From Guangdong to Kasturi Walk

Lynette Moey | 29 May 2025

Kwang Yeow Heng view from Kasturi Walk. – Photo: Ann Marie Chandy

IF you have dined at an upmarket Chinese restaurant, chances are that your seafood dish may have contained a marine ingredient from Kwang Yeow Heng, a renowned dried seafood shop located at the side of Central Market, Kuala Lumpur.

The shop itself is partially hidden behind some stalls on the covered pedestrian walkway, Kasturi Walk. It used to have better frontage. But the area around Central Market has transformed tremendously over the years so that it becomes almost unrecognisable to older generations who used to hang around there.

Kwang Yeow Heng, Kuala Lumpur, is definitely an older generation shop. Today, it runs as both a retail shop and top Malaysian marine wholesaler.

The products you can find at the shop, including KYH's signature brand, Skylight. – Photo: Eric Kwan

Walking through the entrance from Kasturi Walk, you are greeted by jars, trays, cans and transparent boxes of sea cucumber, shark fin, fish maw, and abalone. Here, you can buy dried shrimp, dried sausages and anchovies. You can also get all sorts of other foodstuff like canned longans, bird’s nest and mushrooms.

You can wander through the shelves and take your pick from the copious array. If you are too confused by the choices, Margaret Hiah, other members of her family and her shop assistants will be there to help you.

A typical Saturday at the shop. – Photo: Eric Kwan

First Generation

Margaret’s father, Hiah Siek Kee, founded Kwang Yeow Heng, on March 18, 1968. This writer remembers the cheerful Teochew nonagenarian whenever she would go into the shop. He was friends with my husband, and they would strike up a conversation in rapid Cantonese.

“My father passed away just last year in 2024 at the age of 98,” Margaret says. “I don’t know if there was a correlation, but my father’s driver, Ah Lee, for many years passed away first. They had been good friends for a long time. Then two months later after his driver’s death, my father passed.”

Hiah’s driver was not just a driver. When he wasn’t driving Hiah around, he was selling dried goods in the shop. “We put him in charge of the dried sausages,” Margaret reminisced. “He was very good at selling sausages, especially around Chinese New Year.”

Born in 1926 in the Guangdong province of China, Hiah was from a family of farmers. They were so poor that he had to drop out of school after only two years to help with the family farm. He never had it easy.

In 1937, China went to war with Japan. Life was extremely difficult for everyone. There was famine, and everyone was hungry. Life did not improve much even after the war ended. China was at an ideological crossroads. So Hiah decided to flee to Singapore in 1947. He found menial work at a Singaporean seafood store selling marine goods. He was only paid 18 yuan a month (RM10 today), but was given food and lodging. He was forever grateful for this start because it was there that he learned the marine seafood trade, which included how to procure and sell abalone, sea cucumber and other dried goods from all over the world.

Hiah and his brothers decided to go into the seafood business and opened their own shop. From Singapore, they expanded to Kuala Lumpur. Hiah’s brother remained in Singapore and he himself opted to emigrate to Kuala Lumpur with his new family.

Struggle and ascent

You would have thought that it was easygoing for the family after that, but no. The 1969 racial riots happened in Kuala Lumpur. The country was devastated. Kwang Yeow Heng’s business was devastated.

As Malaysia slowly mended, Hiah sought to build his business up again. But disaster struck again in 1971 when Kuala Lumpur suffered a major flood. Because Kwang Yeow Heng was situated near what is known today as the River of Life, which is the confluence of two rivers – Klang and Gombak – and serves as the historical site of where Kuala Lumpur was founded – his entire shop’s contents were flooded out and destroyed.

It was a very difficult time.

But Hiah persevered. He picked the pieces up, attracted new investors, including one from Japan, and literally saved his business. One of Kwang Yeow Heng’s flagship products is the Skylight brand of marine delicacies.

Although Skylight is synonymous with abalone, it also offers sharkfin, fishmaw and sea cucumber. These luxuries were only enjoyed by Chinese emperors in the past, but are served to commoners these days. Go to any big restaurant chain in Malaysia like Tai Thong, Ah Yat Abalone and Oversea Restaurant, or a big company like Resorts World, and it is likely they are clients of Kwong Yeow Heng.

Lim, now in his 80s, has been working for KYH for over 30 years. His mind as active as ever, he maintains accounts for the business. – Photo: Eric Kwan

Today, Hiah’s son-in-law heads the business in Kuala Lumpur. As it is a family enterprise, Hiah’s son and three daughters play significant parts in running it. Some of their employees have been there for decades. It is not unusual to see an 80-something man behind the accounts desk.

For posterity, Margaret shares some of her old photos of the shop and the people who have worked there for decades. You can see them here. “Some of the people are no longer with us,” she mourns.

Kwang Yeow Heng is more than just a dried goods store — it is a living time capsule tucked beside the ever-shifting bustle of Central Market. For those who remember the old KL of street hawkers, trishaws and wooden shopfronts, stepping into the shop is like walking back in time. And for newcomers, it’s a gentle reminder that behind every modern skyscraper lies a story of grit, hard work and family.

If you're ever in the city, take the time to wander past the souvenir stalls of Kasturi Walk and seek out this gem — because the stories of Kuala Lumpur aren't only told only in museums, but in places like this, where memory and trade still go hand in hand.

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