Japan, Day 6: The Glico running man

Have you ever taken a random travel photograph and then learning later that the picture was one of some significance? Well, I have. It was one of those rare accidental moments. When I am on holiday, I tend to be busily snapping pictures here and there without realising that right before me could be some iconic landmark.

So it was in Osaka in late October 2018. The time was already past six o'clock. Day was already dark. I stood in Dotonbori and peered across the Ebisu Bridge to the other side. Hordes of people were jampacked crossing the bridge and were either coming or going in the direction of the Shinsaibashi shopping mall. Good opportunity for a picture - or pictures - with my zoom lens, I thought, so I walked across the bridge and simply started shooting with my camera. Finally, satisfied, I backtracked to the Starbucks outlet to join my wife. Until I arrived home, I was totally clueless about what I had photographed.

Until one day, I was reading a story about Osaka's Dotonbori district and this picture popped up, describing it as the Glico running man. I remembered that among my travel photos were two of this very same advertisement horde. This forced me to look further into this Glico signboard and finally, I've come to know that this was a famous landmark in Osaka. It had been at this same spot since 1935. The design is so artificial, so outdated and so out-of-place when compared with the modern advertisements around Dotonbori but somehow, the signboard remains an important feature of the city. Visitors come here on purpose every day to take its picture or use it as a backdrop. As for me, I was contentedly snapping away happily at random without knowledge of the Glico man's significance and yet managed to include a picture of the advertisement among my images at the end of the day.

Class magazines

An old school friend has formed a new chat group on the whatsapp social media platform to bring together as many of our former classmates from Form Four Science One at Penang Free School in 1969. This was the year of exceptional music festivals like Woodstock. This was the year when we were hit by the grave 13th May racial disturbances. Of course, this was also the year when Man stepped on the moon.

Form Four is always a honeymoon for all pupils, regardless of their vintage year. Relieved of the pressures of the first government examinations in our lives, the Lower Certificate of Education in Form Three, we had the freedom to explore all the mysteries of life and the long-lasting bonds of friendship that went with the exploration. In School, we were already seen as among the Seniors. Soon, but not too soon, we would be in Form Five. Even the teachers began viewing us in a different light, no longer from the brattish classes of Lower Secondary. But in truth, we could still be mischievous as ever. Perhaps only in a slightly more matured manner.

A feature of Penang Free School life in the 1960s and 1970s was that when you were in Form Four, you were expected to let your creative juices flow. Each class was expected to come out with a class magazine. Thus, wholeheartedly, the Science and the Arts classes competed with publishing their own class magazines. The tradition had begun in 1958 when the Form Four Science class of that year came out with their magazine called Sputnik. 

Today, Sputnik is the name of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Russians but in 1957, it was the name of a series of three Earth satellites that the Soviet Union had launched into space. The first Sputnik satellite was launched on 4 October 1957. It worked for three weeks and then fell back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958.

Sadly, this tradition has stopped at the Free School. My friends who studied there in the 1990s said that during their time, none of the Form Four classes were publishing their own class magazines. I don't know why exactly this happened or when it happened, but it is sad to lose this tradition. Even the school newsletters stopped publishing a very long time ago. 

But back in 1969, the class kept the tradition going by producing a magazine. I wasn't involved in its production at all except to suggest Silhouette as its name, one of many thrown in by my classmates, but never expecting it to be accepted at all. There were two reasons why I was fond of this name. The first was because Silhouettes was the title of a pop song by Herman's Hermits and I kind of liked their songs at that time. I continued hearing it on the radio. And second, I was somehow obsessed with the -oue- in the word. A string of three consecutive vowels. Wow! There aren't many that I know of. Pirouette. Denouement. Silhouette. Also, manoeuvre, but this last one is a -oeu-. Still a string of three consecutive vowels, though. But I'm digressing.

This image from Lim Siang Jin

The cover was designed by Yeo Guan Khim. He had seen a picture of Rodin's The Thinker and had the inspiration to draw a picture after it. The picture too was accepted by the magazine committee. A few days ago I told Guan Khim that back in 1969, I never knew who Rodin was. Haven't heard of the name, let alone seen any picture of his The Thinker. Why on earth would he draw a picture of a man seated on a toilet bowl?! Of course, I know better now. But we had a good laugh over it.

We weren't the only Form Four class to have a magazine. The fellas in Four Science Two called theirs Triennial as it was their third issue. The Form 4A class called theirs Insight. If I remember correctly, even the Four Science Three might have had a magazine too but if so, I cannot recall the title. Maybe I should add that the Form 2A boys in 1968 had also had their class magazine called Unique. Yes, the tradition of class magazines go back a long way and it is so regrettable that it has ended.

Quicker than expected

When I told a friend that I needed to use a courier service to send some documents to Hungary, he advised me not to use the locally registered delivery services. Unreliable, if you are sending something overseas, he said. He should know better. Ever since he left BHL Bank, he had worked in the logistics sector of the economy. Which shall I use then, I asked. Go for the international courier companies, he said. They are reliable and ensure that your document or package will not get lost. 

