Chang Ta Kang : Council Negri Member

After the handing over of Sarawak to the British Colonial Government, a new Constitution was drafted in 1956. The membership of Council Negeri increased to 24 non official elected members while 14 members were based on appointments, four on nomination and three as permanent members. The first democratic general election held in Sarawak in 1959 was through the three-tier voting system of the local councils.

A total of 24 non official members were elected to become members of the Council Negeri. The election brought about a political realization among the local people as proven by the emergence of a number of political parties. The Constituttion of the State of Sarawak underwent an important change on March 1963 following the announcement of the Concept of the Formation of Malaysia Raya in 1961. The change made by Council Negeri was to ensure Sarawak would have a fully democratic legislature and a ministerial system of government before Malaysia could be formed together.

Being the first local political party, Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP's) origins are tied to Sarawak's history of 20th century political awakening. After World War II, the last Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Vyner Brooke ceded Sarawak to Britain in 1946, thus making it an official British Crown Colony – to the dismay of many locals. This eventually gave rise to local anti-cession and anti-imperialist movements which further sparked local political awareness. The triggering event was Sarawak's new Constitution of 1959 which fell short of expectations for many who hoped to see significant progress to self-governance. The need for an organised political front to champion Sarawakian interests finally led to the formation of SUPP on 4 June 1959, with Ong Kee Hui as its founding president.

With a "Sarawak for Sarawakians" ideology – SUPP's movement gained widespread support, including winning big in the local elections of November 1959, alarming the then ruling British colonial government. When the proposal for Federation of Malaysia was first mooted in 1961, SUPP came out strongly to oppose the idea. Ong argued for Sarawak's independence before setting up a greater federation.

My father's personal foray as an SUPP party member

My father, Chang Ta Kang who had been pro democratic governance and English educated was dismayed by the sudden change in the political situation. He was a founding member of SUPP and a good friend of both Ong Kee Hui and Stephen Yong. As an elected representative of Sibu on the SUPP ticket he was undecided. He needed time to think about the formation of Malaysia and self governance for Sarawak. He believed that Sarawak was ready for self governance. But his ill health caused him to remain silent and he did not any articles for the Chinese newspapers, including the Ta Tung Newspaper, run by his own sister Pearl and her friends.

In December 1962, the British colonial government launched a crackdown on all dissenting groups in Sarawak. Many party members were detained, some even deported from Sarawak for alleged communist activities as, at the time, some members had links with Communist-affiliated. This further caused my father more heart aches. He was hospitalised for the first time for a weak heart condition. He had also started to burn a lot of his artwork, correspondence, notes, books and Chinese language magazines because he felt that the Speciall Branch might misconstrue everything he had. My father had studied in Shanghai and later graduated from Yenching university, Beijing. He was however more a scholar than an activist.

Following his hospitalisation he did not want to make any more political statements for Sibu and for SUPP. He was not surprised that SUPP still did well at the Sarawak elections of June 1963 . He was further disappointed that SUPP did not have a majority to form government, and it remained as the opposition.

1963 was a double disaster for the family as my grandfather passed away which caused my father to have his first heart attack. It was sad sight that he sat in a trishaw at the back of the coffin during the procession around the town. I had never seen my father weep so loudly. The pillar of our family was gone.

My grandfather had been disappointed by the political situation. When he saw the Sarawak Chinese Association gaining a strong hold in Sarawak politics he said at the beginning, "Politics in Sarawak is not meant for the poor." He then advised my father and my second uncle to leave SUPP. He also advised all who came to seek his opinion about standing for election. He would give his strong opinion.

Grandfather had said," You will never stop spending money for politics. Just look after your children well and that is good enough. When a family is stable everything will fall into place."

Sibu : How to transport Bricks Downriver

As people become more affluent down river, they would like to improve and renovate their wooden houses. Some may even want to build new concrete houses.

In fact, cement was introduced to the people of Sibu in 1926 when the contractor who built the Lau King Howe Hospital used cement. A large group of people came to see if the cement could really solidify!!

My grandfather Tiong Kung Ping used to tell us that for many days the Foochows and people of other races talked about the new product - cement. They were trying to work out how by mixing sand, water and cement powder could bring about a solid mass.

There after the shops and many government buildings of Sibu used concrete.

In my January 2023 trip to Sibu I was happy to see this river motor launch was filled up by workers. Bricks were placed in the front of the boat. Most probably the bricks were going down river to the Igan kampongs which are still not connected by roads. 
 

1962 Big Flood of Sarawak

In I962 I joined the Girl Guides. This is a photo for remembrance.

That year December Sarawak experienced the biggest flood any one had seen. As a new recruit I joined in the packing of clothes in boxes and these lovely ladies were there to guide us. We were all at the hall of the Sibu Recreation Club and we worked very hard. I still remember how much I enjoyed voluntary work then as a very young Form One girl.

I was comfortable because my aunt Ik Sing (second left in the photo) was with us. Emily Chew, extreme right was a happy guider and I really appreciated her laughter and kindness. Mrs. Temple, heavily pregnant was our Captain. Mrs. Griffin, the Resident's wife was head of the Disaster Committee of Sibu. 

The Girl Guides Movement moulded my outlook in life and Mrs. Temple was a great mentor. I learned how to make my first western butter cake from her at Hoover House, using her New World oven. I was over the top!! We Girl Guides were so nervous following the steps of the recipe. But it was a beautiful cake. Many of us still remember that day. Thank you Mrs. Temple.

May be that was the first time I heard of the town of Limbang and how the valley was really flooded with many flood victims. The bulk of our clothe boxes was sent to Limbang by army plane. 

