A Nyonya mosaic : memoirs of a Peranakan childhood

Bringing in the New Year was a boisterous event th (Courtesy of Archives and Oral History Department

196 A NYONYA MOSAIC hat left the streets a festive red. t, Singapore)

NEW YEAR PREPARATIONS 197 bunch of joss sticks to pray and sambot taon (welcome the year). Several packets of firecrackers were then lit to sambot jereki (welcome good fortune). Eldest brother had taken over this responsibility even while father was alive because father realised that it was a matter of time before the next generation must take over the responsibility to uphold traditions. After father’s death, grandma, being the head of the household should have performed the ritual but in our family we also believed that it was more appropriate for a man to do it. There were many others who welcomed the New Year at the same hour. However, as clocks and watches were not synchronised, minutes before our clocks registered midnight, sounds of cracker firing could already be heard. We however never allowed this to affect our timing in opening the doors. We relied resolutely on our own clocks. Similarly, after we had welcomed the year, sounds of fresh cracker firing were heard indicating that there were others who considered our clocks to be fast. And so, for many minutes around midnight the whole neighbourhood resounded to a continuous bursting of firecrackers. After welcoming the year we never closed our doors and our whole house remained brightly lit right up to daylight. The excitement associated with the festival commenced right after we had bade welcome to the new year. Not half an hour later a group of bandsmen carrying their brass instruments and drum made their call on us. It was rather late at night but with so much excitement in the air none of us felt sleepy. Even had I wanted to sleep it would have been impossible, what with the sounds of firecrackers exploding, and the brass band playing in the sitting room. In order to visit as many houses as possible the band normally did not play a complete tune. But they could be flexible under certain circumstances. From their annual visits they knew which households would reward them

198 A NYONYA MOSAIC more substantially. Thus, at such homes they naturally lingered a little longer in the hope that the host would be even more generous that year. Father enjoyed the music of the band and was generous with his ang pows. The end of the first tune earned each of the musicians an ang pow and father normally requested them to play one or two more of his favourite tunes. They happily complied because further rounds of ang pows never failed to follow. They were also rewarded by eldest brother, who was himself no less a lover of music. After wishing us the best for the year ahead they strode out to the next house to render their service. Hardly had the blast of this band faded from our ears then another group of musicians would arrive. This was the seroni band, so important at Baba events. This band with its more oriental music affected me differently from the western oriented brass band. I was engulfed by mixed feelings: joy mingled with memories of moments of tears and parting, a feeling that I experience even today when I hear recorded seroni music.

chapter eleven A New Beginning THE CHINESE NEW Year celebration of 1926 was a memorable one. In every way it was typical of others but that year it marked the end of my innocent childhood. Even after father was no longer around all our New Years’ festivities were celebrated in the same splendour that we had been accustomed to. Grandma deserved full credit for this. Father had left her a sizeable fortune which she increased through sheer efficiency. Therefore, on this particular New Year’s Eve our family reunion dinner was as sumptuous as the ones before. The next morning, as a result of having slept late the previous night I woke up well past my normal waking time. As always, the morning of the first of the fifteen days’ festivities found me in a dilemma. It was customary in our house for only the menfolk to go out visiting on the first day. The womenfolk were required to stay at home to serve the unbroken stream of visitors who came to pay their annual respects to grandma. However, where I was concerned grandma would not have minded it if I had decided to go visiting on this day. My problem was that I could not make up my mind. Going out on the very first day of the New Year was a different experience from going on the

200 second day. The excitement on the first day was decidedly more intense whereas the enthusiasm was somewhat less on the next day due perhaps, to the fatigue brought about by the gruelling pace of the day before. Staying at home on the first day could be hazardous in that not only would I have to join in serving the guests but all the walking and sweating would naturally result in a crumpled dress. There was nothing I abhorred and dreaded more than a crumpled dress on New Year’s day. On the other hand, the many visitors would mean a bigger tally of ang pows at the day’s end. What finally influenced me to stay at home was the scheduled visit of eldest brother’s musical groups. Unfailingly on every New Year’s day at least one of the groups he belonged to would tum up, especially the Malay boria group. I was very fond of boria presentations and enjoyed their renditions of both eastern and western songs. The members of the group were all gifted musicians who played by ear and not by reading scores. Their rendering of old time keronchongs and stamboels left us craving for more. The moment they started to play my three brothers would take out their instruments to join in. It was very memorable. In one of these boria groups was the well-known Abdul Razak. He was a living legend in his time. Armed with his violin he was a familiar figure at Baba homes during festivals, weddings and birthday celebrations. He had a unique presentation. He was able to compose and sing pantons at the spur of the moment with words that flattered or denoted blessings and rhymed with the host’s name. He never failed to leave a very happy and satisfied patron who rewarded him handsomely at the end of his song. Normally after he had finished singing for the host he would stroll among the other guests and offer the same entertainment to several of them after requesting their names.

