Wednesday 31 October 2012

Early Chinese of my life

There is a feature on my face which makes me look a bit Chinese. My arwah mom used to tell me that I probably got that feature because back then when she was pregnant with me, she used to go and watch those travelling Chinese opera shows whenever they came to the new village near our home. My mom who didn't understand Chinese at all said she loved watching the actors in their colourful costumes and make-up. There was also that festive atmosphere to cheer up those in the audience. She didn't understand what the acting was all about but still enjoyed it immensely. Anyway, there was not much other entertainment around during those days. Our family home only had TV many years after I was born.

The first Chinese I know was my big sister's school friend. I was about five years old at that time. She lived in Kulai, a town near our home. My sister used to take me on a bus ride to meet her. Her home, compared to our barrack quarter was quite grand. Whenever I think about those visits to her home these days, I'm quite pleased with the thought that a relatively well-off Chinese girl had wanted to be a good friend of my sister, who is from a poor Malay family. Of course, back then I never thought about such thing. I had mostly thought about that very nice kaya bun her mother gave me with the usual assurance, "Ini tada babi punya." The last time I met her was many years ago when she turned up for my sister's wedding. She had taken the trouble to travel quite a distance to be at her best school friend's wedding.

I attended a primary school which students were almost all Malays. There was a single Chinese who enrolled at the school during my time there and he is my first Chinese friend. He was somehow very popular among the other kids. He joined almost all extra-curricular activities in the school, including the kompang troupe. I  asked him why he enrolled at the school knowing well that it's a Malay school. He said he was not sure himself why his father, who was a wealthy businessman had insisted on him to study there. Probably, his father wanted him to have Malay friends, he said. I had met his father a couple of times and he appeared to be an ordinary Chinaman. Anyway, someone did told me that my friend once joined the other kids in the kompang troupe for a prayer at the mosque in front of our school. When I asked him about it, he said with a laugh that there was nothing wrong with praying to any other God. Later on, I did well in my Peperiksaan Penilaian and was the best student in the school. He did quite ok too, but not as good as me. The last time I saw him was just before I went to the boarding school for my secondary education. Many years later I heard that he was living in London and doing well.

The first Chinese I fell in love with was a character in a drama I watched on Singapore's Channel 8 when I was a kid. It was one of those long winded drama serial of ancient time based on those classic Chinese novels. I was a big fan at that time. The plots of these ancient Chinese dramas were intriguing and the characters were equally colourful. Among my favourites were The Immortals, Princess Chan Pin and Swordsman Chu. The only irritating thing was that the heroes always have many girls going after them, and that the girls, despite their jealousies always ended up working a compromise of big sister little sister kind of understanding much to the convenience of the hero. I guess, that's the ultimate China men's dream. I guess the China men's dream isn't that much different from the Malay men's dream.

Ya, men are all bastards...irregardless of race.

Eh, had you all watched the Zhang Yimou-Gong Li classic Raise the Red Lantern?


If you haven't, do give it a try, ok? Then you will agree with me on this one.

I got other Chinese tales in my life, but I think I'll tell them some other days. This one too long already. Actually I am writing this posting just to while my time away. Still lying in bed recovering from my fever and don't know what else to do.
The political side of these stories? Nothing, really. These are just stories about the early Chinese in my life.

Ok, I need to get up and get some fresh air outside my room. You all have a good day. Cheers.

9 comments:

  1. Sometime, some down time is good. Cheers!!

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  2. Good men are a very very rare specie especially here in Msia indeed. The women are too accommodating and so compliant sometimes even so hard up will fall for any A-hole. Religion do that to people :)

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  3. Five of my younger siblings all attended SJKC so our Hari Rayas will be packed with their Chinese schoolmates and teachers. A yearly affair even after they left for further studies.

    Anyway if we travel places, siblings will be yakking in Mandarin or whatever dialects, fluently as my parents over the years stayed in Kedah, Sg Besi, and PJaya - all of us look Chinese except of cos our EYES tak sepet.

    I also tumpang the perks, getting them to teman me to get cheaper prices when shopping for almost anything eg when assembling computers for my kids (savings as much as RM200-RM400), wet markets getting 20% of normal prices (without asking) even normal haircuts of RM16, I get it for RM12 from Chinese saloons!!!

    My brother helped buy computers for his University mates, their parents wld call him all the way from Perlis/Sabah send money into his account to go help shop for better prices for their kids, of cos they belanja him after that..

    Yang best sekali we get to hear HOT HOT gossips about MELAYU HANTU. My brothers also attended DAP meets (suka2) to know more of their insides ramblings.

    As for Indians, my parents for the last 30years employed part-time Indian cleaners to help clean our house.

    Multiracial Melayu Family

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    Replies
    1. Dumno bloggers wanted to close down SRKC and asked the pendatangs to balek tongshan.

      Now U can see wonders of the world. U can speak to additional 1 billion people in the world. Most of all, you can share the joys with Millions of Muslims non-Han people in China.

      Only Dumno bloggers are very short sighted. They are very jealous and wanted to kill your joy and ability to communicate with 1 BILLION more people than Katat Dumno

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    2. BigfCat is indeed Chinese. Just read between the line..
      "My arwah mom used to tell me that I probably got that feature because back then when she was pregnant with me, she used to go and watch those travelling Chinese opera shows whenever they came to the new village near our home. My mom who didn't understand Chinese at all said she loved watching the actors in their colourful costumes and make-up"

      Muahaaha...I bet your mum loved watching the actors without their costume too.

      Too late BigCat. You are chinese if your father is Chinese. That is why you have Chinese features. Watching chinese actors does not produce Chinese looking children. When are you born?

      DNA, Cells now those determine features when you become pregnant. I think it is just your Chinese DNA calling you home..

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  4. I'm curious. Which part of your face look a bit like Chinese? Your ears ah?

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  5. "My mom who didn't understand Chinese at all said she loved watching the actors in their colourful costumes and make-up. There was also that festive atmosphere to cheer up those in the audience. She didn't understand what the acting was all about but still enjoyed it immensely."

    I love it when women try to explain away why their sons or daughters look like so and so..hmmm

    If your mum love those Chinese actors and enjoyed it immensely...hmmm... my wild guess would be some body sudah masuk Melayu ...muahahaha... no disrespect, she must have been a beautiful groupie.

    Oh well.. you take what you can get. Life is short.

    Good for your mother. And kemana jatuhnya buah kalau bukan ke pokok?

    So now you are just letting another Cina man masuk Melayu... banyak pahala tu..

    Good for you too.

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  6. You like Scholar Zhou the Consort atau Yuan Rou Fei the Peachblossom Swordsman?

    Peminatrocky

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