My Father

Written on January 15, 2021 and revived on December 1, 2023.
This is an excellent gift from my daughter for writing my old stories to celebrate my 75 years old birthday. The timing is good because now is the grim days (early 2021) in the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdown “shelter-in-place” being imposed again. I am not traveling anywhere and have a lot of time to write. In the past few days, I was having video conference with my 2 1/2 year older brother living in Malaysia because I can barely remember anything when I was very young during the critical times.

The earliest I remember my father is stepping out the train to see him at a British detention camp. I was probably 4 to 5 years old and was very happy that he gave me an origami bird folded from a cigarette case. He never did it before or would do it again, and he did not smoke. Later I realized that was my trip leaving Labis on way to join my mother and two brothers in Singapore about 100 miles south (see map at left). She ran away because she thought my father would likely be deported to China since he was not born in Malaya.

My father lived in the time of change. He came from a very poor farming family in China to work as a tin mine worker at an age of 12. At that time, British imported many Chinese workers to help developing Malaya. He exaggerated his age to get in. It is a mystery to us where he was and what he did before he became a big boss in timber business in Labis, Johor. From that point on, jungle is his life.

I did remember the jungle train rides on a private railroad built by my father’s company. My bother told me that the railroad came by our house located at 5 miles Labis Road (Five Stones called by Chinese, Batu Lima by Malay, see above & future maps) in the south of Labis at the edge of the jungle.

My father married my mother in 1942, the year when Japanese occupied Malaya. Young girls married earlier to avoid to be taken as comfort women. My mother was adopted when she was a baby. I was born in 1946, a year after the war, and my older brother in 1943, a year after Japanese occupation, and my younger brother in 1948 when Malayan Emergency started.

I barely remembered living at 5-mile with my Grandma (Grandpa died much earlier) and my father being thrown into jail, probably in 1949, due to the suspicion of his monetary support to the guerrillas in the Malayan jungles. Left picture was torn down from a document. The cropped stamp on the picture has words “General, Republic of China” in Chinese. Maybe my mother was worried and prepared to be departed to China. Even we were all born in Malaya, but she took this picture for a traveling document. It is our first picture in life and was taken in Segamat, in the north of Labis.

The British forced the relocation of 500,000+ peasantry from the fringes of the jungle into guarded camps called New Villages later. Some villages still exist nowadays. Because of the Malayan policies, it is very difficult for a non-Malay to own land and many farmers became squatters (farming without land rights, Chinese called them cultivators). It was tolerated because they provided food for the country. When I was taken to Singapore, my Grandma left for China and never came back.

I am not sure when my mother and two brothers started living in the downtown of Labis. After my father’s locked-up, she was scared that the British might lock her up too. Probably in 1949, she took my two brothers and ran away to Singapore. I always think that how difficult for her to run far away with two young kids. When I joined them, my mother was remarried and we lived at Ho Swee Hill (later I found out it was located about half of a mile in the south and was a very historic place, more in later) which was a dangerous squatter area for poor people in Singapore. It was burned down in 1961 by a suspected fire, the biggest outbreak in Singapore's history, and residents were relocated.

I did go to school as a first grader. However, may be in the first day of school, I skipped school and hid under a pedestrian bridge. I barely have any memory of all these. Soon this was not important because my father was looking for us after he was released by British in 1951 or 1952 and had restarted his timber business. I don’t know how he could restart his business because he was not that well-to-do as before.

They decided that my older brother and I would rejoin him in Labis. In late 1952 or early 1953, we went back to join him. He married a younger woman, hoping that she could take care of us. In Labis, my father went to work in jungle almost every day and came back very late at nights. We hardly saw him. Also things did not quite work out. I was supposed to be a first grader and my brother a third grader. At first we were reluctant to go to school and finally we just skipped it. Unfortunately, we were called rotten kids in Cantonese in town and my brother thought it really means gangsters in English.

The top picture at left is the 2019 aerial view of the ongoing construction of the electrified double-track railway at Labis (part of the project of north-south Johor inter-city high-speed rail). It shows where we lived during 1953-55. We only have one picture of my father in the early years and was probably torn down from some ID card (inserted).

Not sure where my father lived before he was arrested by the British. During 1953-55, we lived on the 2nd floor of a shophouse on Market street (Jalan Pasar, left pictures) facing the railway station after temporarily living in a village when we moved back from Singapore (more in later).

Walking along the street, one would reach Labis river. Across the railway, one would reach the police station and Labis Road leading to our 5-mile home in the south. On the same road going north about 1/2 mile is Labis Chinese school.

In 2011, we visited Labis and went to the railway station (left 2nd picture). It had been stayed the same in years. The Jalan Pasar where we lived also stayed the same (more in later).

I don't know where he stayed after 1955. It is impossible to understand my father without going through the very different periods and places in our lives. Figuring out I cannot finish his life story in short time, I should continue in coming writings.

Our fates changed when we left for Singapore in 1955 to join our second step-mother. Eventually we settled in Johor Bahru (JB) in 1957 where I spent most my childhood. In 1966, I went to Taiwan for oversea study for 4 years and got to come back to visit in the summer of 1970 (below 1st picture).

My father usually stayed at where his company was located. As I know his timber business started at Labis and nearby jungles. In 1960s, he obtained a timber project from the crown prince of the state Pahang (more in later) and he relocated his office to Kemayan, a small town in Pahang. His company NG PIEW TIMBERS was quite well-known.

After teaching in Taiwan for one year, I went to the US to pursue further studies in 1971. In 1982, I got a chance to bring my whole family back to JB and this was the last time I saw my father. Fortunately we had a picture of father-and-sons taken in front of the sultan's palace on the hill (left 2nd picture).

Edge of the Jungle

Written on January 23, 2021 and revived on January 1, 2024.
I was born in 1946 and lived until sometime in 1950 on the edge of the jungle at 5 miles Labis Road (maps below). I believe the place was built by my mother’s adopted parents who worked as farmer cultivators without land right because non-Malay was not allowed to own land. I just found out that “farmer cultivators” in Malaya refer to the indigenous peoples who lived in the region and practiced subsistence agriculture as their way of life (Feb. 2023).

In 1945 , the cultivator population in Malaya increased to 400,000 due to the unemployment caused by low rubber and tin prices (plastics becoming popular), the escaping from Japanese cruelty, and the food shortages and higher prices. The cultivators farmed, grew vegetables and raised chickens and ducks, and provided food for the country.

A few days ago, I discovered a British document with a map (left) which gave me good insight on what had happened. A battalion sailed all the way from Liverpool of England to fight in Malayan guerrilla war. On the map, ‘Logging’ is labeled next to my label ‘5 miles’ (Batu Lima in Malay, Five Stones in Chinese). That is clearly my father’s business even though he was already locked up by the British (probably in 1949).

I remember it well that my Grandma usually left me a banana for breakfast when she went out to work on the farm before daybreak. There were no other family members. When I went outside of the house, I saw monkeys on the trees and they came to steal fruits. I heard someone said that in order to scare them away was to catch one, shaved its head and made it look ugly to other monkeys. And so other monkeys won’t come again. I did believe the theory at that time.

