Salt

(This photo is from Daniel Yiek - Sarikei-Time-Capsule.) My maternal grandmother from a very early age was helping my grand uncle Kang Chu Lau Kah Tii, in business. One of her duties was to wrap nipah salt in the nipah leaves and to tie up in bundles the nipah leaves for rokok to be sold to the Malays and Melanaus along the Igan and Rejang. According to her, it was a very back breaking job and furthermore,she was very fastidious at her work, together with her sister- in -law, Mrs. Lau Kah Tii who was a good manager and leader. In those days, salt and sugar for the Foochows came from the nipah palm.









A Foochow woman must always have some salt of any kind in her kitchen. Salt is the cheapest household item a woman can buy so it is a great embarrassment if she does not have any in stock. In olden days, the whole village would be wagging their tongue if the neighbours found this out.

http://www.daylife.com/photo/0cHn7Hk2hdbZd

This photo above starts my discussion on salt. It is always interesting to draw academic references from Chinese historical records on any topic. You are free to think that I am terribly biased.

Firstly, a reference to Chinese academic studies on salt draws this text and an amazing photo .

A Chinese worker cuts up the pieces of salinated salt from Lake Qinghai, in northern China's Qinghai province 19 May 2007. Salt was first mentioned in China in the annals of the Emperor Yu, (BC 2205-2197), and the cause for many wars fought to the control the salt resources, as it has always been the lifeline in China's history, for "Whoever controls salt has the power to decide his own fate and that of all others

And also this text (http://www.ioa.ucla.edu/backdirt/Fall99/salt.html):
Salt (NaCl) has been in great demand at least since Neolithic times when humans took up a plant–based diet. Whether we actually have a physical need for an added complement of salt is still disputed; many nutritionists believe there is already enough salt in the food we eat. Still, there is no doubt that humans crave salt to make their food more tasty and for a host of other uses such as preserving food, tenderizing meat, and tanning leather. Since salt resources that could be exploited with premodern technology are very unevenly distributed, salt was important early on as a commodity.

There is extensive textual documentation on salt manufacture in ancient China, with reliable records going back to the fourth century bc. At that time, the salt industry was already well developed, and its origins certainly go back to much earlier times. Until very recently, though, salt making in China had never been addressed through archaeological research, in marked contrast to the West, where exploration of salt–producing sites has been an important topic for over two hundred years. In Europe, for instance, extensive work has been done on coastal salines in England and France and on inland salt-production sites in Lorraine (eastern France), central Germany, and, perhaps most famously, Austria, where extensive Late Bronze Age saltworks at Hallstatt have given their name to an important archaeological period. Closer to China, a great deal of excavation of salt-making workshops has taken place along the coasts of Japan. Reconstruction of prehistoric salt-making techniques has been facilitated by anthropological fieldwork in such areas as New Guinea and Africa (Mali, Niger, Chad), where salt was still manufactured by traditional pottery–using technologies until very recently.



Secondly, in secondary school I studied "King Lear" by William Shakespeare. No one can forget the answer given by Cordelia that she loved her father, king lear , as much as salt, sealed her tragic fate.

Thirdly, the Bible said that we are "the salt of the earth".

Fourthly, the Bible also told us the story of how Lot's Wife was turned into a pillar of Salt because she regretted leaving Sodom and Gomorrah.

Finally, salt is so important in our lives that we simply cannot live without it. It is a preservative, an enhancer of our food tastes, an antibiotic,health giving as it helps our body to remain strong,etc.


We cannot live without salt.

Strong Foochow Men

These gunny sacks or jute sacks were once common sights in Sibu. Strong wharf labourers could just lift them easily on their backs and walk on the planks up to the ship for loading or from the ship to the waiting trolley for unloading. Because wharf labourers at that time did not have a strong union, their wages were often questionable and topics of hot arguments.



This picture is an example of gunny sacks for keeping corn in the shop. Corn was an important commodity for rearing of domestic animals. Today, corn fed chickens are still highly valued. Wharf labourers carried sacks of corn and rice from ships to the waiting trolleys or lorries and then hopped on to them. When they reached the grocery shops, they carried the sacks full of corn and rice to the shops. They never seemed to be tired. I really admired their forebearance and stoical attitude towards life.









This is a very old photo from a pictorial book by the Chinese Cultural Association of Sibu. It reminds me of the many Foochow men in Sibu who were extremely strong . The Sibu wharf labourers for example did not have machines to help them. They used their brute strength to lift gunny sacks of rice, to carry bales of smoked rubber from the shops to the lorries, or 100 pikuls of charcoal from the trolley to the motor launch. when moving houses, a group of men would be called and they literally carried all the cupboards and tables and beds. Many men were employed just to carry the bakau for piling in the construction company.

A livelihood for a man for example in the picture depended on his strength and no resume was needed from him to get his job. By word of mouth, he would have been employed easily because he was strong and trustworthy.

I can never erase the sad moment when my third uncle, Pang Sing, had to carry my grandmother from the motor launch to the waiting car parked near the Sibu jetty,which was quite a distance, for her last journey to the Lau King Howe Hospital. My uncle was in tears as he lifted her to his back and carried her up the steps of the jetty. In his hurry and distress, he even forgot to wear his shoes!

As far as I am concerned in those days,there has never been greater love between mother and son than this pair - my grandmother and her third son, Pang Sing. The whole Rejang Basin was in the know, as we used to say. Though uneducated because of the Japanese war interruption, poor in terms of a good income, my uncle managed to bring up a good family and look after my grandmother in her old days extremely well. It was an extremely happy old age for her. That we all remember. He made sure that she was short of nothing, especially when she became more and more weak in her eyesight. Finally in the last four years of her life, she was totally blind.