Today I wonder if some of the clothes did reach Ulu Medamit where my husband comes from. He was then late for school, an army helicopter gave him a lift from Medamit during the flood to Miri. He was courageous enough to ask and he was given help. What a way to start a new school year in Tanjong Lobang.

Our Foster Aunt : Chieng Chung Hua

 When we lived in Brooke Drive, my parents made friends with a lovely career woman, Chieng Chung Hua who worked for See Hua Daily News. She had shared a flat with a friend but the building was to be demolished so she moved to one of the rentals near our house, thus we became neighbours. She was so helpful and soon called my father "brother" and my mother "Sister in law" .

Later, she had to move again and needed a room to rent. That was after my father passed away, thus she came to live with us, partly, to accompany my distraught mother. 

She fought like a warrior, stood up for my mother when people bullied her in any way. She encouraged my mother when she was losing hope and often gave her counselling when help was no where to be found. She would walk with my Goo Poh, Chang Yuk Ging to our house whenever possible.

Besides, she had a strong influence on me. I learned more Chinese (She worked for See Hua Daily News) and she guided my siblings like a real aunt.

She had a rough life because she was a single lady. For example, she was quite vocal about liberation for Sarawak and was considered a strong member of SUPP. So she was sent to Kuching for re education because she was accused of being a left wing in the 1970's and she wrote to me in Chinese while I was in MU, still teaching me to be upright, kind, and loyal to my mother who was a widow. I wrote back to her in simple English and she would write back in Chinese, answering my questions very well.

She is also a very close friend of the Ngui family and the Lau Hieng Ding family. She is like a sister to Ngui Soon Eng (Puan Sri )

In later years I moved to Miri and seldom saw her in her brother's shop. My mother too moved to Kuching. But our close relationship and good will remain.

She has always been grateful, kind and supportive, never saying any harsh words. We love her as a real aunt. My family never abandoned her when she returned from Kuching but this time she went to live with her brother, Mr. Chieng who owned a glass and aluminium shop. She  thus became a business woman from then on, helping her own family, helping her brother to raise a new generation of Chieng children.

There are a few women in Sibu who are unforgettable. She is one of them. 

Thank you for being with us in those difficult years, Chung Hua Goo Goo.

I too remain close to the Ngui family and this photo was sent to me by Ivy Ngui.

Sibu Tales : How to predict the gender of the next child

that's me about 2 years old. Can you see the lines or creases on my fat right thigh?

Old Foochow wives said that my mother's next baby would be a girl. Two lines predicted a baby girl. One line, a baby boy. And in fact every relative would enjoy checking the creases on a baby's thighs to predict the gender of the next baby. This was one of the social activities of those long ago days.

How true can that be? But it was fun predicting the gender of the next baby. Strange but true my sister was born after me. On her two thighs were only one crease each. My baby brother was the next child.

This photo was taken in Pulau Kerto, where my grandfather and father operated an ice -cum- rice mill, called Hua Hong Ice and Rice Factory.

My father Chang Ta Kang was a keen photographer and was a journalist before he was recalled by my grandfather to work in the Hua Hong Ice Mill in Pulau Kerto Sibu after the Japanese literally and metaphorically bombed  his Sarawak Times office in Kuching in 1941.

My father then obedient helped my grandfather in all his enterprises. My grandfather passed away in 1963 and my father two years later. Father and son were inseparable actually in life.

Sibu Tales : Motor Launch from Kanowit

 Birth of a Baby Girl.

It was a really great relief to finally give birth to my first born in Sibu in just an ordinary Foochow private maternity clinic with just a senior midwife (an aunt) and some assistant nurses who had no certificates but plenty of experiences.

I was teaching in SEDAYA, a school in Kanowit, 2 hours by Chinese wooden motor launch from Sibu and mind you, it was not easy to get into and out of the motor launch when one was 9 months pregnant!! At low river tide you need to walk up a plank walk (about 1 foot wide) to the bow of the launch. At high tide, the pontoon or jetty would just be almost two feet below the  bow but you still have to sort of jump up a little bit to the surging launch.

Occasionally I had to step on the carcasses of deer, wild boar and even snakes placed at the bow of the motor launch to get into the boat, which might even be packed already by the time it reached Kanowit, on its way to Sibu. There would be Iban men with their parangs tied at their waist trying to push a wire basket of live frogs at you hoping you would buy them as presents for relatives in Sibu!

I had even seen a few hunting guns next to sleeping men who probably had caught a few animals the night before, or who probably had to bring their guns to Sibu to renew their licenses at the Resident's Office.

I still remember the gunny sacks smeared with dried blood. Some freshly killed animals were actually placed on the bow for all to see, and ready for the market in Sibu. The odour of the dried animal blood had stayed in my mind until today.

 The boat driver, was not at all perturbed. He greeted each passenger and asked them to find their own seats on the long stretch of wooden bench running from the front to the back on both sides of the boat.

All the passengers who were used to such sights, animal carcasses, live frogs and all and no  one was distressed because life was simple then. We just had to share the mode of transport with each other, dead animals and all. And I must not in any way show dismay on my face, for after all I was educated and I should know better.

No,I was not nauseated. Thank God for giving me a strong stomach.

But one thing I do remember well was all the smiles on the faces of my fellow passengers. They were all wondering why I had not given birth yet! I felt as if I was carrying my baby for more than 10 months when they asked me questions. They seemed to remember exactly when I conceived and when I should be giving birth.

And all these in different languages - Iban, Cantonese, Hokkien, Malay and the occasional Foochow. I was bombarded with all sorts of questions curious fellow women would like to ask a very heavily pregnant mother!!

