Sibu Tales : Slow Boat from China

I just met a wonderful aunt, my neighbour in Sibu.

And she told me her life story, of how she escaped three times before the age of 15 in Fujian China.

It was God's will that she escaped in that way, so that she could come to Sarawak and raise a great family.

She was not willing to be a child bride, and she had hidden herself in an aunt's place when she was five. She did not want to leave her mother who was poor and had wanted to sell her. After her first escape, she worked very hard to impress her mother. She just did not want to leave her mother.

As far as she remembered, the young girl who had taken her place was pretty and she in fact was not as pretty.

A few years later another aunty came from Sarawak to ask her mother if she could help a relative buy her as the daughter in law. By then her mother knew that she was a very capable girl. This time she ran away with other girls up into the hills for a few days. So her mother changed her mind again. She came home with two rabbits for her mother.

The Anking (later Klias) was the kind of ship which sailed from Southern China to Hongkong, to Singapore. After the 1950's it sailed from Singapore, to Kota Kinabalu and around Sabah and then back to Singapore. It was the kind of boat the last China born brides would sail on...The last few came to Sarawak before 1954. 

When she was 14, the Communist had been training all the villagers to sing songs and to dance and she was happy to learn but because her family was poor, she did not go to school. As she was illitterate she was not selected to join the junior cell group. However, she did run away with a group but she was sent back. She enjoyed singing in the mountains. Her mother was not at all happy with her. But times was changing in China and she knew that things would never be the same again for some reason. Some of her peers were already married off because their parents did not want the girls to be sent far away from home.

One year later, food was scarce and rumour had it that soon a lot of people would be sent to the desert to work and to farm especially. Aunty Ah Ying thought about it and agreed to migrate to Nanyang with two distant aunts who were joining some relatives in Sibu. One aunt was to become a teacher in a primary school. And another one was to marry a relative. A marriage was immediately arranged for her upon an introduction. She agreed without even having seen a photo of the man she was going to marry. He was 10 years older than her, China born also,had no land but he had six years of education.

She and the relatives walked to a village near the Mui Keh and then they took a boat to Fuzhou city where they stayed for a few days waiting for a boat to sail out of the Min River. She cannot remember the name of the ship. They sailed to Hong Kong where they put up in a shop house. Several people were also waiting to go to Singapore and Sarawak and they were glad that a teacher was with them.

At that time she found it was hard for her to say Singapore and Sarawak.

The journey took her 2 months because she and her relatives had to wait in Hong Kong and also in Singapore. They arrived in Sibu in 1950 after travelling three days and two nights in a western ship. They were quite comfortable in the lower deck.

She was 16 years old but looked only 12, and she married immediately in the presence of the headman so that she could get a certificate of landing or arrival. Unfortunately she was not able to keep that certificate well. She was happy that she eventually got a blue IC through the help of a headman. That was a miracle in her life.

Aunty Ah Ying passed away just before Gawai in 2017 in Sibu. May her soul rest in peace.

Sibu Tales : Camphor Wood Chest

A camphor wood chest is a priced family heirloom. Not many of our Foochow pioneers would have one.

However a few did obtain at least one when they had the money to acquire one. Usually they would remit their money to Singapore and the chests would then be shipped to Sibu from Fujian.

Fuqing is a province famous for the producting of camphor chests and other camphor furniture. Wood carvers from Fuqing have become very famous and prices have gone upwards of USD10,000.00 for some exquisite pieces.

Photo from Google

Camphor chests usually exude a special aroma. The wood is long lasting and clothes kept in the chests have a refreshing fragrance. Because camphor is a kind of insect repellent, termites cannot attack camphor chests.

Termites cause a lot of damages to wood and furniture in Sarawak.

Nang Chong Stories : Next village, Tanjong Kunyit

In the early 1970's, Tanjong Kunyit was one of the main hotspots of communist activities in Sarawak. My grandmother , uncles and aunts and all their children lived just a stone throw away from this village, in another village called Nang Chong.

Communists terrorists or CTS constantly harrassed the villagers, forcing them to provide food and medical supplies and if they did not oblige they would be hurt. Many bicycles were stolen by the CTS and it was later that we learned that the stolen bicycles provided them barrels for their home made shot guns.

Rascom and their officers came to help the villagers and later a "Danger Belt Scheme" was introduced by Thambipillay who wrote a book  "The Last Post - story of the Emergency 1948-1960 and Commemorative Events"。about his service in Sarawak. He spent 6 months in the Tanjong Kunyit village and got to know the headman, Kang Hin Yu, and his family. It must have been very interesting and even daunting for an Indian man living in a Chinese village with some security forces encamped some where near by. Headman Kang Hin Yu and his family later moved to Sungei Merah and became our Sg. Merah neigbhours! His daughter Miss Kang taught in Tiong Hin Secondary School until she retired.

