Biography
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           In search of gold

Shan Ru Hong's story of immigration

  
 

From poverty in a Chinese village to the south seas in search of "gold" and a new life
 
The village

I WAS BORN ON THE  27th of the Eighth Moon  1919, Western calender October 20 in Shan House village in the township of Shih Lung. I was named Ru Hong. My father was Tan Chien Rui, my mother Liang Lan. I had an elder sister named Chao Ming . My younger sisters were  Chao Kai, Tse Kai,  a younger brother Tse Hong. We depended on father's farm for a living (four more were added to the family after I had emigrated to Malaya - two sisters and two brothers)

According to my father, my grandfather had towards the end of his life summoned them and instructed them as follows: What I leave to you will be five mou of land, a three lychee trees plantation and  four bamboo groves. These are for distribution to sons, wives and grandsons.  My grandfather had 3 wives. One was a Liu. After her death he married one Liang.  After her death he married a Yu. To honour the memory of the first two wives the first child of wife Yu was named Liu Rui and the second child was named Liang Fa. My father being the eldest son inherited two mou.  Uncle Liang Fa had one mou Uncle Long Lin one mou, grandmother one mou. I, aged five, was the eldest grandson and inherited some fen (1) of land (father sometimes said it was seven fen, sometimes three, I wasn't sure how many.)

Owning five mou land put my grandfather in the class of upper middle class farmers and on him depended his large family.

I remember that grandparents lived in a rented house with my two uncles and two aunts. We lived in a house jointly built by grandfather. In the house was a common kitchen and an air well.  Grandfather's land in the present reformed China has become a large building;  my two cousins and my brothers' children now live in  two-storey houses which they have built.



Opium

The older people in the village say that my father was a fine man, hardworking and keen on his studies, very good with the abacus and in kung fu (1).  He  was very strong and was called "Bullock Rui" He could carry on his back two sacks of salt and walk from Shih Loong to Tan Wu village. Each year the villagers would organise a dance with banners and have wu shu (1) shows and at the Tuan Wu season they held boat races. Father took part in all. But for some reason, when he was 23 or 24, he took to opium and gambling.

When I was old enough to understand things I noticed his opium habit.  Once he took me to Shih Long where he went into an opium house to smoke opium.  When I was six he lost money gambling and was forced to pledge his land to the gambling creditor.    Then he fled to Hong Kong when in debt and deserted his family and became a coolie.  When the creditor, the old rascal,  came to look for him and could not find him he removed our door. It was winter and we were all exposed to the cold.

We were so poor, we were what they called "bare foot  things." When cold, our feet split and bled so much so that mother had to wash our feet in warm water in order that we could sleep. Mother had to wash things in cold water. We had not much to eat and mostly lived on potatoes and we were pale. My mother had to feed us five and always faced threats from creditors.  She decided to go in search of father in Hong Kong

After we reached Kowloon we had only a small amount of money left after paying for the fare. We had yet to cross over to Hong Kong.  At a shop called Mo Yuan Rice Shop we came across a fellow village who knew where father was.  Father was delighted to see us.   

Father lived in a rented room at a two-storey shop house at Shamsuipo . The building had four rooms, one of which was the kitchen. Each room measured about 8 or 9 square metres. Four families lived in this building.

At meal times all four families would squeeze into the kitchen and cook and boil water. The smoke from the cooking was never ending, causing all to cough and tears to flow. The smoke hurt my eyes and the pain did not subside until the smoke had cleared.

Hong Kong is notorious for its cramped living quarters. We were six living in a room 8 or 9 sq metres in size. We were oppressed by the foul air, made even worse when someone used the latrine, which consisted of a bucket with a wooden cover which failed to stop the stink. If one did not go out one would have that awful smell as a companion. How could anyone grow up healthy in such conditions?