Words then would be passed from the front of the motor launch to the back. And questions would be passed from the back to the front or to where I was sitting. 

In retrospect, these memories warm my heart.

As Kanowit only had a small clinic I had to go to Sibu, the headquarters of the Third Division or Sibu Division which at that time had the Lau King Howe Hospital, a huge government pre-natal clinic and several good private Maternity Clinics.

In order to have my monthly pre natal check I had to go by this river transport on Friday afternoon, or Saturday morning. And I would be checked by the midwives at the Pre Natal Clinic in Sibu. 

The baby was due on the lst of May 1975 but she was so comfortable in the womb that she did not finally want see the world until the 25th.

I was to take the motor launch ride one more time in May and then finally a speed boat ride a few days later when I was really in pain, with worries but it turned out it was only a false alarm. However the good government doctor gave me two weeks' leave for over carrying my baby!! 

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the school speed boat. But I have some photos of the motor launches, and the school long boats which sent teachers across the Rajang to Kanowit for shopping or to catch the river boats. 

It was a good thing she was stubborn and not in a hurry to be born. She could have been born in a motor launch or an open long boat in the middle of the river!!

School covered long boat, photo by Robert Berstrom (1963)

This is my own photo taken when I was a relief teacher in SEDAYA in 1973, between Uni Semesters. At that time the late Mr. James Foh was the Principal. At 4.30 all teachers would enjoy a river crossing like this to get groceries or enjoy kopitiam happy hours.

She was born 25 days over due, with lots of long curly hair, long finger nails and very wrinkled skin.

And the amniotic fluid had darkened too. The midwife, my aunt Lau Fong Fei, chuckled, "She did not really want to leave your womb!! Stubborn girl."

Aunt Fong Fei was the famous proprietor of the Lau Fong Fei Maternity Clinic of Sibu and my mother's dear cousin for many years!!

In that way, in June, due to the related medical issues, and the official maternity leave, and the GAwai holidays, I had all together 1 month and 2 weeks of  leave in 1975. I was back to teaching soon, and that year SEDAYA also had very good SPM Geography and English results.

Note : my last motor launch ride from Kanowit was in November that year and I came with some of my personal effects as I was to be transferred to the Methodist School Sibu. I was in SEDAYA only for 11 months but I have great memories of the staff, the school and the students there, 1975.

1975 was a good year. And the memories get sweeter by the year.

Happy Birthday to my Eldest today.

Sibu Tales : Eat a bit before the Banquet

 Today I am taking some time to write about the past social scenario when we first moved to Sibu Town.

My mum Lau Hung Chuo, daughter of Lau Kah Chui and Tiong Lien Tie, was born in 1926 in the Rajang River Valley in a place called Chien Nang Chong, a few "houses away from the Chung Cheng Primary School". This was the kind of address the Foochows had in those long ago days.

She was not born in the big house in Ensurai, built by my grandfather's older brother Lau Kah Tii. My grandfather at that time was tasked by his brother to clear more land in Chien Nang Chong (Front South Village). My mother was the 4th daughter and was the 6th child of the family.

Oldest was Lau Pang Ping

2nd was Lau Pang Kui

3rd was Lau Hung Hee

4th was Lau Hung Ding

5th was Lau Hung Toh

6th was Lau Hung Chuo

7th was Lau Hung Yung

8th was Lau pang Sing

9th was Lau Pang Teck.

According to my grandmother she had carried more children (like 14) but some were miscarried and one was still born. In those days in Sibu, it was hard to be pregnant, and work at the same time, although my grandmother never tapped rubber because of her small feet (she had her feet unbound at the age of 5 so that she could be sold to a wealthy family as a slave).

Mum had lived in wooden houses most of her life, in Chien Nang Chong, in Ensurai, in Nang Chong, in Pulau Kerto (Hua Hong) and in Brooke Drive. It was only in 1970's that we moved to a shop house for a temporary stay of 2 years. Later she built the Takang Building in Brooke Drive. She spent the last decades of her life in Airport Road, Sibu and in Kasuma Resort in Kuching.

Mum was brought up in a big family and she knew what it was like to share food, or the little food they had. Food to her was a language of love.

One of my favourite restaurant dishes in those days, Foochow Fried Bread Sandwiches.

Mum and her sisters, two boys and my Ngie Mah. Photo taken at Embang Road, Hii Residence.

When she had her own family, she continued to practise her gracious styles, teaching us to be careful with our food, to share what we had and to be gracious to others. Mum always told us that we must always let others have more. A bit of hunger was OK. Very OK. And I too believed that she was often hungry when she was young and especially during the Japanese Occupation.

She used to tell us "We girls worked hard but we did not get much food." 

Thinking about her statement reminds me of slaves who worked hard and were not fed at all.

Unlike children of today, our generation did not often enjoy restaurant food in those days in Sibu. Eating out was not the social practice. We were brought to wedding feasts to "represent" a parent or when we were asked specifically by a gracious host, to come as "extras". Chinese banquets were always calculated for sitting capacity and hosts did not want to be embarrassed by too few tables for under estimating the number of invitees.

The Foochows call this situation Bok Doh or "Explosion of Tables". Restaurant operators always tried their best to calculate well with the hosts.

My mum would always tell us to eat a little before we went for dinners. My sister and I for example would have some slices of bread before we left the house for the restaurant.

The two of us would represent our parents and take two seats at the dinner table. 

We would not think of bringing a third sibling, because it would mean he might have to stand somewhere to wait for an empty seat after the first course was started. A kind host would come along and showed him a place to seat and he might have to seat with people he did not know. It was not easy to eat with strangers at the table. So it was never in our family practice to overstretch the invitation.