There was a private railroad built by my father’s company came around our house and back into the jungle. It stopped at the temporary lodge where my father housed his timber workers. Sometimes my brother and I walked along the railroad to get to the lodge. Workers told us scary jungle stories, like a python was so long that one saw its head and could not see its tail. We shouldn’t call tigers directly but call them Daai-baa-gung (Big-grand-uncle in Cantonese) out of respect, exactly the way my grandkids should call my older brother.

Also there were Sakai tribes living peacefully with them in the jungle. Today the Sakai (derogatory word in Malay) is grouped into a boarder group, Orang Asli (aboriginal people in Malay), which also includes the Negritos (diminutive Negros in Spanish), who were mistakenly perceived similarities to people in Africa. For the apes, the name is Orangutan (forest people).

Based upon the document, the Commanding Officer was called to JB to discuss a policy known as Briggs Plan. It was intended to resettle most Chinese cultivators from their homes and villages which they thought were ideal sources for food and money for the guerrillas in the jungles. Most houses were destroyed and their inhabitants were sent to resettlement villages (called New Villages later), which had wired-in perimeters and twenty-four hour police guards.

I saw a document showing inhabitants along 7, 8 and 4 miles of Labis Road were relocated in September of 1950. My Grandma and I probably moved out (of 5 miles) around that time and she did not resettle in other place and moved back to China (under Republic of China of KMT). I don’t have much memory about this place because it was quite remote compared to the places I was going to live.

Recently some repaired old pictures during Malayan Emergency with very realistic-looking colors emerged (left pictures). I don’t know where these pictures were taken but they pretty much show similar scenes during that time in Labis.

The 1st picture shows the jungle with attap houses and the soldiers (they could be British, Australians or New Zealanders) carrying supplies. The 2nd picture shows the checking of a local person who might carry food and supplies to the guerrillas.

Comparing to Gurkhas (hired soldiers from Nepal), these soldiers were not familiar with jungle fighting. Under Operation Prelude, the platoons from Battalions B and D met and opened fire on each other while searching an area of thick jungle in the east side of Labis road (see maps).

The rescue was an outstanding achievement as the landing site was in an unusually awkward position and the vegetation only allowed one-foot clearance for the helicopter blades. I remember the thick vegetation in jungles was quite scary and not like that in fairy tales.

In 2011, I went back to this 5-mile place and saw no houses, railroad or jungle but palm oil plantation (left 1st picture). This was the typical scene on the road during our family Singapore-Malaysian trip in 2019. In the early 1960s, palm oil cultivation increased significantly to reduce the dependency on rubber and tin, and Malaysia became the world’s largest palm oil exporter.

In 2016, Johore uses 38.8% land for palm oil plants. The government has pledged to limit the plantation expansion by retaining at least half of the nation’s land as forest cover. At 5.2 miles, I saw the sign FELDA (Federal Land Development Agency) and my brother told me that it is a big government bureaucracy which was established in 1956 to mandate developing forest lands for the rural poor.

At the beginning of 2024, we suddenly realized that our old place could not be located at this 5-mile. Based upon the Google map, we found the 5.2 mile location with an exit Road 1417 entering Felda Maokil, an early huge palm oil settlement (left 2nd picture).

After more than 70 years, my brother vaguely remembers our grandmother’s house, the lumber yard for timbers transport, the railroad, the jungle roads and the worker's lodge. Still in his memory is the scene of arriving at the roadside of Labis Road when they came home on taxi from downtown Labis. Then they walked about 20-30 meters to go to the house (left 1st picture).

There is no traces of all of these at 5-mile or proximity. It makes sense the present roads were built upon the original roads and tracks of my father’s company and the new palm plantation was started on the cleared jungle ground. Based upon my brother’s memory, we roughly came up with the locations of our old places and labeled on Google maps (left 2nd picture). I don’t know if we can find the traces of the train tracks nowadays.

One can see that the Chaah River flows past Road 1417 at about 1 km from Labis Road and it continues to Labis Road 6-mile where my grandfather was buried. It is not clear how much water in the river nowadays. In old time, the timber worker's lodge was usually built next to the river so that the workers can live and work there. Therefore my father's company and worker's lodge might be near the Chaah River which is a long river flowing to the town of Chaah which is about 10 miles from Labis.

In 2011 trip, we came on Labis Road and went into Chaah to see the town before heading to Labis. We didn't notice the 5-mile location when we passed it. Our friend and his Mom mistakenly took us to the 4-mile location and thought it was our old place.

There was an old saw mill at the entrance (left pictures). They said that there was a Malay kampung built at the back of our old house and we failed to find it. They probably meant Kampung Felda Maokil which is accessed at 5.2 miles. They had also moved away from Labis area and probably didn’t know the situation about the Felda settlement.

My brother remembered that there was a saw mill at 4-mile and this probably was the one from the old time (we saw it in 2011 trip, the picture shown in 2019 Google map had been renovated). My father might have delivered lumbers to this saw mill.

Our friend's Mom also took us to visit her brother living in Sungai Karas (2 1/2 miles) where she said that my father often went there to have lunch at her old home. Her father, who worked for my father in timbers, was also arrested with my father at the same time.

From our old home, 5 more miles south will be Chaah, the name of the town recorded on my birth certificate. Therefore I always said my birth place is Chaah. To go further 20 miles south, one can get to Yong Peng (left map) where we had lunch twice during our family Singapore-Malaysian trip in 2019.

In fact, a huge tropical jungle is in the east of Labis and it became Endau Rompin National Park in 1993, covering a roughly 340 sq. mi. area located Northeast of Johor and South of Pahang which contains some oldest rainforests in the world and features rock formations some 248 million years old. It got its name from Johor’s Endau River and Pahang’s Rompin River.

About 10 miles in the east from our home is Bekok which is the western entrance to the national park. It was known as a “Black Area” which had strong resistance against the British government. It also houses several aborigine settlements. My brother said some of my father’s workers came from Bekok.

Apparently our home was in a “Black Area” and so my Grandmother was relocated, probably in 1950, and she moved back to China. My father was arrested before that. I checked online, as early as 1950, “New Villages” were setup in Yong Peng, Chaah, Bekok, Sungai Karas and Labis. Except Bekok, all these places are located along Labis Road.

Left picture is the 2020 aerial view of the ongoing construction of the electrified double-track railway at Labis (2019 view in 1st chapter) and one can see that the Labis Road comes from the southeast and turns right into the city.

In 2011 trip, we also went to see the Labis river, Jalan Pasar and railway station (walk over a railroad bridge shown previously). My brother remembered we were selling pineapples to arriving travelers to make some money. At the end of the street is Labis River and beyond that, in old time, was rubber plantation and then jungle (near Battalions B on 1st map at beginning).

In early 20th century, some British officers came to Labis for a survey of new settlement. They were surprised to see the river terrapins (left bottom left picture). Since they had not seen these animals before, they asked the villagers the name of the animals and the villagers answered “labi-labi, tuan (river terrapins, sir)”. In Malay, repeated word means plural and then the British officers called them labis. Therefore, they decided to name the new settlement Labis.

