A Bowl of Mung / Green Beans (lu dou)

The practice of child bride was practised in China from time immemorial to post Republic days. And most pitifully and perhaps inhumanly, poor families also practised female infanticide, a practice which even the Emperor would turn a blind eye. When Sun Yet Sun came into power, many of the revolutionaries thought that a new age would come to China and the Chinese leaders would blaze a trail of new reforms and changes for the people especially for the women. But many disppointing years later, child brides who have grown into old ladies have stories to tell and according to many international media reports child brides are still available in the Carribean, Ethiopia, many African and Arab countries. China has changed especially after the One Child Policy. But the lessons from the Chinese experience have not been learnt.

My concern has been for female children who do not go to school, who do not know their rights, and who do not know what it is like to be treated like human beings.

My cousin, now 75 ,is a China- born child bride. This is her story. Although it is not a horror story, it is still a story of how much she has "LOST OUT" as a human being.

Her parents were poor farmers in Fujian, China, a little outside Foochow City in the sixth district. She was born a very small baby, hardly the size of a Milo tin, as she related her story to us.

At birth she was offered as a child bride to any family who would take her in as her mother was running out of energy and milk, in order to save her life.If no one could take her, her fate would be drowning in the river. And no one would raise an eye brow. Finally one family showed interested and , naked, she was given to the family which had come for her offering just a small piece of cloth to wrap her in. This was how poor the folks were at that time.

The distance between her parent's home and her new home was almost a day's walking journey. When she arrived, she was placed in a wooden bed. She was just so tiny that neighbours were wondering how she could survive as the new in-laws so to speak had already had two previous child brides who did not survive.She was likened to a kitten.

1932 -1950
Strangely she was a tough nut. She managed to survive infancy and grew into a very hardworking child, cutting wood, tilling the land, growing vegetables, looking for bamboo shoots. She looked after her mother in law as well as she could. By then her future husband had already "come out" to Sibu to look for a living. Then the second World War came and she survived the onslaught of the Japanese Occupation in China. She went through her teenage life with a lot of guts and laughter according to her. She learned the Foochow songs, riddles and traditional sayings and had them memeorieed. And as she was poor, she did not have even one day of school.

When word came to her, as she was approaching 18, that her future husband had enough to send for her to come out to Sibu, she was excited about the new future. She walked the day's journey home to pay her respects to her biological parents. Their lives were as bad if not worse than before. When she told them that she was going to Sarawak, her father went to the little shop, silently, to buy a small handful of green beans to cook for her, as a mark of farewell. After eating the green bean porridge, she left for her homeward journey. This was the last she saw of her parents alive. She said that she was duty bound to them, as she was a daughter. How could any one talk about love and bonding in a situation like this when love was almost an unknown word and affection was definitely non existent.She did not hug her parents and she did not even cry. They were so stone cold . Bidding farewell though painful to them, it had to be done. And with no feelings shown on their faces, they parted knowing that they would never see each other again.

Many years later, she heard that her father passed away and she sent some money to them for the burial rites from Sarawak. That was considered very filial of her even though she was given without a single stitch to her parents in law.

My cousin had been given away as a child bride. The parents felt no regret at that. And they could not feel anything for parting with their 18 year old daughter who had to make that long journey to a distant land. They could also not give any token, a small piece of gold , to her as a farewell gift. Such was the life of extremely poor Foochow farmers at that time.

1950 - 2007
When she came out from China she was still a tiny woman,hardly five foot tall, with small eyes but a lively attitude towards the tribulations of life. With her husband, Lau, she planted rubber trees, pepper vines and vegetables in Sarikei while raising three children, two boys and a girl.

Life did not deal her with a good hand. She tapped rubber and was once almost killed by a snake. She planted onions as a side line and earned enough to buy herself a motor bike. And when her husband was in prisoned for supporting the communists for 13 months in Kuching, she harvested enough pepper to build herself a new wooden house to welcome her husband home.

Even then with all the successes she had achieved she was still not highly regarded by her sister in law who was residing in Sibu, nor by her husband who was chauvinistic and too lacking in affection.

Marriage was a getting together of two persons, to regenerate. Love was perhaps not even found in their lives. Love making was a necessity to reproduce. She got pregnant, carried the child, while she and her husband went about tilling the land and coaxing a living out of it. She told us that life for her was one day at a time, one step at a time.