Sibu Tales : African Swine Fever

I often visited my grandmother who lived in Nang Chong or Southern Village where my aunts and uncles grew green skinned oranges, rice and reared chickens, ducks and pigs.

Mum used to tell us about how she helped with the farm work and how she especially loved to rear pigs.

Her work in the pig rearing was mainly to collect the water lettuce to boil with rice left overs and sago husks. In her days, pig food was always hot from the kuali, and not the present scientific food.

She often had to forage for yam leaves in the wild, meeting a snake or two. But she enjoyed seeing her pigs growing fast. She enjoyed her work very much. The family slaughtered a pig for sale when there was a festival. She was most happy when a mother pig was expecting and she would take good care of her. Losing some piglets due to the carelessness of the sow was a sad part of her life and she would grieve as if she lost a dear one.

My ngie mah loved to eat pork leg and whenever the family slaughtered a pig, a large portion would go to her. That was part of their filial piety.

Now we are facing a lot of diseases related to our livestock. Ducks and geese die mysteriously and it is a sad financial loss for any one raising the animals. The African Swine Fever has struck many farms in Sarawak. Many people are scared to buy pork in the market. And butchers are shaking their heads. Business has done down by 30 %.

Times are really bad with Covid 19 still raging on.

May God bless you and keep you safe.
 

Sibu Tales : Watching the Rajang

After we moved from Pulau Kerto in 1956 to Sibu, my father missed watching the Rajang River from our own Hua Hong Ice Factory jetty.

Thereafter in Sibu, he would bring us kids every evening to watch the sun set from the Government Jetty. Our Sibu wooden house at Kampong Nyabor's Kong Ping Road (now known as Brooke Drive) was actually within walking distance from the jetty. But he would take the jeep out.

 It could be his way of ending the day with a nice view of the river. He was a very quiet man, very taciturn in fact and did not say much to us kids. But we enjoyed his presence with us. It was obvious he enjoyed watching our only brother Hsiung growing by the day. He carried him most of the time in his quiet loving manner.

According to my aunts, my father had grown up enjoying fishing, boat rowing and swimming in  rivers. The family had lived in Sg Merah, Bukit Lan, Binatang (Sg Meradong) and the Rajang at Hua Hong Ice Factory, on Pulau Kerto.

 After moving to Sibu, he could not longer have his dip in the Rajang river every day or go fishing. He enjoyed setting up traps on the muddy banks. When the tide went down, he would love to get his fresh fish from his traps. Even though he was a university graduate (from YenChing), he was basically a very small town boy in his heart. Not many knew that my father was a good ball room dancer, from his Shanghai student days, like his third brother, Hua King.

He must have enjoyed all the nostalgia when watching boats passing by at the Government wharf and us kids (age 1 to 6) jumping around the cannons which were pointing to the Rajang River mouth. Mum would be at home washing the dishes after dinner and folding the day's laundry. My mum never had a maid all her life, as she preferred doing all the chores by herself.

It was much later in life when I went to Shanghai that I realised that lots of Chinese men in Shanghai and Beijing loved to watch river scenes, and going out for a breath of fresh air after the evening meal.

My father and his nostalgia. It was a pity I was so young to understasnd his inner thoughts while he was approaching 50. Was he missing China, the streets of Beijing and the Shanghai Bund?

 

Sibu Tales : The Spring and the Sarong Cradle

All through the Second World War and the 50's and 60's many Foochow women saw that babies were comfortably put in the sarong cradles, to lull them to sleep and to keep them asleep for a long time. The spring attached to the sarong keeps the cradle bouncing.

Accidents had happened and rumours and gossips did go around: how babies were killed because the spring broke, or the rope attached to the spring snapped, or the baby was too heavy for the gadget, etc. Some gossips even said the baby was hanged from the sarong!!

But by all means, mothers or baby sitters must take care of the sleeping baby. Any carelessness could definitely have horrific results. It was all a matter of careful watching my mother would say. I brought up all four of my babies this way. We did keep a watchful eye.

My greatest watch over my babies was when they were feverish and my mother and I would not even sleep a wink. Fevers disturbed us all the time. My mother had always been very watchful, over all her children (my siblings) and even my own children when we were staying with her in Sibu.

In this photo I took, the busy mother is an Iban hawker and she has to take care of her child at the same time. The sarong cradle is a comfort zone to say the least. And she can take care of her stall. In Sarawak, customers are always very compassionate when they see this kind of scenario.

Very often, when a baby starts crying, the mother or the child minder just has to push the cradle a bit, and the  spring starts to bounce and the baby is happy!

What a lovely South East Asian gadget. Many people agree that when a baby is put into a sarong cradle or bouncer it feels that it is back to its mother's womb. It feels as if the womb is cuddling it.

 

Washing Bottles : Aerated Water Factory

When my cousins came to study in Sibu, they were very hardworking, for they not only studied hard, took extra lessons in English, but they took on part time work. 

In order to earn a few extra dollars in the afternoons, after school, they would wash empty bottles for the aerated water company called Chuong Liu which belonged to the wealthy Ting family from Sg. Sadit (Kwong Hua).The logo of Chuong Liu is a Horse Head. So down river people would also say that they bought "Horse Head Aerated Water", or Horse Head Brand.

Interestingly, the Kutien and Minqing groups were often at logger heads in business. Many more sensitive Foochows would stick to their own kind. So most Minqing people would buy the soft drinks from Ta Fong (owed by Lau Pang Kwong and family), while the Kutien would buy from Chuong Liu. Later on, the rivalry became less strong when other brands came to Sibu like 7Up, Coca Cola, etc.

