, Singapore's first skyscraper which was completed in 1939 just before the Japanese Occupation. Evacuated to India at the fall of Singapore she spent the war years there. During this time she started a Chinese restaurant in Bangalore.

On the liberation of Singapore, Mrs Loke Yew returned in 1946 whereupon she was presented with a plaque by Lord Louis Mountbatten commemorating his occupancy of the Cathay Building. Mrs Loke Yew was actively involved with the management of the Cathay Hotel in the Cathay Building and the Ocean Park Hotel in Katong. She was a developer having developed many properties in the area surrounding the Cathay Keris Studios. She was very active in all her businesses and continued to make investments in stocks up to the last years of her life. She was President of the Singapore Chinese Ladies' Association and was involved throughout her life with the education of young people.

She was a lover and collector of art, a keen gardener and a generous hostess. She was extremely fond of flowers and was known to have, on many special occasions, arranged the flowers in the Cathay Chinese Restaurant herself. Soft spoken but steely, Mrs Loke was a generous philanthropist all her life. She was known to enjoy her food, especially Peranakan food, a legacy of her Penang heritage and practiced tai chi everyday until ill health disabled her.

Mrs Loke Yew died in 1981 at the age of 86. Today there is a Loke Cheng Kim Foundation in Singapore in her memory which continues to benefit young people in Singapore.