Her husband was obviously not a loving man who showed his expressions well. And she herself being uneducated probably did not know what else to do.

What is love? To her it is more or less respect for her husband, meeting his needs, bearing and raising his children and standing by him until he died from stomach cancer, even though by then she had known all along that he had many women outside their marriage. Everything she did was out of duty and her beliefs in her own worth as a woman from China. She had held her head high, she had been faithful, she had been forebearing. And she had not done anything that was inappropriate.

I feel that she has really done a lot for her family and that she deserves a better life that she is having now. But instead, her eldest son has his own family, her eldest daughter has her own life to lead. She is having a small room in her second son's house for which she has a monetary share of RM70,000, hard earned money from her farming days. Even her grandson does not know her pains as a child bride, or as a mother who has sacrificed all.

Had she wanted something else? Yes, definitely. She would want more than all these. But how could she? Who would help her? How could she have a better quality of life? She still owns a red Malaysian IC after she had lived in Sarawak since 1950. One of her greatest wish is to be able to vote in an election. So how could she get her blue IC, to become a true Malaysian. I think she deserves one. She has served the nation more than most people.

She will accept all, bear all. Typical old fashioned Chinese child bride. A brave and admirable soul to me. A good woman.

Footnote:

Mung beans are commonly used in Chinese cuisine, where they are called lǜ dòu (绿豆, literally "green bean"), as well as in Japan, Korea, India, Thailand and Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, they are called đậu xanh (again, literally "green bean"). They are generally eaten either whole (with or without skins) or as bean sprouts, or used to make the dessert "green bean soup". The starch of mung beans is also separated from the ground beans to make jellies and noodles.


Whole mung beans are generally prepared from dried beans by boiling until they are soft. In Chinese cuisine, whole mung beans are used to make a tong sui, or sweet soup, called lǜdòu tāng, which is served either warm or chilled. In Indonesia, they are made into a popular dessert snack called es kacang hijau, which has the consistency of a porridge. The beans are cooked with sugar, coconut milk, and a little ginger. Although whole mung beans are also occasionally used in Indian cuisine, beans without skins are more commonly used.

Mee Sua and Ah Chuo Pah and Ah Chuo Moo

I am dedicating this posting to two amazing characters who played an important role in my Foochow Sibu days. They contributed a great deal of joy and happiness to my family while living along Kung Ping Road which was later renamed Brooke Drive by the local government.


Our little community there was a wonderful set up with several different skills which made living and social development very vibrant and interesting.

Opposite our house were five houses which were home to more than ten families. The furthest away was Ah chuo Pah (Uncle Ah Chuo /Ting Huat Chuo), the second house on the right was home to Mr. Lau (at present the well known transport tycoon) and his growing family of boys. Next to his house was a smaller wooden house which was home to Mr and Mrs. Cheng. Mr. Cheng suddenly passed away, living behind a grieving widow and seven children. But they stayed on because the rental was so small at 25 ringgit for the whole house of four rooms. Then there was the long house with ten units which was home to ten families. And furthest on the left was a sort of semi detached house on stilts. This was home to two families.

This was my town "village" and we children grew up together ,scraping our knees while learning to ride bicycles, flying kites, playing marbles, eagle and chickens,etc. There was so much space and so much freedom and so little inhibition.

We were free to go in an out of each others homes without fear of predators or criminal tendencies of adults, unlike today . Mothers have to be on their toes twenty four hours a day on a look out for their children just in case a kidnapper is on the loose.


My favourite neighbour was this family of mee sua makers. The lived on the first floor of their house. The ground floor was their factory and their backyard and front yard the place where they would pull their long mee sua or noodles for drying in the sun.

The Ting family worked very hard as their day started at two or three in the morning when they would start kneading their wheat dough for the noodles. Ah Chuo Pah would twirl the long threads of noodles on two sticks and allow the noodles to dry slowly in their boxes. When it was about nine in the morning, he would take these noodles which were between two sticks out to the sun and stick them onto the wooden frame. He would pull slowly the noodles until they are long enough, and so slim that they were like threads. These noodles looked like a thin piece of cloth hanging from two sticks, drying in the sun. The whiteness of the noodles in the sun was a remarkable sight. Sometimes when the clouds form over the yard, we could see the anxiety on the faces of the Ah Pah and Ah Moo. They had to make sure that the noodles were dry before the afternoon rain came down in a deluge.

