分类： 人物

Looming food scarcity

Tan Tean Chee says food security for the people is important
By Foong Pek Yee
The supply of some 60,000 kilogram vegetables from Chemor daily risks disruption when the farmland is taken over for development, says Chemor Modern Farmers Association.
Its chairman Tan Tean Chee says Chemor in Perak is one of the major suppliers of vegetables daily, producing some 60,000 kilogram of a variety of greens like spinach, kangkung, choy sam, brinjals, chillies, turnips, spring onions and maize.
These are sold to wholesale markets in Ipoh, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selayang.
“Climatic change is already threatening food supply worldwide, ” notes Tan, adding that any other disruption like shrinking farmland should be avoided.
On that note, he expresses his concern as some of the farmers toiling on about 1,200 acres of farmland in Chemor had received eviction notice last December.
About half of the 293 members in the association were affected, he adds.
Tan, 60, who is a third generation farmer in his family says the soil and environment in Chemor is conducive for vegetable farming.
According to the elderly villagers, vegetable farming in the area is dated back to the 1920s.
Tan says vegetable farming is labour intensive, crediting the farmers in Chemor for their hard work and resilience in ensuring steady supply to the market.
He says all is well until 2005 when some of the farmers who do not have legal documents to use the land had to evict to make way for development.
Two years later, in 2007, the association was set up to help the farmers.
Tan says the farmers want to pay to lease the land so that they can continue to farm and contribute to the food supply in the country.
Meanwhile Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj who has been helping the farmers says the authorities concerned should look at farming as food security for the people in the long term.
He points out that climatic change and  food scarcity which  is already happening worldwide is set to escalate, and this is something that needs the authorities’ urgent attention.
Dr Jeyakumar suggests the existing farmland in Chemor  be preserved instead of making way for mega projects.
While mega projects are important for the economy, the  Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) chairman says the farmers who have been working hard for a living and contributing to the food supply for the people is also doing something important for the country.

A wish for his golden years

Liew Wong does not want to burden his children.

By Foong Pek Yee

foongpekyee@gmail.com

AT 56, Liew Wong is four years from the official retirement age.
He is relieved that his two children, in their late 20s, are working and independent.
Having toiled as a farmer for the last 30 years to raise his family, Liew says his wish from now on is to be able to take care of his wife and himself in their golden years.
“I do not want to depend on my children for a living,” says Liew as he gobbled up his lunch when met at Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak recently.
His weather beaten face tells the story of a hard life.
He is the third generation of farmers in his family from the village.
Farming is a 365 days job from sunrise to sunset, he says.
As a small scale farmer, you are the boss and you and your family are the workers, says Liew, recalling he started to help his father in the farm when he was 10 years old.
It is all about working hard to survive day to day.
Today, his 86-year-old father continues to work in their farm, measuring about two acres where they planted the umbra fruit  (sar lei in Cantonese) and oil palm.
Make way: The entrance to Liew Wong’s farm. He got a notice to
 evict the land.
Farming and village life has its upside though.
They enjoy a peaceful and simple life in a close knitted community from generation to generation since the 1920s.
All is well until 2005 when land issues started to surface.
For many farmers, they toil on land without legal documents since their forefathers set foot in Chemor a century ago.
Since 17 years ago, development saw some farmers having to surrender their farmland when the area is earmarked for the purpose.
Nevermind that Chemor is known for vegetable farming, producing some 60,000 kilogram vegetables daily.
According to the farmers, the terrain and soil in Chemor are conducive for many types of vegetables –  from spinach, choy sam, brinjals, bitter gourds, chillies to maize.
“All along we are willing to pay to the landowners to lease the land, ” says Liew
According to him,  then Tambun Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had in 2012  helped farmers to resolve the land issues.
However Liew says the signing of a  deal on land lease for  farmers was aborted at the last minute.
In December last year, Liew says he is among farmers in Chemor who received eviction notice.
“I don’t know where to get a job to survive if I lost my farm.
“Even young people find it hard to get jobs these days,”he says.

