Chess possessions

On occasions over the past few weeks, I've been going through the storeroom and cupboard to take stock of my chess possessions collected since my schooldays. It's going to be a long haul, this process. But at least, I've now taken stock of my stack of the Batsford chess books...and there are quite a lot of them. Not yet even considering the other chess books too. 

There is also an incomplete pile of chess magazines, newsletters and bulletins that I've removed from the cupboard. All stacked up on the floor. I have better do something to them fast before my wife starts complaining about the mess. 😅 The question is what am I going to do with the books and magazines eventually? 

Match of the century, 1970

An absolute blast from the past: a picture posted by the Association Internationale des Echecs Francophones (AIDEF) on their facebook page. The picture was taken during the so-called Match of the Century, played in Belgrade of the old Yugoslavia in 1970. It was quite remarkable that there were six former or reigning world champions featured in this picture, possibly the only time that so many had congregated at any one time. 

I can't figure out who was that seated on the far left but he was no world champion. Moments earlier, the chair was empty and he was standing behind it. Could be that he was asked to occupy the seat for the photograph. But the others on their chairs were the world champions who were, from left, Tigran Petrosian, Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky (who was then the world champion in 1970), Max Euwe and Vasily Smyslov. So who was the sixth world champion in the picture? He was not seated but he was standing in the background. But I shall get to him later. 

Among those standing were, from left, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Leonid Stein, (unknown), David Bronstein, Bozidar Kazic (side profile), Borislav Ivkov, Samuel Reshevsky, Mark Taimanov (?), Viktor Korchnoi, Bent Larsen, former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik (looking sideways), Paul Keres, Svetozar Gligoric (partially hidden), Lev Polugaevsky, Miguel Najdorf, Milan Matulovic, Effim Geller and Fridrich Olafsson. Rather inconceivable why they couldn't get Botvinnik into that chair on the far left.

Oh yes, the elephant in the room was missing. Bobby Fischer also took part in this Match of the Century, but he was missing in this picture. 

Decision-making

There is an endless debate in one of my Whatsapp chat groups comparing the Perodua Ativa and the Proton X50 which brings to my mind an incident in Hongkong decades ago. I can't remember when exactly, could be in the early 1990s but it was a team chess event there and the Penang Chess Association had sent a team there. 

One of my team-mates was Ng Weng Kong and we were walking around in Kowloon's Nathan Road. Inevitably, we came across a Haagen Daas outlet. At that time, this particular brand of ice cream wasn't available in Penang yet. We had a debate for quite some time whether or not to buy the ice cream. We walked up and down the store front and finally, we decided, what the heck, let's enjoy ourselves. 

Later, we had a good laugh over our indecision and the time we took to finally make the decision. A wealthy man wouldn't think twice about going into the shop to buy his ice-cream. It's only the ordinary man-in-the-street, where every penny counts in his life, who would think and re-think carefully about spending good money needlessly. Weng Kong turned out to be one of my closest non-Old Free friends, chess or otherwise.

Philip and Penang Free School

Some people may still remember the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Penang in 1972. When they arrived on board the Britannia at Swettenham Pier on 8 March, they were whisked away to visit the Supreme Court building and the newly constructed Dewan Sri Pinang. During their brief 11-hour stay in Penang, the royal couple were also taken to Penang Hill, Batu Ferringhi and the Botanic Gardens. I remember being one of the people lining Dato Kramat Road to try and get a glimpse of the famous couple but the motorcade went by so fast. I had hoped that I had seen them, but maybe not!

What is lesser known is that on 31 October 1956, Philip had made an even shorter, six hour-long whirlwind visit of Penang as part of his tour of the Commonwealth countries in the Far East, including Australia and New Zealand. In this trip, he was not accompanied by his wife. He was supposed to visit Singapore but that part of his itinerary was cancelled following some riots there earlier. However, his visit to Malaya proceeded as scheduled and thereby, chalked up a milestone in the history of Penang Free School. 

In the Penang Free School Magazine of 1957, it was written that a police escort rumbled into the school grounds with Philip's Rolls Royce and a few other cars following hard on their heels. Philip, Sir Donald MacGillivray (the British High Commissioner) and RP Bingham (the Resident Commissioner in Penang) together with some unobtrusive plain clothes men emerged from the cars. To everyone's warm approbation, Philip was a most cheerful personality, although attired in sombre blue.

The headmaster then was JE Tod. After their arrival was recorded in the Distinguished Visitors Book, they proceeded to the school field where Philip planted a casuarina sapling near the flagstaff. He then walked up to the assembled masters and had a brief chat with them. As he was leaving the school field, the School Captain led the School in three rousing cheers. 

The school magazine added: "Turning back, the Duke waved and then noticed some English ladies and gentlemen who were standing near the parapet of the first floor of the school building. Thereupon, the Prince smiled at them and upon his waving his hand again, a lady fell off her chair." 