More than 40 years later, Datuk Thambipillay visited Methodist Chinese Church, Board of Literature Office in Sibu and presented his book to the Editor, Wong Meng Lei.(Feb 25th 2014)


Datuk R. Thambipillay, 88, who retired as Ipoh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief in October 1984, and fought against the communist insurgency. He also returned to Sarawak to visit Tanjong Kunyit and to renew friendships with the locals in Sibu.

Sarawakian Local Delights : Nipah Palm

Gula apong, aka attap sugar aka palm sugar is the sweet sap of the nipah palm (Nypa fruticans)

Nipah palms grow naturally and abundantly in the lower reaches of rivers in Sarawak.

Traditionally, the coastal people harvest the sweet sap from nipah palms which are old enough (usually 5 years and older). A cut is made on the flower to allow the sap to flow into bamboo containers (now recycled plastic bottles). the sap is then for 8 or 10 hours with constant stirring so as to evaporate the water content.

Usually 10 liters of sap produce 1 kg of gula apong.

the thick sugary mass is  stored in small plastic bags or plastic tubs for sale in native markets in Sarawak.

One of the reasons why the gula apong is so tasty is because of the combination of sea salt and the sweetness of natural palm.

the gula apong today is used in more ways than you can imagine. Creative chefs have been challenged to introduce new uses too.

Lovely new product - Gula Apong Icecream






The Nipah Palm flowers are beautiful. Female flowers are at the tip which later form the seeds in a large globular cluster (up to 10 inches) on a single stalk. These clusters will float away and grow into palms on the muddy flats.

Male flowers

Beautiful nipah flower at a riparian forest in Sibu, near Bawang Assan.

Female flowers are in  a cluster like this.

Sarawakian Local Delights : Ikan Lajong

2.5 kg. by Cikgu Linggie John, Bawang Assan

The ikan lajong (Bintulu Ibans call it supak) is not easily caught by net or by hook these days. This fish was plentiful in the olden days at the confluence of the Rajang and Igan rivers. Apparently they swam from the upper reaches of the Rajang, from the Kanowit river too, to Sibu. The river banks around Sibu and Igan had nets which caught them as the tide went down. The Foochows used to erect fish nets at the mouth of their made made ditches. When the tides went down, children would be so happy to go and catch the trapped fish in the muddy bed of the ditches. This was how my late father and many of his friends caught Lajong and even tapah.

This is a photo from my former Methodist School, Sibu student, Linggie John, who is an avid fisherman from Bawang Assan Longhouse. He is a dedicated school teacher.

The Lajong is a member of the catfish family and is a white fleshed fish. It is also good for making of fish balls (in Thailand). But as a steamed fish, Foochow style, or boiled with assam, it is a good fish as it has no fishy smell at all. In the past this fish fetched only a few dollars but today it will cost you quite a bundle since its fine flesh is very highly valued by all races in Sarawak. 

Its scientific name is Phalacronotus apogon. It can grow into a huge size of 130 m. and could weigh up to 4 or 5 kg.

It is found in the Mekong, Chao Phraya, West Malaysian rivers, Sarawak, Sumatra and Kalimantan (where it is often reared in cages and then smoked or dried and sold as Ikan Salai). Dried fish from Kalimantan is found in the tamu of Sarawak.

Sarawakian Local Delights : Engkala

This photo is by Francis Phang, Kuching. Engkala is a fruit that is found in abundance in the coastal region of Sarawak when in season. The fruit is a little like avocado. There are two ways of preparing it for eating. You can scald the cleaned fruit for a few minutes and the fine textured fruit is eaten on its own with some salt.

Or you can hit the base of the fruit with the back of a spoon and the fruit is ready to be eaten. We often wonder who discovered this way of preparing the fruit for eating.



Engkala is a wild fruit and the trees grow well even when they are found in low lying and flood prone areas.

Some food foragers even paddle a boat to a tree to collect the ripe, pink fruits. When still unripe the fruit is pale green in colour.

Engkala can be eaten as a salad with sambal belacan.











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Sarawakian Local Delights : Nibong Palm Shoots

The Nibong Palms are hard to harvest because there are a lot of thorns on the trunks.

The nibong palm wood is very hardy and are very useful building materials for river side homes. Many kampong houses built on the banks of rivers use nibong logs as the legs of the houses. The longer the logs are in the water, the stronger they become.

In many places in Sarawak, nibong trunks are used as posts for boats to tie up.

But once in a while, a young nibong palm tree is harvested for its palm hearts.

The Filipinos like to eat lumpia filled with  shredded nibong palm hearts.

The Ibans in Brunei and Sarawak, make a nice stir fry with shredded nibong hearts.

Governor of Sarawak

Sibu Tales : Collecting dew and Bamboo tips

When we were young we were taught by our maternal grandma to household chores, to remember moral stories from Ancient China and to recognise relatives, and especially how to call them. Besides she also taught us what she knew about Chinese folk medicine.

Among the many, I remember collecting dew drops early in the morning in a Chinese bowl and pulling out bamboo leaf tips.

My sisters and I would pull out the bamboo leaf tips, and my second sister would collect the dew drops in the small bowl. Once she collected half a bowl, she would go back into the house. My grandmother would then take the bamboo leaf tips and the bowl of dew drops to steam over a low fire for my brother who was quite sickly then.