A struggle to keep family tradition

Destiny: Ah Thim and his world
By Foong Pek Yee
IT is a scorching hot afternoon.
But it is also any other day for Ah Thim.
From afar, he cuts a lonely figure in the vegetable farm.
At 54,  he has been a farmer since a teenager; with his life revolving  around his family, farm and Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak,  where they stay.
As fate has it, Ah Thim was inducted into farming after his eldest brother’s death.
Recalling the tragedy losing his 20-year-old brother, Ah Thim who is second among four sons became the de facto head of his family – by Chinese tradition- in a then conservative society.
He has another five sisters.
As the de facto head,  Ah Thim was expected, if not duty bound,  to become a farmer, taking after his father and grandfather who were farmers and keeping the family together.
He became head of the family after his father passed away.
Fast track to the present, Ah Thim, as head of the family, stays with his 80-year-old plus mother and a younger sister who is single in their ancestral home.
He says the sister and a younger brother helps out in the farm.
Toiling on about an acre of land, planting turnips and spring onions, Ah Thim says that is their source of income.
He spends most of his waking hours in the farm.
“I am here by sunrise and work till late evening. In between I go home for lunch,” he says.
Vegetable farming can be  a back breaking job but Ah Thim is not complaining.
“I will continue to do my best. I am used to this way of life.”
Quiet and peaceful: A man fishing at a lake nearby  Ah Thim’s farm.
According to some elderly villagers, farming was their lifeline since their forefathers set foot in Chemor in the 1920s .
The lack of formal education, exposure and job opportunities saw many villagers continue to depend on  farming for a living despite all odds stacked against them these days.
Topping their list of woes is  land issues which surfaced about 17 years ago.
Farmers who have no legal documents on their farmland would have to make way once the land is earmarked for development.
In the case of Ah Thim, he is now left with about an acre of farmland only.
While he is worried over losing his last acre to development, he says he has to depend on the Persatuan Petani  Moden Chemor (Chemor Modern Farmers Association) for help on land issues.
“The matter is too complicated for me to understand,” he adds.
Amidst all the uncertainties, he is visibly happy when he spoke on his only  child- a son-  who is working in Singapore.
No matter what,  Ah Thim says he is always grateful waking up to a new day. .

Proud to be Foochows

It is more than good taste
By Foong Pek Yee
foongpekyee@gmail.com
A bowl of red wine chicken mee sua  is not just another dish.
This authentic Foochow noodle dish brings to mind the community wherever and whenever it is served.
The Foochows from Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan in Perak arrived from China in 1903.
A close-knit and resilient community, they are proud of their culture, and would make it a point to introduce their food to their friends or guests.
Their love for their culture is evident in places like Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan  where they first set foot in then Malaya.
Authentic Foochow taste: Red wine chicken mee sua 
Wholesome:  This dish with a mix of vegetables, meat and seafood is popular as a one-pot meal.
In Ayer Tawar, about 65 km from Ipoh,  Restoran Sin Han Seong serves good Foochow food since the 1930s.
Old and strong: Sin Han Seong Restaurant has many loyal customers 
The restaurant owner Ling Hing Kuai is his family’s third generation.
At 70, he went about his work in zest,  and that speaks volumes of the restaurant.
Located along Ayer Tawar’s main road, the ambience in the restaurant is reminiscent of the good old days.
(Note: When we google, the name of the restaurant is Sun Hon Siong. It is the same place).
Many Foochows including those who have settled down outside Ayer Tawar, will patronise the restaurant when they visit their hometown, and among them is Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh.
A Foochow, Dr Ting, a former Housing and Local Government Minister and current Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) council chairman was from Merbau New Village in Manjung.
Other new villages in Manjung which are predominantly Foochow are Ayer Tawar, Jering, Rajah Hitam, Changkat Kruing, Simpang Dua, Simpang Tiga, Simpang Lima, Kampung Koh and  Kampung Cina.
And the Ayer Tawar town centre along the main road is the meeting point for villagers to run their daily errands.
Meeting point: The main road in Ayer Tawar
The Siew Hua Biscuit Factory in Ayer Tawar which is over 70 years old continues to be famous for its traditional Foochow biscuits like the “gong pian”.
Hall of fame :  Ayer Tawar Heritage House chairman Ling Sze Hing says the  plaque has  the names of all donors who contributed to the setting up of the  Manjung Kutien Association. The plaque is displayed in the Ayer Tawar Heritage House in Ayer Tawar.
The landmark in Ayer Tawar is the Manjung Kutien Association majestic building along the main road.
The association was set up in 1956 in an attap house,  and its present building was opened in 1994.
Ling says the association’s more than 2,000 strong membership are all Kutien, one of the 10 sub dialects of Foochows.
Janice Ting Hsia Sung says the association holds major festive celebrations like Chinese New Year and  Parents Day.
At 42, and a mother of five, she says the association’s activities are tailored for all age groups; and its focus are on good values like filial piety, cooperation, harmony, kindness and education.
She and her husband, also a Foochow,  decided to settle down in Ayer Tawar- their hometown-  after a short work stint in Kuala Lumpur.
Both of them are active in the Manjung Kutien Association.
Janice’s  father Ting Kong Liong, 76, who is a former president of the association continues to be active
Youngest among four siblings, Janice recalls following her father to the association’s events when she was a kid.

