Memories are made of this

OCCASIONALLY I would take my weekly column down a recent memory lane, with the sharing of some of my personal anecdotes, which might be of interest to some of you dear readers.

These ‘behind-the-scenes’ episodes involve public figures, socialites or those who have recently been in the news.

On July 27, my wife and I attended the wedding blessing of the Bishop of the Anglican Church in Sarawak and Brunei Right Reverend Bishop Datuk Danald Jute’s daughter Iona to Tom Clayton of England at the St Thomas’ Cathedral, and also the wedding dinner thereafter. It was a rather grand, beautiful affair.

We had also met up with our family’s spiritual mentor Eunice Tay, whose husband Reverend George Tay was not able to come due to commitments with their Caleb Mission work back in Singapore. Previously, the couple had been in Kuching for over eight years doing pastoral work with the Anglican Diocese.

On Aug 9, it was my aunt Datin Amar Kathryn Wee’s 92th birthday celebration.

Her late husband Datuk Amar Wee Hood Teck, a well-known philanthropist and banker, was my father’s cousin.

Looking vibrant and youthful, Aunt Kathryn’s ‘Memory Lane’ slideshow depicted a well-loved matriarch of the Wee family with members in many parts of the world – quite a number of whom were in attendance.

Every October since 2017, Kuching citizens are treated to a month-long festival of the arts, culture and lifestyle, WAK!, the logo and nickname for ‘What About Kuching’.

The brainchild of Donald and Marina Tan and fully endorsed by the tourism authorities, it has taken a new direction this year in that it was brought to Sibu and Miri, in July and August, respectively. Both had received good reception throughout.

It is hoped that WAK could continue further afield to the other towns like Bintulu, Sarikei and Limbang in the years to come.

It is wonderful that our state government has been so very supportive of the arts and crafts, as well as the culinary arts, traditional customs and other cultural events for a great many years.

It would also be incumbent upon the appropriate authorities to look into issues pertaining to the preservation and restoration of our heritage in the form of buildings, structures as well as other intangible aspects of our historical past.

Did you know that the Kuching Festival was first started in April 1986, thus making this year’s its 38th edition? It was initiated by the then-Kuching Municipal Council under Datuk Song Swee Guan as an effort to highlight the nation’s tourist attractions for the delegates of the 1986 Pacific Area Tourism Association Conference being held in Kuala Lumpur.

Over the years, it has grown from a medium-scale event to a month-long carnival, especially the Kuching Food Festival housing over 200 various food and drinks stalls.

The food fair reached a record of one million visitors (many repeats obviously) during its 24-day stint this year, having just ended last Sunday (Aug 18).

That Sunday date this year fell on another auspicious Chinese festival – the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar – the Hungry Ghost Night.

If you had driven around the city that night, you would have seen dozens of gigantic joss sticks (making their reappearance after almost a decade) in front of a couple of Chinese temples and association buildings.

They were set up in commemoration of the hungry spirits who had left the gates of Hades to partake of their shares of offerings rendered by humans.

In olden days, children were warned not to go out during this ‘night of the hungry ghosts’ for fear of encountering some hungry spirits wandering around looking for food.

However, the youngsters these days are more engrossed in their hand-held devices and TikTok videos than to listen to these ‘old wives tales’.

Indeed, the city streets were filled with happy revellers of all ages.

Something that I have always looked forward to is the reunion of old friends and family members. Recently, I just added another chapter to that – meeting long-lost family members in person.

Firstly, from the furthest in distance came Chen Yen Goh, the eldest daughter of one of my oldest friends – also the Best Man at my wedding way back in 1973 – Dato Goh Leng Chua.

He and his wife Datin Mary CY (as I fondly call her) have settled down in Seattle, USA. She was back for a visit with the folks.

I have not seen her in many years. We have known each other since early childhood, so it was really wonderful to catch up.

These days, we stay in touch on Facebook and she is rather close to my daughter Dyan.

Then, through the introduction of an aunt from the Singapore branch of the Ong family, a long-lost cousin Laurence Tan paid us a visit.

We had lunch with him, together with his niece Kat and her husband Michael.

Laurence is an interior designer, having worked in Thailand and also responsible for the interior-designing of a number of Hilton Hotels in the region.

Laurence has kept an active journal and is writing about all matters related to the Ong family, with Singapore to begin and now branching out into Sarawak. His well-researched record of the Ong Ewe Hai’s Residence named ‘Bonny Grass’ in Singapore makes for a most interesting read.

Thirdly, from much nearer Kapit, came a good friend whom I had not caught up with for over a year.

Joe Jinggut is a former chairman of the Kapit District Council and also former political secretary to the then-chief minister.

He had brought along a 5.5kg ‘labang’ fish from Kapit, which tasted heavenly just simply Teochew-styled steamed!

That evening, I had also met a new friend in Esther Tan, a former airline stewardess, and a friend from Penang, Ram.

In my capacity as the chairman of the board of St Thomas’ School, we bid a warm welcome, which had featured a live five-man bag-pipe band playing ‘When the Siants Go Marchin’ In’, leading the Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Southeast Asia Dr Titus Chung and his wife Connie, together with Bishop Danald, who paid the school an official visit.

It was the first visit from a serving Anglican Archbishop in recent memory and the school had felt duly honoured. Apart from the tour, there was also a short video presentation for the guests.

I was pleasantly surprised and honoured to have received an invitation for dinner at the Astana Negeri, hosted by the Yang di-Pertua Sarawak Tun Pehin Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar for a special ‘Golden Oldies Night’ – completely unaware of the purpose of the function other than it was for those seniors above the age of 70.

I had accompanied Dato Goh Leng Chua and wife Datin Mary to attend.

At the speech during dinner, Wan Junaidi had, among other anecdotes, mentioned that he had initiated this informal event with the aim of bringing together the seniors in the community who had contributed to society in one way or another, especially those not on the various official government functions’ guest list.

I had thought to myself: ‘That’s a very nice and fresh start to the new Head of State’s term – to be a Governor for all the people, especially the common folks’.

His Excellency did something unusual during the evening as well – he had mingled, walked around to every table, stopped to chat and had even singled out old friends including one of his oldest friends from Simanggang who he said ‘had taught me all about football!’.

A nice multiracial blend of faces could be seen among the small guests list of 60 seniors of both sexes.

Doubtless to say, we all had a nice time!

Also, as most of us locals like to say: “That can happen…only in Sarawak!”

* The opinions expressed in this article are the columnist’s own and do not reflect the view of the newspaper