So what has happened to this casuarina sapling? Unfortunately, it did not survive and there is no longer any trace of it on the school field. In the meantime, below are some illustrations of Philip's visit to the school. (Note: This story originally appeared in my other blog, https://activeknights.blogspot.com but by some inexplicable reason, facebook had flagged it as inappropriate and not allowed it on their platform.)

(Source: The Straits Times of 1 November 1956.)

NEW! (Source: Anonymous Whatsapp image)

(Sources: Penang Free School Archives and Let the Aisles Proclaim)

(Source: Private collection of David Hwang Hong Shi, a former member of the teaching staff at Penang Free School)

(Source: Private collection of David Hwang Hong Shi, a former member of the teaching staff at Penang Free School)

(Source: Private collection of David Hwang Hong Shi, a former member of the teaching staff at Penang Free School)
  

Faker, masquerader

What I can say at this point of time is that yesterday, a faker was trying to pass himself off as me on social media. This person had created a phony instagram account using my name and profile picture. Luckily, he couldn't take over my username and had to use another. Anyone who did not know better would have thought that this fake account belonged to me.

At about 11.30pm last night, I was alerted by my nephew to ask whether I had tried to contact him on instagram. He even sent me a screenshot. Though half asleep, I replied that no, I had not posted anything to him on this social media platform. 

By now, I was awake and my mind was whirring. My presence on social media was being compromised. Immediately, I sent a message to my friends and relatives on whatsapp and facebook to warn them against accepting any message from this spurious account. 

In the morning, I reported the incident to instagram, asking them to block and remove that fake account. This evening though, another of my facebook friends in the Philippines told me that she had also been contacted through this spurious instagram account, but having been warned by me, she had ignored the message. 

This is not the first time that either my wife or I have found ourselves in this situation. Many years ago, someone had tried to clone a facebook account with my wife's name. That fool, however, had chosen to use a war-time Germany-related picture as the profile picture. Once I had reported the incident, facebook immediately removed that fake account.

Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 4

I've been spending the past week staring in awe at the printer's press proof copy of my forthcoming book, Ten Thousand Prosperities, looking through every page and every illustration that're going to appear in the book. Except for some of the pictures which are of some sub-standard quality, the rest of the book is good to go! Why they are sub-standard is because these images were reproduced from previously printed material like newsletters, books and postcards. At best, the reproductions can only be as good as the sources they were taken from. I would have used the originals if I could get them, but it was not possible. So tomorrow, I'm returning all these press proofs and after the layout artist makes the finishing touches to the pages, I'm hoping for the printing to begin soon. 👍👍

Finished with Cheng Beng

Well! Finally, I've finished my obligations for this year's Cheng Beng worship two days ago. By a coincidence, the exact day for Cheng Beng, the tomb sweeping festival, fell on Sunday, the fourth of April this year, and thereby allowed my son to come back in the morning to participate in the worship. Nothing elaborate in our household, actually, because all we prepared for the worship was to buy several types of fruits and cakes. Despite not going to the cemeteries and temples this year owing to the coronavirus pandemic, there was a bit more variety purchased. The worship table was full. 

But although my family did not go to the Batu Lanchang and Wat Pimbang On cemeteries this year, we did arrange for the tomb sweepers to clean up the graves of my two pairs of paternal and maternal grandparents. Guess that was the least I could do for them. As for my parents and aunt, their ashes are in the Batu Gantong columbarium. We don't normally go there and instead, we would always remember them at the Triple Wisdom temple where their memorial tablet is located. Since last year though, the temple is also closed to visitors due to the virus.

In the non-cultural sense, Cheng Beng marks the start of the Chinese seventh solar term, incidentally called Cheng Beng (清明). 

There are altogether 24 solar terms which are determined by the positions of the earth in the ecliptic, that is, the orbit of the earth around the sun. The start of each solar term corresponds to a certain position of the sun every time it moves 15 degrees on the ecliptic. According to the Chinese luni-solar calendar, the sun would have crossed the celestial 15˚ longitudinal line on the ecliptic on the fourth of April this year. I've written about this before, which can be read here, 

First Asian grandmaster chess circuit, 1978

From my personal archives, I pulled out the daily tournament bulletins for the fourth leg of the first Asian grandmaster chess circuit which was played in Penang in June 1978. After the first Asian team chess championship in 1974, this was the second international-level tournament that the Penang Chess Association had hosted on behalf of the Malaysian Chess Federation.

The Asian grandmaster chess circuit was the brainchild of Florencio Campomanes who was then the Deputy President of the World Chess Federation, FIDE. He wanted to organise a chess circuit to allow for players in the FIDE Zones 9 and 10 to qualify for their grandmaster norms. At that time in the 1970s, there were hardly any grandmaster from an Asian country. But Eugene Torre was Asia's first chess grandmaster, and his participation anywhere would be greeted with a lot of pride and enthusiasm.

