Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-27-05 04:29
A Hakka folk song
日落西山天暗黃﹐
點起孤燈照孤房。
日裏想哥唔得暗﹐
夜裏想哥夜更長。
Sunset on western hills
In the sky the widening gloom,
I light my lonely lamp
Inside my lonely room.
If I think of you in the daytime
The dark will come too slow;
If I think of you at night
Longer the night will grow.
by Tin-yuke Char translated into English by C.H.Kwock
Tales of a Hakka village (12)
A Hakka child
http://chungyn.webhop.net/HakkaRuZi.jpg
The time was in the 1870s, Gong Gong (公公) and Shu Gong (叔公) began their
lives as indentured labourers in a new and strange land, Australia. Life
was harsh - they panned for gold throughout the day and often into the night.
There were many thousands of Chinese miners digging for gold in that region.
In the small colony of Victoria it was estimated at that time there were
9,377 Chinese in a population of 1,150,000. "In Victoria" stated Professor
Pearson, "a single trade - that of furniture-making - was taken possession
of [by the Chinese] and ruined for white men within the space of something
like five years." In his book An Australian in China on page 223 Dr Morrison
said that the Australian could not compete with the Chinese. The Chinese
were working animals and they could easily outwork the Englishmen. The Chinese
could work for seven days a week with no amusements, enjoyments or comforts
of any kind.
Gong Gong and Shu Gong worked and lived among the Chinese who were aliens
in language, thought and customs, without coming into contact with the Europeans.
They maintained their Chinese way of life.
Although Gong Gong and Shu Gong did not receive any wages they managed to
borrow some money from their boss to send them regularly to their parents
who were overjoyed to receive their remittances.
Soon after, their three year contract was over and the two brothers were
free from the slave bondage. They continued to pan for gold. However, this
time the gold they obtained did not go to the contractor but to themselves.
Gong Gong and Shu Gong worked hard and very industrious, making significant
sums of money and some of which they sent to their parents back in Xiangxia
(鄉下).
Somehow, eventually Shu Gong married an English girl by the name of Mary.
As far as Gong Gong was concerned he was quite happy to remain single, but
after ten years of marriage Shu Po (紅毛叔婆 Hong Mao grand-aunty) bore
no children and Gong Gong began to grow concerned because their parents
in the Old Mountain of the Ancestors were longing for grandchildren. Tai
Gong (太公) and Tai Po (太婆) urged Gong Gong to come back to Tang Shan
(唐山 China) to get married since the Hong Mao (紅毛 red hair) daughter-in-law
was 'barren'. Great-grandparents also sent Gong Gong message that they had
already match-made him a young and beautiful girl from the neighbouring
village. As a filial piety son Gong Gong agreed to return home.
In 1903 Gong Gong left Australia for home after twenty five years in the
profession of gold digging. He was through and through a gold-digger (a
true Aussie). Several months after returning to his village Gong Gong married
a beautiful Hakka girl called Chen Ermei (陳二妹) who was my Ah Po (阿婆
grandma). Gong Gong was 45-year-old and his bride, Ah Po, was only 21.
Ah Po was willing to marry Gong Gong because her family was poor. Ah Po's
parents died when she was only a lass. She had an elder and a younger sisters.
The three sisters lived with their uncle and aunty (their father's younger
brother). Gong Gong, a Kim Shan Hak (金山客) or a returnee from the New
Gold Mountain, was supposed to have brought home a lot of money. With the
money Gong Gong bought a few mus (畝 mu= a Chinese land-measure of area)
of fertile land and built a big house (during the Cultural Revolution this
big house was being used as a primary school by the Red Guards). The following
year Gong Gong became a father and he named his first born son Guanlin (觀
鄰 my father). Tai Gong and Tai Po were very happy as their dreams had come
true - they saw their first grandson before they died. Guanlin was the 24th
generation of the Chung family.
Shu Gong and Hong Mao Shu Po also returned to the ancestral village. It
was very hard for the 'red-hair' grand-aunty as she had to adopt the Chinese
way of life but she was happy to be with her husband. Love, a many-splendour
thing, conquered everything.
Tai Po died in 1907 and Tai Gong died in 1908. Since he was a teenager Gong
Gong disliked tilling in the field. Gong Gong did not want to become a farmer,
but he did not have the know-how to do business. With nothing much to do,
Gong Gong became restless and wanted to go back to Australia with his family.
However, permission was not granted, as under the White Australian Policy
Gong Gong was not allow to return to Australia with a Chinese wife. Instead,
Gong Gong went to Nanyang (南洋), Malaya, promising Ah po that he would
send for her and their son
soon.
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
All rights reserved 27012005
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