[EXCLUSIVE] Labuan’s Ah Ming ‘Cincau’ drink maker shocks to his life in mural artwork

LABUAN, Oct 1 -- Little did he know after 42 years taking over the cold drink of ‘Cincau’ business from his late father, Uncle Ah Ming will eventually be appreciated by the large community and his face is being portrayed in a giant mural artwork in downtown Labuan. 

Uncle Ah Ming, 62, whose name is popular among the Labuan folks, said he could not sleep a night after being told a street artist would paint his face on the wall of a building in appreciation of his more than four decades of doing beverage business near Jalan Tun Mustapha (next to Hotel Aifa) in downtown.

“It was my late father’s business who runs it for over 10 years before I took over, and all in all, the business had been in operation for 52 years now.

“I was still a bachelor that time and was working in a coffee shop with a monthly wage of over RM100, and my late father was running the business alone…and there was a time when he was unwell and he told me he did not want to stop the business but asked me to continue for him and not long after that he died and that was the beginning of my era of taking over the business,” he related to Bernama.

Ah Ming whose real name is Teo Soon Bin @ Teo Soon Ming said the original ingredients of his late father’s ‘Cincau’ drink was only the grass jelly (cincau) mixed with bean and droplets of green rice flour jelly or known as ‘cendol’ and crushed ice.

“It was I who added creamed corn and other ingredients used for ABC (Air Batu Campur or Bean Ice) in it,” he said.

Uncle Ah Ming has five children with four of them having their own families and career, one of them as an accountant in a private company, a staff in Telekom Malaysia in Johor and the rest as school teachers.

Uncle Ah Ming’s portrait in mural was chosen by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture through its agency of National Art Gallery to bring old buildings back to life with an artistic facelift in downtown Labuan ahead of the Visit Malaysia 2020 and its deputy minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik was here on Sunday to witness the final touch-up works.

“At first, I thought it was just a small portrait of mine, but when they told me it will occupy the whole wall of the building, I was speechless, shocked and I could not sleep that night as it was unexpected.

“All my kids were also shocked and they just could not believe it, that their father will have a giant portrait in the heart of town…my kids in Johor and Kuala Lumpur called me whether it was true or not,” Ah Ming added.

 Ah Ming said he would continue his late father’s business as long as he was still in a good state of health and his wife would still be his helper.

“This ‘Cincau’ drink business had been on this site for over 50 years and had not been shifted elsewhere …only relocated several meters from its original lot when the Hotel Aifa was built…but if the local authority of Labuan Corporation wants me and other two kiosks operators to move we have no choice, but hope we will stay here,” Ah Ming said.

He admitted his business was encouraging since early this year as Labuan folks turned viral with a tagline of ‘Ah Ming Cincau is the best’ on Facebook.

Among other popular murals created were the Labuan-born Malaysian legend footballer Datuk Hassan Sani and the blue marlin fish which has become the identity of Labuan, as an island popular for deep-sea fishing.          

All the murals were portrayed along the streets of Lorong Tanjung Pasir, Jalan Utama Bandar Labuan and Terminal Labuan.

Bakhtiar yesterday said his ministry spent about RM80,000 for this project with the hope it could help beautify the island as part of his ministry’s efforts to promote the duty-free-island.,

--BERNAMA