There were to be at least six legs in the 1978 chess circuit when proposed. As the initiator, Campomanes had arranged for Baguio City to host the first leg in March. The circuit then moved to Wellington for the second leg in April and then to Jakarta in May for the third leg. Campomanes had a good friend in Tan Chin Nam and the latter agreed to host the fourth leg with Penang asked to do the honours again. From Penang, the circuit moved to Tiruchy in India for the fifth leg in August. Tehran hosted the sixth and final leg possibly in September. It was a turbulent time in Iran because months later, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, had been shoved off his Peacock Throne and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established to replace the Persian monarchy.

Behind the scene, the Malaysian Chess Federation had an uphill task to find three grandmasters to play in the Penang tournament. Without three grandmasters, the minimum required under the FIDE regulations, it would not be possible for anyone to qualify for a grandmaster norm. Torre was a certainty to play, Campomanes had assured the MCF, but Miguel Quinteros the Argentine grandmaster could no longer continue playing in Asia. 

Luckily, Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (or to use his full name, Count Albéric Joseph Rodolphe Marie Robert Ghislain O'Kelly de Galway - he was a Count, descended from nobility), a grandmaster from Belgium, was found as a substitute for Quinteros. There was an expectation that Rosendo Balinas Jr of the Philippines could play as the third grandmaster but it was not to be and a last-minute replacement could not be secured. In the end, the Penang leg proceeded as planned but it could no longer be a grandmaster event despite being billed as one. The players, especially those grandmaster aspirants, understood the situation. It qualified only as a Category Three international master event with the International Master norm set at a 70 percent score, or 10½ points.

There was also the problem of finding a final player to turn this into a 16-player tournament. The international master Dr Max Wotulo was also a last-minute replacement for someone - I can't remember who - and it was by good luck that he agreed to play. As a member of the teaching staff at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, he was already based here. Thus, it became only a matter of him obtaining leave from his university to play in Penang. Nevertheless, he had to postpone his first three games of the tournament while waiting for the clearance from his employer. His postponed games were played later during the rest days.

Although the venue was touted to be the Dewan Sri Pinang, the tournament was not played in the auditorium. It stood to reason, of course, because unlike the first Asian team championship with 40 players and countless officials, including from FIDE who had turned up for the Jubilee celebrations, this was a more low-key event. The players were only representing themselves and nobody else; they were playing for individual honours and not that of their country. Thus, the three meeting rooms on the lower ground floor, which had collapsible walls to open up the space for the tournament was used. Spectators were not allowed into the playing hall, if I remember correctly, and the organisers had placed demonstration boards outside the hall to display the top games. Sad to say, there were hardly any visitors in those early days of chess in the country and the boards were dismantled after a few days into the tournament.

For the record, Fang Ewe Churh was the chief arbiter for this tournament, He was then the president of the Penang Chess Association and the first vice-president of the Malaysian Chess Federation. The two arbiters were Gong Wooi Mau and Laurence How, while Tan Kai Ming was appointed as the chief tournament director with Cheah Hooi Seng, Joseph M Doss and Fong Foo Khun as his deputies.

In the background, I was placed in charge of the daily bulletins. Fong Foo Khun, Lam Leong Yew and Ooi Gim Ewe were in my team and together, we prepared the bulletins for printing every day. Those were the days before chess database programs even existed. In fact, those were the days even before computers were seen in any home or office. So, the bulletins were all typed up on stencils and then cyclostyled. The typing introduced lots of errors into the game scores but that was the way it was.

As the chairman of the bulletin board, I was obliged to write something at the end of the event for inclusion into the bound copy. Looking back at my comments, they gave a pretty good insight into the tournament proceedings. I'm reproducing them here, with a few minor changes:

The Malaysian leg of the first Asian grandmaster chess circuit has come and gone. While this leg of the circuit could not be considered for a grandmaster norm because of the non-availability of a third grandmaster, it nevertheless did not lack in excitement.

The fight for top honours was as keen as ever and indeed, the results were not certain until the end of the very last round. Iranian international master Mehrshad Sharif drew his game with New Zealander Craig Laird and left it to Filipino grandmaster Eugene Torre to catch up with a win over Indonesian Ardiansyah in the last round. The Philippines' Rico Mascarinas, fresh from obtaining his second international master norm in the third leg in Jakarta the month before, caught up with the two leaders with a fine win over Belgian grandmaster Alberic O'Kelly.

For Iranian Kamran Shirazi who joined the trio at the top, this tournament gave him cause for a double celebration. Apart from receiving US$712.50 as prize money, Shirazi obtained his first international Master norm with a win over Indonesian Arovah Bachtiar.

