MPH – MALAYSIA
That a brief history of MPH should start
with a missionary may seem strange, but it sets the motion to the
train of events, that, eventually led to the establishment of
MPH.
In 1807, Robert Morrison was the first Protestant missionary
sent by the London Missionary Society to work in China. He
translated the New Testament and Old Testament into Chinese with
the help of an eager young missionary, William Milne. After being
in Macau for two years, Milne chose to set up a printing press in
Malacca in 1815. Among his achievements in his first few years
there were to start up the Malacca Anglo-Chinese College and print
the first Chinese edition of the Old Testament.
The Origins of MPH
In 1890, Captain W.G. Shellabear arrived in Singapore to
establish a printing press known as the Amelia Bishop Press. The
aim of the publishing venture was the printing of Christian
literature, and eventually, the setting and printing of secular
work was taken up.
Amelia Bishop Press moved to Raffles Place in 1893 and changed
its name to the American Mission Press. The Book Room was
established to sell publications of the Mission Press, school books
and other supplies for the Mission’s schools.
Shellabear is recognised as the founder of the Malaya Publishing
House whose far sightedness in bringing modern printing techniques
to Singapore contributed to the growth of the Southeast Asian
publishing industry. Methodist Christians know him as one of the
founders and early leaders of Methodism in Malaya, and as a
translator of the Bible and many other religious texts into Malay.
Among old Malay classics reprinted by Shellabear include Sejarah
Melayu and Hikayat Abdullah.
In 1900, Rev. William T. Cherry arrived and helped turn the
foundations built by Shellabear into a multi-faceted organisation –
printing, publishing, bookselling, and book distribution. The
American Mission Press changed name to the Methodist Publishing
House in 1906, from which the acronym MPH was
derived. It was in 1908 that the Methodist Publishing House moved
into its new building at the corner of Stamford Road and Armenian
Street. The company became a public stock company in 1927 with an
experienced Board of Directors and the Publishing House was
officially incorporated as Malaya Publishing House Limited.
In 1928, Frank Cooper Sands became the Managing Director of the
new Malaya Publishing House. The company was carrying on its
business as ‘proprietors and publishers of and dealers in
newspapers, journals, magazines, books and other literary works and
undertakings.’ Frank Sands reopened the publishing house in 1945
after the Japanese occupation, which left most of the printing
equipment removed or destroyed, and the building on Stamford Road
badly deteriorated.
In 1963 the Malaya Publishing House changed its name to Malaysia
Publishing House and began operating as a wholesale book
department. The retail side, under the name of Malaysian Books
Limited, had new bookstores opening at Selangor Mansion in Kuala
Lumpur, Beach Street in Penang and at Jalan Laksamana in Malacca.
At Stamford Road, the ground floor was turned to general
bookselling.
1966 saw the Malaysia Publishing House failing financially. The
company was bought over and set up under a consortium headed by
Masagung, a sixth-generation Chinese Indonesian. Under the new
management, there were 4 subsidiaries: MPH
Books, MPH Printers, MPH Publications & Lian Tak MPH
(producing exercise books & paper products). Despite its
problems in the 1960s, the company continued to publish a range of
old and new titles.
In 1972, Jack Chia Holdings (Hong Kong) bought over MPH. As Jack Chia-MPH Limited, its various subsidiaries
were divided into the Books and Publications Division, the Consumer
Products Division, the Timber Division, the Hotel Division and the
Services Division. The Books and Publications Division took on new
activities like publication of magazines.
The company was publicly listed and bought over in 1999 by
Singaporean entrepreneur Simon Cheong and changed its name to
MPH Ltd in March 2000.
In 2002, the MPH brand with its book
retail and book distribution arm, MPH
Bookstores and MPH Distributors respectively,
was bought over by a Malaysian company, Jalinan Inspirasi Sdn Bhd.
It is part of a large Malaysian conglomerate owned by Malaysian
businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary. For the first time,
MPH becomes a wholly Malaysian-owned
company.
Recently, the MPH Group restarted its
printing and publishing arm; MPH Group
Printing and MPH Group Publishing
respectively. Jalinan Inspirasi is now known as the MPH Group, which owns MPH
Bookstores (Malaysia and Singapore), MPH
Distributors (Malaysia and Singapore), MPH
Group Printing and MPH Group Publishing.
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