Since this year is the Chinese Zodiac year of the Ox, I will write a little story about my paternal grandparents who lived in Sg. Merah and a little story about the cow farm next door.
My grandparents had a good and happy neighbour whom we called Uncle Wong. He had a soy sauce factory and several cows.
His mother Ping Chuang Moo was one of the biggest rubber estate owners in Sg. Merah and she had famously sent all her sons to China and Hong Kong for their further studies.
Her eldest son, this Uncle Wong was rather special because he liked my grandmother Siew's cooking. And he would sometimes be called to come up the hill to enjoy a soup or two with my grandfather. He had been educated in Shanghai and Beijing and hence he had developed special taste buds along the way. So he and my grandmother had a lot to share about good food.
My grandfather by then was retired and he did say that Uncle Wong should not spend his valuable time rearing cows on his rubber land, and just making soy sauce as a hobby. My grandfather loved to converse with intellecturals like Ucle Wong.
Most people in those days did business from home. He and his family lived in a factory like home. Uncle Wong had about 100 urns with covers to manufacture his soy sauce. He had built his home to look like a Chinese factory, which opened out to a yard which would catch the morning sun shine. He had all his theories about making soy sauce.
We kids, then all around 10 years of age or below, used to play among the huge urns. Uncle Wong would also go around collecting the urns from the salt fish mongers and my grandmother had quite a few for herself, to stor flour, rice and other things.
Uncle Wong was after all a Chemistry graduate from Yenching University, Beijing.
But unfortunately he went underground in 1962, my grandfather passed away in 1963 and my father passed away in 1965.
Eventually Uncle Wong was shot to death in 1972 in Engkilo.
My grandmother missed getting some free soy sauce and some good beef from him.
This is the story of a man who was very highly educated but living a very simple life in Sg. Merah, where he was born.
For years we remember how he accepted his nickname, Wong Ngu Bok Shu. Doctor of Cows. The Foochows alway call cows Wong Ngu.
He was a good friend and neighbour. I would say 50 years down the road, he can be considered a man of vision , a man who already thought about sustainable agriculture, to produce milk and lots of cows and making of soy sauce to make Sibu famous.
P.S. His cow farm is still in Sg. Merah as his descendants never have a chance to develop it.
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