Back to my story, my cousins would enlist  themselves with the supervisor who would give them a spot in the shophouse to wash bottles. They joined other young girls in the afternoons. They  would be gathered together around the basins on the first floor of the building and after washing the bottles, they would dry the bottles in the sun. 

According to my cousins, washing the bottles with the bottle brushes was fun and it was not very hard work. Besides, they got to know more people in the town. They were country girls and they learned more about town life.

This photo of the Horse Head brand and the shop front is on the book cover of this book published in Sibu, entitled, "Old Sibu Bazaar" which is a compilation of many memorial photos of old shops and streets of Sibu.

Chuong Liu was a good company my cousins worked for in the 60's. They earned extra money so that their parents would not be burdened. Fees were low at $1.00 for building fund per month and school fees were $3.00 per month. Those with better results could ask for remission of fees but they have to pay the mandatory $1.00 per month. Some of my cousins who could not pass Form 3 remained working for Chuong Liu for several years until they found some good men to marry.

Another friend of mine took a sweeping job at the girls' hostel in the school, so that she could have free food.

 Bottle brushes would always look the same, bristles are twisted together by two wires. The brown glass bottles would always remind me of the bottle washing girls of Sibu. And among them my cousins from down river.

They had gone from rubber tapping to bottle washing.

A little bit of hard earned money was so important in our daily lives in those days. I earned 30 dollars from tuition and it helped my widowed mother a lot.

A Bao Thief

 I was a teacher of Sixth Form in the Methodist School, Sibu for several years. As a General Paper teacher I was an instructor for Critical Thinking.

One of our normal lessons would be to study the latest news reported by the papers. A memorable lesson was when I presented two court cases to my class. The Borneo Post reported a case of an Iban man, a father and a husbad, who stole a bao from a stall. The stasll owner had run after him, caught him and brought him to the Police Station nearby. He was charged and brought to justice. Theft is a severe crime according to the Penal Code. He has properly charged and sentenced to 6 months jail. No one stood bail for him because he was a visiting Iban man who came to Sibu to admit his wife to the Lau King Howe Hospital and he had no cash to hire a lawyer.

Questions asked by the students - So who would pay for his wife's hospital fees? Who would after the daughter? With his jail record, how could he get a proper job later. The students asked good questions. However, there was another newspaper cutting to further the discussion.

A bus driver was charged with causing the death of a girl student who was cycling along the Lanang Road. It was argued that it was her fault for endangering her own life because she was carrying an umbrella (using an umbrella) when cycling.

The driver, got off with one year's endorsement of  his driving licence. He had a good lawyer.

Most of my students enjoyed the discussion but I left them with a strong impression of life's hard knocks and inexplicable situations and results.

As for myself, each time I eat a bao, which I legally buy from a stall, I think of that special man who stole for his family.

 May God bless people who are hungry. 

Sad to say, we continue to live among THIEVES.

Chinese New Year : Mandarin Oranges

 Every year, Sibu people would be eagerly looking forward to the the various Chinese New Year Mandarins from China. Just for the record, we Foochows in Sibu enjoy a variety of those Mandarins which have different names.

Whenever Chinese New Year is near and I see the wooden crates which keep mandarin oranges safe during shipment, I would be  thinking of my late grandma and my late mother. They loved eating mandarin oranges just like any one of us, if not more.

My grandmother who was China born, missed her fresh fujian mandarins. She would tell us stories of the beautiful mandarins growing on the trees near Bangdung, 6Du where she waited for a few years before she was able to travel to Sibu. You see she was sold as a child bride at the age of 4 to the Lau Family. While waiting, she learned how to do domestic chores, cook and sew.

Brought up to be very frugal, she was a sparing eater and a careful housekeeper. Therefore, I saw my grandma as a very careful mentor. She would only eat a few mandarin oranges during Chinese New year. And having a big family would often deny herself of eating too many oranges, letting others eat more.

similarly my mother who never liked anything sour would let the children eat most of the oranges, and she would only take a few slices from us from time to time. She had never, in her lifetime, sit down and have several mandarin oranges at any one time. Often she would say the oranges were sour and I suspected that she just wanted us to have more, and she herself less. 

Today there are several kinds of mandarin oranges in the market. And during the Pandemic the prices are truly exorbitant.

Pong kan

Pong Gang has a very smooth skin and is easy to peel too. It is the sweetest among all the mandarins produced in China.

Lukan. Lukan is special in my family because we had an aunt surnamed LU. We would always associate this expensive and favoured Chinese Mandarin oranges with her and her LU family. They were scholarly and classy people.

The lukan is smaller than pongkan. I like it because the skin is very recognizable and easy to peel. You wont lose much of the fluid peeling the orange.

Swatow

The skin is rough, but is easy to peel. Some people call it the Cantonese gang. They have a longer shelf life. Some people keep them on the table or even in their car for more than two weeks.

These are the small ones and are usually sold in one kilo bags. They are usually sweet.

This year 2022, the prices of mandarin oranges have gone sky high. So we cannot really eat a lot of these oranges at one sitting. We have to space out our eating.....one at a time, and perhaps one a day....

Sibu Tales : Scrubbing

One of the first sounds in the morning we kids would hear would be the scrubbing sounds made by my mother. She would scrub the cement floor of the bathroom and washing area after she had done our laundry. She never failed to do that every day.

The steel wire brush, which was originally BRASS, was an important part of our life in Sibu. It was an item that was always in the laundry area. Brass is TERN in Foochow, hence mum would always call out to us if it was missing. "Who had taken the TERN sok?" She did not like to see it missing from the washing area.

I loved to hear the simple, gentle sounds of metal against the cement. It was a very soothing sound. Mum was always careful about her scrubbing because she did not want anyone to slip on the cement floor!! Another reason she kept her cement floor well scrubbed was because of her own high standard of cleanliness.

