You have probably walked past an Eu Yan Sang shop, and many of us think of it as a Singapore brand. But it was born in Gopeng, near Ipoh, in 1879, when Eu Kong opened a small medicine shop for tin miners and called it "Yan Sang": caring for mankind. His son Eu Tong Sen went to school in Ipoh, became the "King of Tin", and opened a medicine shop beside every mine. Here is how one Gopeng shop became a name across Asia, including the uncomfortable chapters.

You have probably seen the old portrait of a Kapitan in Qing mandarin robes. We guessed he was one of Perak's tin Kapitans. We were wrong: he is Kapitan Yap Ah Loy of Kuala Lumpur. But Perak had mandarin Kapitans of its own. Chung Keng Quee, Foo Choo Choon and Leong Fee wore Qing ranks, many of them paid for with donations from a price list printed in the newspaper. Here is how to read the robe, and what the titles cost.