Old Man in white Singlet

A photo by famous KF Wong of Sibu. Taken  in Singapore and is now archived.

When we were young, living in Sibu, we were very respectful towards towkays of the shops in the town. Most of them wore white singlets like this. It was like a kind of uniform.

We would know immediately that they were rich men with businesses to run.

And we must behave well in front of them if we happened to pass by them along the 5 foot way. If we saw them in the shops, sitting at their huge desks, we had to speak respectfully to their shop assistants, bought what we needed to buy and then vamoose or disappear.

Old Mr. Sia Diu Kie of 7 High Street was known as the King of Engkabang, and the father of Mr. Sia Kie Ming. Mr. Ling of Tai sing company would always get funeral gifts (white gifts ready) for relatives. One could just call him up and honesty was his call card. He would get all gifts delivered to the home of the deceased. This was a special service that he provided.

Even people from down river villages would send messages through boat drivers to him. And soon, he would have XXXX mother (giver) written on the cloth gift, with the right message of condolences. A white packet of 7 dollars in those days would also be included in the gift. The IOU would be paid later by xxxx mother when she came by motor launch to sibu. Her name would be cancelled in the long black ledger. This was a very simple Foochow accounting.

All you needed to do then was to give a Gow Dai (message).

Until now I still remember all these. The white t shirt was a kind of unspoken identity which we associated with wealth and power of those days. and reliability.