A NEW BEGINNING 201 He was very careful with his choice of words and jokes with the adults but he was always clowning and using teasing words on us children. Sometimes he would pick on a child with, say, a missing tooth and proceed to sing a comical song about the toothless child much to the amusement of everyone, including the ‘victim’. He was always humorous but never offensive. Whenever I was around he was sure to end his visit with a song about me. In our view he was an entertainer par excellence, the likes of which have not come our way since. In keeping with the tradition that only menfolk were encouraged to go out on the first day, the steady stream of visitors who came throughout the day consisted mostly of males. While it was only natural for my brothers’ friends to be men, it was surprising that grandma’s guests were mostly males too. They were made up of our relatives as well as her friends with whom she had business dealings. Among them was the owner of a pawnshop in Arab Street in which grandma had invested some money. This gentleman was more than a business friend; he had been adopted by grandma not long before as a son. Grandma had another adopted son who lived in Tanjong Pagar. I was rather frightened of him. He was a heavy boozer who did not set a limit to his drinking during his New Year visits. By the time he reached our home he was already unsteady on his feet. He was the rare exception who brought his wife along with him on the first day. It was pretty obvious that he wanted her around merely to help him when he was drunk. The other exception was a middle aged lady who came with her teenage son who was her only child. She was ever grateful to grandma for a favour done on her behalf. At that time her husband had walked out on her and the boy, and when summoned for maintenance, he had denied that they were married. It seemed that this lady had tried desperately to

202 A NYONYA MOSAIC get witnesses to testify in the suit but to no avail. In the days when the average woman was an uneducated and shy creature, getting one to voluntarily attend court to give evidence was very difficult. But when grandma was approached for help, she responded positively, without hesitation. In the courtroom, speaking in the Baba language and not showing the slightest sign of nervousness grandma revealed that she had taken an active part in the couple’s wedding as one of the lady guests who had accompanied the wedding procession. And as for the child, grandma was reputed to have requested the magistrate to put the boy next to the errant husband to show the resemblance between them. The lady won the maintenance suit and since then she demonstrated her gratitude by her yearly visit with her son to pay respects to grandma on the first day of Chinese New Year. Such court cases were a reality because traditional Baba weddings did not involve any official marriage certificate. In a case like this one there was not even a photograph to show the wedding. Another male business colleague who came was a certain moneylender part of whose capital had come from grandma. He was effeminate. He used his hands to gesture like a female when he talked and walked with a feminine gait. Surprisingly he was a married man with several children to his credit. The non-stop serving the women had to do on the first day found them an exhausted lot on the second day. As I was not kept very busy on the first day I was up and about early raring to go visiting as early as possible. Eldest sister-in-law exercised the utmost patience as she helped me to dress, what with my constantly urging her to hurry. It was not a simple matter to dress me because I was to go visiting in a pengapet’s costume. Grandma and several of her contemporaries took special pride in dressing their granddaughters up in the bridal page girl’s