There was rubber plantation around the jungle that sometimes we went it into to catch spiders (left bottom right pictures). The 1st spider in the pictures was on a thumb nail of a person. They look scary but not big.

We call them Bao-hu (means Leopard-tiger in Chinese, Labah-labah in Malay) and they are jumping spiders really can fight. Most of the time, the losers in spider fighting just ran away and were not hurt. We were very careful not to venture into the jungle that might encounter armed insurgents.

After we moved to Singapore and later to Johor Bahru, my father was still doing timber works around Labis area or somewhere in the state of Johor. My brother learned that the beginning 20 km of Federal Route 12 (Segamat to Kuantan) was developed by my father's company. However, the business opportunities in Johor were getting less, in 1960s, my father’s timber works moved to the state of Pahang after obtaining a timber project from the crown prince there (more in later).

This era is called British Malaya until it gained independence in 1957. In 1946, the British set up the ‘Malayan Union’ that all citizens would have equal rights. In 1948, the British replaced it with ‘The Federation of Malaya’ which reduced the Chinese rights. Malaysia was formed in 1963.

My Mother's Story

Written on January 30, 2021 and revived on December 1, 2023.
When my mother took my brother and me back to Labis in late 1952 or early 1953 from Singapore, that formally ended our family ties.
These pictures were taken in Singapore before coming back to Labis. I used the birth-certificate names (now we use different names, explained in later 'My Life in Singapore (Round two)') for my brother and me. The corresponding Chinese names with ages were also written on 2nd picture and the back of it.

The next time I saw her was in 1956 when we lived in Singapore with our step-mother. Somehow my brother received a message that she wanted to see us without the knowledge of our step-mother who would definitely be against it. After school, we walked to the New World Amusement Park (long gone now) to meet her traveling from the very southern end of Singapore.

Upon arrival, I refused to go in to see her. My brother cried (he didn’t remember) that we would have missed the chance to see her after so many years. Maybe I felt like she was a stranger to me and blamed her for leaving us. Eventually I was convinced to meet her and felt very good after that. She even prepared some gifts for us.

When I was about to wrap up this story writing, I just realized that I missed writing about my living with my Mom during the period of 1950-53 in Singapore. However, I barely remembered it. It took me quite sometime talking to my brother and researching online. I found an article written in 2022 by an author who grew up at the same place where we lived. It was an early village called Kampong Silat located in the north of Keppel Harbor (formerly New Harbor, named after Admiral Keppel who cleared the straits of pirates). See maps below.

We found the place where we lived by locating the school called Chiang Teck School and we lived next to it. Also I located “Ho Swee Hill” where biggest outbreak of fire in Singapore’s history occurred. I also found Singapore Chinatown (now a tourist destination) not too far from our home. I have fun memory on shopping with my Mom in the Pearl Market (below street scene) in night times and now I know it is called People’s Park.

Our home was considered part of Ho Swee Hill (will write more later) which was seen by the officials as “an unsanitary, congested and dangerous squatter area”, when the biggest outbreak of fire in Singapore’s history in 1961 destroyed more than 2,800 houses, leaving 16,000 people homeless. Rumors about the cause of the fire remain a sensitive topic and was never established.

In the aftermath, the government relocated victims to newly constructed flats and is considered a pivotal point in the development of public housing in Singapore’s history. It formed a backdrop of a 2002 television series Ho Swee Shan (Ho Swee Hill, Bukit Ho Swee in Malay). Here Ho means river, Swee means water and Shan means hill, but there is no river and tall hill there. In fact in Chinese, Shan can be interpreted as cemetery and there were plenty of graves around.



Recently I discovered a Singapore map (left) based on modern surveys in 1840s and it shows the development of the town and the land use in exceptional details.

Interesting is a remark on the map about Singapore at that time: “Singapore Island on which this Town is situated was taken possession by the British on the 8th of February 1819, and it then contained 100 to 200 Inhabitants who subsisted by fishing and piracy. Under British rule the Settlement rapidly rose in importance and has now become the great Emporium for European trade in the East India Archipelago.” The correct date is 6th of February.

On the map, it shows a road named Salat Road starting in downtown and running all the way to Keppel harbor (about 2 miles). In Malay, Salat, Selat or Silat means Straits and the road was so named as it led to Keppel Harbor, which was known as Silat until 1819. Even The Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan formulated in 1822 for the town of Singapore has Salat Road. The Silat village was located along the road and among cemeteries. A Chinese temple (Joss House on map) was built next to it.

From the shore of the harbor, one can see the 2 islands (shot in 1900s). The bigger one is now renamed Sentosa, a famous vacation place on which the Universal Studios is located. One can reach it via a gateway or cable car. A travelodge (I stayed there in 2023) is located next to the Mausoleum of Johor Sultan and across the biggest shopping mall in Singapore, VivoCity.

The smaller island is Brani Island and the smoke stalks show it quite industrialized in 1900s. A village with stilt houses were occupied by Orang Laut (Sea People) whom the Europeans called Celastes (Straites) which might imply Pirates.

In old time, Singapore was also called Silat-pore by Chinese and Keppel Port was called Silat Gate (Singapore gate). Telok Blangah is on the shore and was the area assigned by the British in 1823 to Temenggong Abdul Rahman who basically ceded Singapore to British. He is the grandfather of the 1st sultan of Johor, who moved his Istana to Tyersall Park (modeled in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ movie) in Singapore and later to Johor Bahru. A village is labeled on Brani island which was occupied by Orang Laut (Sea People) and the Europeans called them Celastes (Straites) which might imply Pirates.

In modern times, major parts of Salat road was renamed to become Neil, Bukit Merah and Kampong Bahru roads (see maps). What remained is Silat road and is very short. Jalan Bukit Merah is now a major road.

I used some old and Google maps to locate my Mom’s old home which was at the right side of Chiang Teck School (left picture). I found its original location and labeled the original landmarks (various temples) on a Google picture with an old school image inserted.

I also found the rail corridor (left picture & above 1846 map) which runs from the south to the north into Johor. It was owned by Malaysian government but reverted back to Singapore in 2011. A royal mosque and mausoleum are owned by the State of Johor for the Sultan of Johor is about 1 1/2 mile in the southwest (on map).

Many years later, my mother had moved out of Silat village and we went to visit her living on the 3rd floor of a government flat (left 1st picture) during our vacation trip. This time she prepared some durians which were not quite our kids’ taste. It had a big storm on that day and the whole sky went dark.

In my memory, she was a very nice person who talked softly whereas some other mothers liked to yell at kids. She could read and write Chinese, and my father only knew how to write his Chinese name. I just wondered where she went to school if she grew up at 5 miles out of town.

She took some very early age studio pictures for herself (with some friends, left 2nd pictures). Some pictures were marked “13 or 15 year old”. It seems like that she was brought up in a quite well-to-do family. When I visited from US, she passed some old pictures to me in Singapore and also gave me some information about her birth parents. I had requested a local professor in Johor specialized in local history to help finding her birth parents.