Between DHL Express and FedEx, I finally settled on the latter to get my documents to Hungary. I dropped them off at a parcel hub in Bukit Mertajam last Saturday and the staff there said it would be picked up by FedEx on Monday. Fine, I replied, and what about tracking? Would I be able to track it all the way to its destination? I was assured, yes. 

So since Monday, I've been tracking my document on the FedEx website. Also updated the tracking settings so that I would be informed by email regularly of the delivery progress. The website said the document was expected to be delivered by 6pm today. That's not too bad, pick-up by the FedEx driver on Monday and drop-off on Thursday. 

It was fascinating watching the package hop from point to point. From Bayan Lepas international airport on Monday night, it went directly to Guangzhou in China, and on Tuesday morning a long hop across the continents to Europe, arriving at the Charles de Gaulle international airport in Paris, France at night. 

The document lingered there overnight before it headed out again. This time, to Vienna, Austria early Wednesday morning. It was then quickly picked up and delivered to the FedEx office in Budapest, Hungary. Finally, it was delivered to my friend at her apartment at 10.54am, local time on Wednesday itself. Three days, not four! A day ahead of schedule. Very efficient service, indeed. Couldn't ask for more.

Tan Joo Sin

Sad day, indeed, to learn of the demise of one of my old teachers two days ago. Tan Joo Sin had lived to a ripe old age. Close to a century of years, but I am unsure on which side of this landmark age. My previous story about her can be read here. [UPDATE: I've been informed that she was exactly a hundred years old.]

For many years, she was a long-term guest at the E&O Hotel, being waited on round-the-clock by her two Filipino maids. She had moved to the hotel after the death of a sister who was staying with her in their Barrack Road bungalow. The place had become too big for one person alone. Then about three years ago, I learnt that she had moved out from the hotel and had been admitted to the care centre of Island Hospital. Certainly, she was being well taken care of in her twilight years.

Occasionally, I do know of my friends from the school visiting her at the hotel. I have done so myself, twice or thrice. About four years ago, I decided on another visit. It was around Chinese New Year. My wife and I thought it would be good to bring her some festive cheer. That's how much my friends and I cherish our old teachers.

The Reception allowed us to go to her room after receiving the go-ahead from one of her maids. But we did not know that she was sleeping. And her maid did not indicate that she was sleeping. We knocked on the door and was let in. The other maid tried to inform the sleeping Tan Joo Sin that there were guests but we all got a big shock when she, without opening her eyes, simply shouted, "Tidor, Tidor!" 

I don't know who were more embarrassed, my wife and I or the two maids. But it was very clear that we would not be able to meet her. It was a very uneasy moment. At that point, I had to break the tension. Therefore, we decided to leave immediately, not wanting to disturb her further. Unfortunately, that would be the very last time that I saw her. Rest in peace, Tan Joo Sin.

 

A scouting conundrum

When you search on the Internet, the same one-line information of "an experimental Boy Scouts troop formed by the YMCA Penang in 1908" is repeated ad nauseum as if there isn't any new information to add about the Scout movement's beginnings. Even the official Scouts Association of Malaysia doesn't say more. This is simply some data that has been accepted by the Scouting community in Malaysia as an historical fact without need to question or researched further, full stop. Isn't anyone inquisitive enough to try and find out more?

The formation of this experimental Boy Scouts troop didn't happen by accident. In February of 1908, Robert Baden-Powell had called on all boys to enrol themselves as Peace Scouts, a fascinating organisation with secret signs and war songs. (1) 

The Revd George Frederick Pykett (b. 1864, d. 1932), who was already the principal of the Anglo-Chinese School, would have played a huge role in getting this experimental troop together at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Penang, which he had set up in 1905. So it came to pass that Scouting became an activity of the YMCA Penang and it complemented their St John Ambulance First Aid classes. At that time, the YMCA operated from premises in Logan Road which was reputedly vast enough to hold a football field (2). Where in Logan Road was this premises though? I don't know exactly although I've been told that it was close enough to the field at Westlands School when this latter school came into existence in 1935.

Little is known about the early activities of the experimental troop but there is this picture (see below) which showed a group of Boys Scouts at the YMCA in Logan Road. At the back of the picture was an attestation by Goh Guan Ho (b. 1891, d. 1969) before a Justice of the Peace in 1966 that the picture was taken in July 1908. 

