Group photo of Kheng Keow Coffee Shop Association members commemorating New Year's Day and the fifth round of members' meetings in Singapore

This is a group photograph of Kheng Keow Coffee Shop Association members commemorating New Year's Day and the fifth round of members' meetings at their first headquarters on 6 Seah Street, which was taken on January 1, 1938. Amongst those pictured are then President Huang Cai Yuan (黄才源, seated 2nd row 6th L), Founding President Liang Ding Ren (梁定任, seated 2nd row 5th R), and Founding Secretary Wu Ke Ren (吴可任, seated 2nd row 8th L). Captured by Daguerre Photo Studio, one of the first Hainanese-owned photo studio in 20th century Singapore, the photographic print is embellished by a hand-painted art deco frame, which demonstrates the influence of western pictorialist aesthetics. Comprising a predominantly Hainanese membership, the Kheng Keow Coffee Merchants Restaurant and Bar-Owners Association (to which Kheng Keow Coffee Association was renamed in 1952) is one of two pioneering coffeeshop trade establishments in Singapore and Malaysia, the other being the Foo Chow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association (福州咖啡酒餐商公会). Kheng Keow provided leadership, mediation and counsel for members on numerous pertinent issues including the modernising of the coffeeshop industry, coping with inflation and rental hikes, as well as keeping abreast with automation and technology in the twentieth century.

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