The tournament had its share of critical moments. Shirazi nearly faltered near the finishing post when he came down with food poisoning three rounds from the end. He had to postpone his game with Indian International Master Manuel Aaron, which he eventually won, but suffered an ignominious loss to Malaysian Tan Bian Huat in the penultimate round as he pressed his position too hard for his much-needed half point for the norm. But all's well that ends well.

Indonesian international master Max Wotulo gave rise to some initial concern when his first two games were postponed but he did eventually arrive from Kuala Lumpur to play. Torre struck a bad patch halfway through the tournament when he could only draw his games and even suffered a defeat against Wotulo. The reason did not become known until later when  it was learnt that his father had passed away in the Philippines at about the same time.

Our local players finished creditably but nevertheless predictably also. Only Jimmy Liew managed to win two games: against international masters Wotulo and New Zealander Murray Chandler, while Christi Hon achieved a win against Craig Laird, and Tan Bian Huat defended well against Shirazi's suicidal attack. They have played against other FIDE rated players, which is good. Hon already has a FIDE rating and if Tan and Liew continued to play in other international events Malaysia will soon have its share of rated players.

So after Penang, where else? Hopefully, we will hear more of them in the next leg of the first Asian grandmaster chess circuit at Tiruchy, India in August.

(An update: The fifth leg in Tiruchy was actually held in September, which meant that the sixth leg in Tehran was played much later. Despite Iran being in turmoil, Sharif said that the sixth leg was held. But he could not remember when.)

Canggih chess

I had forgotten all about this picture, which I had posted to facebook 10 years ago, until it was shared again recently by Mok Tze Meng. Quite rightly, it has stirred up a lot of old memories within the Penang chess circle. Among a small group of chess friends, they have been asking when this picture was taken and what was the occasion. 

Those in the picture were, from left, Wong Zi Jing, Ronnie Lim Chuin Hoong, Mok the winner, Dr Toh Kin Woon who was partially hidden behind Mok, an unusually very smartly dressed Agus Salim and a lady known as Rohani bt Ismail, representing one of the sponsors. 

Zi Jing now works in Texas A&M University while Mok coaches chess full-time to kids. Ronnie is a radiologist in Penang Hospital. Dr Toh is a retired Penang state executive councillor and was once the President of the Penang Chess Association. Agus Salim was once the scourge of chess players in the Klang Valley. He is now deceased.

But finally, it has been confirmed that this was the Canggih international open chess championship that was held in 1997 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Penang Chess Association. I remember this event well because I was the one negotiating for the venue from Wah Seong Trading (M) Sdn Bhd and sponsorship from KUB Tekstil Sdn Bhd which still manufactures school uniforms under the Canggih brand today.

Anyway, I did make a brief report about this tournament in my then fortnightly column in The Star on 02 January 1998. Just managed to dig it out from my online archives and I'd like to repeat it here, with some minor alterations, of course!

Mok Tze Meng outpaced a field of 71 players to win the first prize of RM3,000 at the PCA Canggih international open chess championship in Penang last week on 28 Dec 1997. He shrugged off an early second-round loss to score 7.5 points from nine games. In second place was Agus Salim who obtained seven points and won RM2,000.

Five players finished the tournament with 6.5 points each: Lim Chuin Hoong winning RM1,000, Wong Ji Zing RM800, international master Jimmy Liew RM600, Mak Weng Yee RM400 and Ismail Ahmad RM300. The eighth prize of RM200 went to Julian Navaratnam who was the best scorer among a group of players with six points.

The prizes for the five best Penang players went to Tan Eng Seong, Wong Chee Chung, Chuah Heng Meng, Khor Shihong and Khor Bean Hwa. Woman Fide master Angela Khegay of Uzbekistan and Lim Jean Nie won the prizes for the two best woman players, while the under-18 prizes went to Lim Yee Weng and Ng Tze Han. Teng Wei Khoon and Deon Moh won the under-15 prizes.

Among the 71 participants were three players from Indonesia, two from Brunei, and one each from Uzbekistan, the Netherlands, India and the Philippines.

The prizes were given away by Penang state executive councillor Dr Toh Kin Woon who is also the president of the Penang Chess Association, Dr Choong Sim Poey who is a former president of the association and Puan Rohani Ismail, the business manager of sponsor KUB Tekstils Sdn Bhd.

KUB Tekstils, manufacturer of the Canggih brand of garment wear that includes tracksuits and a complete range of school uniforms and accessories, had sponsored RM20,000 towards the running of the four-day event which was held at the MarVista Resort in Batu Ferringhi, Penang from Dec 25 to 28.

The other sponsors of the event were DMV Sdn Bhd, WWT Communications Sdn Bhd and Star Publications (M) Bhd. 

