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GOPENG: A spacious corner lot. A rustic, yellow wooden house. Large earthen jars. An elderly gentleman heaving a pail across the compound.
This is Hup Teck, a makeshift soy sauce factory that produces a variety of sauces using traditional recipes and methods that predate the formation of Malaysia.
Yesterday, after 111 years, Hup Teck closed its doors forever — a lack of successors consigning the business to the scrapheap of history — along with other trades from years gone by, like the Mak Yong, Chinese opera or tinsmithing.
Low Bak Tong, the 72-year-old owner, inherited the business from his father, Low Jiang, a Chinese immigrant who arrived in Ipoh with a kongsi.
Jiang worked with a soy sauce maker in Perak before buying a piece of land in 1914, which came with a wooden house that served as the "factory" in Gopeng, to establish Hup Teck.
Bak Tong was born and raised in the house, spending his childhood running around the earthen jars after school.
After finishing school, Bak Tong, who has two sisters, left Gopeng to work as a carpenter, first in Kuala Lumpur and later in Singapore.
When his father died in 1983, Bak Tong returned home to continue his father's legacy.
"This was our family business," he said. "I didn't want outsiders to take it," he added.
He learnt the art of soy sauce-making by watching his father at work.
For the past 40 years, Bak Tong has run the business with help from his sister and nephew.
However, his advancing age has taken a toll, and the labour-intensive process has become too physically demanding for him.
When the New Straits Times met Bak Tong, he was initially grumpy due to back pain.
"I need to go home and get my medication — my back is unbearable!" he said as he rode off on his motorcycle.
Within 15 minutes, Bak Tong was back in good spirits, energetically filling buckets with soy sauce, carrying them to the house and pouring the contents into dispensers.
"When I was younger, I could carry a full bucket," he said.
"Now, I can only manage half."
Bak Tong even packed a customer's order into a carton box and carried it to her car.
His pride in the business and the quality of his soy sauce is evident.
"I use no chemicals — everything is made with natural ingredients," he said.
Many customers who arrived that day left disappointed as the soy sauce was already sold out.
"I've been coming here for over 20 years! I don't know where I'll get my soy sauce now," lamented one customer from Ipoh.
"Luckily, I still have one big bottle at home. Young people are not interested in tradition anymore," another customer said.
"I used to play in this compound as a child. I'm going to miss this place."
For Bak Tong, the Lunar New Year is not just the start of a new year but a new dawn, one where he no longer has to worry about making soy sauce.
"Once I retire, I'm done. I don't want to think about work anymore. That's not a good way to retire!" he said, adding that he planned to spend time with friends at coffee shops, gardening and even travelling.