Nyonya Outfits: My Grand Aunty Chong

My Grandmother Chong born in Java was educated in Singapore where there were many Chinese girls boarding at the Nim Home.

According to my aunt who later went to the same boarding school said that Grandma Chong and her fellow students wore either Chinese samfoo or the sarong kebaya. Most of the hostel girls were from Indonesia and Malaya. Educated in English mainly, my Grandmother received up to Junior High education before she married my grandfather in Sibu, where she and her brother Chong Jin Bok settled, when introduced  by Rev James Hoover.

According to my maternal grandmother, Tiong Lien Tie, my Chong grandmother wore sarong kebaya and was known as Nyonya, a Malay and English speaking young lady. That was my Ngie Mah's introduction to my Chong grandmother. My ngie mah said she was a very strong and steady lady with very little to say. Probably that was how she was brought up. My father inherited a lot of her characteristics.

According to family stories my grandmother Chong started to wear what other Foochow women wore, Chinese top and trousers (sang ku) in no time to assimilate into the society. She also picked up the Minqing dialect very quickly. She spoke a deep Hock Chia or Hook Chiang dialect which according to many my grand uncle Chong Jin Bok had.

The impression that the Chong relatives wore a lot of Nyonya outfits stayed for a long time in Sibu because Mrs. Chong Jin Bok or our Ging Boh wore it all the time.

In this blog post I will share a photo of grand aunty wearing sarong kebaya. We called her Ing Mook Ging Boh. She was well loved and was always included in our family events especially when relatives came from overseas and we had restaurant dinners.

She would make a grand entrance in her beautiful sarong kebaya. Her fragrance was a special feature of hers too.

Towards the remaining days of her life in Sibu, she would get her grand nieces to her bed room and showed them her nice kebayas, her old photos and even talked about the old teaching days. She missed her old students who meant a lot to her.