A NEW BEGINNING 203 costume for their New Year visits. It was a yearly affair for us to wear this costume until we attained our teens. Grandsons were similarly dressed as koo yas (page boys). I skipped breakfast that morning because there would be no shortage of things to eat at the homes we visited. They were more or less the same variety of cakes we had prepared for the festival but as they were homemade and had been prepared with the utmost care, nobody could tire of eating them. For my visits I had Ah Sum to accompany me. She was ever ready to come along because for every ang pow given to me she collected one for herself. Had it not been for this incentive she might not have condescended when called upon to work on a festival day. Most of the houses I visited were palatial buildings but it took a lot to equal the sheer grandeur of the building that once stood where the Cathay Building now stands. The lady of the house was grandma’s adopted daughter and she was known as Tatt Poh Hoo Lye. Her name was Tatt Poh and Hoo Lye was her husband’s name. His full name was Teo Hoo Lye. A very neat and tidy person by nature she kept her home spick and span. Coupled with its size and the expensive furniture and decorations that were so exquisitely maintained it was altogether a dream palace she had for a home. By sharp contrast was the seaside home of one of grandma’s close friends at Pasir Panjang. This house was as grand and as palatial but the furnishing was totally unlike the mostly Chinese furniture found in a typical Baba home. All the chairs, tables, and cupboards in this house were modern in design and western in origin. I can still vividly recall the unusual long table with a mirror as its top. The chairs round it which also had mirrors as backrests awed me no end. When the lady of this household celebrated her seventy-first birthday she had people talking about it long after it was all over. In the daytime a boat

204 A NYONYA MOSAIC Left: The martiach Tatt Poh Hoo Lye. Right: Myself in pengapet Änery for a New Year outing. race was organised in front of her house while at dinner she had as her guests a dozen newly wedded brides who had been married less than a month all resplendent in their twelfth day costumes. Grandma had played an important role in helping her assemble these brides, each of whom was rewarded with a big solid gold coin. The third day of the New Year was unique. It was customary for the majority of people to stay indoors on this day. Yet there was a steady stream of visitors to every house. This was because it was a day when professional beggars went visiting. On this day they came out in full force. It was apparent that by their particularly large turnout that a fair number of them were not regular beggars. They could have been rickshaw pullers or odd job labourers who had decided to take advantage of the day when everybody was generous. Starting from early in the

A NEW BEGINNING 205 morning they went to every house either singly or accompanied by one or more companions. Standing near the main door they called out a short festive greeting and stood waiting for their reward. At our house we gave them the 1¢ ang pows that had been specially wrapped for them on New Year’s eve. Young children were normally assigned the duty of handing the ang pows to them. I did not mind this day-long chore for I felt amply rewarded by their profuse thanks and blessings. This must have been the reason for not going out on the third day as to do so might put us in the same class as the beggars. There were probably other reasons but having seen the number of beggars out in the streets on this day I could not help but believe that this must be the main reason we preferred to stay at home. There was no racial or religious barrier on this day. Beggars of all races took advantage of the festival and came for their red packet. Nobody was turned away. We believed that on an auspicious occasion like this we should show kindness and charity to the less fortunate and not begrudge anyone a token ang pow. In fact it was our family policy never to tum any beggar away any time or day throughout the year. The 1¢ copper coins were always within reach, though not wrapped in red packets except during the New Year festival. Being charitable to beggars was an obligation that was religiously observed by us and many other families I knew of. The following day was the Kitchen gods’ homecoming from their annual visit to the Jade Emperor. Just as they were well feted when they departed ten days before, they were similarly welcomed home ceremoniously. There were prayer offerings at their altars and when gold paper was burned after the prayers, the red piece of hoon bay paper reserved from their departure ritual went into the flames.

206 A NYONYA MOSAIC Although no special activities ensued for the next couple of days, father, when he was alive, would take us on evening joy rides during this period. We travelled as far as Tanah Merah which seemed to me like another part of the world. The beach was then rich with remis, a small edible bivalve found just below the surface close to the water’s edge at low tide. The moment we reached the beach we wasted no time in digging for them and an evening’s haul was about half a paper bag full. After washing them clean with sea water the remis were marinated in salt for a couple of days before being eaten with a dash of vinegar. At other times we drove to the opposite side of the island to the West Coast where we stopped at a Malay village along Pasir Panjang Road for a drink of tuak or palm juice. This was the liquid exudate obtained from tapping the growing shoot of a coconut tree. When freshly collected in a bamboo container it was a sweet refreshing drink. This, after a night’s fermentation turned to toddy, an intoxicating wine that was officially sold at various designated centres to cater to the lower income group as their evening drink. It was fairly recently that the government finally closed all the toddy shops. I must confess that a cupful of tuak made me a little heady but I never admitted it in case father forbade me to drink anymore. After the fourth day when the New Year’s activities had somewhat slowed down there was still a trickle of visitors who continued to visit grandma. They were our relatives who lived far away and could not make it on the first few days or they were distant relatives for whom grandma was not on their priority list. There were also friends of my elder brothers or relatives of my sisters-in-law and even distant relatives from Malacca who paid us surprise visits. Malacca to us then was a distant land. I even thought that these people were different

