Concept

Sibu

Summary
Sibu ˈsiːbu: (; Foochow Romanized: Sĭ-bŭ) is a landlocked city in the central region of Sarawak. It is the capital of Sibu District in Sibu Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The city is located on the island of Borneo and covers an area of . It is located at the confluence of the Rajang and Igan Rivers, some 60 kilometres from the South China Sea and approximately north-east of the state capital Kuching. Sibu is mainly populated by people of Chinese descent, mainly from Fuzhou. Other ethnic groups such as Iban, Malay and Melanau are also present, but unlike other regions of Sarawak, they are not as significant. The cities population as of 2010 is 162,676. Sibu was founded by James Brooke in 1862 when he built a fort in the town to fend off attacks by the indigenous Dayak people. Following this, a small group of Chinese Hokkien people settled around the fort to carry out business activities safely in the town. In 1901, Wong Nai Siong led a large scale migration of 1,118 Fuzhou Chinese people from Fujian, China into Sibu. The first hospital in Sibu, as well as the Sibu bazaars, were built by the Brooke government. The Lau King Howe Hospital and a number of Methodist schools and churches were built in the 1930s. However, the town of Sibu was burnt to the ground twice, in 1889 and in 1928, but it was rebuilt after that. During the Japanese occupation of Sarawak, the Japanese installed a new Resident in Sibu in June 1942 and Sibu was renamed to "Sibu-shu" in August 1942. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Sarawak was ceded to the British as a Crown Colony. This had caused dissatisfaction amongst young Melanau people in Sibu who were pro-independence. As a result, the second British Governor of Sarawak, Sir Duncan George Stewart, was assassinated by Rosli Dhoby when he visited Sibu in December 1949. Rosli was later hanged to death at Kuching Central Prison in 1950. Sibu and the Rajang basin also became the centre of communist activities from 1950, which continued even after the Sarawak independence in 1963.
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