The pail was emptied by the "empty the evening fragrance" men who would come knocking on the door shouting "Dou-ta! Dou-ta" (empty the tower) in Cantonese. The "evening fragrance" worker would empty the contents of the pail into the bucket he had on his back and hand the pail back to the tenant who would then go to the kitchen to clean it. Such was the life of the poor in Hong Kong.
                                                                                                                                 
Coolies

Father said that wages were very low. Coolies who worked carrying bags of rice from cargo boats to lighters had to carry them to shore via planks from the lighters which they called "jumping planks". These bags weighed more than 100 katis (2) each and the distance to the godown was about 200 metres. At the gate of the godown was a headman who handed each coolie a bamboo stick when he arrived. They were eager to collect as many sticks as they could and often, in their rush, they would with the rising tide slip and fall into the sea while crossing on the plank "bridge." If they were injured that meant no work at all.

Father worked as a lighterman coolie to feed us but work was not regular and on workless days we were fed a weak broth of rice sweepings. We were always worried as to where the next meal was going to come from.                 

I asked father why wages were so low yet they worked so hard and he said the moneyed side (which included the contractors) was greedy and, further, the workers were not united.  The workers were divided into the yellow, lucky and rising groups. There was friction between them and even fights to get work The contractors took advantage of this to exploit them even more.

We were in Hong Kong one year (my sixth and seventh years) during which life was tough and we scraped along with thin gruel and were always hungry Our clothes were patched and repatched jobs which failed  to keep us warm in the cold weather. And where was the money to buy medicine if we fell ill? Mother said that this life was no better than our life in the village.

The room failed to keep out the rain. It was hard to go on like this with father unemployed. So father proposed we go back to the village. 

Not long after our return to the village Hung Foo (an uncle of mother's cousin) came from Malaya to visit his relatives. When he came to visit mother she wept and told him of our position. Hung Foo was full of sympathy and said: "Why don't you follow in the footsteps of your cousin who is digging a trench in mountain of gold!"

"What is this golden trench?" mother asked

Hung Foo said that it was working a gold mine ( He was illiterate and called a tin mine a gold mine)

Mother said she would send the children along but had no money for the passage. 

 Hung Foo said that that should not be a problem. He would advance the money and they could repay him when they started to earn.

He was such a kind man!
.
Goodbye


Mother was overwhelmed and kept saying "Oh! Thank you. Thank you very much!"

Full of happiness mother went to see our maternal grandmother (In our family she was the most respected person). When mother related to her what passed between Hung Foo and her, tears fell like rain from grandmother's eyes. But sense prevailed over sentiment and she had to agree to the inevitable, that the big as well as the small kids would have to go to the South Seas.

When the time came grandmother went with us to the railway station to say goodbye. When the train was about to start my younger sister jumped down from the train, clung  to grandmother and cried.  (Four or five years ago I asked her why she didn't want to go south with us. She said, "Mother did not love me and I was afraid when we got to the South Seas she would sell me off". Then I thought of the past and regretted the days when we used to beat her and mother would scold her. This must have deeply wounded her. I said I was sorry I had beaten her but she laughed and said , "I don't even remember that!"

The train got going and we could see grandmother looking in our direction with tears in her eyes and my sister clinging on to her. She was not crying one bit and we could see that she cared not for us

When we got to Kowloon mother took us to the "Mao Yuan Rice Shop" where fellow villagers led her to father. She told him what Hung Foo had told us. Father said that he had worked for two years in Hong Kong and was still unable to clothe and feed his family. There was no hope of things getting better. He said, "Go!" And so we began our journey to the South Seas.

We went to a "lodging house" called Chi Sheng Chan  from where a bus took us to the wharf in the evening. We followed Hung Foo where the "water guest" as the contractors were  called, led us up the gang plank.

We were travelling third class, i.e. in the hold with sleeping for three. Father and mother counted as one ticket each and children below 16 counted as half ticket. Elder sister and I had one seat and the two small ones being below 6 had no seats

When it was dark the ship set sail

The passengers in the hold were all very poor people. Hung Foo talked to them while father and mother and we children listened. These people had all come to visit their villages   Some had done what the Hakka in our place called Kor Fan. They talked and talked and soon we were in the ocean, the waves were higher and the wind stronger. The water guest  said we would be in rougher waters when the boat would behave like a horse and would bob up and down. Some referred to carp.  Some said those who felt sea sick should sleep.  I asked sister what they meant by "carp" She said she didn't know either and said to ask Elder Brother. Father said that he too didn't know the answer (We called father "Elder Brother" and mother "Auntie". This was because, 
grandpa told mother, our village suffered from a disaster which was called "catching a fever" which killed my uncle's family and that was why we were to address father and mother as Elder Brother and Auntie).