To scrub the floor one had to bend down and squat or kneel until the entire area was scrubbed. No mossy green should be seen at all. That was the household standard (ISO) of that time. Mum did not want anyone to cluck their tongue when they visited. Housewives were very conscious of how their mother in laws would talk about their scrubbing skills.

Mothers in law would fold their arms and watch their daughters in law "Cheng (brush quickly) or sok (brush meticulous, bending or kneeling on the floor with brush in hand)" . Some daughters in law scrubbed all the cement and wooden floors three times a week under the watchful eyes of their mothers in law.

One of the blessings she had my mum would say was she never had to be supervised by a mother in law from the day she was brought home as a bride by my father. She lived with a very benevolent grandmother in law who chose to live with my father. My father's step mother and father lived in their big house in Sg. Merah. The social distancing was good for every one. There was a great deal of respect among all of them according to my mother.

 I would think it very daunting to bend down on the knees and scrub for hours with a mother in law doing the supervision.

My own Ngie mah, however lived with two daughters in law (they had their own seperate untis under one roof). I had too seen how hard they worked to keep their wooden floors white. All the scrubbing with the steel brush keep their floors absolutely clean from dirt and dust.

It was like a festival for the ladies, I remember, when the flood came, and everyone would be scrubbing the wooden floors with the river water which was on the rise. 

There was this kind of cleanliness in the air!! Grandma, would be fanning herself in the balcony, enjoying the river breeze and the subsequent fresh aroma of newly scrubbed floors. There was no need for any floor cleaners. Indeed this was the kind of scenario I remember before Chinese New Year, for Foochow women loved to get their house cleaned from top to bottom. The scrubbing would also coincide with high tide. 

Girls and their Sunday Best in Sibu Pre War

My aunts starting from Aunt Lily 1918 to Aunt Gui Sieng 1940 attended Yuk Ing Girls School in Sibu. So did some of my mother's cousins like Mrs. Lau Pang Hung, and her sister, the mother of Wong Meng Lei.

I have pieced together their stories about them attending Church Services at the old wooden Masland

Mr and Mrs. Lau Pang Hung

Church in the old days. My Aunt Pick Sieng has also told me a lot of stories about her life with Mrs. Hoover, who she revered to this day. Mrs. Hoover to her was a strict mother, full of good values and great knowledge. She truly trained asll the students to be better women with good Christian love and values.

Sunday was a rest day, a real Holy Day for the girls from Mrs. Hoover's school, Yuk Ing.

1932 The first batch of Junior 3 girls students.  The tallest one is my oldest aunt Lily.

The girls would get up early and clean up the hostel before getting ready for church. Mrs. Hoover would come on the dot to line up the girls.

It was her discipline that was foremost and all the girls from age 6 to 16 would be prepared and be on their toes regarding their own grooming for church.

My 4th Aunt, Ngiing Sieng and My 5th Aunt Ging Sieng, standing from first left and second left. This was their graduation photo, wearing their white Sunday Best. Pre War Photo,

All the girls would be wearing their white blouses and white trousers. Mrs. Hoover had taught them to make their own clothes. The girls had started to wear the European collar, or the Biek Lian (folded colour) and not the Chinese collar. All the materials used were cotton.

My aunt Chiew said that they had to make sure that they could iron their clothes well. Years later when I visited one of my aunts, I saw that she could fold her clothes really well and her cupboard was very very neat.

She gave me one remark which I remember to this day, "Mrs. Hoover taught us really well. This neatness is from her."

Widows and Shared Rubber Tapping

 

The Olden Days Foochow Social Welfare Support

How were Foochow widows helped during the early Pioneering days?

Riding motor launches in the early 50's village children would hear of good and bad gossips. I picked up two good stories I will share with you today. I have linked the stories from the time I heard about the two ladies to the modern days as I have been in touch with the next generation.

Two widows were well known for being able to help their families of young children to survive through their grief and poverty, before and after the Second World War.

The Rubber Tapping and Sewing Widow

One was given accommodation by Lau Kah Tii and a plot of rubber trees to tap. It was a share cropping system, 50:50. All the coolies or share croppers (especially those who had just arrived from Fujian) would live in the numerous COOLIe Factories (dont know why they were called Chiong or factory) built near the rubber gardens. So this Tiong surnamed man's widow was given a small unit in the factory.

She managed to take in sewing for extra cash. She was one of the famous ladies who could sew belly covers very well, stitch by stitch, and with beautiful embroidery. 

Her children later grew up to help her and prospered. One went to Sarikei to start a coffee shop and another continued to tap rubber and slowly bought his own rubber land. The girls grew up and married good men. In her old age, she helped her son in Sarikei. Today her grandchildren are all over Sarawak and doing well.

It was hard life for her but she was well known for being a good Foochow widow throughout Ensurai.

The Ah Poh Minnang Widow

The second widow well known in Ah Poh, Kwong Hua, was actually a Minnang lady (related to Mr. Bean of Sibu). She was one of the few Minnang ladies who lived in Ah Poh. After her husband died the Methodist Church helped her by allowing her and her children to tap the Mission rubber trees. She and her children tapped rubber until her children graduated from their university!! From her own stories, we learned that the Methodist Church owned some rubber gardens in Ah Poh as well as Bukit Lan. As she was very hardworking and very faithful to God, she was helped by the local Chinese community leaders like Tiong Wang Ming and Chieng Kek Ming also. 

She and her children lived in a wooden attap house by the river side. For lights they had kerosene lamps, and they collected rain water and river water for daily use. Life was simple but she was able to put food on the table.