A NEW BEGINNING 207 from us and so never took my eyes off them. When they took their leave lots of tears were shed for the chance of us meeting again was. indeed slim. The next event of Significance was the celebration of the birthday of the Jade Emperor which falls on the ninth day of the New Year. However, prayers for this occasion were normally held on the eve of the celebration. We erected the same two- tier sam kai altar as at a wedding and placed offerings of uncooked vegetables on it. The vegetables were the ingredients for a chap chai dish (mixed vegetables). They included tung hoon (transparent vermicelli), hio ko (mushroom), bok jee (tree fungus), tau kee (dried soya bean skin), kim chiam (lotus buds) and kobis (cabbage). Fruits were also offered on the altar and they included the pomelo, pomegranate, pear, apple and orange all beautifully decorated with red paper. Alongside the altar table was a pair of sugarcanes with leaves intact. These stalks were festooned with long strips of yellow paper. The sugarcane stalk played an important place in our New Year celebrations. Eldest sister-in-law once told me about a war long ago in China when the Hokkien populace was nearly wiped out by a conquering invading horde. They escaped what was almost certain extermination by successfully concealing themselves in a sugarcane plantation. Thus, the Hokkiens owed a debt to the sugarcane plant and, in order to perpetuate the memory of the incident, the sugarcane was given a place of importance in the New Year celebrations. In fact, on New Year’s eve itself a stalk of sugarcane would already have been placed behind each of the main doors. The sam kai altar’s attraction was further enhanced by the presence of flowers on it. Just before sunset eldest sister-in-law and I would go to our garden to cut jingeh ayam (coxcomb), siantan (ixora) and kembang malam for the purpose. The

208 A NYONYA MOSAIC last named flower bloomed at night and its lovely fragrance coupled with the incense from the joss-sticks increased the lovely aroma surrounding the altar. This particular prayer began at midnight, on the dot. While in some households the observance ended one hour later, ours continued till dawn, when we burned gold paper to signify the end of the prayer. Some families did not observe this prayer at home because of financial and manpower constraints. Instead they observed this prayer at any temple which housed the Jade Emperor deity. Each of such temples set up an elaborate altar and tall red candles were available for sale to devotees who lit and placed them on a special wooden stand. One of our aunts observed this prayer in a temple. On the night of the prayers she never failed to come to our house first to help us set up our sam kai altar, after which she took her leave to visit the temple. When father was around he used to offer her the use of his car to go to the temple. A number of us took the opportunity to accompany her to have a look at the rows and rows of tall flickering candles in front of the altar. It was indeed a memorable sight to behold. The climax of the New Year festivities took place on chap go mei (the fifteenth day). The day began with prayers for our ancestral spirits that had spent the New Year with us. Lots of food was offered to them so that they had a good and satisfying send-off. In addition to the normal eight dishes we had an extra special dish known as nasik pulot (glutinous rice) that day. This was steamed glutinous rice served with seraykaya (egg jam) and pengat which was a dish of bananas and tubers cooked in coconut milk and sugar. As this happened to be my favourite sweet I took great pains to learn to cook it. The main ingredients consisted of sweet potato cut into medium sized cubes, bananas which had been earlier cooked in syrup and ubi

A NEW BEGINNING 209 wangi a fragrant yam that has not been available locally for a long time. It was not easy to finish a bowl of pengat because of its cloy, starchy and very sweet taste. Surprisingly, grandma’s contemporaries did not seem to be affected by the very rich and sweet taste and they went on to consume this pengat together with the steamed glutinous rice and the egg jam without seeming to feel sated. With such a taste for starchy and sweet food it came as no surprise to me that in later life they suffered from diabetes. Grandma usually invited her friends over on the fifteenth day not only to enjoy the pengat but also to indulge in a cherki session. On this occasion, the card session would end early because our guests had to rush home to prepare for the night’s closing ritual of the New Year celebrations. Early in the evening we dressed up nicely for dinner and switched on most of the lights in the house. Uncle Hong Kee was delegated to go to the temple to amek api. This was a rite we observed every chap go mei when a member of our family visited the temple at Telok Ayer to burn joss sticks and pray. Before leaving the temple three joss sticks were lit from a lamp and taken. home. Bringing them home symbolised the bringing home of holy light. When the joss sticks reached home a matchstick was used to obtain a flame to light the candles on the altar of the household gods. Subsequently every member of the family lit his or her joss sticks from these candles which burned with the holy light originating from the temple. I once accompanied Uncle Hong Kee to the temple and committed to memory what I observed because as eldest sister- in-law had advised me, in later years I might have to shoulder this duty of amek api when I became a married woman with a family of my own. That night the temple was crowded mostly with Babas and Nyonyas. Many of them knew one another and they took the opportunity to exchange belated greetings

