The Walk of Life

One of the most remarkable product that came from Guangdong, the Cantonese Region in China are the Cantonese Amahs! As far as I can remember most of the Amahs when I was a kid of 10, all spoke Cantonese and I presumed that they were all Cantonese! Perhaps I am right because Amahs came from Guangdong and below is a painting by Christine Thery of an Amah which I hope will refresh your memories of how an Amah look like.

I remembered Han Chieh our Amah who worked for rock's family for many years. The Amahs of that time were all Super-women or shall I say Super-Maids! They literally do everything in a home, from washing, marketing, cleaning, sweeping, ironing, cooking delicious meals, nanny to the children as well as advisers to the mistress of the house on traditional customs etc. They are also loyal to the family and many became part of the family like our Han Chieh!

They are usually called so and so 'chieh' which means 'sister'. This is also a respectable title which indicates that they are not just servants but a family member. Most of them do not marry by choice and there is a long story to tell regarding this.

Traditionally, Chinese Women were badly treated, the result of Confucian Teaching on the position of women in society! The Ching Dynasty incorporated quite a bit of Confucian Teaching so as to unite the Manchus and the Han Chinese and as a result Chinese Women in the 1900's were not treated with due respect as individuals. They did not have any status or standing in society except when they get married and their respectability comes from their husbands. For those who are single, their respectability comes from their submission to a man like a father before marriage and a husband when married or if single and no father, then the brother of the family!

In Guandong there arise a group of women mostly from the area known as Shun Tak in the Pearly River Delta. They were, I suppose the first women liberation group of that era! They decided to be independent and they earn their own living by rearing silk-worms for the silk and they earned pretty good money. As a sign that they choose to be single and not to be dependent on men, they combed their hair into a bun which in Cantonese known as "Sor Hey". This is symbolic of being married! Girls or maidens usually keep pig-tails and once married they comb their hair into buns to denote their marital status. Many of these women were also educated hence their exemplary manners and refine speech. Below is a photo of rock's granny dressed in the traditional 'Amah Dress with the Bun'. I think she was a beautiful woman.

During the Japanese Invasion of China, many of these Amahs from Guandong, Hong Kong and the Shun Tak girls migrated to Nanyang which was Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand. Over here, they became domestic helpers and hence the Cantonese Amahs. I believe that they were a blessings to many families here with their capabilities. Although they were paid between $70 to $100 per month, they were considered highly paid as compared to ordinary maids! Only the British expats who lived in Malaya, Singapore could afford them. If you do have some exeperience with these Chinese Amahs, please share with me by leaving your comments and links here! Thanks.

Taken from a Beatles Song, this title befits our lives in Malaysia during this period of immense changes and challenges facing the Nation and the citizens. Politically people are getting tired as well as fed-up with all the internal squabbles within the Opposition Coalition and with the ruling Barisan Government. I wonder how can these elected representatives do their work with so much in-fighting within and with-out!

It appears that the Judiciary, MACC (Anti-Corruption) and Police are serving the Barisan Government rather than being neutral. Opposition Parties were hassled over trivial things, investigations, police supervision even for an annual Party Dinner! On the other hand the questionable building of the Palatial House of ex-Chief Minister of Selangor was not investigated!

Lately I received an excerpt purportedly written by Hannah Yeoh the Subang MP which I feel can help us, ordinary citizens to grapple with important issues and why we must PRESS-ON and demand changes to the present corrupt practices that so blatant and rampant! Enjoy reading!

So many people have been telling me just how frustrated they are with the current political situation in our country. Some have told me that they regretted voting for change because of the political instability now and would prefer returning to their old style of voting - vote for stability and forget about having a stronger opposition and greater check and balance. I shudder at the thought of this!

One needs to remember the reason why we are seeing such great resistance for change is simply because there is much to lose for those who have been in power for so long. For decades there has been so much abuse of power, unchecked misuse of public funds and plain dirty corruption. With a stronger opposition now, they stand to lose their illegal sources of income and some may even be charged and sent to prison if they are found guilty. With this in mind, they will fight at all costs to reclaim back power and to ensure they can continue to steal public funds from the people for their own enrichment. We are not just dealing with differences in politics; we are combating evil forces who will not rest till they secure back their powers and illegal sources of income.

Sometimes I feel equally frustrated and disillusioned about the political situation too. Sometimes I lie awake thinking of how to effect change in this land. Some days I cry while driving in between meetings thinking of what's left for the future generation in this land if we give up now. I have endured much verbal attack from political enemies, accusation after accusation of me not doing anything for my constituents and etc. No one truly understands the resistance we face daily in discharging our duties except for my fellow PR assemblymen.

Robert Kennedy once said ‘*Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator and change has its enemies.*’

Our enemies are resisting change but we must stand firm and continue to push for a competent, accountable and transparent government. At the end of each day, as I lay myself to sleep, I ask God for strength, wisdom and protection to face the next. I look forward to the end of the term when I can tell the people of Subang Jaya that I have remained clean and have not stolen any of the taxpayers' funds. As reminded by Raja Petra in his blog "*Please continue your struggle to make Malaysia a better place for our future generation. This country belongs to them and it is for them that we struggle.*" All hope is not lost. Come the next election, vote out the corrupt once and for all. Hang in there supporters and friends, the best is yet to come!

This is going to be a series and what sparked off this topic was a recent meet-up with some friends. Over our durian dessert time after a sumptuous dinner, our conversation turned towards Languages and my dear friend Mary said that Cantonese is not a Language but a dialect! As far as I know, Cantonese is considered a Language!

Later that week I did some research and from Wiki, Cantonese is considered a Language but at the same time depending on view-point, it is also considered a Dialect! So, as far as I am concern, since Wiki labeled it as Language under the ISO 639-3 for Languages, I considered Cantonese a Language under the Sinitic Group. Below is an excerpt from Wiki.

The issue of whether Cantonese in the broader sense (Yue) should be regarded as a language in its own right or as a dialect of a Chinese language depends on conceptions of what a language is. Like the other primary branches of Chinese, Cantonese is considered to be a dialect of a single Chinese language for ethnic and cultural reasons, but is also considered a language in its own right because it is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese.

Further to the above it is my personal belief that Cantonese (perhaps not in the current modern form) was spoken or used way back to Qin, Yuan, Song, Ming, Qing Dynasties. It was during the Qing Dynasty that Mandarin was popularized and made the National Language in China right up to now!

I am a Cantonese and my parents migrated to Malaya then from Guandong or Kwong Tong in Cantonese. There are indeed quite a bit to share on this and hope to post more of my own research in days ahead.

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This morning, I was drawn to an Advertorial by Tim Yang reporting on the sighting of a 'Strange Being" in KL or Kuala Lumpur for short.

The first sighting was by a Mr. Ahmad Sazali from Kampung Sri Cempeka. Mr. Ahmad saw this "Being" while he took out the rubbish one night. He did not have a camera so there was no photo taken.

Another sighting by a Mr. Cheong of Subang Jaya said that the "Being" is 12 feet tall, stood on two legs and have many heads! He shot a photo of the "Being".

I do not know what to make out of all these reports and hope that there will be more sightings and reports on this "Being". Personally I doubt the existence of Extra-Terrestrials although read many articles on these and UFOs. If any of you have more materials on this incident please leave your comments here and if possible provide some links for me to follow-up? Thank-you.