Oct 3, 2010
Confidante, counsel and companion of 63 years
Brilliant and intensely private, the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo is best remembered as Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's loyal partner, whose strength of character supported him as he built a new nation
By Lee Siew Hua, Senior Writer
She was the supremely capable wife who signed the cheques and kept the family strong, prompting her husband, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, to suggest, only half in jest, that he was a 'kept man'.
Many men will cringe at that status, believing that being kept is a contemptible station in life. Not so Mr Lee, who sometimes made counter-intuitive remarks about his wife that hinted at how equal their marriage was.
Married in 1947, their union spanned the decades from Singapore's vulnerable infancy to its arrival as a First World country. Telling the nation that he was a kept man was Mr Lee's way of acknowledging how central his wife, Madam Kwa Geok Choo, a brilliant cheongsam-clad lawyer, was in his career.
Because he had a resolute, able and successful wife at his side during the riotous 1950s, he had the freedom of mind to take arms against colonialism and communism, without worrying that their three young children might suffer if anything were to happen to him.
It was years later, in 1985, that he would say in Parliament: 'Over the years I've been a kept man. My wife keeps the family.'
That was a rare moment when the role in his life played by his intensely shy and private spouse surfaced.
For she had chosen all her life to support him from behind the front line. It was not her place to offer political advice, both appeared to agree, or advance her own agenda or take a direct part in politics.
When senior Straits Times journalists, interviewing him in the late 1990s for their book Lee Kuan Yew: The Man And His Ideas, wanted to know what 'influence' Mrs Lee had on him, he responded:
'Not in political matters. In political matters, she would not know enough to tell me whether this is right or wrong.'
Tellingly, though, he indicated that she was a discerning judge of character.
Other times, he valued her frugality and staid quality. 'She's a very caring person, very staid, very caring; she's not frivolous and does not like to socialise, which saves a lot of time,' he said.
Trusted intermediary
Mr and Mrs Lee, together with Mr Lee's brother Kim Yew, set up the Lee & Lee law firm in a shabby Malacca Street shophouse in 1955.
It was there that Mrs Lee, or Choo as her husband called her, 'first personified the whole hazardous balancing act that was to decide the fate of Singapore', according to the late British journalist Dennis Bloodworth, who authored The Tiger And The Trojan Horse.
There, under the radar, she played the unlikely role of 'cut-out' or trusted intermediary between Mr Lee and two irreconcilable enemies - the British Governor and the 'Plenipotentiary' of the Malayan Communist Party.
Governor William Goode would make contact with Mr Lee, leader of the radical People's Action Party (PAP), through his confidential secretary Pamela Hickley, who would phone Mrs Lee and communicate in hushed tones.
As for 'The Plen', Mr Fang Chuang Pi, he did not trust telephones. But Lee & Lee's clients then included petty gangsters, unlicensed hawkers and a whole host of other humble people, so it was easy for The Plen's courier to slip upstairs to her office.
As Mrs Lee drily pointed out to Mr Bloodworth: 'A four-digit lottery runner would look much the same as a communist agent.'
Mr Bloodworth was able to consult her in the early 1980s for his rich account of the duel between the non-communist PAP and communists. Her voice as it emerged in brief quotes in the book sounded coolly cogent and eloquent, hinting at a precise, lawyerly wit.
The same voice was also evident in the odd e-mail interviews she gave the media in her later years.
For example, when asked if she and Mr Lee had disagreements, she responded: 'Would you believe me if I say we never disagree or quarrel?
'Fortunately, these are over little matters. Kuan Yew leaves household decisions to me. Family matters have not been a problem.'
Another time, in a light-hearted sequence when Radio Television Hong Kong quizzed the couple in 2002, she teased Mr Lee. The interviewer, who started by asking them if they held hands, wondered about changes since their romantic Cambridge years.
Mrs Lee gave a deliberately plain reply: 'The only change is that we've grown older.'
Cheekily, the interviewer said: 'Black hair to white hair.'
Mrs Lee, who often banters with her husband, looked at him and quipped: 'Black hair to no hair.'
Nixon's compliment
In 1973, then United States President Richard Nixon paid artful homage to her at the White House:
'Tonight, when you saw me turning to Mrs Lee, I said, 'Mrs Lee, tell me, is it true that you were No. 1 in the class at Cambridge Law School and your husband was No. 2?' And she said, 'Mr President, do you think he would have married me if that were the case?'
'But I probed further, and I found that, as a matter of fact, Mrs Lee... did receive a first at Cambridge Law School.
'Her husband did also, but like a very loyal wife, she said, 'He had a first with a star after his name, and that is something very special'.'
Mrs Lee was being modest, for she had outshone her husband academically - not at Cambridge but earlier, at Raffles College.
As Mr Lee related in his memoirs, The Singapore Story, he was the best student in mathematics, scoring over 90 marks.
'But to my horror, I discovered I was not the best in either English or economics. I was in second place, way behind a certain Miss Kwa Geok Choo.'
He sat up. 'I knew I would face stiff competition for the Queen's Scholarship,' he wrote.
They had first met at Raffles Institution. As the only girl in a boys' school, the principal had asked her to present the prizes in 1939, and he collected three books from her.
Their intellectual rivalry turned into friendship - and then love.