210 A NYONYA MOSAIC of the season. Due to the large crowd who each carried a thick bundle of burning and smoking joss-sticks, the temple was smoky and many of us had tears rolling down our cheeks as a result of the irritating smoke. The three joss-sticks that were subsequently taken home were initially placed in the main urn of the temple. In order to ensure that our joss-sticks were not accidentally taken home by others I was assigned to stand close to the urn to keep watch over them as Uncle Hong Kee and other members of our family continued to pray before the other deities in the temple. After we had prayed before all our altars at home we sat down to an early dinner. We timed ourselves so that dinner was over just after dark. The next event was the long-awaited finale and everyone was keyed up with excitement for it to begin. The firing of crackers to mark the closing of the fifteen days’ celebrations had always been traditionally observed on an extraordinary scale by practically every person of Chinese stock in Singapore whether Baba or non-Baba. Unlike the day when they welcomed the New Year with a moderate amount of cracker firing, the closing festivity saw them going to extremes. My brothers had pooled their financial resources to buy two crates of firecrackers but this did not come anywhere close to what Ah Pok had bought. It was evident that he had practically used up all his year’s savings for burning that night. Knowing his passion for cracker firing grandma had quietly given him money to buy more. While we were taking dinner Ah Pok and his helpers were already busy heating up charcoal in several small earthen stoves to light the crackers. After this they carried the cases of crackers outside the house. My brothers had exposed the fuse of their crackers earlier in the day, placed them on rattan trays to dry in the sun so that they would be dry and bum well and the

A NEW BEGINNING 211 noise of the exploding crackers would be sharper. After a couple of hours’ sunning, the crackers were nearly stacked in their wooden crates to await nightfall. The moment dinner was over nobody could contain themselves and everyone was eager to start firing. By then a number of houses in the neighbourhood had already commenced firing their crackers to signal the start of what was the noisiest evening of every year. On one side of our house stood uncle Hong Kee and all my brothers while on the other side were Ah Pok and Ah Nyiok. Eldest brother grabbed a stack of crackers with his left hand. From this pile he took one with his right hand and touched the fuse on the hot glowing charcoal. The fuse began to crackle and hiss. As it burned closer towards the crackers he flung the packet to the roadside where it started to explode even before it touched the ground. While the crackers were still exploding he was already lighting the second packet so that there would be a continuous noise. As the first packet of crackers started to explode my other brothers started firing so that there was a chain of exploding crackers around us. For the young like me there was a small version of crackers. These petas padi (small crackers) gave a less loud sound. I was given ten packets to bum and in order to prolong the fun I burned them with a lapse of several minutes between each packet. The type fired by Ah Pok and Ah Nyiok was much larger than that my brothers were firing. Instead of being packed into neat square packets these larger crackers were strung up into chains several metres long. Having bought several such chains Ah Pok had earlier in the day joined them altogether and rolled it into a large coil. He needed an assistant to hold the bundle and to uncoil it as he held the exploding end. Before igniting the head of the coil he wound part of it round his arm and his body. The rest of the coil was in a wooden container and it was