When the noodles were dry enough, Ah Pah and Ah Moo would collect them and bundle them up like long hair, and tied them up with red strings. These noodles were ready for sale.

Salty, fresh and fragrant. Mee Sua is definitely a huge part of the Foochow culture.



Chinese noodles have a long and well-established history. It was recorded as early as in Eastern Han Dynasty, which was over 1,900 years ago, that noodles were originally called "cakes", with "water boiled cake" being the ancestor of Chinese noodles. According to Liuxi's "Shi Ming" ("Meaning of Names"), "cake" was a generic name of any food made out of the combination of water and flour, including water boiled flour strips or flour blocks.

From the initial period of Eastern Han Dynasty, Southern and Northern Wei Jing Dynasties to the later Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were written records about noodles throughout the history of China. There was not a unique name of noodles in early times: in addition to the commonly used "water boiled noodle", "boiled cake" and "soup cake", the food was also called "shuiying bing" ("water concoction cake"), "bu tuo", "bo tuo" and so forth. It was not until Sung Dynasty did "mian" ("noodle") become the formal name of the food. In the shape of long strips, noodles came in a variety of forms such as cold noodle, warm noodle, plain noodle and fried noodle. There are also a variety of amazing noodle making methods such as twisting, paring, stirring, brushing, rubbing, pressing, rolling, leaking and pulling. In addition to being an inexpensive and satiating staple food, Chinese noodles can also be presented luxuriously. It was mentioned in historic records that many government officials and wealthy people enjoyed noodles and would serve the food to important guests.

In Tang Dynasty, the most prosperous period in the history of China, "soup cake" and "cold noodle" were demanded in the imperial palaces during winter and summer respectively. In Yuan Dynasty, "hanging noodle", which could be persevered for a long period of time, was introduced, while in Ming Dynasty, with the superior skills of the noodle makers, "hand-pulled noodle" was brought to the light. All these noodle making techniques have contributed considerably to the evolution of noodles. "Five-spice noodle" and "Eight-treasure noodle" were the classics created in Qing Dynasty with "E-fu Noodle" being the most innovative appeared in Ganlong period. In fact, Chinese noodles had been developed to a mature and stable stage in Qing Dynasty with unique tastes and flavors established in different provinces, such as the 5 most famous noodles of China: Dan Dan Noodle of Sichuan, E-fu Noodle of Guangdong & Guangxi, Spicy Mincemeat Noodle of northern China, Pared Noodle of Shanxi, and Hot Dry Noodle of Wuhan. Cultural exchange and development between the East and West had also added splendor to Chinese noodles and the noodle making culture.

Chinese noodles is the ancestor of all noodles. They are not only world-renowned but also exert far-reaching impact on noodle culture round the globe. Spaghetti was the example of a transformation of Chinese noodles: it was Marco Polo, an Italian diplomatic agent, who learnt the techniques from China in Yuan Dynasty and let the people evolve and thus had the new type of noodle created in the country. Another example in 1912, the traditional techniques of making Chinese noodles were brought to Yokohama, Japan, from China and Japanese ramen was then introduced. Japanese ramen was initially called "Dragon Noodle" implying it was a food eaten by Chinese people-The people who are descendant of Dragon.

Culture of Noodles

The major ingredient of noodles is wheat flour. Although rice and congee used to be the staple food items for Chinese people, after the appearance of noodle, however, the food was as important as rice to the population. Noodle has become the staple food for people in the north. For southern population, although rice is still for major consumption, noodle has become an important food item in their menu.

Noodles in the north and south are vastly different. In the south, egg noodles with plain flour being the major ingredient are primary. Using yolks of duck eggs instead of hen eggs, the noodles are thin and pliable. There are raw noodle, dry noodle, and the popular fine dry noodle and shrimp-eggs noodles are pupolar. In the north, noodles are made of wheat flour usually without the use of eggs. Instead, lye is used to make the noodles more digestible as a staple food. Compared with those made in the south, noodles in the north are boarder, softer and more pliable. When you go into a shop in the north asking for "mian" (the word could mean flour or noodle in Chinese), they will give you flour. But if you are in the south, processed noodle will be offered.