Sea cows

Suddenly the waves became rougher and came over the ship so that we could no longer stand and watch and rushed down to our places in the hold. I felt a bit sea sick and mother said to lie down and gradually I fell asleep.

When morning came I was still a little sea sick but sister suffered not one bit and went with father to get food from the ship's "dining room".  The ship provided us with a small sieve like dustpan with which to scoop out rice. We were given some salted vegetables or chai po (salted lopo) to eat with the rice. They ate together with Hung Foo but I couldn't eat because of seasickness. Hung Foo said I must eat because an empty stomach made things worse. Mother tried to feed me with a spoon but I found it hard to swallow.

When the sea calmed down and the ship settled down I started to feel better and had something to eat. Sister took me up on deck to look at the sea. I thought it strange  that the sea and sky seemed to be joined as one and asked sis but she could not explain it.

One morning we saw what looked like sea cows in the sea. Some said these were spirits of the water and things would go bad if they heard the noise of shouting from the ship. Those who knew better got hold of some joss sticks and burnt them and knelt in prayer. When I grew up and knew a lot more things I looked back on this scene and had a good laugh. Those sea cows were only giant fish in the ocean either sharks or whales or just a mirage

After seven nights the ship that carried us impoverished people in search of gold reached another shore - Singapore.

All of us (some had fever) were put on St John's Island for quarantine. Even our clothes went through "disinfection". I followed father and mother, mother carrying little girl on her back and carrying another in her arms and holding little sister by the hand into the shower room and when we had been washed we sat on the grass outside the bathroom. It was very hot and we had no shelter. I said I was thirsty and father said all round us is the sea and sea water is salty. I pointed to where they were selling water but father said water cost 5 cents a cup and we could not afford it. He asked me to be patient.

We collected our things and were driven like ducks on to a lorry which had been waiting for us.

Hung Foo took us to fellow villagers at Kreta Ayer and left us there. Two, three days passed by without any signs of him.
Sea poison

Fellow villagers started talking about him. They told us he liked to "talk big" (a "cannon" in our dialect) and said "He has deserted you!"

Hung Foo was indeed generous but incapable of performance. Pitying us he had asked us to put up at his son-in-law Liang Shan's place but did not first get his consent. Now he had gone off to Perak perhaps to get the consent and meanwhile just left us there among fellow villagers in Singapore.

Seeing our plight our fellow villagers advised father and mother to get work so as to meet our daily needs.

With the help of some people of mother's same surname and some distant relatives they were able to find work and temporary housing - a place to sleep in a building.  This was empty during the day and at night full of card players, in fact a gambling joint These gamblers would stay till very late and we would wait, sleepy eyed, in the corridor outside waiting for them to leave.

Sister then developed measles.  At that time people were poor and uneducated and rushed in with advice, she was suffering from "boat poison", a servant girl nicknamed Niu Pi Tang said "You sink'eh kings when you come to this hot climate must bathe with cold water" and she told mother that sis must have a cold bath to get rid of the "sea poison."   Mother took her advice and the result was that after the bath sister started shivering My sister who had just learnt to sit up was now reduced to lying down, and this went on for months and years. She was disabled and was bent double for the rest of her life.

With the miserable pay my parents were able to rent a room in the same area. It was the sun roof of a three-storey house from which tenants would hang their clothes to dry on poles. We would squeeze into a corner using a mat as shelter. This was the new home for the six of us.

Father continued to live as he did in Hong Kong. With the money earned as a coolie he would spend it first on opium and he would hand mother what was left over. Mother and elder sister earned some money carrying water up two flights of steps each time earning 5 cents while we stayed home taking care of little sister.

