Like many mouthwatering kopitiam staples, chicken chop was created by the Hainanese. During the second wave of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia beginning in the 19th century, immigrants from southern China flocked to the region in droves seeking their fortune.

In British Malaya and Singapore, the Hokkiens from Fujian and the Cantonese, Teochews and Hakka from Guangdong were the first to settle, eventually dominating the lucrative tin mining and plantation sectors.

The Hainanese, from the southernmost Chinese province of Hainan (literally, “south of the sea”), were relative latecomers, and so were shut out of key economic sectors by the other Chinese dialect groups.

Because of this, many Hainanese ended up as domestic helpers in British and Peranakan Chinese households or as kitchen hands and cooks at British military bases, ships, restaurants and hotels during the colonial period.

Read more here: https://www.airasia.com/play/assets/bltcc727e16f8db8036/the-secret-history-of-chicken-chop-malaysias-original-western-food