My brother remembers how our Mom left us at Labis in late 1952 or early 1953 and I don’t remember. We went to the railway station to send her off. I only have a very vague memory of her during my childhood in Labis before leaving for Singapore and it includes the time when I was hospitalized in Segamat for some kind of kidney illness.

I remember it well because a nurse yelled at me when I wandered away from my bed. Same illness appeared when I was with my step-Mom in Singapore. The doctor’s advice was not to exercise too much. Now I am totally well.

In 2010, a person living in Singapore communicated to me when I talked about my father on our hometown website in Xinyi, China. Internet friends there had helped me to find my relatives in China and later I found out whereabouts of my grandmother who went back to China. That person told me that his mother knew about my early family life at Labis.

He wrote, “…your uncle has contributed to it as he was the one who told your mom to leave Labis and go Singapore, telling her that your dad is unlikely to be released and the British government may even arrest her. Fearing for her and children safety, she left for Singapore…. your mom was a real beauty, gentle and nice lady…”. My uncle was probably my grandfather’s nephew from China and grew up with my Mom as siblings in Labis.

In 2011, my internet friend and his Mom took us to visit Labis and identified a shophouse on Jalan Pasar as my childhood house (left 1st picture). I don’t believe I ever lived there but at the 5-mile house with my Grandma. Maybe that is the reason I did not leave for Singapore with my Mon at the beginning.

Recently (Dec.2023), I obtained a 1969 old picture (left 2nd picture), which was provided by a local resident of Labis, showing the flooding of Jalan Pasar. Surprisingly, the open walled market was still there and now it was torn down. My brother identified the 2nd floor on the last shophouse next to the market was the place where he and my mother and younger brother lived before they ran away to Singapore.

In 2011, when my internet friend and his Mom took us to visit Labis (described in previous chapters), I saw Jalan Pasar, Labis River and the Chinese school again. Something special is what they took us to go to Labis village to visit my uncle’s old home and his surviving second wife who was already very old (left pictures). She was very poor and passed away now. My brother said that he had lived in our uncle’s old house before moving to downtown Labis and he is not sure this is the one. In 2007 and 2010, her home was severely flooded (reported on newspapers) since her house is at the lowest location in the city.

I don’t know how long my uncle’s family have lived and my mother had ever visited here. My uncle’s first wife (picture on wall) and some cousins had moved to Singapore and got together with my Mom sometimes. Also his second wife’s daughter (in picture) was living here. My internet friend’s Mom (in picture) seemed knowing them very well.

Since my uncle (picture on wall) was more like my Grandma’s adopted son, I just wonder why she didn’t go to join him after she was forced out from the 5-mile house. During my 2010 trip to my father’s hometown in China, my newly acquainted cousin told me that she was taken care by a member of my uncle’s original family living in China (see later writeup).

Ironically, 2 weeks before our visit, this area had the worst flood in years. When we arrived, I did not feel any trace of flood except my aunt had said that the recent flood had wiped out most family documents. I found pictures online showing the flood was very severe in downtown area which is formed by the L-shaped streets, namely Jalan Tennang and Jalan Pasar (below pictures).

Meeting Our Step-Mothers

Written on February 6, 2021 and revived on February 1, 2024.
My brother and I lived happily at Labis during 1953-55 (much more later). He actually remembers our first step-Mom was a nice person (she let us skipped school) and was probably arraged by her brother to marry our father. At old time, that was quite normal and it was good thing that she ran away.

Ironically, our 2nd step-Mom was her sister-in-law. Even she had a very bad temper, she was the most educated among our mothers. Maybe that’s why she insisted on our going to school even in hard times. I heard she yelled at her father while visiting Jementah (will describe later), a city near the jungle in the east side of Segamat.

Above was originally written in previous chapter. Now let me continue in details. First, detailed Labis street maps are needed to make my description easier to follow (Feb.2024). I used a recent 2-D Google street map and a 2023 June (2019 and 2020 shots are in 1st and 2nd chapters) aerial shot of the completed electrified double-track railway at Labis (left pictures).

In late 1952 or early 1953, my father took us to join our first step-mother in her brother's house in a village at Labis (left map). At nights, we all slept on a long bed, including our two future step-sisters. My brother remembered that it was 20 feet and was common in old time to save space. For privacy, one could always put curtains to partition the bed.

May be there was a good reason that we were not staying in our uncle's house which was in Labis New Village and closer to downtown (see map). Not sure where my father lived, I remembered he came in some early morning after he finished the duty patrolling the perimeter at night or had dinner at the house. I remembered the chicken running under the dinner table to eat what was dropped and I went to backyard to feed them.

Very soon, our family, including our 1st step mother, moved to a shophouse on Jalan Pasar (above and below pictures). May be this was the first time I lived in downtown Labis. Most my memory is village living: kerosene oil lamps, dogs running around, chicken in backyard, fruit trees in many front yards, etc.

The best part in living here is going to the river at the end of the street (left 1st picture taken in 2011). I should had passed the open-walled market before the river but my memory is very vague on it (market picture shown in previous chapter).

I found an old 1954 picture showing exactly where I lived (left 2nd picture). Four of us lived in a room on second floor with the windows facing the front. It was on the upstairs of a coffee shop where my brother got hired and paid $10 per month. Good thing was that we got to eat there sometimes.

When the train arrived at the station, we ran out to sell some pineapple to visitors. The shophouse was at the beginning of market street and at the end is the river where we swam quite often. I remember we only went home after playing a long time at the river. We had to wait for our step-mother to cook even it was late afternoon.

Now Jalan Pasar also includes the beginning section of Jalan Tenang (said it in Google map, not sure it's true) and made it into a L-shaped street. Behind the streets were veggie gardens and fruit trees (they are gone now). We often played, did spider fighting and fought other kids at the back.

Our 1st step-mother’s older sister who was married to a son of a big timber boss also lived near the end of the market street. My brother recalled that she talked our step-mother out of running away and they were not hiding the plan from him. I only noticed that the step-mother disappeared someday.

I also found a 1950s street scene of Tenang Street viewed from the north and compared it to a 2019 Google picture (below pictures). The shophouses still look very similar in both pictures. I feel bad to see the old trees, where we did hide and seek in the evening, were cut down.

To the right of the pictures, one can go a hawker center and continue to Labis Road going out of town. Our father worried about what we would eat if he worked late in the jungle. He set up a plan with a food vendor at a hawker center that we could go there to eat and he paid them at the end of the month. Our choice of food was controlled by the vendor and we could not eat whatever we wanted. However, this period of time is a good part of my life living in Labis that I remember well.

I don’t know at what time the step-mother’s brother also moved away with his family, including our future step-mother and 2 step-sisters. Later, I found out that they moved to Pahang, a state situated in the north of Johore and they lived poorly over there. Later, according to our future step-mother, she had to rescue her daughters from their father who was a very brutal person and mistreated his daughters.

When I was in Taiwan, the younger daughter joined our family from another family (she worked like a slave according to her mother) after she was given by her father to that family. However, during a specific arranged Malaysian east coast vacation before I left for USA in 1970, she asked me to let her to privately visit her father’s tomb.