One day mother had just finished cooking when she and sister had to rush off to carry water queuing at the water pipe to take their turn filling the pails with water. We were hungry. There was something in the rice which we thought was tofu milk. It was smelly and turned out to be cat dung  I vomitted without cease. We told mother when she came back and she remembered she had rushed out forgetting to put the lid on the rice pot.  After that if we saw any cat coming into our area I would catch it and throw it down the stairs. From that day we never touched tofu milk  

Sister and mother were out early in the morning every day to do their work of carrying water They earned not more than 30 cents a day and what father earned went largely to opium so what we had to spend amounted to only one square meal a day . We never had a proper meal. Most of what we ate was broken rice or porridge made up of the same. We had no vegetables not to speak of meat. Mother bought vegetables 
that had been rejected as of poor quality or too old or damaged and sometimes and rarely some salt fish. Sometimes mother sent me out early to stand at the door of restaurants to buy left-overs which were what the cooks concocted of remains of the dining tables, re-cooked with some vegetables, put into buckets and sold to the poor. The prices were 5 cents for large bowls and 2 cents for small bowls. If mother gave me 2 cents I would go and buy the small bowl's worth.  Sometimes we were lucky to find a chicken head or chicken feet or meat with fat or pig's skin in the leftovers.

When mother and sis came back I was released form my duties and allowed to go and  play with other kids.  The kids called me "sink'eh boss;" one called me sink'eh shit. And I had a fight with him. They stopped bullying me and as time went on we became good friends.

We kids would go to the military camp were we would collect the bark of trees or shavings to bring home for firewood.


Kreta Ayer

Those days Kreta Ayer was inhabited by the poorest working people, coolies, servants girls, hawkers. They lived in coolie rooms with three or four-tier bunks.  Among our fellow villagers were hawkers selling vegetable broth, yau char kuai (what Northerners called "yeu t'iau"), sweets and so on.  They were all kind hearted people who sympathised with us poor kids. They would give us left-overs to eat.In this way they demonstrated working class solidarity.

One year passed very quickly, one year of a hard life. Mother had two brothers of the same surname in the area: one was Liang Rong, who worked as a furnace hand and was poorly paid. The other was Liang Feng, a chief of a secret society who was in prostitution, gambling, drinking and opium. The brothers pitied us our life and often gave mother money to ease her burdens. They were sorry for us for having been abandoned by Hung Foo.

The two brothers after discussing the matter with father and mother decided to write to Liang Shan, to whom they were related having the same surname, and Liang Kang (the son of mother's uncle who had been given in adoption to our maternal grandfather as son and was mother's adopted brother and therefore closer in relationship to Liang Shan) to tell him the story of how we had been abandoned and asking Liang Shan to help us get to Perak.

One day Liang Feng came full of joy to tell mother that Liang Shan had come and agreed to take us to Perak. Mother was overjoyed.

In the evening the brothers brought us to the hotel where Liang Shan was putting up. We were told to say "Uncle" when we were introduced. Uncle patted our heads and asked me for my name.
I answered "Ru Hong, but I am called Ru"

"Well" he said "then I shall call you Ah Ru"

He gave me a red packet. This was the best gift I ever had.

He then asked my elder sister the same question and she answered: "Jao Ming. Everyone calls me Ah Ming. I am 10 years old."

Smiling, uncle brought out from his pocket three red packets; one for her, one for little brother and one for little sister. He then spoke to Liang Rong and Liang Feng and gave them something from his pocket which I guessed was money.

Liang Rong and Liang Feng turned the conversation round to mum and dad and described how they lived, without a place to stay, being compelled to put up at a "stable," which was the side wall of a fellow villager's place and were only able to sleep only after mahjong had been played and the players had gone;  how with the help of others of the village they had found the drying terrace on top of a building to stay;  nothing could have been be more primitive

They then told him of how mum and sis  carried water to earn extra money and and of how her husband worked as a coolie. They told him that if he took them with him to Perak their burden too would be lessened.

Notes

(1) Life force arts

(1)   Ten fen make one mou       

(2)   1 kati = 1.3 lbs

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The Penang File Issue  57