January 7, 2013

Record Players of the 1940s-1960s

We have several family stories about record players and records.

During the Japanese Occupation my father was betrayed by his Sikh Guard (the Hua Hung Ice Factory employed a Sikh as security guard and his family lived in the staff quarters, free of charge).

My father was then the manager and during the evenings he would listen to his classical music. The Guard thought that my father was a foreign spy and he reported him to the Japanese Commandant hoping to get a reward. My father was a stern and taciturn man who did not joke with his staff and perhaps that was why the Security Guard did not regard him as a good boss.

Immediately my father was arrested and the whole factory was turned upside down by the Japanese. The record player and the records were taken to the Japanese Occupation Centre together with lots of English and Chinese books from my father's book shelves in the office. Father was beaten badly (which he did not really recover and eventually died a premature death). My grandfather rushed to take my father out of jail but it was that easily done.

Luckily a Mr.Lu who spoke and wrote Japanese and as my grandfather was well connected Mr. Lu was persuaded to write a letter to apologise to the Commandant. After 10 days my father was released and my grandfather and the whole family were ever grateful to Mr. Lu. Mr. Lu's beautiful sister later married our Third Uncle Hua King.

The guard and his family ran away to Kanowit where we later heard that they were later brutally murdered by the Japanese.

(Moral of the story : Do not bear false witness)

In the 1960's in Nang Chong, my cousins were great fans of good music. Uncle Wen Hui played the accordian and organ. So we had a lot of music in the house.

First Uncle Pang Ping owned a good record player and my cousins were fortunate enough to own a few good Chinese records. Later cousin Huong married a very rich man who gave the family many records. Thus records were played almost non stop to entertain the young children, while the older folks listened to government propaganda against the communist throughtout the 60-'s from the battery operated Philips radio..