Population in the north rely on noodles as their staple food to fill their stomachs, therefore quantity is weighed more than quality. They also do not care much about the ingredients for serving with noodlel. Noodles are always served with raw onions and raw garlic mix with soy sauce. The soup is also relatively oily and salty. On the other hand, the southern population, who rely heavily on rice as their staple food, is more concern on the noodle quality. Moreover, noodles are always served as side dishes and nicely presented in small bowls.

Traditional noodles are delicately hand-made. From flour mixing, beating, pulling and cutting, every step is done manually. But interestingly, noodle making techniques are uniquely different in the north and south. Ramen, a kind of hand-pulled noodle, is famous in the north. To make it soft and pliable is not an easy task: one does not only need to have a pair of strong arms but also have good skill to control the force to press on the dough. To the contrast, making of southern noodles requires gentle yet firm forces so that the finished products are crisp but not fragile. The critical part is the ‘bouncing' bouncing. The noodle maker's bouncing on the bamboo by using his body weight to evenly flatten the dough. The dough can then be cut into thin strips.

Among all special Chinese noodles, the most unique type ought to be "E-fu Noodle" (or "Yi Noodle"). Yi Noodle can be served dry or with soup. It is a creation of Scholar Yi Bingshou's chef during Ganlong time in Qung Dynasty. Yi Noodle is made in both southern and northern China with Fujian and Jiangxi provinces doing it most impressively. The noodle is special because it does not require mixing of flour with water but with beaten eggs. After a process of boiling, cooling, drying and frying, it becomes the semi-finished product. Due to its unique making techniques, Yi Noodle can be served in a variety of ways, making it superior among other noodles and become one of the must-haves in banquets.

Introduced in Sichuan in 1841, "Dan Dan Noodle" is another well-known noodle round the world. The name came from how the noodle was sold – it was carried to the street for sales with a bamboo ("dan"). People lived hard lives back at the time. A peddler named Chen Baobao used a bamboo to carry the noodle for sales on the street to earn a living. Although noodles were precious food for aristocrats in ancient times, Dan Dan Noodle was not served to the rich but the general public. Initially, the noodle was sold in bystreets and pipe alleys. It was coarse and cooked only in boiling water with chili pepper sauce, soy sauce and a little bit of pickle added in the soup, tasted hot and spicy for satiation. It was not until later when the noodle was brought into big restaurants and hotels and eventually became a dish in banquets.

In Hong Kong, the popular "Wonton Noodle" is made with raw noodle, which was originated in Guangdong. Hen eggs or duck eggs are the major ingredients of raw noodle. Hen eggs can make the noodle more crispy while duck eggs can add flavor to the finished product. Good raw noodle is called rice thread vermicelli, which is thin and turns yellow when it is cooked. In addition to being pliable but not too hard or too soft, it is most important that the noodle does not carry the taste of lye.

Stories of Noodles

Besides the different noodle cultures between the north and south, there are unique meanings and stories behind each type of noodle.

"Longevity Noodle" is a type of traditional Chinese noodle. As its long shape symbolizes longevity, the noodle is a must-have at every birthday banquet. In ancient times, having Longevity Noodle symbolized a wish for new born baby boys' living long lives and the custom has been passed on from generation to generation. It is a ritual that a piece of noodle has to be swallowed without cutting either by mouth or using a pair of chopsticks. In addition to meaning to live long lives, eating the noodle also represents showing of respect for the elderly. In a legend, it is said that Emperor Wang became immortal on the day of Winter Solstice in Han Dynasty. Since then, the noodle, also named "Winter Solstice Noodle," has been consumed every Winter Solstice Day to symbolize respect for the elderly. In fact, there are many stories about Longevity Noodle, and the aforesaid is just one of the many versions. (Extracted from "Anecdotes of Famous Chinese Food")

Vermicelli served on birthdays is called "Birthday Noodle." Vermicelli made in Fuzhou City is the most famous and it carries a variety of names: that given to children at their weddings are called "Happy Noodle", that to be consumed by pregnant women are called "Blessed Noodle", that presented to friends are called "Peace Noodle", and that for the sick and the elderly are called "Health Noodle." A legend said vermicelli was a very thoughtful birthday gift presented by Empyrean Fairy to her Queen Mother for her birthday. Because of this legend, noodle makers all worship Empyrean Fairy's statue in their homes. There are various kinds of Fuzhou vermicelli such as egg vermicelli, dragon-beard vermicelli and rice thread vermicelli. (Extracted from "Anecdotes of Famous Chinese Food")

