Taikor by Khoo Kheng Hor

I have been yearning to read this book ever since I read his other book titled Mamasan.

Taikor is a historical saga the life of Ya Loong from 1922 to 1982. He s the eldest son and have two younger brothers. He was born in Thailand but when his father pass away, his mother bring all of them to Penang to seek the help of her sister.

Later on, his mother caught the eyes of a rich man and she become his wife. He was a widower with three daughters.


Although Ya Loong was barely 10 years old, he was very matured. And because of this, he constantly loggerhead with his step father. His step father decided that he cannot control Ya Loong any more and decided to sent Ya Loong to China in order to learn a trade from his Uncle there.

Sadly, he got in to trouble in Shanghai and had to come back to Penang to help his step father. Things did not work out and from that moment on he was on his own.

He had gone through the Japanese Occupation period, the lawless period and seen the forming of Malaya. Throught out that time he slowly rise into the position of a Taikor in the Penang underworld. As he grows older, he tries to break from his triad activities but somehow, people would still come to him for advices.

I love any novel that got to to with Malaysia. Of course I was delighted to read this book. It's full of historical events and happening. Although the author did say he changed some of the dates of the event to coincide with the happening in this book, I find that it is very exciting

Ya Loong is just such a powerful character and have vision for the future.

This book is the 2nd printing in 2008. Noted two typo errors:-

Page 141,  paragraph 3 "You think I'm a diety or something?..."

Page 240, Paragraph 4, " His scared member and jewels were cut off?"

Nevertheless, these two tiny error did not hinder my enjoyment of this book.

I would highly recommend this book for readers who wish to know more about the Malaysian history.