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

I was going through my collection of books and rediscovered some nine books by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. I had been reading his books on and off for about 10 years, starting with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich around 1975. I got to know of Solzhenitsyn after he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974. It was big news in those days and it started my interest in Soviet literature and story books. The last Solzhenitsyn book I bought was The Gulag Archipelago Volume Two. I never got round to reading the third volume of Gulag because by then, I was already well immersed into my career and at the same time, trying to settle down into a family life.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich This crisp, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Krushchev himself, during the Russian thaw, is said to have authorised the publication of this spare, stark description of life in a Siberian labour camp. (Summary on back cover)

For the Good of the Cause Set in a new provincial school, this is a scathing indictment of the victimisation of ordinary, decent people by Soviet careerist bureaucrats. Solzhenitsyn presents the conflicts between right and wrong, between the freedom of the individual and the harshness of the system with absolute sincerity and conviction. (Summary on back cover)

The First Circle It is the tome of this huge book that is so marvellously new. It has no villians in it - which many people may think shows incredible tolerance. It shows something else, really - that when the world is reduced to guiltless criminals, freaks, narks, nuts and placemen, a loud laugh is more crushing than a howl of agony. (Nigel Dennis, Sunday Telegraph)

Cancer Ward Solzhenitsyn, like Oleg Kostoglotov, the central character of this novel, went in the mid-1950s from concentration camp to cancer ward and later recovered. The British publication of Cancer Ward in 1968 confirmed him as Russia's greatest living novelist although it has never been openly published in the Soviet Union. (Summary on back cover)

The Love Girl and the Innocent Drawing on his personal experience, the Nobel Prize-winning author sets this play in a Stalinist slave camp in 1945. His vivid dramatisation creates a terrifying picture of the despair and degradation suffered under a merciless camp regime. (Summary on back cover)

August 1914 Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 is what it promised to be - a classic of contemporary world literature... We can only marvel at the sweep and power of this epic work written in isolation by a man of unbreakable spirit (John Barkham, New York Post)

We Never Make Mistakes brings together Solzhenitsyn's two most famous novellas, Incident at Krechetovka Station and Matryona's House, both of which were first published in the prestigious Russian literary magazine, Novy Mir, in 1963. Both stories form part of the larger canvas in which Solzhenitsyn describes the havoc brought on human dignity by Stalin's bureaucratic and secret police. The title of the book is taken from the concluding remark of a NKVD investigator in this story. (Summary on back cover)

The Gulag Archipelago is a key work unparalleled in Russian or any other national literature. Solzhenitsyn has created it from his own experience of imprisonment and forced labour, and from that of numerous victims of Stalin's Terror and of Soviet prisons and labour camps. The result is a unique and startling national epic that presents the suppressed history of a vicious epoch and clearly documents the system that deformed or destroyed the lives of millions. (Summary on back cover)

The Gulag Archipelago Volume 2 With this publication, Solzhenitsyn's staggering achievement becomes more apparent: he has created an enduring and brilliant literary monument to the victims of one of the most monstrous crimes against humanity ever committed and the most complete account of the history, function and scope of the concentration camp system yet written. (Summary on back cover)

 

No Cheng Beng again

One of the trustees of the Swee Cheok Tong Quah Kongsi also sits on the board of the United Hokkien Cemeteries in Penang. This United Hokkien Cemeteries is just one of 18 associations that owns vast areas of cemetery land strewn around the mainland and island, but they are possibly the biggest in Penang. 

When word went around last week that the Federal Government had relaxed the Movement Control Order regulations for four weeks to enable the Chinese community to carry out their Cheng Beng obligations - with certain strict procedures to be observed - I had some doubts about its practicality. How would this news affect people like me who are fearful of too many people around us ?  

Thankfully, I don't have to visit the columbarium at Batu Gantong where my parents' urns are located. Whenever I step inside the building, I feel so stifled. Maybe I'm claustrophobic. But I still have my grandparents' graves in Batu Lanchang and the Wat Pimbang On in Green Lane, which I don't mind going at all. However, I wouldn't want to visit these cemeteries if the crowd control was lax or non-existent. And I don't see how the United Hokkien Cemeteries and the Siamese temple committee could effectively control the people visiting their respective cemeteries.

My fellow trustee told me that the United Chinese Charitable Cemeteries Board, the umbrella body of the 18 associations, would be meeting to discuss the best way forward in this matter. True enough, this Board met yesterday and they made a quite unprecedented announcement that for the second year running, the cemeteries under their care would remain closed for the full duration of the Cheng Beng period. Read the report in The Star newspaper here.

Traditionally this would mean from 26 March until 13 April this year as the actual Cheng Beng day fall on 4 April, but I suppose the period even the cemeteries will remain closed will be from 21 March till 17 April as relaxed by the government.

For me, this shall be the second time then that I shall have to carry out my Cheng Beng worship at home. There won't even be an opportunity to spruce up the graves: clearing them of the over-grown weeds although I've already commissioned two persons to clean them up for me. For this year, just pray at home again.

