An inspirational poem

INVICTUS
William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Have a Pengat today

Pengat, that sweet dessert that's the hallmark of a Penang Straits-born or Nyonya family, is normally cooked once a year to mark Chap Goh Meh which is the fifteenth day of Chinese New Year. This year, my family decided to share our Pengat with the Buddhist monks of the Nandaka Vihara meditation society in Bukit Mertajam.

In the video below, one of my ex-colleagues from the Ban Hin Lee Bank days, Jack Ong, shares his agak-agak method of cooking pengat. I must say that his method largely mirrors the style of my own family, which goes back at least four generations. My mother cooked it this way too, same as her mother and her mother's mother. Like Jack Ong and many other Straits-born families, we use only white sugar and not gula Melaka in our recipe. But I must try his style next time by putting in the purple tuber last.

Note: Because of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that has been raging in Malaysia since last September, my Kongsi has not been able to celebrate Chap Goh Meh with the usual worship session. Everything has been very low-key and scaled down, including the amount of food and fruits offered to the deities and ancestors, and this year's worship was attended by only me and my Vice-President.

The sports houses of Penang Free School

Last Monday (15 Feb), I was contacted by Reena Sekaran, a journalist with Free Malaysia Today, who wanted to do a story on the sport houses of Penang Free School. Of course, I obliged her. Nothing less that I can do when it comes to The Old Lady herself. 

We spoke for about 10 minutes, during which time I fed her with all the information she needed for her story. By the way, she has also done a lot of homework herself too and she told me that as an Old Girl from St George's Girls' School, with a brother that had also studied at Penang Free School, she was quite familiar with Penang. So it was quite a pleasant conversation and I promised to send her some pictures to accompany her piece.

Today, I discovered that her story on the sports houses of Penang Free School was already published in the Leisure section of Free Malaysia Today. Here is the link to the story, but I shall want to reproduce it here too.

Legacy of Penang Free School’s sports houses lives on

Reena Sekaran @ FMT Lifestyle -February 20, 2021 7:30 AM

Penang Free School, the oldest English-medium school in Southeast Asia. (Quah Seng Sun pic)

PETALING JAYA: If you grew up in Penang, you’d have heard of the constant rivalry that existed between the schools on the island. Parents, teachers, students – all joined in.

“My son studies in Penang Free School,” mothers would proclaim, noses up in the air, eyes ablaze.

Established in 1816, this 205-year-old school has produced many a notable figure including Malaysia’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, legendary artist P Ramlee and world-renowned physician Wu Lien Teh.

The school also has the honour of being the oldest English-medium school in all of Southeast Asia.

However, up till 1928, sports houses were non-existent.

According to Quah Seng Sun, author of Let the Aisles Proclaim, a biography that commemorates the once-in-a-lifetime Bicentenary celebrations of Penang Free School, students were originally grouped by age.

The school has eight sports houses, named after headmasters, teachers and students. (Quah Seng Sun pic)

Quah tells FMT that it was headmaster D R Swaine who made the move to introduce the house system in 1928. There were five in total – Hargreaves (Brown), Pinhorn (Blue), Hamilton (Yellow), Cheeseman (Red) and Wu Lien Teh (Green).

Interestingly, the first three sports houses were named after Swaine’s predecessors.

William Hargreaves was the first academically qualified headmaster for Penang Free School in 1891 and ended his career as a headmaster in 1904.

He was replaced by Ralph Henry Pinhorn, who took charge of the school till 1925. When Pinhorn retired owing to ill health in 1925, William Hamilton became headmaster till 1926.

The next time you find yourself in Penang, look up Pinhorn Road, Hargreaves Road and Hamilton Road, all named after these three well-respected and much-loved headmasters.

Penang Free School. Quah Seng Sun pic)

The fourth sports house, Cheeseman, was named after a teacher who taught in the school itself – Harold Ambrose Robinson Cheeseman.

He joined the teaching staff in 1907 and remained at the school for 15 years. While here, he produced the school’s first ever school magazine.

By the time he retired from the Malayan civil service in 1948, he had risen in rank to Director-General of Education, Malaya.

If you’re familiar with the roads in Penang, there is a road named after him, Cheeseman Road.

A bust of Dr Wu on the grounds of the Penang Institute. (Quah Seng Sun pic)

The Covid-19 pandemic definitely brought to light the many accomplishments of Penang-born legendary plague fighter Dr Wu Lien Teh, who designed a face mask that eventually became the N95 mask.

In 1935, he was nominated for the Nobel prize for his fight against the 1910 Manchurian plague and for identifying the role of tarbagan marmots in the transmission of the disease.

And yes, this brilliant scientist was a scholar at Penang Free School, receiving his primary and secondary education here.

However, he never forgot his roots and would make numerous visits back to his alma mater to deliver talks and lectures to students.

A road near the school has been named after him – Wu Lien Teh Garden.

The sixth house, Tunku Putra (Orange) only came about in 1967 after the school celebrated its 150th anniversary.

The library was the brainchild of the nation’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. (Quah Seng Sun pic)

Tan Boon Lin, who was the headmaster then, announced the formation of this new house in conjunction with the nation’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was also the guest of honour at the celebration.