Goh Guan Ho was born in Singapore. (3) It is known that he had his early education at the Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore in 1904 where he won a General Progress prize in Standard VII (4) but by 1907, his family had relocated to Penang. While studying at the Anglo-Chinese School in Penang, he had won the first prize in the Penang Chamber of Commerce examination in 1907. That same year, he passed the First Aid examinations held by the St John Ambulance Corps and had then joined the Penang Chinese Volunteer Corps. In 1908 when this Boy Scouts picture was taken, Goh Guan Ho was the Head Boy of the Anglo-Chinese School in Penang. (5) Later in his life, he was President of the Penang Bar Committee and Advisor of the YMCA among many other positions he held publicly. He began his political career in 1954 and was elected to the Municipal Council on an Alliance ticket. Three years later when George Town was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II, he became the first Mayor. However in  1959, he was defeated by the Socialist Front candidate, Tan Phock Kin, in the Federal election. Goh died in November 1969, three years after making his attestation regarding the Boy Scouts picture. (6) You may wonder why I ramble at length about him. Why not? He was the central character in this story; he was also a respected personality in Penang. Besides, there's a road that's named after him: Goh Guan Ho Road is very near to Rifle Range. 

But let's get back to the two images at the end of this story. There's a controversy whether the information on its reverse side is accurate or not. While Goh Guan Ho said that it was taken on the YMCA ground in Logan Road in July 1908. a Scout historian in Singapore by the name of Wan Meng Hao was disputing this.

When this picture first appeared on a blog story by Yeoh Suan Choo in July 2018, she was contacted by Wan Meng Hao two years later who claimed that the "scouting photos were taken in Singapore, not Penang. Sorry but the certifications by the JP in 1966 are wrong. Mr Goh was residing at that time in Singapore, not Penang." 

Wan Meng Hao also made reference to his book, Scouting in Singapore 1910-2000, which he had co-authored with Kevin YL Tan. The book was published by The Singapore Scout Association in 2002. It's an excellent book, by the way. On Page 13 of his book, he had also used this picture by Goh Guan Ho and captioned it as "Possibly the earliest picture of Scouts in Singapore. According to Goh Guan Ho (extreme right), this picture was taken sometime in 1909 at Fort Canning. Goh left Singapore in 1916 to study law and later moved to Penang."

Well, who was right? Goh Guan Ho as mentioned in the book or Goh Guan Ho as written behind the picture? Which Goh Guan Ho is to be believed?

I can't say much about the conflicting statements but I was thinking aloud to my friends yesterday that if this location should be Fort Canning, would it also possibly show up in present-day pictures of the Fort Canning Park? After all, if the Singapore government is very concerned about heritage conservation, they would have tried to conserve all the buildings in the Fort Canning Park today, not tear them down. Somewhere, shouldn't there be a brick building that may look similar to the one in the centre of the picture?  

So I decided to visit the Tripadvisor website. I know that on this website, visitors love to contribute pictures of their travel destinations. I located the link to the Fort Canning Park and found 1,883 pictures there. I must say that I did click through all the pictures but found no picture of buildings remotely close to the arches shown in the picture. I know this is not even sleuthing around Fort Canning personally but this is the best that I can do for the moment. Perhaps Wan Meng Hao can identify the building. It would be very helpful all around. 

Anyway, Yeoh Suan Choo had backed away from pursuing this matter further with a reply saying that she was no authority on Scouting, was not a researcher and so had to leave it to Wan Meng Hao to check out the story.

Well, I have been intrigued by these pictures for three years now - despite not being a Scout myself - and new evidence have been uncovered, thanks to the National Archives of Singapore which had placed some early copies of the Straits Echo newspaper online for people to read. That was why I was writing at length about Goh Guan Ho. In 1908, Goh Guan Ho was no longer residing in Singapore. How could he be, when he was already transferred to the Anglo-Chinese School in Penang to continue with his schooling? Furthermore, he was now the Head Boy, a respected post that placed him apart from the "rest of the boys." That's him standing on the far right in the picture. Next to him was E Roberts who was later to become the assistant general secretary of the Straits Settlements in 1910. 

Goh Guan Ho had also identified the person on the far left as George Pykett. It's a red herring as far as I am concerned. People tend to think that the George Pykett here referred to the Principal of the Anglo-Chinese School. Far from it. This George Pykett was his contemporary, one of two sons of Revd George F Pykett, the other being Dick Pykett who was also in the picture but not identified. Why do I say this? First, seeing how he had addressed the more senior E Roberts with a Mister salutation, Goh Guan Ho wouldn't be so brazen to refer to his old school headmaster simply as George Pykett. He would have added a Reverend to the name. Second, it was known that Revd George F Pykett was not in Penang from March (7) till November 1908. (8) He was on a long furlough leave to the United Kingdom and the United States. And thirdly, I had stared and stared at the picture and concluded that the fellow looked too young to be the 44-year-old Revd Pykett at that time. (Okay, that last part was a bit subjective but it was good enough for me.)  

So let me strongly suggest here on my blog that the picture was indeed of the Logan Road premises of the YMCA Penang in July 1908. The people identified by Goh Guan Ho were all part of a larger group of Penangites - except for E Roberts, Bertie Pedley, Caunter and the two Pykett siblings - and all 28 of them couldn't possibly have travelled together to Singapore just to have this picture taken. It was such a large and extraordinary group of uniformed people that the newspapers of the day in Singapore would surely have caught whiff of their arrival and wrote something about them, but there was none I could find. No, I believe Goh Guan Ho's attestation before the Justice of the Peace to be the definitive word. Unless other evidence surfaces, the Scouting movement in this part of the world would appear to have started in Penang, albeit on an experimental basis, and then spread to other parts of the peninsula, including Singapore, within the next two years. 