This was a good antidote for heatiness in the body.

We must have collected a few hundred bowls of dew drops over the years.

Sungei Merah Stories : Native Fern domesticated by Mrs. Lu

In Sungei Merah, many Heng Huas continue to live in their wooden houses built after the Second World War. These houses are found along the banks of the Seduan river or Sg. Merah. While many of the homes have cemented a large part of their compound, a few families continue to grow their own vegetables for their home consumption. Any surplus could be sold or given away as gifts.

Mrs. Lu, whose house is just opposite the Tiong Hin Secondary school, has a garden full of paku, which she has domesticated from the wild. She has been selling paku to her friends and her family has enough paku for their meals very frequently.

( I enjoyed talking to her and also taking photographs of her paku.)

Sibu Tales : Sixth District - Lurk Kuh (Now Jalan Tuah)

Many of my Sg. Bidut Tiong relatives planted padi in Lurk Kuh during the Japanese Occupation. Land in those days was cheap and not many people actually had the cash even to pay for the surveying and land title in the Boreh or Government department.

Reverend Ling Kai Cheng also owned some land here and he had relatives live on the land, plant padi and vegetables. He was a very resourceful and generous man.

My paternal grandfather too had some land here and there for padi planting but his own children, my uncles and aunts (three of them were in Singapore then) were very educated so they did not cultivate the land. He therefore allowed some relatives to plant on his land for some rice in return. His Hua Hong Ice and Rice mill in Pulau Kerto thus had rice to mill too. During the Japanese Occupation  my younger uncles and aunts were not short of rice.

Many of his relatives and his Heng Hua friends from Penasu, Sg. Igan, Sg Merah rowed their small wooden boats to Pulau Kerto to mill their rice. (I heard that he charged one small tin for the milling of one gunny sack of padi). A Heng Hua friend told me that he was then only about 4 years old and he saw my stern, tall and strong grandfather at times. That must have been 1942 or 1943.

My late aunt (cousin of my father) Ling Koo, from Sg. Bidut who was then about 12 years old remembered the end of the Japanese Occupation. She saw smoke coming up at Lurk Kii  from across at Sg Bidut. She realised that her parents' padi land was affected. The Japanese trucks were on fire and a lot of uniforms were burnt, including helmets, before the soldiers left Sibu.

And in the air Allied planes were circling around dropping a few bombs. She later heard that a few bombs were dropped in Sg. Merah, in the new airport (built by the Foochow young men, including my father and uncles). There were probably 8 bombs dropped in Sibu area to see to the end of the Japanese Occupation.

Photo from Google.

My cousins remembered that bags of flour were distributed when the Allied came. The soldiers also distributed old clothes and flour bag cotton cloth. My mum remembers getting a lovely dress with an English collar and three quarter sleeves, which she wore almost every day. My aunts in Sg. Bidut were also given a dress each, which of course were too big as they were malnutrited little Foochow teenagers. They were glad that they could make new shirts , each shirt being made from two flour bags.

These are the memories of my mother, aunts (who have already passed on) and friends who are now in their 80's and 90's. I am glad I have been a good listener, and very interested in the history of every place in Sibu.

Sibu was divided into many areas by the Foochow Headmen before Malaysia was formed and each area was under a headman.

Today, the Lurk Kuh area is now known as Jalan Tuah or Lucky Road. It is indeed lucky because the Sibu District Police Headquarters is just opposite it. People living here feel so secure and safe.

Sarawakian Local Delights : Ikan labang

Ikan Labang is a favoured fish from the Rajang river. In ordinary days about 30 years ago, the fish was easily hooked by any keen fisherman along the river from Sibu down to Binatang (now known as Bintangor). Fish in those days were often sold at 5 dollars per kati.

Today the best ikan labang is found in Kapit, according to a businessman. And the price has gone up to RM 70 per kg. 

Fish population in the Rajang has been reduced due to many reasons. One of them being the siltation of the river and pollution. The labang loves clean and pristine conditions. Nowadays the best ikan labang are caught between the Pelagus Rapids and Nanga Ibau. Some can be found in the Balleh River.

In order to support a good ecosystem, so that man can live well, to bring back a teeming fish population in our rivers, we have to maintain good practices. We have to save our environment!!

Sibu Tales : Chinese Black Grass Jelly

Today you can easily buy a canned drink called grass jelly or cincau.

But this packaging is the original made in China grass jelly.

It is easy to make. Just boil the dried "grass" and soon the black jelly will set. It is hard to explain how grass can become jelly-o like.

We were living in Brooke Drive and every mother would go and pluck the green cincau from some one's back yard. My mother would never get any for reasons best known to herself.

So we would always buy our block of cincau from the Toufoo uncle and make our own cincau drink with condensed milk.

today you can add small pieces of cincau to air bandung, plain cold milk, icecream, chendol, sprite, etc or just any combination and cool down on a hot day.