One day in 1955, our father told us that we were going to Singapore. Worried about that my only toy could be stolen, I hid it in a hole on the wall in the house (looked the same in 2011). I didn’t know that only after 56 years I would come back to it.

At Singapore, we met our new step mother and our first half-sister. Four of us lived in a apartment located in the neighborhood of Jalan Besar Stadium which was a major football stadium in the past (left pictures, only my brother recalled this). It seems like it was our step mother to have found this good location in northern Singapore (called Small-Pore by Chinese).

This living in Singapore was quite different from the time period 1950-53 when we lived with our birth mother in southern Singapore (called Big-Pore by Chinese)and was a major swift of my life style from living in a remote town of Labis near the jungle. I didn't quite remember this time period 1955-57 even I had come to a major city in Asia or even the world. I will write fully about it in my next chapter.

My Life in Singapore (Round two)

Written on February 14, 2021 and revived on December 10, 2023.
The reason for our father to move us to Singapore from Labis is that our new step-mother could take care of us. He would commute from Singapore to live and work at Labis. Nonetheless, we were in a big city during 1955-57. Near the end of 1956 (found out in a newly discovered letter), he lost a lot of money in timber business and we had to move back to Johor Bahru (JB), the closest town in Malaya.

We lived on the 3rd floor of a typical shophouse during the colonial era. Four of us (including my first half-sister, picture below) lived in a apartment rented from a plump lady teacher. We called her Mr. Deng (in old time, out of respect, Mr. was used for all teachers) and she was very nice. I remember my high school English teacher was also very nice and called by students "800 pounds", but I didn't think she was that heavy. In fact, Mr. Deng's husband and two unmarried daughters were also teachers. Since we lived in a very civilized flat surrounded by teachers (see next write-up), maybe our step-mother's temper was tamed.

Only in this week, my brother suddenly remembered the street name sounds like Calvin. I found some 1954 old maps and located a Cavan Road, a small street near the New World Park (see map at left). I also found it on the 2020 Google map and the street scene (2nd picture). Amazing, the shophouse is still there. My brother thought we lived in the 4th one counted from the left of those orange roof shophouses.

Interestingly, in 2023, my niece, her husband and daughter took us to visit this place (below 3rd and 4th pictures), it looked pretty much the same as in the old time. My niece was surprised this was the place her father had lived. All she knew was some place near Jalan Besar Stadium, the biggest sport stadium in our time. Whenever there was a big game being played, we went up to the roof to watch it for free. We decided that the orange roof was not there at that time.

During that time, I was always interested in looking down on the street from our apartment. There were cars, pedestrians and hawkers manning food carts. I was always alerted that some person, like a friend of Mr. Deng's unmarried daughters, on the street shouted at the windows that he wanted someone to let him in to come up. I still had this scene in my dreams when I was older.

Now I could not find any trace of that school called Shiyong (means Practical Use, after this writing I found it and labeled it on map). I also did not remember that private school except it was near the Park (also we had identified and labeled it "Qixiu School" on map, see my next write-up).

In the morning during the school days, Mr. Deng gave us a ride to go to the public school that she got us in after we left from a private school. However, we had to walk home after school through the side of the New World Park, and it almost took an hour (maybe we walked slowly, see map).

We did not arrived at Singapore at the beginning of the year and so we could not attend Mr. Deng’s public school. Instead we went to a private school run by a person as the principal and the janitor. She left me a memory that when we arrived at the school some days, she was still brushing her teeth. However, she did something good for us.

The first day we went to that private school, the principal thought my brother's name was too girly and she added a character Wei (means Great) in his birth name Ng Choi, and changed Choi into Chai (means Talent). Also she added that Wei into my birth name Nge Wing. Later it became Woo Wee Yong in Mandarin pronunciation when I applied for my first passport.

These are great names except my brother still uses his birth name in government documents. He thought he could be denied a citizenship if he used other name even he was born in Malaya. My father always used Ng Piew, the name probably printed on the papers when he came to Malaya.

Our step-Mom never hesitated to spend money if we were well-off financially. When our father came home, we went to the famous New World Amusement Park (left pictures). It wooed Malaya and Singapore night crowds in old times. Before the arrival of televisions, it attracted people from all walks of life from laborers to Europeans. Like a typical amusement park, it had merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, shooting galleries, restaurants and shops etc.

For adults (quoted from Wikipedia), there were striptease queen Rose Chan, wrestler King Kong, strongman Mat Tarzan, and boxer Felix Boy etc. For admission of 10 cents, it was quite a entertainment and it occupied a large area stretching from Besar to Serangoon Roads (see map).

Today, only a renovated New World gate is situated along the Serangoon road in which a large district (near Bukit Timah road, a major road to get to Johor) is designated to call Little India, a famous tourist destination (left picture). One can see the colorful street decorations of their annual celebration of Hindu Deepavali festival in the picture.

In 2019, we made a family trip to Singapore and had our dinner on banana leaves at a restaurant in Little India. Many Hindu temples were built along the Serangoon Road by Tamil people originally of southern India. Every year, they had grand scale Thaipusam procession along the road and I remember watching one which was quite incredible. The biggest Thaipusam celebration is held at the Batu (Stone) Cave Hindu shrines in Kuala Lumpur where we had also visited.

I remember the Clifford Pier (left picture, Chinese called it Red Lamp Pier) was a busy landing and departure port. At nights the carpark transformed into a hawker center popular with musicians and revelers. We were always excited to eat there and watch the ships on Singapore Straits.

In 1994, a huge landfill was created over the sea in front of the Clifford Pier (presently becomes a restaurant or venue to serve versatile events) and formed the shore profile of Marina Bay that we see today. The well-known Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Gardens by the Bay are built on it.

We probably had also gone to Happy World Park (left picture, 1 of 3 popular amusement parks to be described in next chapter), located in the east of Kallang district where we also lived and shopped. The sign at the gate of the Happy World said, "Long Live The King", so the picture must have been taken before the Queen was crowned in 1953.

I remember my step-Mom took me to visit a medical doctor for my kidney illness. The doctor’s advice, printed firmly in my mind, is not to exercise too much. I didn’t play ball games or sport tracks in JB schools, however, I joined boy scouts and became a King Scout (though it was a queen in England during that time) and a scout leader. This scouting made me away from home many times.

When we met our step mother first time in Singapore, we called her Ah Sham (Auntie in Cantonese, used for the wife of younger uncle or someone not related). It ended up all her daughters by both marriages also called her this name. The next generation, the daughters of my brother called her Maa-Maa (paternal Grandma in Cantonese), called our birth mother Pou-Pou (maternal Grandma typically) and our father Ye-Ye (paternal Grandpa typically). Our grandkids simply call us Pou-Pou and Gong-Gong.

My first half-sister (now living in San Francisco) was born here and was a baby when we arrived. Left picture was taken much later in time because we don't have pictures from this period of time.

Lately we thought about it, our step mother grew up in a very rich family at Jementah (see maps in previous “Edge of the Jungle”) such that they could afford her to go to school. Maybe she was quite spoiled in her childhood before her father lost their fortune. The sawmill company next to her father's house used to belong to them. Every time she went home to give money to her father made her very angry.