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

NOTE: I don't normally mention the sources of my information in my blog stories but somehow, I feel it is pertinent in this case should anyone want to verify them. They are all from the National Archives of Singapore's e-newspaper section. 

(1) Straits Echo, 10 February 1908
(2) Straits Echo, 3 July 1907
(3) Biographical Dictionary of the Chinese in Malaysia, published by Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Malaya
(4) The Straits Times, 23 December 1904
(5) Straits Echo, 28 February 1908
(6) Berita Harian, 18 November 1969
(7) Straits Echo, 24 February 1908
(8) Straits Echo, 27 November 1908

Fake news on EPF nomination

This chain message about the consequences of an EPF nominee dying has been going round and round social media for years and it has resurfaced among my circle of friends in the last week or two. Let me state here that the message is a fake and it has been debunked by no other than the Employees Provident Fund itself two years ago.

The fake message goes like this:

NEW EPF RULES

If ONE (1) of your Nominees in the EPF Nominees list dies, automatically the whole arrangement (EPF Nominees list) is VOID ..

Meaning if, you only put in One (1) name & unfortunately he/she dies before you - automatically EPF will channel your EPF money to trustee of AMANAH RAYA upon your death.

Even though if you have few names in the EPF Nominees list, - the whole arrangement is VOID & none of the individual names left in the EPF Nominees list will get their portion & automatically EPF will channel your EPF money to trustee of AMANAH RAYA upon your death.

Piece of advice - if any of the your Nominees in the EPF Nominees list dies, please do immediately approach the nearest EPF counter & present the Death Certificate of the individual & register your NEW / LATEST Nominee in the EPF Nominees list + NEW / LATEST percentage .

If, you & the other party (maybe spouse) involved in the same misfortune (accident / illness) that caused death to both yourself / spouse please, please alert your siblings / relatives / parents to immediately approach the nearest EPF counter & share the information within 3 days to AVOID all EPF money to be surrendered to trustee of AMANAH RAYA .

Upon surrender to trustee of AMANAH RAYA, your children will have to battle the money thru 3 channels;

Majlis Agama
Pejabat Tanah
Mahkamah

The normal period via above 3 channels usually takes 2-3 years (except if you have inside/tip top connection) at Amanah Raya.

And why do I say that it's fake? Because I'm a estate planner - I have been doing wills and trusts for people since 2000 - and I know that the process does not work that way. If the nominee dies before the non-Muslim EPF member and if the member does not make a new nomination, then when he dies subsequently, the late nominee's portion will pass to the member's estate for distribution either by means of a Grant of Probate or a Letter of Administration. In the case of a Muslim EPF member, distribution of the late nominee's portion will be decided by the Faraid law. 

Anyway, the EPF have their own say on the matter and on their website can be found this explanation which describes the process in some detail:

EPF's Response

The EPF emphasises that the information in the chain email is NOT TRUE. If a member has nominated more than one beneficiary and one of them dies, only the portion that was bequeathed to the deceased beneficiary will be invalid. If the member later dies without updating his/her nomination, the surviving beneficiaries will receive their portion accordingly. 

Only the portion that was bequeathed to the deceased beneficiary will subject to procedures under the “EPF savings without nomination” in which case priority for the right to claim the deceased member’s savings shall go to next of kin or appointed administrator of the deceased member’s estate.

Hence, it is not true that when a member has named more than one beneficiary, the entire nomination will be deemed void when one of the beneficiaries dies before the member. However, if a member has named only one beneficiary and the beneficiary dies before the member, the nomination will then be deemed void unless a new beneficiary is nominated.

Please note that members do not have to produce the death certificate of a deceased beneficiary to change their nomination. Members can change or update their nomination anytime by completing a new KWSP 4 Form. This will automatically revoke any earlier nomination made.

Another allegation in the chain email which mentioned that members need to go to the EPF counter within three (3) days to avoid the EPF savings being “surrendered to Amanah Raya” if no nomination is made or if a beneficiary and the member die at the same time is also not true.

If a member dies without nominating a beneficiary and depending on the amount the member has in his/her EPF account, the following conditions will apply:

• If the member has less than RM25,000 in his/her EPF Account, the initial sum of RM2,500 will be paid to his/her next of kin. The balance will be paid two months after the member’s death.
• If the member has more than RM25,000 in his/her EPF Account, the initial sum of RM2,500 will be paid to his/her next of kin. The second payment (not more than RM17,500) will be paid to the next of kin two months after date of death. The balance of the savings will be paid upon submitting the Letter of Administration/Grant of Probate/Distribution Order/Faraid Certificate from estate administrators such as Amanah Raya Berhad or the Court or the Land Office.