Another example is the aforesaid "cold noodle", which was originated by Wu Zetian, the only female emperor of China. It is said that Wu's beauty got her chosen into the imperial palace as a scholar when she was 14. Having to leave Chang Jianfeng, her lover since childhood, for the palace, Wu and Chang went to a restaurant for noodles before they parted. It was a very hot day. Wu came up with a bright idea and created the tender and delicious cold noodle with the restaurant owner. It happened that the day was also Wu's birthday. In order to serve as a memorial to what happened, she would order the chefs to make cold noodle on her birthdays. This custom remain unchanged until the last day of her life. (Extracted from "Anecdotes of Famous Chinese Food")

There is another story behind Shaanxi's Qishan Noodle, which is also called "Harmony Noodle." It is said that in Western Zhou Dinasty, Emperor Yin seized Emperor Zhou in a castle of Youli because of his jealousy of his achievement. When Emperor Zhou was released and returned to his hometown, the local people noticed his very bad condition caused by the tortures and thus offered him plenty of food to help him recover. To express his gratitude to these people, Emperor Zhou personally made noodle with the ingredients brought to him to serve the crowd. When they ate up the noodle, they poured the soup back and cooked more noodle with it. This way of eating noodle without drinking the soup is called having "Harmony Noodle." (Extracted from "Stories of Famous Food")

It is said "World noodles are in China." The profound knowledge behind Chinese noodles cannot be summarized in just a few words. But it is certain that noodles are founded and evolved in China. Different types of noodles can be cooked and served in a variety of ways. With each type of noodle possessing its own history and culture, Chinese noodles are no doubt world-renowned.

Bicycles in Sibu

Have you ever asked any one about the bicycles of Sibu? You may be answered disdainfully - "Bah! Bicycles? They make Sibu the most difficult town in South East Asia to manoevre when you are driving....even cars are afraid of them!!"

Bicycles broke every traffic law in the town. They were every where! And almost every one rode a bicycle in the 60's. There were good Raleigh bicycles and the rest were made in China. The Catholic Priests rode them, the secondary school teachers rode them, the hawkers rode them , housewives rode them and when the school session ended, there were thousands of them on the road making a racket.

When did the bicycle first appear on the streets of Sibu? Nobody really knew. But it was said that a missionary brought one and gave it to a Henghua pastor as a farewell gift in 1900's , in Sungei Merah. Someone said that the Brooke government had brought some to help the officers move about in Sibu before cars came in the early 1900's.

In some ways, the use of the bicycle in Sibu had a direct relationship with the usage of bicycle in China.

The bicycle was already in existence in China before the Foochows came to Sibu in 1903.

The writer, Binchun who visited Western Europe noted the Michaux' pedal-driven prototype of a bicycle even months before the invention became known to the European public. Binchun had visited France, Great Britain, Germany and other nations between March and July 1866. After his return, he reported to the court on various curiosities he had discovered during his mission in the West. Among these he had seen in Paris two types of a strange device:

"On the avenues", Binchun writes, "people ride on a vehicle with only two wheels, which is held together by a pipe. They sit above this pipe and push forward with movements of their feet, thus keeping the vehicle moving. There's yet another kind of construction which is propelled by foot pedaling. They dash along like galloping horses." (Binchun, Chengcha Biji, 1866/68)

However, the bicycle or the velocipede is not commented on in any known official source.

The Industrial Revolution had taken off in Europe and economic progress was rearing its head in almost every coal producing European country,and the United States. Japan was just at teething stage too.

However, much later, it was through newspaper reports that the Chinese government in particular and the Chinese public in general, that a greater interest was made in the usage of the bicycle. Especially when it was found out that the bicyle weas better than the horse in military expeditions! There were Chinese newspapers reporting on competitions between horse and bicycle in western armies, and also in Japan. For instance, the 1900-mile ride, of the 25th US-infantry battalion, from Montana to St. Louis, Missouri in 1897, was discussed in the journal Shixuebao, in regard to the possible introduction of bicycles in the Imperial army, only a few weeks after its successful completion. Whether this discussion ever came to fruition is questionable, at least there is no documentation of trial runs, or bicycle squads in China, before the early 1930s.