She was absolutely a boss to all the workers in my father's company. We called her "Old Government" (in Chinese) at her back and call our father "Old Sultan" (a person at high position with no power). All younger members in our household used these names all the time. I think she was aware of it but didn't care.

The story of the origin of the name of Jementah is a logger called Jem who was keeping cutting trees. People asked him when he would finish and he answered, “entah” (in Malay it means I don’t know). So they called this place “Jementah”, where I had good memory in going to the river in the jungle with my step-cousin.

I remember one time when he came to Johor Bahru (see later writeups), he tried to catch a crab and had to sit on sea floor for half an hour because his finger was being clamped by the crab. It would be real hurt if he moved. The daughters of our step-Mom became our step sisters and one of them was in our family gathering in our 2019 Singapore trip.

My Schools before 4th grade

Written on March 8, 2021 and revived on February 3, 2024.
I have been trying to figure out the schools I had attended before my 4th grade in Foon Yew School in 1957. Thinking back, I had gone to 3 schools in Singapore and 1 in Labis and I don't have much memory about them. In fact, I even don't remember I was in the classrooms in these schools, not to mention the studying and doing the homework. My brother was able to remember many things in details and recalled names even though he first forgot them.

Maybe I actually didn't quite read Chinese (we didn’t go to English school) at that time so that I couldn’t remember the names and what happening. Now I can use the internets to study what had happened during those times, hopefully, to bring back my memory and establish some facts about my schooling. My brother remembered the names of the school and the places when we were in Singapore.

In 2014, there was a big exhibition on Chinese schools of Singapore during the years 1945 to 1967. Japanese surrendered in 1945 and many schools were re-opened, and in 1965, Singapore gained independence from Malaysia and the government started to restructure the schools. Many Chinese schools were reformed or closed. I found all 3 schools that I had attended on a map (divided into southern and northern parts of Singapore in below) published in the exhibition.

The 1st map at left is my 1st school in southern Singapore (Chinese called it Big-Pore). The 2nd picture is the aerial photo showing the school in Silat Village (details in "My mother's Stroy"). Ironically our house was just located outside the fence of our first school.

Our 1st school is Chiang Teck (means Showing Morality in Hokkien, later renamed Zhangde in Mandarin, originally at 64 Silat Road) which was founded in 1923 on a plot of land adjacent to a Chinese cemetery. The cemetery was presently developed into a trendy housing estate called Tiong Bahru (Tiong means Grave in Hokkien, but now it is translated into Middle in Mandarin, and Bahru means New in Malay).

We lived at the southernmost of the place called Ho Swee Hill (later found out not that close) next to Tiong Bahru which is in the north if viewed from the back of school. Also there was a view of Red Hill (Bukit Merah in Malay) which my brother said that we started to climb on it from the back of our house. I remembered walking through some graves sometimes. We had to walk through other people’s halls to get out at the back in order to go to the front of the school.

In history, Red Hill was plagued by swordfish attacking the people. A young boy proposed an ingenious solution to build a wall of banana stems along the coast. When the swordfish attacked, their snouts were stuck in the stems. He earned great respect from the people but was jealous by the rulers who finally ordered his execution. His blood soaked the soil of the hill giving rise to the red color. Not sure it was true.

I remembered one day we went out and I climbed a tree. I am sure it was near the ocean-front. I fell from the tree, broke my arm and later bandaged. My brother said there was no tree around where we lived. I just guessed we had traveled to the waterfront of Keppel Harbor (see previous "My Mother's Story"). We didn’t have many places to play and have money to go outside to entertain.

I don't think we had kindergarten at that time and I started my first grade at Chiang Teck (only my brother could remembered this sophisticated name and its location on Silat Road) in 1953. The school building looked quite significant (see picture on above map) that might scare me to go to school. Only after I lived in a shophouse with our step-mother, I got used to the high-rise in the city. Not sure this is the reason or I just didn't like going to school. I skipped classes one day and hid under a crossing bridge on top of a drainage. I remembered they found me in the late afternoon.

I expected punishment and surprisingly I didn't get it. Now I figured that it might be because my mother agreed to send us back to join our father in Labis and therefore she was very loose on my attending school. I probably had stopped going to school after that. My brother was a 1st and 2nd grader, and beginning a third grader in this school, so he was quite well educated.

After we moved back to Labis, in late 1952 or early 1953, we continued our school there. Someone, maybe our first step-mother, took us to the school to check it out. I just found out, in the year 1953, the school moved all its students to a new location (the present location, see map at left) while finishing its construction which was funded by the government in 1952. They changed the name to Labis School.

We probably went to the old location first and then the new location. Finally, they found my classroom on the new location that I was supposed to attend on school days. However, I don't remember any things about that classroom afterward.

The design of the front entrance of the school building was quite unique (see postal stamp picture at left, not there anymore) and was built before we arrived. My brother and I completely don't have any memory of it even though we walked under it on school days. He said the main interests for us to come to school was to catch spiders at the hill-side in the north of the school.
Not sure how often we skipped or didn't go classes. My brother was well educated in Singapore and was capable to study in this school, and I just wonder what made him not interested in going to classes. In fact in 1958, he graduated at the top of the class (more than 200 students) in Foon Yew Primary School.

Perhaps in a short time, we totally skipped the school. Our first step-mother didn't care less if we went to school, and no wonder my brother said she was a nice person. Since we were not going to school, we could catch spiders at places farther away from school (see previous "Edge of the Jungle").

We still had to wait for other kids to come home from school in the afternoon so that our spiders could fight each others. It was a joy to have a spider unbeatable and called the king of spiders. Sometimes the kids just fought each others and my brother’s head was hit by a bottle. We were called rotten kids in Cantonese in town and my brother thought it really means gangsters in English.

Our other activity was going to Labis River to catch fish and shrimp as mentioned before. We followed the upstream of the river through the back of the L-shaped streets (with some distance), passing some rubber plantation and into the jungle. We didn't noticed that we could have been eaten by crocodiles. We used tree branches and leaves to build shelters and put up some fire to cook the captured fish and shrimp.

In 1955, we went to join our 2nd step-mother in northern Singapore (Chinese called it Small-Pore) and started another life style. It turned up she was a person who wanted kids to go to schools, however, most of the time, she didn't care about what we were studying.

This period of life was written in my previous write-up "My Life in Singapore (Round two)". However, I have more information about my schools after I found the publication of the exhibition (left map). It is a valuable historic documentation of old Chinese schools, especially of those already disappeared. There is criticism on this historical Chinese school reform.

Now I learned that we first went to Qixiu (means Inspire Excellent) School which was owned by a single lady (my brother called her old as compared to our ages at that time) as 2nd and 3rd graders. Only recently my brother remembered the school name and I picked it up on the map. I didn’t recall anything she taught me except she changed our names. Right now her school residence is an upscale flat. In 1956, we went to Shiyong School and the teacher Mr. Deng was our lady landlord as mentioned before.

