Hii Ing Dier : From Minqing to Sibu 1886-1984

 This is a story from Philip Wong Hieng Hung who wrote to me about his Grandmother.

In 1973, my mother, Lau Hung Chuo, his parents , Mr and Mrs. Wong Teck King and a few other Sibu parents attended an MU Graduation Ceremony.

Three of us, Foochows from Sibu graduated that from different faculties, Wong Leh King, Philip's sister (Science Faculty) Peter Wong Hung Huang (Engineering Faculty) and I (Arts Faculty). My eldest Aunt Lily, came from Singapore to represent my late father who was the first Sibu Foochow boy to graduate from Yenching University Beijing in 1937. I became the first Foochow Sibu girl to graduate with a BA (Hons) from MU. Lee Kee was always the top student in my class in secondary school. She was good in maths and Sciences. The Wong family's Maths genes must have come from their grandmother.

( The parents later went to Sitiawan for a tour. And they talked about it for years.)

A few years ago I started collecting oral history of the Foochows of Sibu and I was glad I connected with Philip to get the story of his paternal grandmother, a bound feet lady from Minqing aka Ming Chiang. She lived in Sibu from 1947 until she passed away in 1984.

The Wong family had a shop in Sibu, along Island Road, and it faced the Rajang River and the Tua Pek Kong Wharf. The shop, Chii Sing, was a favourite stop over for down river Foochows when they came to Sibu. Philip's father, Towkay Wong Teck King , was a nice man, humble, hardworking and very pleasant. I remember him as an uncle who was always smiling. And Philip's mother was also a pretty and very polite lady. Because they were shop keepers, the downriver people often dropped by to seek their advice. They were like counsellors to them.

Their shop had a lot of general goods. To the eyes of a child it was like Ali Baba's cave with 1001 items!! I liked the pressure lamps the most because they were the kinds of presents I would buy for my down river relatives who did not enjoy the benefits of electricity.

It was this kind of background that Philip, who used to live upstairs of the shop, grew up and became a man of the world and migrated to Australia. His parents had migrated from Minching, China to Sibu.

Here is the story of a bound feet grandmother. Thank you Philip.

Philip's grandmother Hii Ing Dier (许永娣) was born in 1886 in the village of Koh Loh Sen in Minchiang.

Philip's Grandmother is on the left. Photo taken in 1906. 

Philip's grandmother is seated. A typical Fujian photo studio style. This must have been taken in 1947, to commemorate her trip to Nanyang (Sibu) to join her son.

Philip's grandmother at home in Sibu.

Her patchwork quilt.

Another patchwork quilt.

As she was from a well to do family, she had bound feet from a very young age. Being born into such a family, she was not expected to do any menial work or chores. 

She used to tell her grand children that she cried constantly from the pain from the tight binding,  and she would occasionally sneak down to the creek to soak her feet in the cold water, to alleviate the pain. When the pain got worse, she would secretly unbound her feet. But when she got caught by her parents, they would beat her and rebound her feet.

The binding of a young child's feet actually deformed the bones and slowly they became bent and misshapened but in those days, bound feet or LOTUS FEET were part of the beauty of a wealthy young lady. The smallest of the lotus feet were ideally, 3 inches. 

In 1905, at the age of 19, she was married Philip's Grandfather, Wong Nai Soon, in Kei Tau Wo, 6 Du. In 1906, she gave birth to a baby girl and went on to have 6 more children, 5 boys and 1 girl.

She was brought up as a Buddhist. And she remembered a Buddhist nursery rhyme to teach her grand children in Sibu.

Sin gan tat tat, Ng kian buh lat. Buh lat loh jui Ng kian jui gui.

(Translation : Pat your chest, Don't be afraid of the Buddha, The Buddha goes into the water, He is not afraid of Water Ghosts). This is a rhyme to comfort children when they are scared of the dark or ghosts.

Philip remembered a story, "Even though she had never attended school or received any formal education, she was articulate and intelligent. She excelled in arithmetic and calculation. All the extended family members would consult her when they needed to calculate an individual payment on a bulk communal purchase. An example was four communal families who wanted to buy a chicken but can only barter with rice. All four families can only afford x amount of rice to get the chicken. How much in chicken weight was allocated in proportion to the weight of rice was mentality calculated by my Grandmother. She was indeed a mathematical genius."

Philip's grandmother was brought to Sibu by his father. She witnessed how her son, who had a fractured back miraculously recovered due to constant prayers from a group of Christian women who came and prayed for him. She subsequently converted to Christianity and went to church every Sunday. It must have been a very slow walk to church on her own two feet!

The demure and delicate Grandma made all her own clothes and shoes by hand.

The soles of her shoes were cut from a rubber sheet and the top portion was hand sewn on the soles. All were glued together with scrap rubber sheeting and kerosene (a glue paste resulted from the mixture)

She was a skilled seamstress and made many quilts for her grand children. She also made shorts and pajamas for them.

Grandmother Hii loved pomelo. Interestingly, whenever she wanted to eat fruits from the fridge, she would pour hot water over them to warm them up. She would never eat anything icy cold. 

Her daily bath was quite a ritual. Her bath water was always heated up in an aluminium basin (sali turn) which was placed in the sun for a few hours. Most Foochow houses in Sibu were built with a wide balcony for laundry, keeping of water for cleaning of vegetables, fish and other food preparation. Rain water would be collected by gutters and drained to a diesel tank for example. This was the Foochow response to the tropical rains.

In her later years, she picked up reading of the Mandarin Bible. As her eyesight was slowly fading, Philip's father bought her a Bible with big fonts.With the aid of a magnifying glass, she happily went through the whole Bible.

Philip remembered a story she told about the clan's first sight of an aeroplane in 6 Du, Minqing. She was still young at that time. Every one was frightened by a loud rumbling noise and when they saw a huge eagle looking monster they shouted, Keh jou loh, lou yew bien jian (Run away quickly, an eagle has become a monster).

In 1969, when the Americans landed on the moon, Philip told her about it and he got a good scolding.

"Mehrei gong pien wah, Siongneh eh what nii."

"Don't tell lies God will punish you."

According to Philip, his grandmother was very cute, innocent  and sweet in her old age.

She passed away in 1984.

(To be refined from time to time.)