Meanwhile, I suppose people can still go to the temples or clan associations to pay their respects at the memorial tablets of their ancestors. But it is best to check up with the respective temples or clan associations, such as the Than Hsiang Temple in Bayan Baru which will allow prayers by proxy. But many others will not share the same opinion and they may still not want to open their doors to visitors, especially during this Cheng Beng period.

Old George Town

A few days ago, this image of old George Town in the 1920s or 1930s popped up on my facebook feed. The main thoroughfare in the image was that of Downing Street. The domed building belonged to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank before it was demolished after the Second World War. Indeed, both the buildings on the left have been demolished too to make way for the Bangunan Tuanku Syed Putra which opened in 1962. On the right, the single-storey building and the building in the foreground have disappeared too and an open-space carpark occupies the space. But the building in the background on Beach Street still stands today. It used to be occupied by The Chartered Bank but no more, the bank (now Standard Chartered Bank) having moved further up Beach Street to new premises. 

The picture rather intrigued me and made me scour the Internet for some old images of London and came upon this one of Piccadilly Circus looking down into Regent Street in the 1920s. It's amazing how much parts of old George Town had looked like London in the past, what with similar vintage cars moving on the streets.

Finally, I's like to compare the first image with a picture of today's George Town. This picture below was taken from Google Streetview, practically from the same viewpoint but a little elevated. The building on the left is the Bangunan Tuanku Syed Putra.

Crescent moon

Tonight is already the fifth day of the second Chinese lunar month. The moon is still a thin-enough crescent, about 15 percent illuminated, but it is slowly but surely waxing.

(Note: Just because 85 percent of the moon is not illuminated does not mean that it is not there!)

Getting an award

It's been a week since I was at the Penang Institute grounds to celebrate the 142nd anniversary of the birthday of Dr Wu Lien-Teh on 10 March 2021. But that date had a bigger significance for me; a greater reason to celebrate, and all thanks to the good doctor and the society which was formed in January 2013 to honour him, the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society.

Early last year, the secretary-general of the Society had submitted my name - together with Clement Liang who is the Society's treasurer - to the state government for a Governor's annual award. For a long time, no news was received from the government, partly also due to the coronavirus pandemic that can forced the country into various stages of a lockdown. The Society had also submitted the name of the president, Anwar Fazal, to receive a Dato' Seri title from the state government but for that sort of high-level award, a recommendation from someone who was already a Dato' Seri was also required. 

Then in November last year, I received an official notification that I would be awarded a Pingat Kelakuan Terpuji (PKT) and was asked to collect the medal on the 19th of January this year. But no, I won't be receiving it directly from the Governor. Because of the pandemic, he won't be there to pin the medal on me or any of the recipients. 

Anyway, about 10 day before this date, someone called from the state government to inform me that the ceremony was postponed and would be held on the ninth of February. The new date was fine with me although it was clearly too close to Chinese New Year.

Penang was then badly affected by a second surge of coronavirus infections and was placed under another lockdown. And so, I was informed again by the state government of yet another postponement. Finally after weeks of delay after delay, another official notification came in early March to say that the award ceremony would now be held on the 10th of March. I breathed deeply on seeing this date. Significantly, of course, there was never a more appropriate date than this to receive an award that had been recommended by the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society itself. So I've to thank the Society again for the nomination.

Incidentally, this PKT award comes 25 years since I was given a Pingat Jasa Kebaktian (PJK) award by the state government in 1995 for my contributions to chess in Penang. That recommendation had come from the Penang Chess Association when Dr Choong Sim Poey was still the president. As I had not expected to receive another award since then, this PKT comes with a lot of personal satisfaction indeed. Perhaps I shall have to wait another 25 years before a third award can come my way. 😁

Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 3

Since my last update on this book project more than a month ago, many things have been going on in the background. Comparing the laid-out text against my edited draft has been one of them and I have subjected this to two full rounds of checking. It has been a tedious and most exhausting task. No doubt, there'll surely be one or two mistakes that are bound to be detected before the book goes out to the printers. Together with the checking, there have also been some minor edits made. 

My publisher and editor are also going through the book with a fine toothcomb. My editor, especially, has the unenviable task of preparing the Index section of the book. I had thought this would be easy but it isn't. Firstly, you have to extract all the possible words for the Index and then decide whether each one would be relevant for inclusion. After that, fill in the page numbers where the word appears in the book. Again, this is another meticulous task. 

But certainly, we are marching right towards the end of the tunnel. We shall get there soon. Final piece of the jigsaw: awaiting the design of the book cover from New York and hopefully, by the end of the week, the layout artist will be able to piece everything together.

Two giants of science

Interestingly, the 14th of March marks the anniversaries of both the birth of Albert Einstein in 1879 and the death of Stephen Hawking in 2018. Today is also recognised as Pi Day in honour of π, that irrational number with no end and no permanent repeatable sequence, which during schooldays was always approximated to the fraction 22/7.

