Bak kut teh is said to originate from Quanzhou in Fujian, China or Chaoshan, where it is still made today.The nourishing meat soup was brought over to South East Asia with the Chinese diaspora. According to the most plausible version of the story, bak kut teh was invented by a gentleman from Quanzhou of the Fujian province in China. The secret recipe was passed to a friend who later went to Klang and became the first person to commercialise and sell Bak Kut Teh. The dish went on to become a famous dish and was copied and improved many times over. So according to this version the Hokkiens were the inventors of the dish. The Teochews came later and the main visual difference between the Hokkien and Teochew version of Bak Kut Teh is that the Hokkiens use dark soy sauce and thus the soup base is characteristically darker in colour. It is up to the individual's taste buds which one tastes better.
Bak kut teh was believed to have been introduced to Malaya in the 19th century by Chinese coolies and workers from either Canton, Chaoshan or Fujian. The dish is reported to supplement the meagre diet of port coolies and as a tonic to boost their health.