Surviving the Khmer Rouge (2E5 Vanna's Maternal Grandmother)

Interviewer: Chhay Vanna

Date of interview: 14-7-2006

Location of interview: grandmother’s home

Interviewee: Leng Huoy

Present address: West Coast Drive

Birthdate: 20th October 1940

Place of birth: Kandal, Cambodia

This is a life story of my grandmother during the Communist government called Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

          On 20^th of October 1940, my grandmother, Leng Huoy was born. She was brought up in a rich family. She has six siblings consisting of three males and three females. They lived in a villa in a serene village.

At the age of six, she was registered for primary one. She was a very playful little girl. She loved playing tricks on her father. Everyday after school, she would quickly eat her lunch and rush to the river side and play with her friends. Her hobbies were playing hide and seek, swimming in the river, fishing, hunting for insects and playing catching. She  did well in school despite all her mischievous behavior. But unfortunately, she dropped  out of school at the age of eleven for no particular reason. At the age of twenty, she went through a match-making session and later was married to her husband, Tan Jiat Chong who was twenty-three years old. A few weeks later after their marriage, my grandmother opened a provision shop but her business came to a standstill. She decided to sell vegetables instead as it was better and easier. She gave birth to seven children, three boys and four girls.

In 1975, on the morning of 17 April, a civil war broke out as there was a dispute between the high-ranking officials.

A Village Girl (2E5 Suriani's Mother)

Madam Chumanis live through the racial riots that happened in 1964. Then, she was only 18 years old. As a typical village girl, she did not know anything that happened outside her own front door. My grandmother would then tell her the news. Here is some information about my mother. Her birthday is on 24 of October 1947. She was born at  home in a village known as Bukit Cermin. She is a Singaporean. She has two sisters and four brothers. My grandfather was originally from Java and my grandmother was born in Selangor and later came to Singapore. My grandparents lived at Bukit Cermin at that point of time. My grandfather worked as a farmer and owned a farm. They led a simple life; being neither poor nor rich.

My mother spent her childhood playing games with friends. The games she played were five stones, hop scotch, cooking, dolls and a lot more. All the games were home-made.

No Childhood Games (2E4 Audrey Lee's maternal grandmother)

My maternal grandmother, Margaret Lee, was born to Hor Jiu Liang and Lee Bor Tek on the 29^th October, year 1926, in Singapore. She was the third and youngest child in the family. Her siblings, a brother and a sister, were also born in Singapore. They were named Lee Woon Seng and Lee Woon Jiao respectively.

Her parents were actually from Fujian, China but, like almost everyone else who wanted to try their luck at earning a better living, they migrated to Singapore. Here, her father worked as a labourer, hopping from one job to another at times, while her mother, worked as a maid who went to clean the houses of other people, probably those belonging to the wealthy family category. Family income wasn’t high due to the jobs her parents had gotten as for the fact that they knew not a single soul when they first stepped foot in Singapore. Her mother worked for very long hours and also, since there was no one to take care of my grandmother properly in her tender years due to her siblings being busy with school and her parents working, she was taken under the care of a babysitter and could only go home at night when her mother had returned from a hard day’s work. This continued until my grandmother was five or six years old as it was then her mother stopped working. Childhood for my grandmother wasn’t anything like what young children nowadays experience.

A Man From Canton (2E4 Zhi Jian's Grandfather)

MY GRANDFATHER’S STORY

My grandfather, Lee Yuen Yooi, was born in 1932 in a small village in Canton, China. He was the only child in the family. During his childhood days, the games he played included marbles, throwing copper coins, and catching fish in the pond. Whenever he was mischievous, his mother would sit on his back and whack him with a cane. At home, he would help his mother to grow vegetables, water them and bring them to the market area to sell.

He only studied for five years and for every year he studied, he had to change school due to the war. He remembered a teacher during his school days who would often stare at the jackfruit tree outside the classroom as he wanted to eat the jackfruit. My grandfather’s CCA was Boy Scouts. He only studied three subjects which were Maths, Chinese and General Knowledge. Besides Chinese lesson, all other subjects were taught in Cantonese. At the beginning of each Monday morning’s assembly, all the students would read Prime Minister Sun Yat San’s will. Instead of paying school fees, he paid by giving rice during the war time. My grandfather came from a Christian family. During peace time, he would go with his mother to church.

My grandfather came to Singapore when he was 16 years old as he wanted to find a job to feed his family.

A Taxi Driver's Story (2E4 Sherlyn's Dad)

Toh* Hua Lam, my Father was born on 13^th April 1950. He has five siblings, in the order of Zhou Qiang, the eldest son, followed by  Zhou Qing.  Zhou Xiuling and Zhou Pohlan are his sisters and he’s the fourth child in the family having 2 elder brothers, one elder sister and one younger.