Wu Lien-Teh birthday anniversary activities

On the tenth of March every year, the Dr Wu Lien Teh Society would organise some activity or function to mark the anniversary of this renown gentleman's birthday. For 2021, the 142nd anniversary of his birth, we decided a few weeks ago to have a tea gathering on the grounds of the Penang Institute where there is a bust of Wu Lien-Teh. 

We were planning a soft launch of the second reprint of his auto-biography, Plague Fighter, which is now out-of-stock in the bookshops. In the first reprint several years ago, 1,000 copies were printed but we had not anticipated the immense interest shown in this book. Obviously, the Covid-19 pandemic had added to the demand because of the N95 face mask. There were also plans to video-tape the committee members reading short excerpts from this book which would then be uploaded to the website. My contribution was to read from a newspaper report on his death in 1960.

Then on Tuesday, the Society's president, Anwar Fazal, informed us that Salma Khoo would be offering us a herbal plant to remember Wu Lien-Teh's work on traditional medicine. This would be planted near the bust at Penang Institute. With these going on, these were already quite a lot of activities lined up for the gathering.

We awoke on the 10th morning to a lot of excitement. People who had logged into the Google homepage were intrigued to see a doodle of Wu Lien-Teh on the Google search page. Google's explanation of this doodle: 

Today's Doodle celebrates the 142nd birthday of Chinese-Malaysian epidemiologist Dr Wu Lien-teh, who invented a surgical face covering that is widely considered the precursor to the N95 mask.

Born into a family of Chinese immigrants in Penang, Malaya (modern-day Malaysia) on this day in 1879, Wu went on to become the first student of Chinese descent to earn his MD from Cambridge University. Following his doctoral studies, he accepted a position as the vice director for China's Imperial Army Medical College in 1908. When an unknown epidemic afflicted north-western China in 1910, the Chinese government appointed Wu to investigate the disease, which he identified as the highly contagious pneumonic plague that spread from human to human through respiratory transmission. 

To combat the disease, Wu designed and produced a special surgical mask with cotton and gauze, adding several layers of cloth to filter inhalations. He advised people to wear his newly invented mask and worked with government officials to establish quarantine stations and hospitals, restrict travel, and apply progressive sterilization techniques; his leadership contributed greatly to the end of the pandemic (known as the Manchurian plague) by April 1911—within four months of being tasked with controlling its spread.

In 1915, Wu founded the Chinese Medical Association, the country’s largest and oldest non-governmental medical organization. In 1935, he was the first Malaysian—and the first person of Chinese descent–nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work to control the pneumonic plague. A devoted advocate and practitioner of medical advancement, Wu’s efforts not only changed public health in China but that of the entire world. 

Happy birthday to the man behind the mask, Dr. Wu Lien-teh! 

By mid-morning, the doodle had created a lot of buzz in the country. Suddenly, people wanted to know more about Wu Lien-Teh. We were getting a bit flustered by the attention created by this doodle, not that we minded. But something else was happening in Penang that we were unaware of. 

According to the grapevine, several news media began contacting the Chief Minister's Office to ask what the state government was doing to commemorate Wu Lien-Teh's birthday. I heard that the Chief Minister, Chow Kon Yeow, was caught by surprise. He had little idea of the significance of this date and was unprepared for it. In a half-panic, his Office contacted the Penang Institute to find out more and was told, "We have the solution. Please come to the tea gathering at the Penang Institute this afternoon at 4.30pm to find out more. And that was why when my wife and I turned up at the Penang Institute at about 4.45pm yesterday, we were bemused to see the Chief Minister there together with lots of media people covering the event.

Among them was a television crew from Astro Awani. Meanwhile, the Astro AEC channel also wanted to conduct an interview with the Society through Zoom. So suddenly, they had a stroke of luck as the Chief Minister himself could be interviewed on the very same topic of Wu Lien-Teh and at the same time, witness him doing the soft launch for the book's reprint. 

I shall now take the liberty to share a summary report by the Secretary-General of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society, Dr Hor Chee Peng, regarding the activities held yesterday at the Penang Institute.

Today marks a special day for us to celebrate the iconic legend, Dr Wu Lien-Teh, the internationally acclaimed plague fighter in China and a visionary public health physician standing up for social justice and community development. His life story and heroic achievements have remained as an inspiration and set the standard for generations of doctors to come.

It has been more than a year since the Covid-19 outbreak started in Wuhan and became the pandemic affecting every one of us in unprecedented scale. Dr Wu left a legacy in his initiative approach in containing the plague epidemic from strict isolation policy, movement control practices and orders, disinfection, and the historic mass cremation in the history of China, through his tough fights with authority for the community. 

