Green tangerines or min dang gigian were sold at street corners, along five foot ways and alleys of Sibu in the 50's and 60's. Most of the sellers were women. A few of them were related to us.
Many groups of Foochow women formed their tontine loan schemes. My mother joined one which later collapsed. It was just a small one with small monthly contributions.
A very sudden collapse of all the tontine groups in Sibu caused a lot of anguish to the leaders. Some ran away, some good ones mortgaged their second house to selected friends, others borrowed from banks even to pay back.
My mother was fortunate because she did not belong to a group with a big monthly payup. And her leader was even a relative, who had given her collection to her son to invest in a construction company.
My mother was very humble. She agreed to be paid 2 katis of gigian every week. My sister collected the paper bag of gigian and signed a 555 note book. It took the Ah Moo years to pay my mother off.
We were happy that our mother was very forgiving. And my father had also advised her not to join a tontine group.
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