Journey to the Promised Land

From Grit to Great :  The story of the Foochows .
By Foong Pek Yee
THEY finally arrived at their destination on Sept 9 after surviving the perilous journey.
There were 303 on board, while another 60 arrived a week later.
And that was in September 1903 –  the beginning of the Foochows in Sitiawan, Perak.
Together we progress:  Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh (left) who was then the  Housing and Local Government Minister opened the Manjung Kutien Association Building in 1994.  He is a Kutien and his hometown is Merbau New Village in Manjung.
According to the book “The Foochows of Sitiawan: a historical perspective” this pioneer group were from China’s Foochow rice growing community.
The author Shih Toong Siong said the then Colonial Administration in Malaya wanted to ” transplant” this community in Sitiawan.
The mission was to turn Sitiawan into a rice growing region, and to meet the rising demand for the staple food as more immigrants arrived in Malaya to work in the tin mines.
The Methodist Episcopal Mission (MEM) which was tasked to undertake this “transplant”, had assigned Rev Ling Ching Mi and  Rev. Dr H.L.E Luering to the job.
Of the 484 Foochows who boarded the ship and set sail for Malaya on  Aug 3, 1903, only 363 made it to the promised land.
Four days into the journey saw five deaths which were attributed to cholera and exhaustion.
They arrived in Singapore for quarantine on the St John’s Island on Aug 22, where many either died or went missing in transit.
The final headcount was 363 when they were ready to set sail for  Sitiawan.
But their ordeal was far from over upon arrival – they did not get what as promised to them , and from then they only had their resilience to survive in the tropical wilderness.
True to the Chinese saying ” we get up from where we fell” – the Foochows have proven their mettle the day they step foot on Malayan soil.
United and strong:  The Manjung Kutien Association was set up in 1956, and Ling (right) and the association’s committee member Ting Hsia Sung showing a photo of the historical day.
The place: Ayer Tawar Heritage House in Ayer Tawar, Manjung is a showcase of the Foochows’ way of life in Manjung from the early 20th century and beyond.
Proud descendants: Foochows  at the opening of the Ayer Tawar Heritage House in 2016
Today, the Ayer Tawar Heritage House in Ayer Tawar, about 65 km from Ipoh, will give a glimpse of the life of the Foochows in Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan from the day they landed in Sitiawan.
Ayer Tawar is about 12km from Sitiawan, and the Chinese in both towns are predominantly Foochows.
One of the landmarks in Ayer Tawar is the Manjung Kutien Association Building along the main road of Ayer Tawar
Kutien is one of the 10 sub dialects of Foochows (sub dialects  are  based on their respective district in China) , and the Ayer Tawar Heritage House is under the Manjung Kutien Association.
The heritage house chairman Ling Sze Hing says the artefacts, mostly donated by the locals, are dated back to more than a century ago.
He says the heritage house opened doors in 2016,  and entrance is free and by appointment (019-5582543)
Ling, 56, says he and his committee are coming up with a research centre on Foochows in the heritage house – to make it the place to go to for people who are interested to find out more on Foochows, especially the Kutien.
A Kutien himself, Ling’s passion and pride on anything Kutien a and Foochow  is palpable.
Hardwork:  Mr Ling showing how to operate a traditional grinder
Bare necessities:  Irons using charcoals (top row) and pots used during the old days.