There were 3 famous amusement parks in Singapore: New World Park, Happy World Park (later renamed Gay World) and Great World Park. They were top entertainments in the world (see above map). We probably had gone to all 3 Parks with our step-mother who was very generous on food and entertainments under the condition that my father doing well in business. All these Parks are closed now.

The Legacy of my Grandparents

Written on February 21, 2021.
I have been writing my childhood stories that happened before my living in Johor Bahru, the town I grew up. Many events are very vague to me now. The vaguest portion is the knowledge of my grandparents. My brother remembered our maternal grandfather was a very thin and tall person who was probably educated so that he could teach our mother to read and write. It is hard to imagine that our mother (adopted) could travel back and forth to Labis from “5 Miles” on any school day. He was buried at 6 miles Labis Road (see maps in "Edge of the Jungle"). My brother remembered that we visited his tomb on a Tomb Sweeping day (an important Chinese festival called Qinming) with our grandmother.

I learned that in my 2011 visit to Labis, the kids of my uncle, who was probably his nephew and came from a Lau family in China, still go to his tomb on Sweeping days which are traditionally for offspring to visit ancestors tombs. We did not have much connection with Lau family after the separation of our parents. My mother’s name on paper is Lau Tai and in Mandarin, she is Liu Daixi (sound like Daisy). After I made my paternal family search in our 2009-10 trips to China, I found out that my maternal grandmother lived with this Lau family when she went back to China. Below is the story about my paternal family search.

My knowledge of my paternal grandparents was almost zero before 2009. My father always told us that he came from Gaozhou (means High State, see map at left) and we were Gaozhou people. It was very common and important in oversea Chinese community to identify who you were and where you came from. Then you got to join the Chinese Association of your hometown and could get help when arriving in a strange place. There are still a lot of Associations in the US, particularly in Chinatowns, and around the world. Nowadays, they are rich in real estates and give free dinners to members on occasions.

Under the Qing dynasty, Xinyi County formed part of the commandery of Gaozhou. In 1995, Xinyi (means Believe Properly) became a county-level city under the Province. So we became the people of Xinyi which is 40 miles north of Gaozhou.

At the end of Qing dynasty, many poor farmers left Gaozhou area (including Xinyi) and took the sea route to come to Malaysia, and my father, when he was 12 years old, was one of them. Not sure he had joined the Gaozhou Association in Kuala Lumpur which was an old tin mining settlement.
My father told us that the name of his village was “Fulong Baishi” which I thought it meant “Lotus White Stone” in Cantonese (the town name is in front the village name, there is a Fulong town in Malaya). I first searched online and couldn’t find any village named Baishi (White Stone) in the area of Gaozhou.

In 2009, when internet became popular, many young internet friends helping me to find "Fulong Baishi". In Xinyi, we found a Fulong village under Baishi town which was not the way we wanted (see above map). Also Fulong means supporting the dragon with hands, a very sophisticated name for a farming village. Luckily a internet friend from Fulong called Little Sparrow wrote: Fulong was a big town before and used to govern Baishi but now it is under Baishi. Only older generation and oversea Chinese still use Fulong Baishi.

In September, my wife and I took a 10-hour sleeper bus ride, which was used mainly by far-away farmer-workers working in big city factories for global supply chains, to Xinyi, which was not accessed by any train or flights, from Shenzhen in the east of southern China. It was our first traveling in China on our own and never rode a sleeper bus before. We stayed in a hotel called “California Hotel”, recommended by internet friends, which was very nice and classy (see below 1st picture). At night they came to meet us and took me on a night motorcycle cruise to see the downtown.

The second morning, we had a news reporter to drive us around the city on a motorcycle and went to Jade-Kingdom Park which is on a hill (below 2nd picture). In afternoon we went to see the palace of former Great Hong Kingdom (1861-1864, below 3rd picture), a short-lived Chinese Christian theocratic absolute monarchy which sought to overthrow the Qing dynasty. People still live in these old buildings.


The next morning, we had 11 people riding in 2 cars and 1 motorcycle to go into local villages in the town of Baishi, which is 10 miles east of Xinyi, to find my relatives (see above map). We asked the old men with the same last name to come to meet us. Some of them came from working in the fields without shirts. After talking to them, we were disappointed for not being able to find my relatives in these villages.

Nonetheless, we went to a home of a 91 year old man (at Poping Village, later I found out our first ancestral hall was built here) who showed me a family tree book which was more or less edited by him (later I had a copy and found my ancestry in it). I started to understand how our ancestors settled in this area and this place is just beautiful, natural and green. The water is good and the air is very fresh. Bamboo trees are everywhere and the earth is red colored. However, I could not identify my ancestors in the book yet.

The internet friends had kept looking for my relatives after we went back to the US. On the day of Halloween in 2009, they found my father's old home in a remote mountain area (Dawei Village, see above map). They visited my two cousins with their families that I didn't know and wrote a bunch of reports on the Xinyi hometown website. The breakthrough came from the discovery of a letter sent from Malaysia which was kept in the government archive by the lady reporter. Based upon the names in the letter, she wrote an article on news paper that led to my cousins who lived about 4 miles in the east of Baishi town.

In April of 2010, we went to visit my cousins in the area (called Dawei Pit in Google map, probably not the same name used in my father's time). It was hard to get in there because of a 2-mile rocky dirt off-road. It was a rainy day and our van got stuck in the mud, and the strangers from the nearby houses (not many of them in this area) came out to help to push the van. In the last leg of the driving, we had to get out of the car and let the relatives pushed it up to their houses (left picture).
We got to meet our 2 cousins, their wives and all their offspring (left pictures). Last year they obtained a loan from the government to re-build their houses that we came to visit. I don't know how they got their loan. Viewed from my internet friends pictures, the old house was a ruin. We requested they put in a sitting toilet (not common in remote villages in China). We stayed there for a week. It had mountain fogs every morning and feel very fresh when waking up.

I have so much to write about this trip that I have a blog doing it. Here I will mention mainly my grandparents. Based upon the name of my cousin's father, I could trace my ancestors in the family tree book. Our first ancestral settlement was at Yulongtan (Fish Dragon Beach, see above map) along the Huanghua River in the town of Baishi

My grandfather is Ng Hau-ling (in Cantonese and he is 8th generation) and my grandmother is Ms. Wong (traditionally Chinese only listed mother's last name to show what family she came from). Later I realized that my grandmother's family (Wongs) house is a little up on the left side of my father's house (see left picture). It turns up my grandmother’s nephew and his son (my second cousin), who told me later over the phone that his grandfather went to Malaya with my father but returned home fast because of illness, were also with us when I was not quite aware the relationship.
One afternoon we climbed up the hill behind the house. I was told that my grandmother was buried there. No tombstone or any marking of it. They just knew where it was. The neighbor's cow was also on the hill and my father had said his job was taking care of cow when he was young. All cows and chicken were running free here. There was no outside utilities or garbage collection here. Everything is natural.

