Part 4

The Wonders of a Boarding School

WHEN I BECAME A BOARDER at the St Xavier's Institution in Farquhar Street Penang in 1906 or 1907, it was like going to live in a quasi-military camp with about 150 other boys ranging from little ones in the primary standards to those studying for the Cambridge Junior and Senior examinations, and even for the Queen's Scholarship worth £230 a year for 5 years' study at any University in England. In that boarding school with its first and second class boarders and orphans every moment of our lives awake or asleep, was lived under the watchful  eyes  of  a  black-robed  and  white  bibbed Brother of the Order of de la Salle. There was a time table that we had to follow most rigidly. We were  awakened at 5.30 except on Thursdays, when we had to get up half an hour earlier. We had to jump out of our beds as soon as the Brother in charge walked down the space between the two rows of bedstead in the dormitory and rang a bell as loudly as possible. I could hear the loud peal of that bell, although I had a room a11 by myself.  There were five other rooms  like mine occupied by boys who could afford to pay the extra charge. These rooms adjoined one another and formed one row alongside one of the rows of bedsteads already mentioned. We had to sleep with the doors of our rooms open, so that the night Brother could see what we were doing as he paced up and down the corridor between the bedsteads. As soon as the bell stopped ringing we would be down on our knees, thanking the Lord for giving us another day

Every day life began like that for all of us after a night's sleep on that high floor of the third storey of an imposing building  with one side about 150 or 200 feet long facing Farquhar Street and the sea beyond it, and a shorter side facing Love Lane. After we had risen from bed and gone down the flight  of stairs to the bottom floor, we bathed at the long and narrow  open-air trough or tank of  water, using a loin cloth to cover our nakedness and   a .bucket to pour water over our bodies. After this came chapel and  study in  our own  hall  where we each had a desk. Then came succession breakfast at 8.30, school classes from 9 till 9.30, lunch in refractory, school classes again till 5, tea and games till 6.30, bath and  chapel and finally bed at 9 for boys  below the Cambridge classes, at 10 for those in the Cambridge classes and 12 for those in the Scholarship class.

We had our own field for playing football (association). It  lay as  a vast expanse of green  in  front  of  the  main building It was bounded in front by Farquhar Street and by the wall of No 7 Farquhar Street, on one side. The posts of one of the goals were stuck up a few paces from the middle of that wall. It was into this goal that we practised shooting the ball as soon as tea was  over.  It was  exhilarating to hear  the hall  strike  that wall with a thumping noise  and  to  see  it  bounce back  to us, whenever we kicked straight and hard enough. The annual sports were also held on this field which was marked out for the 
various events. As I had a penchant for running  I participated heartily in both football and athletics; but I could never run round the whole field, as I was only good at sprints. 

We also played ‘Rounders’ without knowing, as I found out on my visit to the  USA in 1961, that it resembled the American baseball
 

In the three character primer that I blindly learnt off by heart while attending a Chinese school is a passage about the mother of Mencius changing her abode three times in order to find the right 'environment' for her son’s studies.  Her third choice was a locality with a school. She believed that education should be assisted by proper environment.  Yes, I was lucky in my environment too.  Luckily too there were no radios or TVs or cinemas to spoil it.  And I am as thankful to my mother, as Mencius was to his, for if my mother had not consented to my being a boarder, I would have certainly missed the wonders of a boarding school. #

In later years the British colonial administration in a surprise move appointed Cheng Ean a relief magistrate for Georgetown, a post hitherto reserved for whites only. Already a hero to the locals Cheng Ean's popularity was boosted when he paid the fines of those who could not afford the penalties that the law demanded that he, as a magistrate,  should impose. Once more he made the headlines. 

When the Japanese invaded,  he, with the help of policing done by the former volunteers from the SS Volunteer Corps under their commander Lim Khoon Teck, was able to restore order in Ayer Itam to which the population of Georgetown had fled.  When the Japanese administration took over they appointed him Judge of the civil division which continued to administer the law of the Straits Settlements

After the war a delegation of the Malayan People's Anti Japanese Army called on him to thank him for his work in preserving order in Ayer Itam. A few years later the British asked him to consider the award of an OBE but he rejected the suggestion

Post Merdeka Penang, however, refuses to honour its most famous son; while there are roads named after Phuah Hin Leong and Lim Cheng Teik, not one sign bears his name

This is part 4 of the notes that he made towards the end of his life while living at :Claremont", Penang Hill .#