Rubber tapping (Stephen KK Ling) 

Thus every day she would tap the allocated rubber trees and after she had collected enough dried rubber sheets she and her children would send them to the smoke house for smoking. At the end of the smoking session, she would be able to buy rice, oil and daily necessities. 

Once she had to pay some fees for her children, she rolled up some unsmoked rubber sheets and placed on her back, determinedly walked all the way to a head man's house to exchange for some cash. The kindly headman was sympathetic enough to give her extra. Her older son remembered the story and kept the incident in his heart. Inspired by such a godly man, the boy studied very hard to be a top student in the Methodist School, Sibu and later obtained a Methodist scholarship to study in Singapore and later overseas to become a doctor.

So there were actually some community support in the olden days to help widows to make a living. 

In those days, poor people especially widows like them all said that if they had two hands to work, they would not starve to death. Their children would not starve but instead even have good education. They built up their families with dignity and hard work.

Let us remember our ancestresses with respect and love. May they rest in peace.

Today widows who are destitute apply to the Social and Welfare Department for assistance.

Sewing at Home for the Siblings

 

In the 1940's my father's sisters had to make their own clothes. Aunty Chiew Sieng being the most capable seamstress spent a lot of time sewing with the family sewing machine making underwear, pajamas, and school frocks for the growing girls. The boys too needed clothes.

She remembers making six or seven dresses for the girls from a whole bale of floral materials. The textile came from China and Grandfather would think that buying the very fine European textiles would be too extravagant!! Those printed cloth from China was called Chu Buoh (or rough cotton) which required ironing.

Dresses made by Aunty Pick. Cloth was bought by the bale.

Aunt Chiew made pretty frocks for the girls, some with nice collars and sleeves. 

She remembers that before the war, Mrs. Hoover would want the girls in the Yuk Ing school to wear cotton samfoo. On Sundays some girls would wear white frocks. It really depended on the family background of the girls what they would wear to school or to church. So family seamstresses were very important in those days. The girls had to learn how to sew by hand and use sewing machines.

After Aunty Chiew went to Singapore to study, the sewing task fell upon Aunty Pick who starting sewing for the family from the young age of 11. She was to tell us at a family reunion that she did not go to tailoring school. To start making clothes, she took a dress , put it on top of the material and started cutting. She became the best dress maker I ever known in my life. Aunt Pick made clothes for all her siblings until she left to study in Australia. 

By all accounts, at their marriageable age, every Foochow girl would probably be able to make every clothing item, some even able to make western trousers.

In the 1950's, my Aunt Hung Yung my mother's youngest sister, was a good seamstress and in fact she went for a dress making course in Singapore apart from gaining extra two years of secondary school education after her Chung Cheng junior level. My grandmother was most happy with her achievement. Besides she was also very pretty and well sought after as a bride. The man whom she chose to marry was really a very lucky man.

Besides being a teacher, she sewed a lot of clothes for her children and relatives in Nang Chong. Her sewing machine seldom had a rest!

She told us that she made plenty of clothes for every one from simple under wear to beautiful gowns. she must have made a few brides maids' gowns. Her siblings were lucky to have her as a home tailor. She was at her sewing machine during the holidays sewing for every one. Pajamas were the most popular items she sewed. 

A lot of clothes were also mended, using the sewing machine. Nothing was wasted. A torn pair of cotton trousers could be made into a simple blouse for a small girl if patching could not longer be done.

In those days relatives and friends who attended funerals would get one piece of red cloth and a piece of calico (belachu , beige) cloth in return for their kind cash token (gift called white gold). These cloth, at the length of Two Chien (less than 2 yards) were often used to make sarongs, towels, baby carriers, pillow cases and underwear. The materials were very hardy and could be worn and washed for many years!!

Grandma would buy cotton material or choo  buoh (rough material or textile) by the bales whenever she went to sell rubber sheets in Sibu town. Grandma as the matriarch of the family was the manager of the rubber smoke house so she decided when to sell the rubber sheets to the middle man.

this occasion of selling the rubber sheets by the boat loads was called Chuk Sai in Foochow. And it had a great festive atmosphere for one or two days. Every able bodied man would come to tie up the rubber sheets in bales and carry them to the waiting motor launch.

After receiving the payments for the rubber sheets, grandma would go shopping in Sibu. She would buy, for example pajama materials were called yew leu (lined patterns) and the girls would get little frocks made from chuong diu ( cotton).

Wedding Photo

 I promised to keep my friend's ID anonymous for this blog post. Even the photo I am using is a studio wedding portrait from eBay.

These are her memories of her wedding day. She is just slightly older than I.

In the 1960's she did not have the chance to marry a man of her own choice and have a good wedding but it was a kind of hurried marriage for the convenience of the families just before the dawn of Malaysia.

She did not complete her Form Five because her parents wanted her to get married, and to have another family to look after her in exchange for her life long loyalty to her in laws.  On the day her parents and his parents agreed to have them marry each other she was still in her class room and she did not know any better.

When she went home her parents told her she was to marry before the Chinese New Year and that she had to stop studying.

She askedher mother, " Why can't we afford the few dollars of school fees? I can sweep the office in the school and I can take in some washing to earn my fees!!|

Her parents had other plans for her. Her fiance was going away to work in Indonesia and his company would remit a part of his salary into her account, soon to be started when she married him.

It was a simple wedding. The most important was the taking of the studio photo.

The wedding was held in Sibu and to celebrate the marriage they had a three table lunch to "let relatives" know about their union. It was a hard time when money was not easy to earn and young men had to cut short their studies to find work and feed the extended families.

