Dr CHUA Seong Siew

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Coliseum owner's funeral in HK on Thursday Posted on 31 October 2007 - 03:53am Print

PETALING JAYA (Oct 30, 2007): The funeral for Coliseum Cinema owner Dr Chua Seong Siew, 72, who died in Hongkong yesterday, will be held at t St John’s Cathedral in Hongkong at 11am on Thursday.

A memorial service will be held in Kuala Lumpur at a later date, according to an orbituary notice today.

Chua, a father of three and grandfather of eight, was believed to have been suffering from heart ailments and had been in Hongkong for about a month to seek treatment.

He was thrust in the media limelight when he entered a battle with the Federal Land Office in July last year, to save the fate of his cinema on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

On July 14 last year, Chua was served official notice that the five land lots on which the Coliseum Cinema stands would be acquired for the the National Heritage Centre project.

Chua appealed and met with Culture, Arts and Heritage minister Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim to reconsider the decision, saying he was willing, with his family, to care for and preserve the building while continuing to run the cinema business as they did in the past 85-years. Rais reportedly agreed to spare the building.

With his wife Chin Khuan Imm, Chua ran the cinema since inheriting it from his mother Khor Joo Saik.

Built in 1920 the Coliseum Cinema, and the Coliseum Café and Hotel are one of the many legacies of Cycle and Carriage tycoon Chua Cheng Bok.

After Cheng Bok died in 1940, the cinema and hotel were administered by his estate and from 1947, Khor – the daughter-in-law of his elder brother Cheng Tuan – managed the cinema.

In 1973, Khor bought the cinema and hotel from Cheng Bok’s estate.

The cinema, opened on July 15, 1921, was one of the earliest in the city and is Kuala Lumpur’s oldest operating cinema. The hotel and café are managed separately.