We are celebrating his birthday, reflecting from his life journey and learning from his legacy, not only as a visionary, courageous public health physician, but a highly intellectual and wise person which has much to offer to the society ranging from anti-racism, anti-opium to advocating primary education for girls back then.

There were series of activities the Society has conducted today:

(a) A small tea party at the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Garden in Penang Institute with his bust donated from University of Harbin, China. A few of us were present physically, of course, all masked up with good physical distancing. We were honoured with a surprise visit from our honourable Chief Minister of Penang, Mr Chow Kon Yeow. His presence acknowledged the recognition of the Penang State Government for Dr Wu's extraordinary contributions to the world and his legacy. Besides, we also had Ms Alison Chong, Vice-President of the Society and Great Grandniece of Dr Wu, joining us virtually from Singapore to celebrate this special day.

(b) Planting a herbal plant (Senna alata, or known as the ringworms shrub) in the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Garden to commemorate his passion and works for the traditional and complementary medicine. Dr Wu Lien-Teh co-authored the History of Chinese Medicine with Dr Chimin Wong. The plant was donated by Mdm Salma Khoo, one of the founders of the Society, and our beloved President, Dato’ Seri (Dr.) Anwar Fazal. We planted it with love and look forwards to seeing it being nurtured to blossom in years to come! 

(c) Soft launching of the second reprinting of Dr Wu’s autobiography, Plague Fighter: The Autobiography of a Modern Chinese Physician in 2021 conjunction with his 142nd birthday anniversary in midst of a global fight for the Covid-19 pandemic. The current copy is out of stock. A thousand copies of reprint is in progress!

(d) Launching the book reading session from the autobiography to share the stories and reflections from Dr Wu's life journey. There were several book reading sessions of variable lengths recorded by various committee members of the Society and they will be uploaded from time to time!

Last but not least, the blast of the day was Dr Wu being featured in Google Doodle! Many of our friends and colleagues texted us with words of motivation and filled with joy! It was great to learn that the great-grand-daughters of Dr Wu, namely Dr Shan Woo- Liu and Dr Ling Woo-Liu, worked in partnership with Google for this project. Dr Shan Woo-Liu is also our life member of the Society and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine from Harvard Medical School.

In a single day, Dr Wu received such an enormous attention throughout the world from various media platform locally and internationally - such a long overdue recognition!

These were the activities for today. Stay tuned for more! Do follow our facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/wulientehpg , and website, www.wulientehsociety.org , for more updates!

Finally, here is a link to a video which had been uploaded by Astro AEC to their youtube channel. It's in Mandarin but the message should be clear to everybody watching.

 

142nd birthday

I shall be celebrating Dr Wu Lien-Teh's 142nd birthday this afternoon on the grounds of the Penang Institute in Brown Road, George Town, where a bust of this real Malaysian hero stands.

 

And for good measure, Wu Lien-Teh is featured today on Google Doodle. Anyone visiting the Google homepage will be greeted with this image:

In celebration of his birthday, The Star newspaper wrote this about Wu Lien-Teh:

PETALING JAYA: Google on Wednesday (March 10) paid tribute to Chinese-Malaysian epidemiologist Dr Wu Lien-Teh, who created a surgical face covering widely believed to be the precursor of today's N95 mask. To celebrate his achievements, Google dedicated its Doodle to Dr Wu on the doctor's 142nd birthday.

 More of this story can be read here.

All in one frame

I woke up a bit later than intended this morning and had no time to go hunting for a better place to do some dawn planet gazing than right in front of my house. Hence, the unfortunate electrical pole in the picture. I did walk to the road junction about 50 metres away but the street lights were too glaring. Only the crescent of the waning moon was prominent enough. So back to the front of my house. Stood in the shadow of a tree to adjust myself and there they were: pinpricks of light, lining up roughly in a straight line leading from the moon, namely in order, a dim Saturn, then a bright Jupiter, and followed by an equally dim Mercury. All in the same picture frame. 

The image has been digitally manipulated, of course, to increase the contrast so as to reveal the three planets better but the process has also shown up a lens flare because my aperture size was held fully wide to capture as much of the dim light as possible.

Real news

Back in the old days, the mainstream news media do actually report on real news once in a while (as one of my chess friends would say tongue in cheek). This was the front page of The Star newspaper on 19 October 1978 although for the most part, the news media generally ignored news items on chess. 

In 1978, I was already working in Ban Hin Lee Bank and had left behind my friends from National Echo (previously known as Straits Echo Press). Nevertheless at the end of each day, during the course of the match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, I would drop by the newspaper firm to see the guys in the teleprinter room and pick up the unwanted chess stories from the waste basket. "You can have them," they told me because the sub-editors did not consider the day-by-day chess reports from the news wires (AFP and others) newsworthy enough for print. Not even when Karpov won the match. So I had amassed a big collection of the stories from this match. Only The Star thought it significant enough to report the end of the match on their front page (see below).