My aunt Hung Yung was a very confident primary school teacher who was knowledgeable and hardworking. Many of her students remember her well and with great fondness because she was a kind and cheerful teacher.
I remember she had to work so hard when she went for her retraining for the new curriculum using Bahasa Malaysia. Already in her 40's she had to make teaching aids and prepare her lessons. It must have been very daunting for her to be assessed by education officers who were younger than her.
But she took everything in her stride and continued to bring us lots of happy stories of her childhood and youth, some of the stories my mother did not want to tell us.
After the retraining she continued to work a few more years and retired at 55. She was happy that she could enjoy a small pension from the government. In actual fact, she was a well trained dress maker with a diploma from Singapore , a time when not many girls had that kind of opportunity.
(Photo above : My aunt Hung Yung before she married Uncle Hii Wen Hui, whom she chose from 3 or 4 suitors.)
She shared one of her best kept secrets with us. Now all the characters of the secret have passed on, I can share here.
On many occasions he was best man to his friends who would want a presentable man who could speak well. My uncle was well mannered, well spoken and well educated. Furthermore he was very capable of getting things done so many of his friends liked to call upon him to help out.
Most of the time the grooms were good looking too, but on one occasion, the groom was quite a disappointing figure. It was a match made by one of the relatives and the bride, according to aunt Yung burst into tears when she saw that the best man was so good looking.
For years the bridesmaid (my aunt )kept the secret and she never told my uncle about it. Of course my mother and her sisters all kept this secret well. After all it was a P and C matter for ladies.
But I suppose it was a secret that some body must have told my uncle ....Any way he took everything nonchalantly and went on his own way, to teach well until he had an early retirement. His wife kept a good rein on him, as she taught in the same school all their lives.
What did a Foochow Best Man have to do in the past?
First of all he had to help the groom to calm down and make sure that he was doing the right thing.
Secondly, he had to guide the brass band when to play their music etc. That is, he was a sort of time keeper.
He was also the MC of the day, from the time the groom went to the bride's house to fetch the bride, until the end of the banquet.
When at the bride's home, he was the guy who called the shots, when to have the brunch and when to get the bride going. In fact he would be the first one to see the face of the bride when she appeared from her room.
Then he had to make sure that everything was in order before the procession started to leave the house.
When the bridal group reached the church or the restaurant, he would be the guy who went ahead to inform everyone of the next activity. (That was before hand phone or walkie talkie came into the scene)
His most important job was to introduce the groom during the banquet. The bride however was often introduced by just one sentence. Probably he did not know her.
This was also because the banquet was paid for by the groom and his family in the olden days.
Next would be all the bowing and the toasting which he had to manage with a great sense of humour. He might even have to sing in between to entertain the guests.
The best man must never get drunk while the groom might become so drunk that his relatives had to piggy back him into the bridal car. It had happened a few times in Foochow history. Oh I do like this part of wedding stories, how the groom had to be carried off from the banquet in a stupor.
In our family we all knew that our second uncle was the BEST best man any groom could have. He was really a good and honest man.
1 comment:
Great read
Thanks.
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