The Circle of Love and kinship cannot be broken and indeed grows beigger and bigger.
New Tanjong Seafood (Opposite the Marriot) has several recommendable dishes : crispy pata and chilled pork leg with sweet chilli sauce. Tempura Brinjal with Meat Floss. My husband brought freshly caught red snapper and the chef steamed it with sweet soy sauce and fried onions and ginger. Another interesting dish I always order is the mee sua cooked with cangkok manis. Amidst the great food and laughter we started telling tales and linked our lives and histories together!! We are more than brothers and sisters in Christ. We are related because of our historical origins!
William is our wedding photographer and his grandparents migrated from the Min River too. Keith is the great grandson of Tiong Kung Ping( Second boat Foochow pioneer in 1903)). Sitting next to me is Ping my cousin. In this photo you can see two grand daughters of Tiong Kung Ping who have settled in Miri in the last twenty or so years. Keith's mother settled down in Miri more than 40 years ago. There are some more cousins in Miri.
This is Keith Chin - young and a rising star of our family. His Foochow is fairly good now. By Foochow protocol he now has to address Winnie as Aunty. Ping has to call Winne "Bui Soh" as she is my cousin and Dr. Tie is my cousin or Bui Hin. (You have to go and find out how this works out.) There was a lot of surprise laughter here! Well by modern protocol we just address each other by name...
This is Hii Bai Yen who comes from a very illustrious Hii family of Sibu and has been teaching at Curtin University in the last few years. Her singing and musical talents have comfoted so many church members. A cheerful lady with a heart of gold she is always a welcome guest in any function. May God bless her richly.
Now next to her is the amazing Winnie - the grand daughter in law of Lau Kah Tii (the second Kang Chu). Winnie Chan is also Mrs. Dr. Tie King Tai the Principal of the Methodist Theological School.
This is the youngish William Ting who Foochow family migrated to Limbang during the Communist Era. He and his wife Teresa were top students in SMK Limbang during their student days.
Photographer and blogger James Wong is a descendent (grand son) of the First Baby Boy born in Sibu in the first year of Sibu settlement days. James has been in Miri and Brunei for the last 25 years!
What an amazing night of getting together and sharing our genealogy apart from other interesting topics. Glory be to God who brought the first Foochow pioneers to Sibu in 1903. Without them this group of happy people would not have such a gathering in this manner!
(Note : Actually many of us know each other in Miri but not many of us know that we are related to each other by blood or by marriage unless we start to "bertusud" or talk about our ancestors and genealogy. However this kind of sharing really depends on the individual whether he is interested in becoming "related" and "twined" with another person.... As a researcher of social history this is very much my cup of tea if people do start talking. So my apologies to readers who do not agree with me and this posting. )
2 comments:
Now I have an idea...if I call you niece - Keith C. will become my grand nephew...how will that make me???? I am as ancient as the Ancient Mariner!! Oooops.
Dear Peacemaker
Thanks for visiting. We Chinese are always respectful towards elders and it is a good value to keep - how to addrss our elders properly. It is in this I believe to be the main pillar of our communal spirit. There is a saying No Big No small will make a person have an ill repute.
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