Sibu Tales : F&N

Fraser and Neave gave children a lot of joy especially during the Chinese new year in Sibu in the 50's and 60's.

I grew up liking a lot of F&N drinks. They were extremely sweet and classing. And I loved the sound of bottles knocking together. Even the boxes holding 25 bottles of orange gave me joy, because they gave me a sense of pride when Chinese New Year came. We had these special drinks, only once a year.

In those days girls and women did not sit in coffee shops like today. We had to be accompanied by the males of our family like a father, a brother or an uncle.

I remember when I was very young, my father would take me to sit with him in Lock Huong Coffee shop which was on the ground floor of the Palace Theatre.

Later I even overheard my paternal grandmother saying, "Don't spoil the kids, don't bring them to the coffee shop." She was a very frugal lady and I think she would not sit in a coffee shop to yam char at any one time. My paternal grandfather was different. He enjoyed going to the movies and before entering the cinema he would sit in the coffee shop next to the Lido for example. That coffee shop was called Liu Huong. If he took me to the movie, he would order a glass of iced cold sugared water for me and he would have a cup of black coffee. The glass of sugared water only 5 cents. That really made me very happy.

How many would know that the slogan of F &N is "Pure Enjoyment. Pure Goodness" ? 

When F&N was introduced to the Foochows in Sibu, not many could read English in the early 1900.

Many pioneers were not literate in English.

Interestingly, many Foochows could recognise the main alphabets because of brands like F and N. My mother is Chinese educated by she can say FN, Cola, Lucky Strike,Players,Three Fives,Whiskey, Brandy and of course Coffee and Tea.

My mother is Chinese educated and we had a lot of fun helping her to "recognise" English words when we were young. We taught her to read all the labels in English.

I remember teaching our neighbour,  English words like FISH, Chicken, etc. She was about the same age as our mother then. I am glad that all her children learned English in school. One son went overseas to study in New Zealand. And in fact she saw her youngest son graduate with a First Class in Economics from MU. We were so happy for her.

As an English teacher, I used labels, and commercial products as teaching aids to teach English.