Ending her career on a high note

The story of  Soon Ah Buei-
By Foong  Pek Yee-
SHE is a dishwasher in a restaurant.
But Soon Ah Buei never complain of fatigue, says her son  Pu Siang Yen.
“One day mother fell sick. I was her replacement, and I realised it is such a back-breaking job,” Siang Yen  recalls  his mother’s struggle after his father passed  away 22 years ago.
He has an elder brother Pu Siang Chan, 43.
Siang Yen, 40,  says his mother pampers her family with her jia xiang cai (authentic home cooking) despite after a hard day’s work in the restaurant.
“We all know she is a good cook.
Good times: Tourists enjoying themselves at Yee Tai 2  Restaurant.
“And mother finally became a chef and lao ban niang (lady boss) about seven years ago,” says Siang Yen.
Historical site: HillVille Inn and Yee Tai 2 Restaurant are housed in the Sungai Lembing Hainan Association in Sungai Lembing, an ex mining town.
The two brothers set up a guesthouse with a restaurant on the ground floor and their mother is the chef.
Located in Sungai Lembing in Pahang, HillVille Inn and Yee Tai 2 Restaurant are run by the Pu family members.
Sungai Lembing is famous for eco-tourism, and has between 2,000 and 3,000 tourists over weekends before the pandemic.
Simply cool: The Rainbow Waterfall, about 12km from Sungai Lembing New Village, on a Sunday morning.
Welcome : Friends (from left) Foo Kok How, Siang Yen, Mac Tang Siew Fong and Alan Cheong posing  with the century-old tree in Sungai Lembing town.
All is well until 2020.
The Pu brothers lost their mother to cancer shortly after the start of the pandemic.
She was 64.
Siang Yen says they have come to terms that their mother had gone to a better place, forever.
“We found solace in the fact that our mother is finally a lao ban niang (lady boss).
“She is so happy when guests like her food and they posed pictures with her,”  recalls Siang Yen.
He says even Westeners took a liking to Soon’s cooking.
According to Siang Yen, his mother who was healthy, suddenly started to lose weight which is not a good sign.
Soon was diagnosed with late stage cancer, underwent surgery, but succumbed to the disease in a matter of months.
Siang Yen says his mother had managed to train one of his aunts to do the cooking.
Note: All the photos were taken before the pandemic.

Gold fish brings good luck to the villagers

By Foong Pek Yee
14 Dec, 2021
ORNAMENTAL FISH is a symbol of all things good;- from abundance, prosperity , good luck  to success.
In  Gopeng – an ex mining town-  it has given it  a new lease of life.

The world tin market crash in the mid 1980s saw many mine workers turned to  gold fish rearing – turning ex mining ponds into fish farms.

Gopeng, about 18 km from Ipoh city centre,  gradually rose to become one of the top exporters of gold fish .
The rest is history.
Watching their graceful movements  is simply therapeutic, says Roy Lee of how ornamental fish can be a de-stressor.
On top of things: Roy is hands on in the business.
Keeping ornamental fish is a way to de-stress, says Roy who
rears ornamental fish in  Gopeng.
He also imports and exports the fish to countries like  India, Vietnam, Thailand and  Philippines.
Chalking up 20 years in the industry, a
 typical working day for him starts at 8.00 am and he only calls it a day 12 hours later.
 Remarkable:  Villagers turned ex mining ponds into fish farms in Gopeng.
Perseverance: Ornamental fish rearing is labour intensive.
At 51, Wong Choon Ming has chalked up 30 plus years as a fish farmer, and is still counting.
He says he started off with gold fish and has switched to Arowana some time ago.
Choon Ming says Arowana, also known as dragon fish (long yu in Chinese ), is a symbol of good luck and prosperity, and majority of the Arowana from Gopeng  go to the China market,
Fish farmer Chin Kean Wei, 56, says it is a tough business and he is glad that farmers in Gopeng are close and help each other to stay competitive in the market.
Kean Wei says he also counts himself lucky as his wife Aw Chen Chen, 48,  helps him in the fish farm .
Caring  touch : Chen Chen learned  to look after ornamental fish when she and Kean Wei started dating.
Kean Wei says the demand for ornamental fish peaks  during winter and ahead of the Lunar New Year.
It may be end of year and holiday season but work comes first, says Kean Wei.
A typical working day for Kean Wei is between 7am and 9.00pm.
 Law Tong Hai says his  passion for ornamental fish brings joy in the business.
This is  important as the line between work and personal time is blur in the life of a fish farmer.
“We must be hands on though we have workers to do the job,” says Tong Hai.
Apart from experience, he says continuing research  to upgrade fish rearing methods is also important.
Using  pandan plants to filter the excretion from the fish is  a result of research, he says, drawing my attention to the fresh aroma of the plant during my visit to his farm.
 While large scale fish rearing using concrete ponds is inevitable, Tong Hai believes there are  ways to create an environment that is as close to nature as possible for the fish.

