Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-13-11 21:29
我的父親 My Father
[A translation from a Chinese article "父親 (Father)" by Kuang Feng Sha
人窮志不窮,---Ren2 qiong2 zhi4 bu4 qiong2,
勤勉必豐收.---Qin2 mian3 bi4 feng shou.
Although one is in poverty but one's ambition is not poor.
When one is industrious one is bound to have a rich harvest.
Father's life was very hard. Just a few months after he was born there was
a drought in Da Pu (大埔) county in Guangdong province (廣東省), China.
Whatever was edible in the house had already been eaten. His biological
parents, without other options to sustain their children, loaded him and
the few of his other little elder brothers into the vegetable baskets that
swung from the two ends of a shoulder-pole and carried them to the market
to be sold. They were sold off just like pigs and dogs. (Note: The time was
at the beginning of the 20th century)
Father was bought by an old lady. Her purpose in buying Father was to send
him to Nanyang (南洋 or Malaya) to become the son of her only and unmarried
son who was doing business there. The old lady was afraid that her son might
remain single and may never wanted to get married. In that case at least
he would have an inheritor. Her son, who became my Ah Gong (阿公 or grandfather)
, was over thirty years old at that time and the old lady was longing to
have grandchildren. In order to accomplish her wish she bought Father without
Ah Gong's consent. After having bought Father the old lady, who is my Ah
Tai (阿太 or great grandmother), was assured that the Kuang (康), Ah Gong's
family surname, family would have a heir.
When Father was two years old, the successful Ah Gong returned from Nanyang
to the ancestral village and took Father and Ah Tai to live in Seremban
(芙蓉 present day capital of Negri Sembilan 森美蘭, Malaysia 馬來西亞).
A year later the ambitious Ah Gong went alone to Sandakan in North Borneo
(山打根 present day Sabah 沙巴 in East Malaysia) to establish his entertainment
Father was brought up by Ah Tai, who was a typical village woman. Although
Ah Tai was quite old, yet she kept with herself busy growing vegetables
for sale and rearing a few pigs. Ah Tai believed in self-sustaining and
self-sufficient. Not to say that Ah Gong did not send her any money, but
she saved up every cent that Ah Gong remitted. She loathed spending money
Ah Tai was very strict on Father. When he was caught being lazy or did something
wrong, Ah Tai would punish him by not only spanking him but also denying
him food for a whole day, which was the worst part of the punishment. After
being punished Father was not allowed to show any remorse. On the day that
Father wanted to follow Ah Tai to town he had to work especially fast on
his daily chores like, fetching water, splitting firewood, cooking the rice
and other house work.
Although Ah Tai was an illiterate country woman she knew the importance
of education. When Father was six years old Ah Tai sent him to study in
a village school. Father was smart and intelligent and he picked up the
lessons easily. Whenever the teacher craved for a smoke of opium he would
tell Father to supervise the class while the teacher hid himself in another
room and smoked opium.
At the age of fifteen Father left Ah Tai and followed Ah Gong from Seremban
to Sandakan. Ah Gong had established a cinema in Sandakan. As an owner Ah
Gong trusted no one and he had to do every thing himself. The arrival of
Father would give him a helping hand in running his business. Ah Gong arranged
for Father to study English in a missionary school during the day and he
helped Ah Gong in his cinema at night. Father had two jobs in the cinema.
Before the show began Father had to sell tickets and helped in the projection
room. Every night after the show Father had to clean up the cinema hall.
Usually it was past midnight when he returned home.
Father usually did his school homework in the hours after midnight. Due
to his lack of sleep, many a time Father dozed off while he was in class.
At first the form teacher warned him. However, after several days of seeing
him showing no signs of changing, the teacher reported him to the principal
who was an European. The principal reprimanded Father, who under such circumstances
had to tell the truth. The principal sympathized with him, but had to stick
to the rules of the school. The principal would not allow Father to sleep
anymore in classes. He advised Father that if he wanted to study he should
stop working, and if he wanted to work he should stop studying.
Father went home and told Ah Gong what the principal had told him. Ah Gong,
putting on a long face and not saying a word for a long time, said coldly
to Father: "You'd better decide for yourself."
It was very hard for Father who thought that the reason for Ah Gong brought
him here was to help him in his cinema business since he needed a relative
to give him a hand. If Father were to decide to continue studying he wondered
how Ah Gong would react. Ah Gong was not Father's biological father. Father
could not sleep that night as he thought about what he should do the next
day: to study or not to study.
The next day Father, as usual, went to school. However, he did not attend
classes. Instead he called at the principal's office. He told the principal
about his predicament and why he could not continue studying. Father was
All the time Father assisted Ah Gong in the cinema business on a full-time
basis. Ah Gong always felt indifferent towards Father. It could be that
Father was not brought up by Ah Gong.
Father eventually got married and moved out from Ah Gong. By that time Ah
Gong had married Ah Po (阿婆) or grandmother. Ah Po was a barren woman.
Due to Ah Po's barrenness Ah Gong adopted Ah Gu Zai (阿姑仔) or little aunty
and Ah Shu Zai (阿叔仔) or little uncle. When I was a kid we, my brothers
and sisters and I, loved to visit Ah Gong's house. Ah Gong had a big house
with a large lounge. There were all kinds of imported chocolates and various
types of fruit on the tables in the lounge for us kids. Oh, how we loved
When I was six years old Ah Gong had a heart attack. He died before the
doctors could operate on him. Ah Gong died without a will and therefore
by law all his properties were bequeathed to Ah Po. Ever since she married
Ah Gong Ah Po never liked Father. After Ah Gong's death Ah Po was afraid
that Father might fight for Ah Gong's wealth. So Ah Po was very careful
over Father's way of doing business. Finally Ah Po engaged some one else
to manage the cinema which Father had been administering for over ten years.
Although Father was poor and had to support our family of ten, he did not
ask Ah Po for a cent from Ah Gong's wealth.
After leaving the cinema business Father was unemployed for sometime. With
a few friends he established a business, but it went bankrupt within a short
time because Father did not known how to run a business properly. Eventually
Father went back to his old profession and became a projection operator
in a newly-opened cinema.
Father worked as a projection operator for over twenty years until he retired.
Father knew that the cinema business was not the profession for his children.
So he would not allow his children to follow his footsteps.
Father loved children. The reason for this was due to the fact that he had
no parents since he was a kid and no one cared for him when he was young.
Even though we were poor Father had never thought of selling us off or allowed
us to be adopted. Father not only reared us but he also gave each one of
us a good education. Due to his own lack of education, Father had only a
few years of education, he strongly valued education for his children. He
always encouraged us to study diligently. His ways of loving us were based
on the results from our schools. He rewarded those who were good in studying
and punished those who had bad results. He always reminded us that:
"With a good education you are going to have a good life.
Without a good education you are going to be a labourer."
Father had become a father when he was twenty three. Since then he had been
our father for fifty years. Through out his life Father worked very hard.
He saw each of his children complete his or her study, get married and
have a family. Among his children, there is an electrical engineer, a doctor,
a mechanical engineer, a manager in a marine company, an accountant , a
division one officer in the Malaysian government (the author) and two bankers.
Why shouldn't Father, a semi-illiterate and a projection operator, be proud
of himself? Now he has more wealth than the properties that his adopted
father left behind. He did not get a cent from his adopted father's properties.
Posted to asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)