Nang Chong Stories : Three Child Brides 1901 - 2019

 Three of the female family members of my maternal grandfather's family made the family history amazing.

The family history started with his father, who never remarried after his long suffering wife took her own life due to extreme anxieties. It sounded like a Qing Dynasty TV drama set in the 1850's.

According to some oral stories, after she gave birth to her youngest son, my maternal grandfather, Lau Kah Jui, she was so demoralized by the family gossips about her poor family that she became very desperate and weakened spiritually. The stories was oft repeated that she had married into the Lau family without any bridal gift. Burdened with such social inaequacy and even shame, she went into depression and could not be comforted as she nursed her baby. It could also be because she was suffering from post natal depression as those days were hard times.

According to family stories, she jumped into the Min river to end her own anxieties.

That was the the beginning of the saga of the three motherless Lau  brothers, Lau Kah Mik, Kah Tii and Kah Jiu.

My maternal great grandfather had already bought a child bride for his eldest son, Kah Mik and by the time he was 20 he had fathered two children.

Kah Tii who was around 15 years old then, decided to venture to The Southern Ocean with Wong Nai Siong. 

As he had lost his mother young, Kah Jui a toddler was breastfed by his eldest sister in law, the wife of Kah Mik. For that reason and bonding, Kah Jui was forever grateful to Kah Mik and his wife.

Lau Kah Tii's father worked hard in the farm and managed to "buy two child brides" for his younger sons. Indeed, the eldest son and his wife (a child bride to start with) helped him manage the household.

Just before Lau Kah Tii left for Sibu, Sarawak in 1901, his father bought two child brides, one 9 years old and one 5 years old.



My maternal grandmother Tiong Lien Dieh was bought for 5 silver dollars, from the Tiong Village, Kay Tou Puoh. It was supposed to be one dollar for one year of age. My grandmother's father wanted to earn one extra dollar, so he lied about my grandmother's age. Instead of saying that she was four, he told my great grandfather she was five.

But according to family stories, she was very smart and very alert,and quick with work. She was well loved by the family and especially by her eldest sister in law, Kah Mik's wife.

The three daughters in law grew up and were very close. Unknown to them at that time, they were to bring about many generations of Nanyang Foochows who were successful, and indeed many of their descendants have moved to New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.