Of war and love

By Foong Pek Yee
13 Dec, 2021
LOVE  brought them together,  war tore them apart.
A beautiful love story  cut short by the Korean War.
Lee Jung-Seop, born to a wealthy family in North Korea, and Yamamoto Masako met and fell in love when they were studying art in Tokyo in 1939.
They got married in 1945, the year World War II ended, and she took up the Korean name  Lee Nam-Deok.
The couple were blessed with two sons when the Korean War (1950-53) erupted.
Together with  their sons Tae-Hyun and Tae-Seung who were four and two respectively, they survived the 1951 mass exodus from North Korea to  South Korea where they stayed in Busan and Jeju for a year.
In a bid to save their children from hardship in a war torn country, Nam-Deok and her sons boarded a Tokyo-bound repatriation ship in 1952.
The separation was meant to be a temporary one.
The following year, Jung -Seop managed to make it to Tokyo for a weeklong reunion with his wife and sons.
Upon his return to South Korea, Jung -Seop who struggled to make money to bring his family home succumbed to hardship and poor health.
He died alone in a hospital in Seoul in 1956 at the age of 40.
Fast track to 2002, the South Korean government set up the Lee Jung-Seop Art Gallery in Seogwipo in Jeju and the road leading to the museum is named after the renowned artist.
 Legacy: Visitors learned about Lee Jung -Seop  as they stroll along the street named after him.
Jung-Seop’s life and times, written in English,  is displayed prominently at the gallery
I wished I had read about the Lee family before I visited the museum in the Summer of 2018 to better appreciate his art work which says a lot about love for his family and life in a turbulent era.
Happier times:  The two paintings by Lee Jung -Seop.
Next to the gallery is a small house where the Lee family stayed in a rented room measuring 1.5m by 2.4m for about a year in 1951.
Evolving times: The Lee family stayed briefly  in this house about 70 years ago.
According to The Korean Herald in a report on Jun 6, 2016 – It was in Seogwipo  that Jung -Seop created paintings that portrayed children playing with crabs and fish, in cheerful colours, and that his wife later recalled that it was the happiest time for the family.

A cafe for the kids

By Foong Pek Yee
13 Dec, 2021
THE  kids were visibly excited as they made their way to the bookshelves one  Autumn afternoon.
Todak Cafe – a book cafe- in Namwon, a small town in Jirisan,  is no ordinary cafe.
The brainchild of a few people who fell in love with Jirisan, it is a favourite haunt for people of all age groups in the otherwise quiet small town.
The young love  to read their favourite books and enjoy the food there.
It is also a waiting place for their parents to fetch them.
The cafe is also a  venue for meetings, activities and, a collection and drop off point for courier services.
The founders including Kim Hyun-Suk are from Seoul but have lived in Namwon for some time.
And they brought along ideas to help the people evolve  with changing times.
Visionary: Hyun – Suk  on her plans for Namwon
 Hyun-Suk says Jirisan, with the most beautiful mountains in South Korea,  is the perfect place to be with nature
“San means mountains in Korean,” says Hyun-Suk when we met at the cafe in the Autumn of 2018.
Calming : Jirisan offers a slow-paced lifestyle amidst nature.
Fluent in English, she and her two kids  left Seoul for the countryside many years ago.
She and her husband Cho Yang- Ho had wanted them to grow up among nature and have social contact with the community daily – something that can be rare in big cities.
 Hyun-Suk and their children stay in Namwon while Yang-Ho who stays put  in Seoul visits them on weekends.
Fast track to 2018, their  20-year -old-daughter and 17-year-old son were already in college and high school in Seoul.
But Hyun-Suk continues to stay in Namwon and run the cafe while Yang-Ho travels to be with her for the weekends.
Farming remains the major economic activity in Jirisan though businesses like   homestay and tourism are  thriving -thanks to the social media.
 Fresh produce: Harvest time in Autumn.
Hyun-Suk says many city folk who relocated to Jirisan soon found out that not everyone is cut out for agriculture work.
After giving farming a try, they ventured into other jobs.
Meanwhile many youngsters  from the countryside still flock to  Seoul for its  business and job opportunities.
Ha Jin- Yong who has been tasked by a non governmental organisation (NGO) to research on life among the younger generation in rural areas says the young still want to go to Seoul.
Serene: Mountains, stream and greenery a trademark of Jirisan.
At 25 (in 2018), Jin Yong who hails from Seoul says he fell in love with the rustic lifestyle after staying and working in Namwon for four years.
“City living can be lonely beneath all the hustle and bustle,” says Jin Yong