Between the 1870s and the early 1890s, European and American expatriates, living in the so-called treaty ports; Shanghai and Tianjin, or in the Chinese capital Beijing, were practially the only cyclists in China. Members of these fast-growing multinational communities effectively transferred their materialistic western culture and life styles to the Far East. Like other western commodities, first introduced in the coastal cities, the bicycle came to China in the trunks of missionaries, businessmen or colonial officers, and spread from there, rather slowly to the hinterland.

One movie featuring Gong Li showed a scene of the beautiful actress learning to ride a 22 inch bicycle in the house. The time frame of this movie is probably the late 19th century.

Thus the first Chinese cyclists were probably wealthy students, journalists or businessmen who had returned from abroad and brought their bicycles back with them.

The traditional Chinese were still very much against Western influence so the bicycle probably remain a show piece for a longer period than necessary. At the same time gramophones, photographic equipment and other technical devices were bought by the upper class, and used to exhibit the progressiveness of their owners. To cope with this complex cultural dilemma, a rough simplification was coined in the commonly used 19th century formula: "Chinese knowledge as a basis, western technology for practical use" (Zhongxue wei ti, xixue wei yong).

It was mainly the high prices" which restricted the availability of the imported bicycle to a thin layer of the higher social strata. Cycling was a phenomenon of the western-oriented upper class. Democratisation of cycling thus did not set in until the 1920s." wrote a Chinese historian.

However by 1930, there was a record of 20,000 bicycles in Shanghai alone.

The bicycle entered into many aspects of life, not only privately but also due to its use by public institutions. Many Chinese may first have been equipped with bicycles as postmen, soldiers, or as members of modern police squadrons. But also, on the other side of Chinese society, the usefulness of the bicycle, for the fast and flexible transport of goods, was highly appreciated when rice was rationed in 1941/42. During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, smugglers brought in quantities of rice on their bicycle racks.

In the 1930s, the Chinese cycle industry finally came into being. Nearly synchronously, the three largest importers of bicycles Tongchang Chehang (Shanghai), Changcheng (Tianjin), and Daxing (Shenyang) established their production lines. Starting around 1929/1930, with the assembly of manufactured and imported cycle parts, the enterprises grew rapidly. The combined output of the Chinese bicycle industry reached 10,000 units annually between 1937 and 1945. By the mid-1930s, Chinese cycle history reached a stage comparable to that of Western Europe around the turn of the last century. A rapid increase in numbers of cyclists in the larger cities can be observed shortly after mass production was taken up. Prices now finally reached a level, which brought the bicycle within the reach of a wider population. The number of bike owners in Shanghai (3.5 million inhabitants) constantly increased to 230,000 in the late 1940s. China-wide, there may have been half a million bicycles in 1949.

The year 1949 marks a pivotal year, not only for Chinese national history, but also for cycle history. After 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the bicycle soon found a strong advocate in the communist government. Whether problems in the building of a public transport system, adequate to the needs of a "socialist" society, were the practical arguments for the endorsement of bicycle traffic, or whether there were ideological reasons, may be left to further research. As a matter of fact, the bicycle received strong support by the Chinese government in different ways: the cycle industry, which was established by merging smaller manufacturers into larger national firms, was given preferential allowances of rationed materials. The nascent bicycle industry thus was able to accomplish growth rates of 58.7% annually -ambitiously charted out in the first Chinese Five-Year-Plan. The level of one million bicycles was reached in 1958. Bicycle lanes became part of urban street planning and commuting workers received financial subsidies when purchasing a bicycle.


Today's ubiquity of the bicycle in China has led to the widespread assumption of a cultural inclination of Chinese to bicycling. In fact this is far from the truth. The Iron Leg Vehicle or the leg pedal vehicle or the leg vehicle had taken a long slow road into becoming a common machinery for the common man in China.

When the bicycle slowly made its way to the Sibu social scene, it was the Heng Hua community which was responsible for introducing its sale. Thus for a long time, the Heng Huas were associated with the selling of bicycles, repairing of the rubber tyres and other parts of the machine. Rubber tappers soon found that it was quite easy to balance the rubber sheets, or latex on both sides of the bicyle.

