Foochow Storage Jars

My mother's relatives from her mother side were business people in Sibu. My ngie mah or maternal grandmother came from a Tiong family from Kay rou puoh (Creek Head Area) in Minqing.

Hence I was a little girl, I used to meet many of my grandmother's side of the family. I accompanied  her and my mother to the market and the shops.

( Mum cannot drive as she felt that she could not pass the test in English. She was not good at passing exams she told us. And she never felt the need to drive a car. So we used to walk every where in Sibu town.)

One of her maternal uncles was Tiong Liu Tai, the father of Tiong Tung Ung, who was a few years my senior in the Methodist School. According to the genealogy, my own Tiong family is considered several generations "younger" than theirs. So they were "elders" in the family line up. Grand Uncle (or juk gung) Tiong Liu Tai was a salted fishmonger and we usually could buy the choicest of the salted fish from him. We never would get cheated.

As the salted vegetables and salted eggs were exported from Fujian in jars, many of our relatives used to get their jars from Grand Uncle Tiong. And in those days, they were free.

Fujian was known as a province where pottery and some of the best ceramic wares was produced.

These jars were very useful in the downriver villagers. 

My grandmother collected them for several purposes - they were used as

1) rice jars
2) wine jars
3) water jars
4) pickling jars

I liked to look at all them when I was young and imagined myself as an inn keeper selling a lot of wine, and with all those wine jars lining one side of my inn's lobby. In my university days I fared well in the subject of Chinese Ceramics. (My lecturer then was no less than Prof Z. Majeed).

I finally came to own a wine jar.

Much later in life, an aunt called me to her house and she gave me her wine jar. She told me that she had kept that jar , from her Sg. Bidut days and it must have been given to her by Grand Uncle Tiong. It was more than 50 years old then.

Aunt was well known for her wonderful Foochow red wine. She was also a very good cook.

She actually taught me many things, especially wine making and often told me stories of how awesome my grandfather and father were. As a niece to my grandfather, she looked at my grandfather as a hero and my father as a gentleman first cousin. She herself was a humble relative with a heart of gold.

But because of my career and family responsibilities, I never did have the heart to make the red wine.

She had told me that if I became a good wine maker I could earn extra income. If only I had listened to her.

Today, 15 years later from the day she gave me the jar, I still have it and still have not nade a single litre of Foochow red wine.