With the help of Google, I was befriended by Dr. Zhang Zhen from Australia.
She and I corresponded and we realized that we did have something in common. My father Chang Ta Kang knew her mother Miss Li Xiaoyin, in Sibu.My father had returned from Beijing. He had also studied in Shanghai and was good friend with Wong Cheng Ang, who proabably inspired Miss Li to come to Sibu and helped her find a job as a teacher.
By a long shot Dr. Zhang Zhen was trying to find out more about her mother's history.
"It is a long shot," she wrote to me.
"I am trying to find out who could possibly have parents who studied in Tung Hua Secondary School in 1930's to 40's."
In my curiosity I asked my mother who told me that my father had spoken of Miss Li Xiaoyin who taught in Tung Hua secondary school and that she was an excellent English teacher. She boarded in the school at Queensway.
Dr. Zhang Zhen wrote to me --
"According to historical documents from the Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association (Cai 2007; 2013), my mother most probably arrived in Sibu in the first half of 1939 as she was listed as the deputy director of the drama troupe of the Sibu Chinese Choir. While in Sibu, she organized singing and dancing performances and flower selling events to raise money for the anti-Japanese resistance movement. Records of the various positions she held are published in books by the Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association (Cai 2007). She seems to have left for Singapore after September 1940, according to the Association documents. (Zhang Zhen)
The black and white photo shows Miss Li in Shanghai 1936.
Coloured photo of Miss Li with the writer and Professor Zhang Zhen . Miss Li passed away in Sept 2015.
Note : Dr. Zhang Zhen came to Sibu to meet up with several historians and later she came to Miri to meet up with me.
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