The EPF wishes to remind that obtaining these documents can be time-consuming and fees may be imposed by the issuing authorities. By nominating beneficiary(s), members will be able to ensure that all the documents will not be necessary and that the withdrawal process by his/her beneficiary(s) will be hassle-free and free of any charges.

For Muslim members, the Faraid Law will apply, in which case the beneficiary will act as an administrator or “wasi” who will be responsible for distributing the savings in accordance to the Faraid Law.

This is why nomination is very important. Members are also advised to check their nomination and update if and when necessary, particularly if the member has gone through life-changing events such as marriage, divorce or birth of a child.

Perlis Road

I saw this image of a watercolour painting on a facebook page. The subject here was of a row of townhouses in Perlis Road, George Town. To me, this scene was instantly recognisable and brought back a lot of childhood memories. The house with the overhanging wooden balcony is very rarely seen today. I should visit this place one day to reacquaint myself with the old neighbourhood. After all, there was a similar balcony in a house opposite my old home in Seang Tek Road. 

That house was occupied by a family which sold chap fan or economy rice dishes for their walk-in patrons. Special dishes are also cooked on demand, especially soup-based dishes. Occasionally, my mother would ask me to go and buy their chap chai soup for dinner. This was a vegetable soup with various bits of pork and fish balls thrown in. For me, it was only a matter of crossing the road (Seang Teik Road) to place my order. Think it used to cost only $2 for a big bowl of soup. Of course, this shop and the balcony are no longer there. The back door of my old home opened into a wide back lane which connected to Perlis Road. You can see the entrance of this back lane in the painting. It is the exact one below the wooden balcony. 

If anyone is interested, this watercolour painting is available for sale at RM2,100. You only need to join this facebook group and place your bid there. This, and also many other watercolour paintings that are on sale. Amateur artists all, but very talented. 

I don't know about now but in the old days, Perlis Road was pretty notorious. Perlis Road and Irving Road. A lot of questionable nightlife activities occurred here. Once the sun had set, the back lanes assumed a new life. They were unlit. No street lights except for the headlamps of the occasional motorcycles that dared use the back lanes as shortcuts. This one and also another one across the road that led to Irving Road and beyond to New Lane. So all sorts of questionable nightlife and unsavoury dubious characters. To be blunt, prostitutes and transgenders. So much so that the houses along Perlis Road resorted to erecting iron barriers to fence off their five footways from these unwanted nocturnal visitors. 

Subdued mid-autumn festival

A reminder that today's the day when the Chinese community shall be celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival with the traditional mooncakes. The festival falls on the 15th day of the Chinese eighth lunar month. 

Usually, the Chinese clan associations around George Town would openly celebrate with worship at the altars of their resident deities and also at the ancestral tablets, but the coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to scale back their worship activities for yet another year. The situation is worse this time as the virus is still ravaging the community with hundreds in the city getting infected every day. When can it ever end?

In the good old days of the 1960s, there were lots of celebrations around George Town in connection with Mid-Autumn. The late CS Wong in his book A Cycle of Chinese Festivities wrote that according to the Sin Pin Jit Poh newspaper (星檳日報) of 27 Sept 1963: 

The Penang Peng Seah, which was then celebrating its 15th anniversary, held a tea party in the spacious flower garden of the Rubber Trade Association at Anson Road where amateur vocalists in Peking dialect regaled the audience with songs from the Peking repertory. The youths from the Hainanese Association in Muntri Street played harmonica numbers at their moonlit tea party, while members of the Hakka Association at Burmah Road entertained themselves with mooncakes and modern tunes. Finally, the Nightingale Musical Party went round the city in a decorated vehicle to serenade in the gay moonlight.

The 99.9 percent-illuminated moon at 9.45pm on 20 Sept 2021. The
astronomical full moon had occurred exactly one hour 50 minutes
earlier at 7.55pm.

As a young boy still staying in the rented Seang Tek Road house in the early 1960s, the night of this 15th day of the lunar month would be spent on the top floor at the back where there was an open-air terrace. The terrace faced East North East (ENE), meaning that we had an unhindered view of the rising full moon if the weather was clear. By nine or ten o'clock, it would be reasonably high up in the sky. Here, my family would set up a make-shift altar for worship, regardless of whether the full moon could be seen or not. There would be fruits and nyonya sweetmeat, and not forgetting the most essential offering of all, the mooncake. I would have lit my paper dragon-shaped lantern and gone parading around the neighbourhood. We would wait for the arrival of my grandmother's sister's family from Ayer Itam, then we would all troop upstairs to the terrace to commence worship of Ch'ang-O (嫦娥).

It's all rather inexplicably baffling because why should anyone worship a thief like Ch'ang-O, even though she was imbued with magic powers. According to legend, she fled to the moon after stealing an elixir of immortality that the Queen Mother of the Western Paradise, Hsi Wang Mu (西王母), had gifted Ch'ang-O's famous archer-husband, Hou-I (后羿).