In many parts of the Rejang River Valley, the villagers used the bicycle to carry water , pepper,foodstuff,and any other goods,instead of using the local bamboo bian dan or pole.

When I was a child, having a ride across the central bar of the bicyle with my uncle was the time of my life.

And in later years, when I was old enough to own a bicyle to go to school, I gained my first freedom of a young adult. It was like getting a driving licence today.

However, it was the mobility which derived from using bicycles that enabled the Communist Underground movement to prosper. Youngsters were more mobile and they could easily speed along the rubber garden paths to attend their secret meetings.

During the Emergency in Sarawak, all cyclists were stopped by the Police, Field Force and the Gurkhas at checkpoints. Every one of us was suspected of being a Communist. Only our Hajis wearing their topi Haji and sarong were not stopped at a checkpoints. No Malay I suppose was ever involved in any Communist activity.

Inspirational quotations for teachers

Teachers in Malaysia "have been accused of committing serious crimes against the government!" "All tuition centres must me monitored!" "Teachers who give tuition must have their salaries cut!" These are glaring headlines in the papers in July 2007. And I felt a deep pain in my soul.

In order to regain my own perspective of my own worth, although I have never operated a tuition centre myself, I decided to collect inspiring quotations for teachers, and I would add to them, from time to time.....

Sibu has become a very interesting and successful town because when it was first started by Wong Nai Siong and Rev.Hoover, the most important aspect of town building in their minds was a school. They could not have been more right.


Teachers who educated children deserved more honour than parents who merely gave them birth; for bare life is furnished by the one, the other ensures a good life.
Attributed to Aristotle

To teach is to learn.
Chinese proverb

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice,
the fifth teaching others.
Solomon Ibn Gabriol


I'm not a teacher, but an awakener.
Robert Frost



One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.
Carl Jung



A master can tell you what he expects of you.
A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
Patricia Neal



A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
Henry Brooks Adams





The aim of education should be teaching us how to think,
rather than what to think.
James Beatti

It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well.
Henri-Frédéric Amiel



My love is thine to teach; teach it but how,
And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn
Any hard lesson that may do thee good.
William Shakespeare



I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Chinese Proverb



The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
Mark Van Doren



What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state,
than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?
Cicero



The successful teacher is no longer on a height, pumping knowledge at high pressure into passive receptacles....He is a senior student anxious to help his juniors.
William Osler



The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.
Elbert Hubbard



Who dares teach must never cease to learn.
John Cotton Dana



Teaching is not a lost art but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
Jacques Barzun



If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.
Confucius



My joy in learning is partly that it enable me to teach.
Seneca



Teachers believe they have a gift for giving; it drives them with the same irrepressible drive that drives others to create a work of art or a market or a building.
A Bartlett Giamatt

Dr.Zhivago and Sixth Form Film Criticism - 1967

"Knowledge is the ultimate investment project. - Ivan Majstorovic"

"In teaching I learn. In writing I think."

"Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton.

Some how quotations one learn in Sixth Form never leave us. And today as I embark on writing about my memories of Dr.Zhivago, I dedicate the above quotations to all who went to school with me. And to let my teachers know that I remember dearly everything they taught me and how they helped me value reading and learning.

We were very excited when our wonderful (then and now ) Mr.K V Wiltshire allowed us as a group to watch the film "Doctor Zhivago" in Cathay Cinema, Sibu. It was 1967. It was a marvellous and memorable extension education.

The film was based on author Boris Pasternak's historical, romantic novel. It did not occur to us then that the English version of the book was only printed in 1957 !
The book was 592 pages, quite thick to many of my classmates who had not been very voracious readers. It was not exactly an "old book" as it is "a 20th century novel"

Written in Russian, the novel is named after its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a medical doctor and poet. The word zhivago shares a root with the Russian word for life (жизнь), one of the major themes of the novel. It tells the story of a man torn between two women, set primarily against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution of 1917. More deeply, the novel discusses the plight of a man as his life is slowly destroyed by the violence of the revolution.

Unknown to us at that time, as we were merely students with very little information, the novel actually contains passages written in the 1910s and 1920s, and Doctor Zhivago was not completed until 1956. It was submitted for publication to the journal Noviy mir, but it was rejected due to Pasternak's political incorrectness: Pasternak, like Zhivago, was more concerned with the welfare of individuals than of the state.

