Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-03-12 02:10
My Family in the British Colonial Malaya - 1858 to 1960 (4)
075. We dam the little river to catch fish - 1946
舂榖子
舂穀子, 磨穀子.-----Chong gu3 zi3, mo gu3 zi3,
做個餅兒娃娃吃.---Zuo4 ge4 bing3 er2 wa2 wa2 chi.
I pounded the millet and ground the millet,
With the flour I made a cake for the child.
吃半邊, 留半邊,----Chi ban4 bian, liu2 ban4 bian.
留在娃娃枕頭邊.---Liu2 zai4 wa2 wa2 zhen3 tou2 bian.
The child ate half and left half of the cake,
The half was left near the child's pillow
貓兒銜到大廳上,---Mao er2 xian2 dao4 da4 ting shang3,
狗兒銜到大門前.---Gou3 er2 xian2 dao4 da4 men2 qian2,
老鴉銜去飛上天.---Lao3 ya xian2 qu4 fei shang3 tian.
The cat carried the cake and left it at the lounge,
The dog carried it and left it at the front door,
The crow carried it and flew up to the sky.
A nursery rhyme I learned it from the school.
--------------------------------------------------------
Hong Zhenchang (洪振昌) was Father's good friend. He was the grandson of
the Village Chief when grandfather arrived at Kampong Sayap in 1908. Village
Chief Hong was a former fighter of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國
1851AD to 1864AD). His wife was also a fighter in the regiment that the
Qing Government nicknamed the "大腳蠻婆 or the savage big foot women" solders
because their feet were not bound. The regiment was under the commander
of Hong Xuanjiao (洪宣嬌), the younger sister of Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全),
the leader of the Taipings. When the Heavenly Kingdom collapsed Village
Chief Hong and his wife escaped to Malaya and came to live in the Hakka
area.
Before the war Father and Hong Zhenchang partnered and bought a taxi which
was used to service the route from Pusing to Ipoh. Unfortunately the taxi
was confiscated by the Japanese during the war. After the war, Hong Zhenchang
partnered with another of his many friends and established a lumbering company
falling trees in the jungle not far from the village. In 1947, he went back
to his ancestral village in Dongguan county (東莞縣) in China for holidays.
When he returned from holidays he told the village folks many stories about
the the Old Mountain of their ancestors the county of Dongguan. Most of
the village folks were originally from Dongguan county. According to Hong
Zhenchang there were about half a million residents in Dongguan county.
About 20% of them were Hakkas who lived mostly in the region of Qiuling
(丘陵) which was in the southeast of the city of Huiyang (惠陽). He said
that there were about 12 towns in Dongguan county where one could find Hakka
People. The only town that the Hakkas were in majority was Zhang Mutou (樟
木頭). The majority of the people in the towns of Qingxi (清溪) and Fenggang
(鳳港 my ancestors' town) spoke Hakka Dialect. The people living in the
towns of Da Lingshan (大嶺山), Tangxia (塘夏), Huangjiang (黃江) and Xiegang
(謝崗) spoke Hakka Dialect too but Hakkas were in the minority. Very few
people in the towns of Guancheng (莞城), Fucheng (附城), Humen (虎門), Huangcun
(篁村), and Houjie (厚街) spoke Hakka Dialect. There were only about 100
people spoke Hakka Dialect in a village called Luosha Shangling (羅沙上嶺
) which was near the town of Guancheng. That was all the village folks knew
about the contemporary stories of their ancestral villages.
First Elder Brother was not interested in studying at the Siputeh Primary
School. Quite often, after school and during the weekends he spent most
of his time in making toy guns. It was 1947 and he was 17 years old. His
ambition was to join the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army ( MPAJA) which
had been disbanded in December 1945. Even though the MPAJA was not in existence
there were MPAJA camps in the jungle where the Mi Mi Tui (秘密隊 Clandestine
Army) lived. Occasionally, the older boys from the village were invited
to visit the camps. The guerillas taught them how to use the weapons. Due
to this influence First Elder Brother dreamed of organizing a group of young
boys arming them with toy guns. He would then become the leader of the group.
Seeing him wasting his youth away, Father sent him to Ipoh to study in a
big school hoping that he would change his hobby after having being exposed
to a big city. He was enrolled in standard five (year 5) at Poi Nam School
(培南小學). Another boy, called Cao Ping (曹平), from the village went with
him to study at the same school. They went to school and returned home by
bus. However, he was still very interested in joining the MPAJA. He often
took part in the ex-MPAJA demonstrations against the British Military Administration
for unfair treatment to the former guerilla fighters.
There was a small river that drained off the excess water from the Lower
Pond (下塘). The excess water in the Lower Pond was from the Upper Pond
(上塘) and the excess water in the Upper Pond was from a little river from
a mountain in the the Kledang range. The water from the river empties into
the Kinta River about 4 English miles in the east. While the river was winding
its way to Kinta River it passed through the tin mining area.
There were several tin mines using the water from the river to operate their
mines. The Mines Department in Batu Gajah had already warned the residents
in that area not to disturb the river water. The warning was proclaimed
before the war and many of us, the village kids, were not even born and
we had no idea about the warning.
One Sunday morning I and a group of kids from our village did not go to
the rubber plantations to pick firewood, but we decided to dam the river
from the Lower Pond to catch fish. By using rocks, shrubs, mud and sand
we dammed the river that meant we stopped the water from flowing into the
river. Slowly and slowly the river dried up. We could see a lot of fish
stranded in the shallow holes and at the edge of the grass. Each one of
us holding a home made fishing scoop net and a basket scooping the fish
into our baskets. We were so excited. We followed the river going down and
passed the bridge for the road from Pusing to Siputeh. Our baskets were almost
full of fish. We then met two mining workers each carrying a changkol (a
Chinese spade) coming up the river. We met them and they asked us if we
had dammed the river. We answered yes because we wanted to cash fish. They
scolded us and told us that their tin mine and a few others had stopped
operating because they were running out water from the river. We then realized
that it was very serious and wrong for us to dam the river. We all quickly
rushed up to the source of the river and removed the dam.
The next day, the Kepala from the mine (in Malay, the title for a foreman)
came to the village to complained to the Village Chief, my father, about
us damming the river. However, Father was not at home but in Pusing. Anyway
he told First Uncle to convey the message to Father. He also said that if
we were to do it again the boss of the mine would sue us for damages. That
evening I received the canning from my grandmother although I brought home
quite a lot of fish for dinner. Grandmother said that to can me was to teach
me a lesson. [What a naughty boy I was.]
Posted to Overseas Chinese Forum at asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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