Most first and second generation Foochows (1901-1970) made their own basket from rattan or bamboo, with the skills they brought from China. My own grandfather was able to make good baskets from recycled materials.
this "Foochow Basket" was ubiquitous in Sibu. My Malay school mates used to call them Bakul Cina. And they would use that to identify the race of the person carrying one.
A friendly nurse used to say that the basket was very useful. When she saw an old lady carrying one, with hot water flask, a bottle (for medicine, when no bottles were supplied by the Lau King Howe Hospital, and patients had to bring their own), a bottle of aerated water and a paper umbrella, she would immediately know that she would be a Foochow lady from down river. She would then switch to broken Malay to speak to her.
I liked her sense of linguistic appropriacy, and she was able to code switch, to "lower herself" to be understood.
This photo shows our beloved school gardener, Wong Cheng Hiong who was a most pleasant and helpful Foochow gardener. His wife worked as a housekeeper for our principal, Mr. Wiltshire and his family.
Sometimes his wife would cycle all the way from Sg. Aup to work, sometimes, he would give his wife a ride on his motor bike. Cycling 3 or 5 miles to work or school in those days WAS A NORMAL ACTIVITY.
He was a man with a Foochow rattan basket. Clasp at the back of his bike the basket was a hold all and it was so useful to bring stuff from town to home, or from home to town.
This was before the days of plastic bags or a fibre glass box for the motor cycle.
(A rattan basket like this in those days would be abo0ut 3 or 4 dollars, considered quite expensive.)
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