They were later followed by a sizeable groups of Henghuas and Cantonese during the 1st World War period. The early Chinese settlers planned to cultivate rice, but soon found that the soil was unsuitable for profitable rice farming and turned their attention to pepper, rubber and gambier (a sticky resin formerly used in place of rubber).

Despite famine, fever, floods and other hardships, the early settlers struggled to make their new home a success. They were capably led by the determined Rev. Wong, who was ably assisted by the Hoovers, an American missionary couple who played a major role in the development of Methodism in Sarawak. By the mid-1920s Sibu began to have the appearance of a fully fledged town. However disaster struck in 1928, when a major fire destroyed almost all of Sibu’s predominantly wooden buildings. The hardy settlers simply picked up their tools and built the town all over again, but Sibu was once more severely damaged by Allied bombing during the Japanese Occupation from 1941 to 1945. During the Second World War, hundreds of local people were killed, not only by the bombing but also by savage Japanese repression of the local Chinese community, who were firm supporters of Chinese independence and the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek.

Sibu’s recovery began in the early 1950s, with the advent of the mechanised logging. The town became the principal centre for the timber industry in Sarawak, and huge fortunes were made by enterprising loggers. From the 1960s to the late 1980s Sibu boomed along with the timber trade, and downstream industries such as sawmilling, plywood manufacturing and even shipbuilding were established. From the early 1990s onwards, the timber industry in Sibu began a gradual decline as more sustainable logging practices were introduced and timber quotas imposed. However the town continued to grow thanks to its strategic importance as the major port and commercial centre for the entire Rejang Basin.