In 1957, the publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli smuggled the manuscript out of the Soviet Union and published the book in Russian in Milan. The following year, it appeared in Italian and English translations, and these publications were partly responsible for the fact that the author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. The Soviet government forced him to reject the prize, which was unprecedented. Pasternak died a few years later, of natural causes.

The book was finally published in the Soviet Union in 1988, ironically in the pages of Noviy mir, although earlier samizdat editions also exist. A few years later, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved.


Yuri Zhivago is sensitive and poetic nearly to the point of mysticism. In medical school, one of his professors reminds him that bacteria may be beautiful under the microscope, but they do ugly things to people.

Zhivago's idealism and principles stand in brutal contrast to the horrors of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the subsequent Russian Civil War. A large theme of the book is how the mysticism of things and idealism is destroyed by both the Bolsheviks, Rebels and the white army. Yuri must witness cannibalism, dismemberment, and other horrors suffered by the innocent civilian population during the turmoil. Even the love of his life, Lara (whose full name is Larissa Feodorovna), is taken from him.

He ponders on how the war can turn the whole world senseless, and make a previously reasonable group of people destroy each other with no regard for life. His journey through Russia has an epic feeling because of his travelling through a world which is in such striking contrast to himself, relatively uncorrupted by the violence, and to his desire to find a place away from it all, which drives him across the Arctic Siberia of Russia, and eventually back down to Moscow.

Pasternak gives subtle criticism of Soviet ideology: he disagrees with the idea of "building a new man," which is against nature. This fits in the story's theme of life.

Pasternak's description of the singer Kubarikha in the chapter "Iced Rowanberries" is almost identical to Sofia Satina's (sister-in-law / cousin of Sergei Rachmaninov) description of gypsy singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya (1884-1940). Since Rachmaninov was a friend of the Pasternak family, and Plevitskaya a friend of Rachmaninov, Plevitskaya was probably Pasternak's "mind image" when he wrote the chapter; something which also shows how Pasternak had roots in music.


Names and places
Zhivago: the Russian root zhiv is similar to 'life'
Larissa: a Greek name suggesting 'bright, cheerful'
Komarovsky: komar is the Russian for 'mosquito'
Pasha: the diminutive form of 'Pavel', from the Latin word paulus, meaning 'small'
Strelnikov: strelok means 'the shooter'
Yuriatin: the fictional town was based on the real Perm, where Pasternak had lived for part of the Second World War
The original of the public reading room at Yuriatin was the Pushkin Library, Perm

The film I saw as a student was the " most famous by far is the 1965 adaptation by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie"

After the film we had a serious discussion at Mr. Wiltshire's sitting room. It was a great moment for us because we were so motivated by the scenery ,the music and the impactful acting of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. One student who stood out in the discussion was an Upper Sixth girl, Felicia Toh. She was so good as pointed out very salient points. I was impressed by her English too.

Today many talk shows cannot beat this session of film discussion. Mr. Wiltshire led us very carefully in his Oxford inquiry style. I felt as if I was in an Oscar award panel then.

It was the music the group agreed which appealed to us the most. Even though most of us were not groomed in classical music (at that time not many could afford music lessons and piano was not an instrument most families wanted to buy because it was too costly), we truly appreciated the music. For months most of us hummed "Lara's Theme". Even now as I type these words, Lara's Theme is still in my head, after 40 years.

(Later through the kindness of Mrs. Wiltshire and several others, we were given a series of music appreciation lessons. I believe a lot of finesse was inculcated through these lessons. I thought they were just marvellous lessons in life! And I appreciate them to this day.)

Although many of us had not finished reading the book before we went to watch the movie, we were told by Mr.Wiltshire that the film was faithful to the book in a general sense, with no significant deviations from the general storyline; however, the depictions of several characters and events are noticeably different. After the movie,the book from the Sixth Form library was passed from one student to another. Several of us read and reread the book several times. And years later we were told that Malaysians read only one page a year according to one research. It was hard to believe.

Reading can be so much part of our life especially when we have good teachers who lead the way and try every means to get us to read.

Mr. and Mrs. Wiltshire had walked more than the proverbial second mile to help us along the path of reading.