Incidentally, Ch'ang-O is still honoured by the Chinese government today through their lunar exploratory missions, starting with Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 in 2007 and 2010 respectively, Chang'e 3 in 2013 and Chang'e 4 which softlanded rovers on the moon in 2019, and finally Chang'e 5 which returned to Earth with moon samples last year. 

Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 11

This image here is of the CONTENTS page of Ten Thousand Prosperities: The Story of Ban Hin Lee Bank. Although the book may seem like it is divided into two parts with the ten Chapters and seven Appendices, the chapters can themselves be sub-divided into two parts. 

Chapters I-VI traced the history of Ban Hin Lee Bank from pre-1935 till mid-2000. Meanwhile, Chapters VII-X were more specific. For example, Chapter VII gave coverage on the Singapore branch of the banking business. A lot of fascinating details about the war years were uncovered, dealing not only about the bank but also life in general in Singapore and by extension, in Penang too as the situations in these two British settlements were somewhat not dissimilar. Chapter VIII discussed the use of technology in the bank from the 1980s. Chapter IX  touched on the financial services that BHL Bank went into, in particular Unit Trust Investments and Wealth Distribution. Meanwhile, Chapter X rounded up the chapters by tracing the progression of the Board of Directors through the decades. For the first time, some light was shed on the external forces attempting to take control of the bank in the 1990s. 

At first, the Appendices numbered five but they increased to seven subsequently when I decided to include the Financial Highlights for the 1990s (initially part of Chapter V) and the excellent reminiscences by the late Mr Ong Chin Seng that had appeared in an early bank newsletter.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀:

Publisher's website: Entrepot Publishing Sdn Bhd

Price: RM65

Free delivery within Malaysia!

Fook Chin's tale

I was very surprised - pleasantly surprised - to see this unsolicited comment in the ExBHLBankers facebook page today. A comment from a former colleague who bought a copy of my book, Ten Thousand Prosperities: The Story of Ban Hin Lee Bank, to read. Thought I'd share it here as it had made my day:

I found Chapter VII - ACROSS THE CAUSEWAY, to be most insightful. Since it is in Singapore, many of the facts and happenings are not known to many of us here. I found the establishment of the branch, its day to day working and the war years to be most interesting and how the branch was relocated a few times.

Furthermore, I found the TIMELINE from 1885 right up to 2000 to be an excellent source of historical reference.

Hats off to Seng Sun who has done a marvellous job in writing this book "The Story of Ban Hin Lee Bank" to serve as a record for posterity.

Music events and music makers

Many people buy books based on a wide variety of subject matter. I know, I know, I already have tons of books on chess. However, I also have books on many other subjects such as my books about Penang heritage and history, my books about Malaysian politics, my books about Chinese literature (but translated into the English language), my books about financial planning, my books about careers, resumes and job search, my dictionary books, my books about metaphysics, my books about Buddhism and even my Penang nyonya or rather in general, Chinese cook books. 

There's also one more interesting subject matter for me and that is my collection of books about music and music makers; this last one actually complementing my large collection of vinyl records and compact discs. When I looked through this pile today, I realised that there were still two more titles that were left out  - two paperback books bought when I was still schooling and in college. They could be in the storeroom.

But here are the ones I have to show for now. Five of them are reference material while the others were written about events or musicians and bands. In particular, I found that the most interesting book by far was Is That It? which was written by Bob Geldof on his Life Aid journey to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.

The book covers

Goh Hooi Beng

The administrator of The Old Frees' Association facebook page reported today the passing of Goh Hooi Beng, former Headmaster of Penang Free School from 1988 to 1993. He was the seventh Malaysian and the last non-bumiputra to serve as the Headmaster of the school.

Mr. Goh Hooi Beng, a distinguished scholar himself in a year and class of unusual scholastic talent, and became the Head Master of his alma mater, died today at the age of 77 from malignant lymphoma at UMMC. A brilliant student among a star studded constellation of very bright students, he earned a Colombo Plan scholarship to study in Tasmania. He served the education department well and retired in PJ where he was active in church activities. Always a serious and quiet man, he was much respected among his many friends. May he rest in peace. 

The only times I met him were at the PFS Bicentenary dinner and two days later when he turned up at the OFA to buy a copy of Let the Aisles Proclaim. We had a private chat after that. May he rest in peace.

The Jagger-Watts confrontation

It's arrived. My copy of Keith Richards' autobiography called Life, a used copy bought through the online website, Book Depository. I had placed an order soon after the death of The Rolling Stones' drummer, Charlie Watts, last month. This tale of Watts' altercation with Mick Jagger had been famously told and retold until it was impossible to know the truth. But the original story is here in Richards' book. Cost me RM53 to have it confirmed but what the heck, I'm sure it'll be an interesting read. Such books usually are.