This is my father’s story as he told it to me.

My father was a vegetable seller. His name was Zhou Ya Xin and my mother, Lee Quan. My mother helped my father out. Being poor, they lived in a kampong like many other people.

My primary school was Nanshan primay. I remember my primary one teacher, Chen Zhou Le. I was frequently beaten on the palm of my hand by her. At that time, school only had about three to four subjects, Civics and Moral education, Chinese, Mathematics and Science. Due to my family being poor, I only studied up to primary three, hence I had a very low level of education. During my school days, I was notorious. I did not like to go to school hence I skipped it a lot. I frequently fought with the other children at school. My favorite childhood games was spinning tops and ‘go-li’ (marbles).

A Flowermaker (2E4 Nazreen's Maternal Grandma)

My lovely grandmother whom I adore so much is named Zubaidah (A Bedah) bte Hashim. She was born in the year 1928. Her NRIC states that she was born on the first of January but my mother told me about my grandmother having lost a few important documents. Ever since she has grown older and is suffering from senility, she couldn’t remember much about her past and also her birthday. So in order to gather information about my darling grandmother, I asked my mother and my eldest auntie for help. Thanks to them, this is what I have learnt about my grandmother’s life.

I know that my grandmother has gone through World War 2 and racial riots during her young adult years. She can’t remember anything about major events like the Maria Hertogh riots and other riots that happened in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s period. Her love story and everyday life is the only thing I could find out from my auntie and my mother. My grandmother was married to Abdul Karim Bin Mohd, her first husband. He was actually an actor from the entertainment industry in that era and was known to have flung a motorcycle with his teeth. He was a very strong man indeed. Together they had four children: Mohd Abdul Katir, Fatimah Bibi, both who passed away, Salmah Manap (Eldest auntie) and Abdul Rashid. But my grandfather’s time had come for him to rest in peace. My grandmother was truly heartbroken but she moved on with her life, bringing up three children by herself.

From Hainan Island (2E4 Cassandra's Granddad)

My grandfather, Lim Yem Foung was born on March 26, 1922 in China, Hainan Island. He is currently staying at Ang Mo Kio. He has been staying there for almost 30 years.

His parents were farmers living in China, Hainan Island. They mainly led a life of a typical farmer.  He mainly played games like hide and seek and river games. The only punishment he and his siblings got was caning and mending things around the farm.

In China, he lived in houses made of wire mesh. At school in China, they taught them the “san zi jing “and basically, the humanities subjects.

His uncle brought him to Singapore, with his brother, at the age of 15. They stayed in a rented house at Cairnhill Road.

Mr Lim Jit Meng (2E4 Fang Yi's Father)

My Father's Story

            My father's name is Lim Jit Meng. He lives at West Coast Crescent. My father was born on the 30^th of January 1959. He was born in Singapore and has two brothers and a sister. His brothers are Jack Lim Jit Khiang and Lim Jit Heng, his sister is Dora Lim Yuen Sueh and he is also the youngest in the family. His brothers were born on the 23^th of October 1954 and 7^th October 1955 respectively, his sister was born on the 31^st of October 1953. My father's parents’ names are Yeo Whee Keng and Lim Teng Poh. They currently live with us. My grandfather used to work as a Ford Motor foreman and my grandmother was a housewife. My father's life with his parents was peaceful and uneventful.

            My father used to play football using a volleyball. During the holidays, he went hiking with his National Cadet Corps friends. Once, my grandmother bought a chick for my father. After rearing the chicken for about four months, one day my father came home from school to find that my grandmother had slaughtered the chicken and cooked it. When my grandmother offered a piece to him, he refused to eat it and cried. In school, my father had always come in first for examinations, but once he got second in class, my grandmother scolded him and hit him with a cane.

Growing up in Johor Bahru (2E4 Billy Ng's Mother)

    My mother was born in the year 1956 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. At the age of eight she had to wake up at 5am to work in the rubber plantation along with all my aunts and uncles except for my two youngest uncles, who were good in their studies. Every day they cycled to the plantation and each of them had to collect rubber sap, using the machine available to make the sap into rubber sheets which they brought home. According to my mother, at the plantation there appeared to be blue or green lights floating around in a distance whilst they were working and birds sometimes pecked  her on the shoulder giving her a fright. Sometimes when they were heading home, their bikes slipped on the moist soil and they fell. But the saddest part is that the rubber sheets fell into the ditch they had fallen into and were damaged. The rubber would be torn, as it was quite thin and could not be sold. Each fortnight a lorry would arrive and buy the rubber sheets from them.