Tunku who is an old Free himself contributed to the construction of Kutub Khanah Tunku, Penang Free School’s first ever library. This was in 1969.

Fastforward to 2009 and two final sports houses were introduced by headmaster Haji Ramli Din. These were Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin (Purple) after the Raja of Perlis Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail and P Ramlee (Grey).

Interestingly, both Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin and P Ramli, Malaysia’s silver screen legend, studied together here.

Penang Free School has a rather interesting phrase, ‘Once a Free, Always a Free’. It’s not hard to see why.

Seventh day of Chinese New Year

Traditionally, the seventh day of Chinese New Year refers to the birthday of mankind which the Chinese in Penang, typically the Nyonya community, celebrate with a yellow rice noodle dish called Lam Mee, comprising ingredients including bean sprouts, shredded omelette, sliced pork belly, prawns and sometimes fish ball. The broth is made from boiling pork bones, meat and prawn shell. My wife and I served this dish to the Theravadin monks at the Nandaka Vihara meditation centre in Bukit Mertajam for their lunch today.

My Chinese New Year tradition

One of my Chinese New Year traditions - I don't know whether any other household practices it or not - is to give the image of Kuan Imm on the altar an annual symbolic cleansing. About two or three days before the New Year, I would place the stone image in a pool of fragrant water and slowly pour cupsful of the scented water over it. But don't ask why I do it. This has been practiced in my family for a very long time...since the days of my grandmother. I don't question it as it's actually quite therapeutic for me. For a reason, I find myself relaxed after completing this ritual. 

An exceptional Chinese New Year

Well, this has been a pretty much exceptional Chinese New Year in the midst of a pandemic that seems to be abating world-wide but not here in Malaysia. Infections are raging in the community and until the vaccination programme kicks off in March or April, I do not see the numbers decreasing until then. My age-group puts me squarely in the second stage of the programme which should begin from May this year but my wife will not be able to get hers until much later as she will be in the third stage when the rest of the population will get their chance.

So how more exceptional is this Chinese New Year? For one, there's this silly sohai Minister who had set the rules for this year's family gatherings and reunions. Only members of the same family staying in the same household can hold their Chinese New Year Eve reunion dinners. What crap. That's no difference from a normal lunch with all your family members on a normal day. That's gross stupidity for you, courtesy of an idiot who doesn't understand the culture of the rest of the people in the country, the product of a skewed education.

Anyway, I'm thankful that my son can still be with us at the reunion dinner even though my daughter cannot. I do miss her physical presence terribly, same with my wife, and we're hoping for the day when the movement control order is relaxed enough for her to come home for a visit. She's working in the Klang Valley and had to celebrate her Chinese New Year with friends instead.

But although it is a quieter and more sombre Chinese New Year, we still needed a reunion dinner with at least the son. Therefore, the cooking and the preparations. We tried to cut down on the amount of food, seeing there were only three of us at the dinner table, but it seemed almost impossible to do that. We still had to buy the ingredients for a reasonable dinner, meaning, we had to have the too tor soup, jiu hoo char, roast chicken and stir-fried prawns. Our son brought back some roast pork from the island and we also bought some lobak from the market here. All our must-have Chinese New Year food which would see us through the first few days of the festival until the wet market opens again.

The eve was also quieter because there weren't many houses in the neighbourhood letting off their firecrackers or fireworks. Usually around midnight, we'd be hearing lots of firecrackers being let off and seeing fireworks in the sky. Not this Chinese New Year though. What a damper, indeed! Perhaps there'll be more such activities come this 19th night -- the eighth day of Chinese New Year -- when the community shall pray to the Tnee Kong or God of Heaven.

Since the movement control order has also forced us to limit our movements within a 10-kilometre radius of the house, we also do not expect many visits from the relatives and friends, if at all. On our part, we can't even visit my in-laws in Bandar Tasek Mutiara because the place is in Province Wellesley South, a different district from ours, which the movement control order prohibits us from crossing. So it was through whatsapp video connections that we have been exchanging New Year greetings. 

Don't expect angpows to be greatly reduced. They have all been prepared before hand. What have to be given will be given, if not now then later. There's no escaping that. Some relatives, I hear, have resorted to crediting the angpow money into the recipients' bank accounts online but this is not something that I contemplate doing. Angpows should be given in person to make it meaningful, even though we have to wait until we meet up eventually. Still a traditionalist in many ways.

Together with the anticipated reduction in visits, we had decided to cut down on buying the festival cookies. This year, we only bought a bottle of kueh kapit folded with meat floss to supplement our annual frying of dried buah binjeh slices. We even cut down on the preparation of buah binjeh because we anticipated not being able to distribute them to our usual friends and relatives. To our surprise though, we have been receiving more New Year cookies than ever before. Our daughter asked us to collect some cookies from her friend on the mainland and then, some other friends decided to send us more cookies and dried foodstuff through courier delivery. So now, our table is filled with cookie bottles, a few still unopened but many already part consumed by the family. 

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! May you keep safe and healthy this 2021, and hope that next year's festival will be better!

Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 2

I received some good news by email yesterday. The graphic designer of my book, Ten Thousand Prosperities: the Story of Ban Hin Lee Bank, sent over the layout with the chapters completed and all the images inserted. Of course, I still need to go over the PDF file and correct whatever omissions I can find. That'll keep me occupied until Chinese New Year, I'm sure! But I'd like to give a peek here of the first page of every chapter in the book, plus the one picture of the man who made it possible for the book to be even written in the first place. That man? None other than Yeap Chor Ee. 

Chapter I: The Founding covered the pre-war years in the Straits Settlements, touching on Yeap Chor Ee's arrival in Penang and the growth of his business empire. In Chapter II: Surviving the War Years, I covered the period from the Japanese Occupation until the 1950s. 

Chapter III: Forging a New Image talked about the struggles that the bank faced in navigating its way through the difficult years of the 1960s and 1970s while Chapter IV: The Busy Eighties detailed the busy years after the bank had successfully reinvented and rejunevated itself for the future.

After the successful public listing exercise in 1991, the progress of the bank knew no bounds, as described in Chapter V: Roaring into the Nineties. Then in Chapter VI: Merger, I covered those crucial two years or so when the banking industry was pressured into mergers.

In Chapter VII: Across the Causeway, I delved into researching the history of the bank in Singapore and was delighted to find gems of information that were previously unknown. Chapter VIII: The Pursuit of Technology covered the bank's progress from a different point of view: firstly through mechanisation and then the computerisation of its banking services from the early 1980s until the merger in 2000. 

The bank was probably one of the pioneers that looked into incorporating financial services into its everyday banking business, which I covered in Chapter IX: The Financial Services. Finally, Chapter X: The Quest for Control touched on the changing board of directors and how in the 1980s, it accepted the inevitability of bumiputra equity participation, plus in the 1990s after the public listing, the pressures of takeover attempts.

There are also six appendices in the book of which the most interesting ones should be Appendix Five which touched on the bank's two logos and Appendix Six which was a reminiscence by an old staff of the bank before his retirement in 1980. In Appendix Seven, I attempted to reconstruct a list of the bank staff from 1935 till 2000. I have to admit that despite having more than 3,000 names here, I have missed out on many, many others because of incomplete records. It's regrettable, of course, but regardless of whether or not a name appeared here, this book is dedicated to them, all of them who had contributed to the success of Ban Hin Lee Bank.

It's a mighty world

Side 1: It's a mighty world, I've been told, Reminiscing, Hush hush Mamie, Camphorated oil, Bull jine run 

Side 2: Come a lady's dream, Sweet potatoes, Chevrolet, Love proved false, One man's hands, Got my mind on freedom

---------------------------------------------------

NPR, or National Public Radio in the United States, once ranked this album, It's a Mighty World, by folk singer Odetta Holmes as number 41 is its list of the 150 greatest albums made by women. This studio album was recorded in 1964.In describing this album, Michele Myers of the KEXP-FM radio station wrote:

During her fifty-year career as an American folk icon, Odetta Holmes was a singer, guitarist, actress and activist who inspired generations of folk, blues and rock musicians. Exuding intelligence, outrage and hope, the 1964 album It's a Mighty World showcases Odetta as a folk original. Fans of Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and (most notably) Bob Dylan may be shocked to hear guitar and vocal arrangements usually credited to those musicians on this record in their original form. In context of her struggles as an African-American woman in a brutally oppressed time, Odetta believed in free will. The might of her truth and persistence, particularly on this album, is undeniable. On it, Odetta leads the listener through powerful melodic histories of the oppressed, including old spirituals, prison camp and slavery songs, transforming them into anthems of liberation. Odetta said she read in her elementary school books that slaves were "happy and singing," so when she discovered folk music, her intention was to rewrite false and oppressive history. The words of folk music helped to voice her and others' hatred of oppression, and she once said: "It got to a point that doing the music actually healed me." Many of what she called her "interpretations" (Odetta did not often compose) became part of the soundtrack for the Civil Rights movement of the '60s, inspiring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to name Odetta the "Queen of American folk music." Yet another mark of Odetta's genius is that most of these recordings still feel relevant, thanks to her unique guitar work and her vast vocal range, which soars through a variety of styles from field calls to operatic to bluesy. 

The liner notes of this album carried quotes from many sources that had written about Odetta previously. The New York Times said of Odetta at the Newport Folk Festival, "The focus of the first concert was on Odetta whose mahogany hued sonorous voice offered what this listener felt was the crowning performance of the weekend." The New York Herald Tribune said, "She makes her words understood - and, there is thunder to their meaning and depth and power and punch." Variety magazine said, "....as direct and powerful as a blow torch, as deep and resonant as an old master viol....Odetta goes off to thunderous applause." And the Miami Herald wrote, "She stepped back an extra foot from the microphone and turned loose her two octave voice in full power. It left the audience stunned."

If you ask me, the only modern equivalent I can think of which comes close to Odetta's voice is that of Tracy Chapman singing Talkin' Bout a Revolution or Baby Can I Hold You from her seminal self-titled album of 1988.