We also visited Gaozhou, about 40 miles south of Xinyi. The key attraction is the temple of Lady Xian (circa 512-602, see left picture) who was the chieftain of the Li people in southern China and has been deified as “Saintly Mother of Lingnan (means mountain range south)”. Former Chinese Premier Zhou called her ” the First Heroine of China”. More than a thousand years ago, Li people disappeared from history and their artifacts were unearthed in Gaozhou (including Xinyi) area.

The descendants of Li people were probably mixed with local Han population or became other minorities living in other locations, like neighboring Guangxi and Hainan provinces. Guangxi contains the largest population of China’s ethnic minorities, in particular, the Zhuang people, who make up 32% of Guangxi population.

The Hlai people, one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China, living mainly on Hainan Island is probably closely related to Li people. Hlai was pronounced /lei/ in Middle Chinese.
The key letter obtained by the lady reporter was actually sent from our cousin (Ng Sing) living in Malaysia who was originally born in China. He is the oldest son of my uncle (father’s older brother Ng Hing) who came to Malaysia at very early and became very rich in the town of Sekinchan (means Suitable Planting Plantation in Chinese) located 16 miles north of Kuala Lumpur. This letter reconnected us to their family.

We actually went to attend, probably in 1960s, my cousin’s wedding in Sekinchan. I met him and my uncle the first time and also the only time, and totally lost all connection until this letter came out. In 2011, we made a trip to Sekinchan and met their descendants there. I will mention my father’s older brother in next write-up.

Left picture is the attending of our cousin’s wedding, probably in the 1960s, and I don’t know why my brother and I were missing in the group picture. The 2nd picture is our youngest cousin (Ng Hing’s daughter, sadly we lost her this year), her children and our second niece (Ng Sing’s daughter).
According to my newly acquainted cousin in China, my father and my grandmother’s younger brother, who went back after one year because of illness, were first joining our uncle when they came to Malaya. Don’t know when and how my father was working in tin mines and later in timbering. It seems he became prosperous in Labis.

Settling into Johor Bahru

Written on February 27, 2021.
Near the end of 1956 or the beginning of 1957, my father came back to Singapore and decided with my step-mother to move to Johor Bahru (JB, see beginning map in 1st chapter) which is in the north across the Straits of Johor. In old time, the causeway was not that busy and passport was not needed to go back and forth (see picture).

The choice of this date may be because schools usually started in the beginning of the year. My brother and I were admitted in Foon Yew School located at Stulang Laut (Laut means Sea, left and below pictures) which was about 5 miles from where we first lived in JB. I barely remember the house we first lived but it was located across a sawmill that my father used to work with.

I obtained a copy of an old letter from my second niece mentioned in my previous write-up and it was sent by my father (apparently it was my step-mother’s hand writing, she was quite proficient in Chinese writing) in 1957 from this sawmill to his older brother who lived at Sekinchan (mentioned in "The Legacy of my Grandparents").
My father’s letter talked about the Labis government limiting his timber works even he had spent more than 20,000 dollars (a big money at that time) building a jungle road. Then he went to Mersing (see earlier maps) to build another road and found the trees, which had to be inspected and approved by government before cutting, were not good timber.

I only met my uncle once and forgot all about it until I visited his Sekinchan family in 2011. Mersing is a port that we stopped by in our 2019 family trip to Rawa Island and rushed Lennox back to see a medical doctor when he got injured on the island.

My father lost all his money and sought help from his older brother. Since he came to Malaya in 1920 (we guessed), I don’t know how many times he had seen his brother. Apparently it was a close family tie even they didn’t see each other that much. I didn’t see my father that much either.

I obtained a copy of a letter dated 1952, the last letter he sent to help the family in China. That was 32 years after he had left China and his mother and brother were already passed away. Not sure he’s getting help from his brother this time. One day he took the bus (I heard he had only $5 in his pocket) back to Labis to restart his business and we settled in Johor Bahru.

Since we lived 5 miles away, we were taking bus to go to school as fifth and fourth graders and the classes were taught in the afternoons. I remembered one day we walked home in the dark and later my brother explained that he lost the bus money. Luckily a lorry picked us up and sent us home.

My brother remembered our step-mother was very rough to him when our financial situation was not good. In just a few months, my father regained his business and we moved to a stilt house at the seashore of Stulang Laut (see below 1st picture, a nearby house). The front of our house was connecting to the front of the high school along the shore (2nd picture).

Across the road was a big sultan garden with patrolling soldiers and is now developed into residence area. I might have sneaked inside stealing some fruits. In our 2019 family trip, we visited the Kentucky Fried Chicken located just across Foon Yew High School (below pictures).




It has been a long time for a fast food chain to be located here. The KFC was a good idea because Malays don’t eat pork, local Indians don’t eat beef and all people eat chicken. I heard that the Sultan of Johor was behind this venture.

The old sultan, Ibrahim of Johor, was fabulously wealthy, spent most of his time in Europe and opposed the independence of Malaya. He was befriended and given a car (still here) by Hitler that made some ally friends not happy. Probably after the death of Ibrahim at London in 1959, they started to sell the land, piece by piece, to developers. Now the land on the left side of the high school is totally developed. Recently on Google map, I saw a McDonald’s built next to the school just opposite the KFC. It was built during pandemic and was not there in 2019.

In 1982, we have a big reunion of family members during Chinese New Year at JB and the kids got to meet their grandfather the first time. Also, we went to Singapore to meet my mother, my younger brother’s family and all half siblings. (bellow pictures)



There is a nearby ZON Duty Free (below left pictures) which contains a big hotel situated within an integrated duty free shopping and entertainment complex and a ferry terminal connecting to foreign countries. There was no sale tax inside. When visiting here in 2011, we saw a McDonald’s booth located inside that only selling ice cream whereas plenty of nice food were sold around it. We own a condominium near the ZON and we had taken vacation in 2011 and 2012 when it was not rented. It was convenient to shop and eat at the ZON.

In early morning, we could buy fresh-catch seafood from the sea people on their boats parked at seashore (below right pictures). This happened to us while living in our stilt house in 1950s when they paddled a sampan boat to the back of our house to sell us fish, crabs and shrimp etc. Now I know that they are Orang Seletar (Strait People) who are considered as part of the Orang Laut (Sea People) and natives of the straits around Johore and Singapore. Compared to old time, they have adapted modern equipment for fishing.



Malaya gained its independence on August 31, 1957 and we probably already had moved into the stilt house. In 1958, Foon Yew (means Broadmind Gentle) declared itself to be an Independent High School (that means privately owned, the Chinese name is Secondary School which includes Middle School) and all primary schools were owned by the government. My brother was just on time joining the high school and I was a sixth grader studying in the afternoon in a borrowed classroom from high school. No wonder he remembered more on playing basket balls in school and swimming after school. Later we moved away from the stilt house and lived on the streets of Ah Siang and Indera Putra (means Beautiful Prince, below pictures), which will be described in my next write-up.

Since I was in school at the same place for 9 years, most of my classmates are long time friends. Every time I went back to JB, we had reunions and went to pasar (market) to eat local food and drink. So far I have written mostly my early age events and I will write more after I entered high school when I can remember things better. I just noticed that I didn’t hear anyone calling the name “Stulang Laut” in our time.