Gone are the days now for men who could earn a living through their strength.

Sarongs for the Foochow Women

This is a treasure from the past. 1950's Methodist Secondary School Chinese Department girl students swimming in Sg. Maaw, Sibu, near Chung Cheng School. Photo from Reunion Booklet of Class of 1958 MSS,Sibu. Did they wear swimming suits? Were they sarong-clad? Only they can tell us now.

I think this painting by Liew Choong Ching ( www.nst.com.my/.../20051016101431/Article/) an will remind many of us how we were brought up in Sibu and how we were kept quiet and asleep in a sarong, how we were carried around by our busy mothers and later how we kept our own children quiet and howe ourselves have carried our own babies around.

The photo of a mother carrying a baby in a sarong sling is actually an advertisement from e-bay. I am wondering if our next generation will do the same , using a sarong this way. Many westerners have found the sarong sling an amazing useful gadget. (http://store.peppermint.com/selendang-baby-sling/)

The group photo of women enjoying a good bath wearing sarongs may be a thing of the past. But sweet memories for me. I thank Kevin Song of Sibu for this picture. This is from his book, The Impending Storm. Thanks Kevin and Phyllis.

The scanned photo from Kevin Song's book again is so full of rich memories for me. It is a very poignant photo and valuable as a historic photo. A sarong clad mother having a morning bath with her son. Peaceful,harmonious with nature and blessed by the Almighty God.

The Sarong is a great invention indeed!!

Here I will recount the many uses of the ubiquitous,perennially fashionable, relevant garment of indomitable spirit. What a wonderful belonging. We must own more than one in fact.

Firstly, I remember my mother using the baby sling. It was a very important part of her role as a mother and homemaker. How much she had put on her shoulders to bring us all up.

The advertisement describes a baby sling in this way:
They are worn the same way as rebozo baby slings, tied over one shoulder, except that many people move the knot around to the back, as in the picture above. Also like the rebozo, the selendang can be worn without baby, as a skirt, dress, or several other ways (not to mention all the household uses - they are so beautiful!).

These particular selendang baby slings are printed on 100% cotton, with a traditional batik look. The colors are vivid and just gorgeous. They are very soft and light-weight. 40" X 90"

In the olden days, Foochow women wore sarongs when we went swimming in the Rejang River. So they were used as our bathing suits. Sorry no photo of that era, and all of us, my cousins and I would scream with joy, jumping into the river, without fear of drowning. And yes, then the water was clean.

The sarong would be used for keeping the babies quiet, or napping in the hot afternoons. We call this spring and sarong, "neaw" or "nyut". A mother or baby sitter would hang a rope and a spring from the ceiling. A sarong would then be hooked onto the spring. The baby would sleep for hours in the sarong. What an intelligent contraption. Today, Toys 'r' Us has also "invented" a very expensive baby comforting swing "bed" at a huge price tage of RM399.00. for many, a rope, a spring and a sarong will do the trick. Go to any longhouse, or any Foochow or Malay home, one can find this very traditional use of the sarong.

The sarong can be used as a bed cover,pillow cover/case, food cover, table cloth, temporary makeshift curtain,headwear, sunshade,body cover, and at night, as a cover from mosquitoes,and of course for wrapping up your beloved baby when you travel.It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It is the best wear for sleeping in a hot Sarawak night!

One can find so many hundreds of uses for the humble sarong.

Never leave home without a sarong.

Mr. Lau Kah Chui Giving a Speech

My maternal grandfather was a very quiet and humble man who allowed everyone to step all over him. He was always played the second fiddle to his older brother, Lau Kah Tii, the Kang Chu who lived in the huge Lau Mansion in Ensurai. Many people said that he was very hen pecked too, as my maternal grandmother called all the shots. Athough I never knew him, I thought he was just being a kind, polite man and very stoical to maintain peace with everyone.

My mother and uncles and aunties all loved him to bits. Unfortunately he died young after suffering from probably pneumonia during the Japanese Occupation when money was scarce as the rubber price had hit rock bottom and one or two doctors were not in the habit of doing charity. And the hospital in Sibu was too far away.

As a young man, he was bullied by his older brother, as was normal. One example was that he had to carry a lot of stuff on his pian dan, and his older brother would just walk ahead and greet every one along the village road.

His profession was tailoring. And he made a lot of clothes for others and was very good with the sewing machine.

According to our family stories, he donated a piece of land to build the community primary school , Kai Nang primary school, a sister school of Kwong nang the forerunner of SMK Chung Cheng, at the back of hills (au san) and we were all proud of it. To be able to donate money or a piece of land to build a school was the apex of wealth at that time.

Because my grandfather was not as educated as the others and not as prominent as others, he was only given the honorary post of treasurer of the the school board of directors. His older brother,being the prominent community leader, was the Chairman. Perhaps it was the courtesy then to do so,by way of seniority.

During the opening ceremony of Kwong Nan Primary school, the Chairman made a grand speech. Followed by another grand speech by the secretary.

By the time it was my grandfather's turn to speak, apparently all materials had been covered. He appeared to have nothing to say.

But he made a brilliant speech using metaphors, "Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming today to this grand occasion, it is especially meaningful for my family and my self. I am proud that I can donate this piece of land to build this lovely school, which all of you accept graciously. Thank you for accepting it. I am afraid, the two gentlemen have already spoken and have covered all the important points. Therefore you have already been served the sharksfin , and abalone, of the feast. I have not much to offer you except kangkong (un chai)...." When he came to this point, the audience gave him a big applause. This was perhaps the only public speech he made in his life.

Not long after that, he passed away.