Sibu Tales : Kebaya

When my grandfather Tiong Kung Ping was introduced to his future wife by Rev James Hoover, he was very touched by Rev Hoover's gesture, who knew that my grandfather, from a very humble, impoverished background in China was determined to marry a hardworking wife.

Rev Hoover had found a kind  Fuqing lady of about 20+ from Java and Singapore, willing to serve in Sibu, in what many people then considered a "mission field of hardworking Foochow Christians ". My Grandmother Chong must have been starry eyed with a good heart filled with hope when she met for the first time my grandfather who was strong and tall, good looking and a good Christian. She herself was brought up in a Christian home, mission and English educated in Singapore.

According to senior Foochows, my grandmother wore Kebaya or "doll blouse" Nerng Yang Ee (a corruption of Nyonya blouse in the Foochow dialect). Hence my grandmother was nicknamed Nerng Yang because she was pretty as a doll and very fair skinned by the Foochow settlers in Sibu. However when the hardworking days started for her, she found the sam foo more convenient and she started wearing the white sam foo top, in those days, the common wear.

My own maternal grandmother at that time had seen my Grandmother Chong arriving in Sibu in 1909 with teacher JB Chong, her brother. She told us when we were growing up that our Grandmother Chong learned to speak Foochow very fast and soon she was able to mingle with everyone in Sibu.


Photo above shows my Grandmother Chong's 3 nieces from Australia with my mother, Aunty Chong Eng (in kebaya) and Aunty Meng Toh, and my sister Yin.


One of the ways she helped my grandfather was to read the English manual of machinery and my grandfather was able to fixed up many different kinds of engines for the people of Sibu. Grandma Chong however passed away early at age 38 at child birth, when the infant mortality rate in Asia was high.

Today many of the Chongs and Changs continue to wear the kebaya for special occasions. There is now a special interest in the wearing of kebayas in Malaysia. My late aunt Chong Eng was very fond of wearing the kebaya and sarong. And often she was seen wearing the costume when she went around her church work, ( pedalling expertly her bicycle).

(The Chongs and Changs are dispersed world wide although many continue to live in Sarawak. Some of the Chongs also live in Bogor, Java.)