I won't repeat the whole tale here but I can confirm that pages 515 and 516 told it rather succinctly. Richards said Watts had to be badly provoked to throw his punch at Jagger. And what a punch it was. Jagger almost ended up in an Amsterdam canal. What happened was that Richards and Jagger - wearing Richards' wedding jacket - had come back to their hotel room at about five o'clock in the morning and a punch-drunk Jagger called up Watts.

I said, don't call him, not at this hour. But he did, and said, 'Where's my drummer?' No answer. He puts the phone down. About twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. There was Charlie Watts, Savile Row suit, perfectly dressed, tie, shaved, the whole fucking bit. I could smell the cologne! I opened the door and he didn't even look at me, he walked straight past me, got hold of Mick and said, 'Never call me your drummer again.' Then he hauled him up by the lapels of my jacket and gave him a right hook. 

Nothing mentioned at all about Watts saying that Jagger was his "damned singer." So that part had been embellished by anonymous writers through the years and become part of today's Internet urban legend.

Japan, Day 6: Food galore

Continuing from where I left off, our sixth day in Japan was spent in Osaka but mind you, we weren't visiting temples or parks. Somehow, my family decided that food should be the top order of the day. And that's why after breakfast, a very light breakfast of croissants and raisin-topped buns washed down with instant kopi-o from home (yes, we brought our local kopi-o along with us to Japan), we made our way to the Kuromon market. At first, I couldn't imagine a whole covered market dedicated to Japanese street food but here we were, walking through and sampling various types of food. Later, I learnt that there were about 150 shops in the market but not all were selling food. Some were selling low priced clothes and homeware.

First of all, we alighted the train at the Namba station and took the underground Namba Walk before emerging into the open air. A great temptation to be side-tracked but we were rather determined to ignore the shops there. After which, another short walk brought us to one of the Kuromon market's side entrances. It didn't look impressive from the outside but the brilliance and gaiety of the interior soon made us forget about the drab entrance.

Not impressive at first sight but wait until you go through the entrance!

But wow! The sight and the people packed inside the place.

One of the numerous street food stalls inside the Kuromon market. We were tempted to stop at every stall we saw but soon realised that it was impossible to see everything.

You see, there were other tourists like us.

Alaskan crabs. Expensive but meaty.

Several shops allowed patrons to eat inside. We followed suit after having made our seafood choices 

....like this salmon sushi

It wasn't all street food at the Kuromon market. This grocery, for example, had a wide variety of fruits outside its premises.

And another shop which carried flowers and vegetables. See the orange pumpkin tucked away on the left.

People tend to forget that the Kuromon market probably existed from the time of the Edo period in Japan's history, making these alleyways very old.

The interesting point is that the narrow alleyways open out near to the Kuromon market. Despite the hustle and bustle only metres away, the alleyways are all quiet, clean and private. And in a typical Japanese way, very well maintained.

The mask, again

The legacy of Dr Wu Lien-Teh continues to loom large in people's minds everywhere around the world except perhaps the people at the Malaysian Invention & Design Society (MINDS) who do not seem to appreciate the significant role that this person played on the world stage. Anyway, here are two latest contributions to the memory of someone whom I consider to be a great Malaysian hero. Happy viewing!

20 years ago today

At 8.46am on the 11th of September in 2001, an aeroplane hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists slammed into the first tower of the World Trade Centre in New York. About 17 minutes late at 9.03am, a second hijacked aeroplane completed the humiliation and symbolic destruction of America's invincibility by crashing into the second tower. The terrorist attack had severe ramifications around the world. Life was never the same again as security was beefed up everywhere in the world. Every action caused everyone to look over the shoulder to ensure one's personal safety.

But where were you on that fateful day in September? When the two aeroplanes crashed into the twin towers, it was night time in Malaysia. For me, the first I learnt about the attack was while surfing the Internet from my house in Seberang Jaya. Immediately after that, went to turn on the TV to watch the events unfolding on CNN and CNBC. And the next morning while driving to work, the radio stations reported on nothing but the destruction in New York.

Once at the office, it became clear that all my colleagues at JobStreet.com had already heard the news. Our computers were surfing the CNN website for the latest news. Time and time again, we saw the video of the planes crashing into the towers. Time and time again, we saw the destruction on the ground. Throughout the day, the reports came in thick and thin of the casualties. For the rest of the day, there was very little work done. Then, gradually by the second and third days, while we still followed the news from the websites, work life returned to normal. But we knew that nothing could ever be the same again.

Only yesterday, a former colleague told me that he was flying between Houston and Las Vegas when the attack happened. The pilot came on the intercom and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to make an announcement and I want you all to listen VERY carefully...." The news almost scared the living daylight from him as the pilot continued that there had been a series of attacks on the east coast of America and they had been ordered to clear the skies. They landed at the nearest available runway in El Paso, Texas, and everyone were stuck on the ground for three days before some of the passengers pooled together to rent a van and drove 12 hours back to Houston.

