Book Review
The Camera Looks at Old Penangand Adibah Amin Ponders the Baby Rat Race
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Book Review
The Camera Looks at Old Penangand Adibah Amin Ponders the Baby Rat Race |
Glimpses of Old Penang THE PHOTOGRAPHS collected by The Star newspaper in this book appear to be a selection from a competition held in Penang in 1987 What we have is mainly images of groups of people which tell us much about the style of dress of days long gone past. We wished that the tram and the trolley bus had not been short-sightedly discarded by the British. Had we kept the tram, as they have in Switzerland, we would probably have had less traffic headaches and spared the painful hooha about the 20 year old plan called PORR, the proposed "outer ring" road. Tunku doing the ronggeng 
The absence of photographs of people up on the hill or at the Esplanade
or at the sea side tells us that the cameramen of that competition did
not spend their leisure hours up on Penang Hill, then mainly a hill station
for the white man, nor at the Esplanade, a preserve of the all-white cricket
club. And they must have found the sea too hot and too much of a darkening
threat to the skin. The most striking in this collection is the photo of Cheah Tatjin, one of the sons of the opium farm millionaire, Cheah En Eok. He is dressed in the height of English fashion, and is being greeted with a salute by his uniformed Sikh guards, while his carriage and horses stand by. That remarkable photo gives us a glimpse of the life style of the super rich of Northam Road at the turn of the century. The collection is considerably damaged by the inclusion of extracts of Queeni Chang's "Memories of a Nyonya,' an audacious hoax on which the editors have bestowed an undeserved authenticity. Queeni Chang's account of dinner at Chung Thye Pin's bungalow at the Kelawei end of Northam Road is a pure fairy tale. In the first place, Chung Thye Pin for some reason, decided not to live in that house. The bungalow, like all others along North Beach, did not go beyond the building line which remained a respectable distance from the sea shore. And it certainly did not have a dining room extending out under the sea, as Chung Thye Pin's descendants and many others who are still alive will testify. The bungalow was to become the Shanghai Hotel, a favourite with Singaporeans. The garden was a famous spot for late night coffee, cream puffs and ice-cream. # |
Adibah Amin The arrogant chauvinists who would have us believe in superior races and subscribe to such nonsense as the Bell Curve will find it hard to believe that such a creature as Adibah Amin exists. This excellent and highly popular English teacher who is equally in demand in Bahasa lessons, has written two novels, 200 radio plays, short stories, and books for children. For many years she was a translator as well as journalist whose column in the Straits Times, "As I was Passing," had a devoted following. She was also voted the best supporting actress in the First Malayan Film Awards. A life of staggering achievement And now Adibah in her twilight years has produced a readable collection of keen observations on teachers, children, reading, proverbs, neighbours, orang kampong, the racial divide, femininity, the environment, table manners, imported goods, "face", the English language - all the subjects of everyday concern and discussion. These pages reveal a very unspoilt and human person, deeply conscious of her identity as a Malay and as a Malaysian and reacting with a sharp sensitivity to the events erupting around her. Have proverbs such as Enggang sama enggang, pipit sama pipit really been abandoned and, if so, does it signal the emergence of the new Malay? And what is the significance of the marketing of anti-aging creams? And if you think that the kampong man is a mere buffoon, read this book In these days when we are deafened by the voices of the Robertsons, the Wahabis and the Thackerays we wished that there were many more Adibahs to keep us on the course of sanity. # Glimpses - Cameos of Malaysian Life by Adibah Amin (Ericane & Webb SB). |
| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Index page Book Review Baba Sayings Cheng Ean's Fist Kongsi Gates Laotian Visit Penang's Development |
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The BOOKSHOP , Chow Thye Road, stocks Penang Sketchbook as well as books previously reviewed in The Penang File such as : Tan Sooi Beng: Bangsawan ; Machiko Katayama; The Philosophy of Ikebana ; Dato J J Raj Jr: The War Years and After ; Lim Kean Siew: The Eye Over the Golden Sands ; Lim Kean Siew: Blood on the Golden Sands ; Malaysia Nature Society, Penang branch: Nature Trails of Penang Island . Lim Kean Siew: The Beauty of Chinese Tixing Teapots and the Finer Art of Tea Drinking ; Said Zahari: Dark Clouds at Dawn ; Eric Lawlor ; Friends of the Botonical Gardens: ; T N Harper: The End of the Empire and the Making of Malaya. (Telephone 228 2252)
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| ____________________ The Penang File Issue 25 |