A relative helped them find a dress maker who had a wedding dress for rent. It was almost new as the dress maker wore the dress herself. She would be the second bride to wear the lovely dress, personally made by the dress maker.

It was a good fit and on the wedding day she was given some make up by the friendly dress maker for free.. Her fiance had gone with his older brother  to a Cantonese tailor to have himself fitted into a suit (which did not really fit) and he borrowed a necktie .

The older brother and almost smart looking bride groom got a taxi to pick the bride up from the dress maker's house.

Studio Wedding Photo 1960

That was all good after a warm morning and they went to Hock Cheu Leu for a three table wedding lunch (she told me that each table cost only 50 dollars).

The Chinese headman from their village came to say a few words and the couple did their bows and their kneelings. Their Methodist pastor came to say a prayer for the family.

My friend had to kneel on the folded red blanket to her "elders", and she received a gold ring from her mother in law and a bracelet from her sisters in law. Those were her most precious gifts which she kept all her life.

After the lunch they went to a photo studio to take photos. First they had a family photo taken, followed by the two of them together. They had to rush a little because they must take the last motor launch from Sibu at 2 oclock as the family was not wealthy enough to charter a whole motor launch.

The wedding was thus over and they were married! Her parents advised her to keep her marriage strong, have children and live happily together with her in laws.

Her mother had tearfully said, " Do not let us hear any bad things about you. Be good, obedient and hard working. You belong to another family now."

 As she recounted the story she said that she did not even realize that there was no signing of a marriage certificate. (She and her husband later registered t heir marriage officially with a penghulu in Sibu, and that was many years later)

She told me laughingly that her wedding photo hanging on the wall of the village house was the official wedding certificate!!

As it was the normal practice, her husband was able to print many copies of their wedding photo and gave them to their elders for keep sake. So she again said, that was their public announcement of their marital status.

Sibu Tales : Of Sandwiches and Men

I was a temporary teacher in a secondary school,in between University semesters, just to earn a bit of pocket money. I enjoyed learning and teaching at the same time, for after all I was going to take up a post graduate diploma in education soon.

Teaching included afternoon classes for the less able students whom I loved. I would sacrifice a good lunch at home by having my own simple packed lunch of peanut butter or just jam sandwiches and a hot flask of Nescafe. Sometimes I would spend some extra on a bowl of kampua ordered from a coffee shop. It would be a treat, and if only a few others were ordering, for the coffee boy would not deliver if the order was too few. The school clerk would do the ordering. 

There was only one telephone in the school at that time. So many of us had no telephone at home, thus ordering by phone was like magic. 

Photo of lovely sandwiches by Phyllis Wong

Among the more senior teachers (those who taught Forms Four and Five),was a new Maths graduate who came back from New Zealand. He was big headed and so full of himself. He even looked down upon local university graduates!!

One afternoon he came to look at my packed lunch of peanut butter sandwiches ...I cheekily offered him a sandwich.

He sneered,"I only eat Ham Sandwiches, not jam or peanut butter sandwich."

Well, such arrogance. A lot went through my head and I never spoke to him again. I really took the rebuff very seriously.

After that incident, whenever someone suggested a sandwich lunch in an expensive high end cafe, I would say that I preferred a kopi tiam kampua.

I was so traumatized that I hate men who like ham sandwiches, or expensive sandwiches. Now that sourdough sandwiches and other high end sandwiches are in the market, I still have that horrible stomach ache starting up. And I really have an aversion for them.

A young lady's emotional wounds are hard to cure. I have so many emotional scars!!

Although I continue to make lots of sandwiches in my life I don't think I would not offer them to arrogant men.

(P,S. I trained my son never to reject food offered by someone, take a small portion and accept with lots of grace, and praise God for the food. Bless the hands which prepare the food.)

Hairdressing during the Japanese Time

 Girls did not really keep long hair during the Japanese Occupation.

My mother and her sister had to cut their hair very short to look like boys. My maternal grandfather was a part time barber and he did most of the hair cutting for the families who lived around them. Mothers would bring their babies and little children for free hair cut. Perhaps that was how our eldest uncle Lau Pang Ping learned how to cut men;s hair and later he worked in a barber shop in sibu whenever there was nothing to do at the wharf after the war.

My father's siblings visiting the newly married Third sister Pearl in Ensurai 1939. Note their short hair cut which was already a fashion in those days.

On the other hand, most young ladies liked to keep a bit of long hair.

The coconut bob WW2 style.

But according to my cousin, Yew Ping, all of the girls in the family, including our younger aunts, had to sport short hair and the family barber was our second uncle Tiong Siew King.

He would all cut hair short, and above the ears!! The Foochows then called this hair cut Ngi Yang Geng. The height of the ears. No one dared to argue against him. He would clip their ears on purpose if they were rebellious.

And the girls would cry for days because they did not like to look like boys. For them as they were only teenagers, they did not know the dangers of being sighted by a Japanese soldier because they were living far away from Sibu.

The girls would call the styles coconut or mushroom hairstyle. It was still very clear to them that long hair meant elegance, but the men would have not allowed long hair for girls at all.

And I think my mother and her sister just hated girls  who had long hair throughout their lives. They associated long hair with witches. And long hair was also associated with lice.

Those who lived near Sibu had to cut their hair short and make their faces black by putting mud on their face as they went to do farm work.

Some became naturally dark or tanned when they worked under the sun. Some girls even cut their own hair very unevenly to look unsightly.

While those who did not want to do farm labourers' work, they got married and have a baby or two by the end of the Japanese Occupation when they were hardly 16 or 17 years old.

War time was definitely not a time for girls to think about beauty and hair care. They had to save their own lives and honour.