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Letter from Pulau Tikus

Bunty

THE WIDOW of the late Dr Ooi Kee Wan has died at the age of 82. She died just before the Chinese New Year which fell on 22 January. She is about the last of the Cheah Chean Eok family who occupied Holland House at Northam Road. She married the doctor when she was 15, in the days when it was the practice to arrange for marriage as soon as a girl reached puberty.

Cheah Chean Eok, her grandfather, was a third generation local born who was educated at the Penang Free School. He is today remembered for the clock tower at the Esplanade roundabout and Moon Gate, standing at the beginning of the path to his house.. He was immensely rich, having tin interests as well as successfully tendering year after year for the right to sell opium and spirits (opium and spirit farms) for the Straits Settlements government. Opium, it is useful to remember, was the main pillar of the East India Company's trade and was the main source of revenue for the Straits Settlements.

Mrs Ooi was popularly known as Bunty.. The picture you see here is of her uncle, Cheah Tat Jin, and his Sikh bodyguard. You will notice that in this tropical heat he is wearing a morning coat. They were a proud family who lived in a manner which they thought to be that of the English aristocracy. As was the fashion of the rich, they had a town house at Green Hall, Holland House at Northam Road, a house by the sea, and the immense Beeham, on Coombe Hill (in Penang), where guests were entertained either on the Chinese or Western wing, as well as the inevitable bungalow on Penang Hill.

And now I turn to the Chinese New Year. As usual the crowds came in their cars to visit or simply to holiday. On the 7th day the Cantonese had their yee sang (raw fish) a mixture of fish and vegetables to celebrate the making of man (The so called Taoists believe that man was created on the 7th day of the first moon). On the 9th day was the birthday of the Jade Emperor of Heaven which coincides with the sugar cane festival. This festival is Hokkien and it celebrates the day when the Hokkiens escaped a massacre by hiding among the sugar cane. Those who practice this tradition, and there are many in Penang, usually buy two sugar canes to bring home to be tied one on each side of the alter table filled with sweet delicacies and other offerings. Celebrations begin after 11 o'clock on the night of the 8th and, in some homes, stretch until dawn.(see Note).

Jade Emperor of Heaven

Others who prefer things as simple as possible will walk or take the Hill Railway to the Temple of the sugar cane

Jade Emperor of Heaven perched just above the Lower Station. While yee sang is big in Ipoh (because it is mainly a Cantonese town), the 9th day is more important in Penang. My visitors were lucky to see a great display of fireworks from my flat the night of the 8th (Thursday). I guessed that they were celebrating at the temple nearby, at Lau Heo Hnui (Beetle nut Leaf Garden) which used to grow the leaf, taken with beetle nut, but the area is now populated by squatters.

This is the time of the pungat, served on the 15th day, during Charp Gor Mair. A friendly neighbour presented me with a cup, filled with a strange hodgpodge of slices of coloured sago dough and beans. But a traditionalist like me prefers the mixtures of pisang raja, yam and potato - both yellow and red, as well as the purple coloured, on sale during the festive season, and the santan mixture so heavy you could cut it with a knife. Sad to say it's hard to get pisang raja now that they have surrendered their area to housing estates.

The holiday season also saw Penang busy with the Thaipusam festival. The sight of large Chinese crowds waiting at the roadside to break their coconuts as the chariot goes to and from the Waterfall temple and Chinese kavadi carriers no longer surprises. As usual there were traffic jams everywhere. Waiting at the ferry to cross over from Butterworth to George Town I noticed that the Indians on the ferry (a majority that night) no longer put on their Sunday best; I'd even say that some of the men were rather casually dressed. I wondered why.

The block next to the Pulau Tikus market has been renovated and reopened. The new owners have proudly named the new look building Marble Arch, displayed prominently above the roof. Thanks to the end of rent control all the few hundred dollars a month tenants have left; only the tau-eu maker, the medical shop and a dress shop have come back to brave the new rent of about RM2,000 a month. One of the newcomers is an organic food shop. A sign of the times?#

L See

Note: Those who are interested will find a more detailed description of these rituals in CS Wong's "Chinese Festivities", 1967 which is still available in the bookshops

Acknowledgements: Cheah Tat Jin photo, courtesy of The Star publications and Mr Cheah Peng Soon; Sugar cane photo, Kwang Ming Daily

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Index page Baba words Book review Food guide Peace pact (2) Letter from Pulau Tikus Letter to the editor Pulau Tikus discovered Prince of Wales Island Gazette (5) Road names

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The Penang File Issue 33