Sibu Tales : Cold Storage and Prawn Peeling

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Tiger, 2022.

If only we could have some Tiger Prawns for our lunch!  That would be a dear wish...and it might just be wishful thinking.

However it would not cost anything to swap a few stories. So, a few days of CNY holiday is the best time for some story swapping and talking about old times.

Zoom meetings are for us to see each other for some fleeting moments and it is not for some slow heartfelt story telling.

Yes a long time ago, Chinese New year was completely different. Like many other Foochow families in Sibu, we used to get together for visits to Grandparents in Sungei Merah or Uncles and Aunties all over Sibu, we would swap a lot of stories in the physical sense. Slow cooking, slow story telling and slow passing of time.

To me. the Oral Tradition is best when we can meet each other in a group and allow story telling to happen. It is just oh so natural.

I remember the days when we shared stories about prawn peeling in the factory by the river side owned by the NOW Tan Sri Tiong Su Kuok, also an uncle. Many of my cousins from down river and Sg. Bidut experienced earning a bit of pocket money from prawn peeling. And one even met her future husband while working as a temporary work. Eventually she became a towkay neo. Good fate cousin.

There were also stories to be shared too when we visited Uncle Hii Wen Hui, who was a great story teller. Charles Tiong, an educationist of Sibu would also remember that. And of course more stories  about prawn peeling, cold storage beef (A1 Topside) and lots and lots of stories about food.

This Chinese New Year, I have a story to share as told by a good friend. The story of prawns and cold storage prawns of Sibu.

It is the story about the shelling of prawns from a lady who is now a huge corporate figure in Miri.

After her form five my friend started to work for the factory in Upper lanang Road. Her sister,  married to a security guard, lived just opposite the factory, and had introduced her to the manager. 

Many Iban girls had joined the team alongside other desperate young ladies who wanted work and some income.

The ladies were paid by the weight of the prawns they peeled. Some received so little at the end of the week but they soldiered on.

My friend worked very hard and she said at the end of the holiday she was able to earn enough to pay for her siblings' school fees and a little left over for her mother. It was too expensive for her to go back to Ulu Julau, so she was glad she could earn some money at the prawn factory. She almost lost all her nails from the job, which was back breaking, hot and eye straining. They did not have the luxury of working in air conditioned rooms.

I am wondering if the Tan Sri Tiong were to see her today, would he be happy to meet her now?

He would never had imagine a little Iban girl from Julau could achieve so much in life.