I asked him what went through his mind in those three days. "Mostly that we were at war, and I had no idea how we were going to get home to Malaysia in about a week's time. As it turned out," he recollected, "we were on one of the first flights out of the United States."

 

50th anniversary

Do you remember the day that The Star newspaper first came out? It was on a Thursday: the ninth of September 1971. That's 50 years ago. And coincidentally, today's again a Thursday, the ninth of September in 2021. Fifty years apart but still sharing the same calendar.

Ah, but that's beside the point. On this day 50 years ago, the first issue of The Star newspaper was printed. I was in Lower Six. I remember walking to the Indian sundry shop some 50 feet from my home to have a look at the newspapers there, as was my habit in those days. I would stand at the sundry shop, look up at the newspapers on display there....Straits Echo, The Malay Mail, New Straits Times.....and there, attached to a rope with a clothes peg was a folded copy of the tabloid-sized The Star. 

Not many newspapers were tabloids in those days. Certainly not New Straits Times or Straits Echo. The Malay Mail was also a broadsheet newspaper but it was later converted into a tabloid. Same with Straits Echo. Facing the heat from The Star, it changed name to The National Echo and transformed into a tabloid newspaper to compete with The Star. The Star's masthead stood out red as compared with The National Echo's blue. There was a short-lived Singapore-based Eastern Sun on the newspaper stands too but I can't remember much about it.

The Star was originally a Penang-based newspaper with a racy Page Three pin-up to attract readers. But then, it was a more liberal time in the 1970s. It first operated from rented premises at 62 Weld Quay. with the late KS Choong as the founder and managing editor. Choong was formerly from The Star, I learnt later.

This picture here was posted up on facebook by Koh Su Chun who was the head of the reporter's desk in Penang in the 1970s. I had known him from my own newspaper days in 1977 when I was still with The National Echo. Imagine, he had kept the very first issue all these years. PS. Someone also posted in facebook that the first issue rolled off the press at 11.45am on that day in 1971.

Oh, dice!

Got inspired by the six pieces of dice that I found in the chess set that accompanied the moon cakes from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Kuala Lumpur a few days ago, and have been using them for some photography sessions. Here's one of the better ideas: the brilliant red standing out from the darkness of the box and the deep blue pieces. Yes, the pieces are not black but dark blue.

Anyhow, this concept is not new. Almost five decades ago, the rock group Bad Company had released their second studio album called Straight Shooter and the cover art had featured two pieces of dice on a craps table. The image must have made a deep impression on my sub-conscious mind, hasn't it, because back then I was deeply impressed with it. It is only now that I've managed to recreate something similar to it. My picture is very real, though, unlike Bad Company's cover which looks terribly air-brushed.

Moon cakes and chess

Hello, Chinese eighth lunar month! It starts today. We've put the Hungry Ghosts Festival well behind us - but was there a festival at all this year?? I could hardly tell - and are now looking forward to the celebration of the Mid-Autumn "Moon Cake" Festival in 15 days' time. Coincidentally, today is also the start of the 15th solar term known as Pek Lor (白露) or White Dew. It is not often that both the Chinese lunar and lunisolar calendars coincide but this year is somewhat special!

Talking about moon cakes, a few days ago, I received a mysterious box marked "priority delivery" and inside, I discovered gleefully that it contained a box of four moon cakes from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Accompanying the moon cakes was a chequered box which, when opened, revealed a set of wooden chess pieces. But what puzzled me were the six dice pieces. Whatever were they for? 

This prompted me to message the hotel for an answer and here, you see the exchanges I had with their marketing staff. I am no closer to knowing why they chose to promote an obscure variant like "dice chess" over regular, over-the-board chess that is played by millions of people around the world. Perhaps their designer, Melinda Looi, can explain better, but I haven't got her team to respond to my enquiry yet.

PS. In my messages with the hotel, I mentioned only three pieces of dice because in their promotional picture, only three were shown. But there are actually six. Unfortunately, that picture has since disappeared from their website.

Waning crescent

Where I'm concerned, this is possibly my last gasp visual of the waning moon for this year's Chinese seventh lunar month, taken this morning (5th of September) at 6.25am when it was 5.3 percent illuminated and hanging about 11 degrees above the horizon. Tomorrow morning it will be much lower in the dawn sky compared with the same time today and thus, far too difficult to spot. I'm not confident at all of seeing the even thinner crescent. This will have to do.

It's possible to see the whole orb of the moon in the picture as the unlit part is faintly illuminated by light reflected from the earth's surface.

An update: As I anticipated, it was not possible for me to see the moon in the morning of the sixth of September. I had waited until 6.40am before venturing out to the spot where I knew the moon would be rising. But the old moon was too low in the sky and the view was obscured by the tree line. Or perhaps I wasn't observant enough. Besides, it was starting to get light. All these factors contributed. It would have been nice to see the 1.5 percent illuminated waning moon. So goodbye to the end of the Chinese seventh lunar month.