212 A NYONYA MOSAIC the responsibility of the assistant to pass him another length of crackers as the other end exploded. Ah Nyiok, his assistant in the kitchen, was also a good assistant to Ah Pok for cracker firing. At the start of the firing the noise was deafening but as the minutes ticked into hours one became oblivious of the noise but not the smoke. As the crackers continued to burst all around the fumes became thicker and thicker. Vehicular traffic like rickshaws ground to a complete halt. Only the faster moving cars could drive along the centre lane of the road between a gauntlet of exploding crackers. The deafening cacophony of bursting crackers did not die down until close to midnight. When the noise finally stopped my ears rang with its echo. After a while it was quiet. A strange, sad silence. It was as though a heavy black curtain had suddenly closed on a glittering fortnight. Although chap go mei marked the end of the New Year festivities, everyone wanted the memory of good times to linger on and so on the next night there was yet one more tradition to observe. That night, there was no cracker firing, no rickshaw- puller baiting by exuberant youngsters who threw packets of exploding crackers at their feet, and no big dinner to confine everybody at home. It was a night of relaxation when parents took their children out to the esplanade for a stroll, after a visit to the temple earlier in the night. It was a night when matchmakers crowded the temples to observe the womenfolk with their young and not so young daughters. To the older maidens this visit to the temple was of vital importance. This exposure was perhaps one last chance for being matched in marriage. Failure to attract the attention of the many matchmakers who thronged the temple meant another year of waiting and with each passing year the chances of a match grew dimmer.

A NEW BEGINNING 213 The esplanade was similarly crowded with people who were still in the New Year mood and who continued to exchange festive greetings with one another. Many young bachelors were out that night to ogle at girls who were normally cloistered the rest of the year. As all the girls were strictly chaperoned by their parents the boys had to keep at a discreet distance. For most of the otherwise closeted girls this was a night they looked forward to and it was altogether an exciting one albeit without any fraternisation with any of the young bachelors who were kept at bay. We did not stay long at the esplanade as most of us were feeling tired and sleepy. After reaching home, as I trudged upstairs my heart was as heavy as my weary legs. Exhaustion prevented me from falling to sleep immediately and, as I lay tossing, my thoughts unavoidably went through the events of the last two glorious weeks. They were exciting memories. Mingled with them was a particular statement which intruded itself into the joyful New Year celebrations in a mildly nagging way. ‘Amboey, lu sudah bukan anak dara kachuak lagi. Lu sudah jadi anak dara betol!’ (My, you are no longer a cockroach maiden but a true one!) Many elderly relatives and friends had said this when they were told that I was fifteen. The message was all too clear. I was no longer considered a child but a marriageable young lady. Word of my eligibility would soon be spread round the island. It would not have to wait long before being snatched from the shelter and protection of my family to a new way of life I had not been tutored in. How much of the unknown would eldest sister-in-law discuss with me? What would he be like? There were too many unknowns and uncertainties. I did not want to think about it for the moment but just succumbed myself to sleep as he slowly embraced me in his soothing arms.

214 A NYONYA MOSAIC My wedding portrait.

About the Author William Gwee Thian Hock, a fifth-generation Singapore Baba, is regarded as an authority on Baba Peranakan culture for good reason. The author of Mas Sepuloh, Baba Conversational Gems (1993), A Baba-Malay Dictionary (2006) and A Baba Boyhood: Growing up during World War 2 (2013), he has also written and staged 12 skits and four plays to the delight of mature Peranakan audiences and young Singaporeans interested in discovering more about their Baba roots. Continuing in the strong musical tradition of the Babas, he has also written 19 original songs. As one of the rare keepers of the rich and complex Baba culture, William has given numerous talks and interviews to researchers, docents, students and journalists, as well as rendered advice to the Gunong Sayang Association, the Peranakan Association of Singapore, the Main Wayang Company, and the Peranakan Museum. Married for 50 years to his true love, Rosie Tan Chwee Neo, Gwee continues to live in the Joo Chiat-Katong area where his family has lived since he was a boy of six. He spends his days committing Baba traditions to paper for the sake of future generations, reading, curating his verdant garden of fruit trees, and enjoying the traditional sambal udang, curry and chutney Rosie cooks with their regular harvests of fruit and belimbing.

By the same author WILLIAM GWEE SHARES his experience on growing up as an innocent boy during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945. Gwee’s engaging text discusses the challenges faced in a difficult time and how, despite the hardships of war, traditions and taboos continued to be practised. What sets this book apart from others on similar subject matter are the vivid vignettes of Singapore life in the early 1940s as seen through the ingenuous eyes of a child, as well as strong references to the Peranakan community, whose ethos and culture were forever changed by the war. Both refreshing and poignant, A Baba Boyhood will appeal to those who have lived through the wartime period, as well as younger readers who seek to understand their place in checkered Singapore history.