Father's Love : Shanghai Bund vs Rajang Explanade

 

My father spent several years studying in Shanghai before he qualified to be enrolled in Yenching University. He left Sibu with a Junior School certificate awarded by Mrs. Hoover, which was probably an equivalent of Form 2. So he was further educated in a Christian college in Shanghai where he sat for the university qualifying exams after three or probably four years of serious studies of English, Chinese literature and Mathematics.

He told my mother about the huge population of Shanghai and how in the summer he enjoyed the breezes of the Shanghai bund. All these stories became visual reality when we saw Chow Yung Fatt and his movies. But my father was long gone by then.

One of his favourite daily chores as a father was to bring us for evening walks along the Rajang "esplanade" or what we called in those days, the  government wharf area. Sometimes if we were early we would catch the policemen going home. Four or five of them together was already a large number of them.

Sometimes we could see a big ship coming in. but usually ships came in about noon especially if they had to sail from Kuching via Sarikei.

We enjoyed the feel of the cool evening breezes and my father would sit down, most probably thinking about the old days. He was not much of a talker but he watched us closely as we played. My young brother was growing up fast, having been born in 1953 . We had moved from Pulau Kerto in 1956 so that my father , at my grandfather's request could work in the Hock Hua Bank. Grandfather had thought that it was a waste for my university graduate to work as an ice mill manager. In fact my father was most happy working as a simple factory manager, with employees from all races, and having leisure time to go fishing! My father was never an enterprising business man. He did not even like to collect debts, especially from people who were not honest.

Sometimes, at the wharf, a Malay man would come up and chatted with him. Those were the days when people could freely talk to each other. We were so proud of our father who could speak English with an Englishman, Malay with a Malay man, and Iban with an Iban man. My father spoke good Hin Hua too besides good Mandarin.

Once a Malay came up to him for help and my father told him to bring the relevant papers the next to the bank. Probably it was something confidential and he did not want to discuss it in public, with us kids around. He had a very reassuring manner so to speak. I cannot remember what the Malay man was asking as my Malay was minimal at that time and they were speaking very softly. My father was a very soft spoken man.

The muddy banks of the Rajang appeared when the tide was low but at that time, we kids were dreaming of playing on a beach like in the movies.  We were not allowed to play on the mud banks at this point although other kids were seen playing or looking for river snails, even under the jetty.

We were not to see a beach until we were very much older and on our own. My siblings all have their own first sight of a beach.

My first sight of a beach was at Mukah when our school sent us to play softball at Three Rivers School and our little motor launch took us from Sibu, turn to the right of the river, at the Igan confluence and then onwards towards the sea coast. The Mukah beach was brown, and not technicolor as I had imagined. It was no Blue Hawaii as I had imagined. I did not see any Gigit, or Doris Day. There was no surf at all.

Yes the second photo would always remind me of the Igan confluence and my school sports trip to Mukah to see the SEA!!

My mother had seen many beaches in her life. But she never saw Shanghai and Shanghai Bund in her life time. I hope now that she is among angels, she can see everything and anything in the world.