Her Prince Charming
The war from 1943 to 1946 disrupted their education. Together with Mr Yong Nyuk Lin, later a minister, whose wife was Miss Kwa's sister, Mr Lee started a small business making gum, which was then in short supply. The young Kuan Yew reconnected with Geok Choo in that context.
Later, he recalled: 'She told me... she was looking for her Prince Charming. I turned up, not on a white horse but a bicycle with solid tyres!'
It was often in his happy recollection of their love story - from his moonlight proposal to their secret wedding in 1947 while they were law students in Cambridge - that Mr Lee's forceful personality seemed to soften, even sparkle, most.
But then Mrs Lee regularly revealed a different side of the leader simply by her presence, or her well-timed words in a light British accent.
One day, for a Straits Times report to highlight healthy living, he hopped onto a bicycle on the Istana grounds.
The photographer and journalist found it awkward to instruct the leader of the land to keep cycling. Mrs Lee stepped to the fore, urging her husband to continue riding in circles until the photo shoot was complete.
In the public mind, however, she was very much the silent partner. 'I walk two steps behind my husband like a good Asian wife,' she said in 1976 on a visit to Kuala Lumpur. 'I am not used to interviews. I suppose I am interview-shy.'
In 1971, the Manila Times marvelled at the way the Lees kept out of the public eye. Mr Lee made sure there was 'no Lee Kuan Yew family with a capital F' and 'no Lee Kuan Yew cult', the paper said in a front-page story. And Mrs Lee was 'almost an invisible entity', the paper observed - in marked contrast to some first ladies elsewhere, including in the Philippines itself.
In this respect, she personified - and in many ways, set the model for - the Singapore-style political spouse: in the background, not a newsmaker, not flashy. She was always very quiet by Mr Lee's side in public. And by her manner and deportment, she set the moral tone for all the other political wives. Which was not to say she wasn't always observant - of situations as well as of people.
Mr Lee paid a glowing tribute to his wife in the preface to the first volume of his memoirs, The Singapore Story, which was dedicated to 'Choo':
'Choo was a tower of strength, giving me constant emotional and intellectual support,' he wrote. She would stay up with him till 4am while he laboured over his tome. 'A powerful critic and helper', she went over every word. 'We had endless arguments,' he wrote.
This was an echo of his early political life, when she used to polish his speeches because he had no time.
More significantly, she also had a hand in the 1965 Separation Agreement with Malaysia drafted by then Law Minister Eddie Barker.
Mr Lee had wanted the critical water agreements with Johor to be included in the Separation Agreement. He recounted in his memoirs: 'I was too hard-pressed, and told Choo, who was a good conveyancing lawyer, to find a neat way to achieve this.'
The paragraphs she drafted later became part of the Malaysian Constitution, guaranteeing Singapore's water supply from Johor.
The couple were inseparable. One evocative photograph that has appeared in this paper shows Mrs Lee watching and listening to her husband from a private coign on a rooftop, as he spoke at Fullerton Square rally during the 1984 General Election.
Even after her first stroke in 2003, which occurred while she and her husband were in London, she would still accompany him on trips - whether it was to Chinese New Year dinners in his Tanjong Pagar constituency or on long visits to the Middle East.
At every turn of their marriage of 63 years and in the nation's life of over 45 years, Mrs Lee's love for the father of modern Singapore ran like a leitmotif in his and the nation's life.
In the end, her life, so quiet and yet so entwined with his, made her a vital partner in the Singapore story.
siewhua@sph.com.sg
________________________________________
ABOUT MRS LEE
Madam Kwa Geok Choo was born in Singapore on Dec 21, 1920. Her parents were Mr and Mrs Kwa Siew Tee. Her father was the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation's (OCBC Bank) general manager from 1935 to 1945.
1936: Completes secondary education at Methodist Girls' School. First in the Senior Cambridge Examination for the whole of Malaya.
1937-39: Joins Raffles Institution Special Class, where she meets Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
1940-46: Enrols in Raffles College in 1940 and returns in 1946 after end of World War II.
1947: Graduates from Raffles College with First Class Diploma in Arts, winning the Queen's Scholarship.
1947-49: Reads law as a second-year student in Girton College, Cambridge University.
Places first in Part II of the Law Tripos - the first woman in Malaya to win this distinction.
1947: Secretly marries Mr Lee in December.
1950: Passes Bar final in May. Both she and Mr Lee are called to the Bar at the Middle Temple on June 21. Returns to Singapore. Marries Mr Lee again on Sept 30.
1951: Is admitted to the Bar in Singapore on Aug 7. Joins and becomes senior partner of a local law firm.
1952: Gives birth to son Lee Hsien Loong.
1955: The Lee & Lee law firm is established by Mr Lee, his brother Kim Yew and Madam Kwa.
1955: Gives birth to daughter Lee Wei Ling.
1957: Gives birth to second son Lee Hsien Yang.
1959: Mr Lee Kuan Yew is elected Prime Minister of Singapore. His brother and Madam Kwa take over the reins of Lee & Lee. They remain as consultants even after retirement from active practice.
1965: Helps in drafting parts of the Separation Agreement when Singapore leaves Malaysia.
2003: Suffers a stroke in October while on a visit to London. Recovers soon after and continues to accompany her husband on official trips.
2008: Suffers two strokes in May and in June, which leave her unable to get out of bed, move or speak.
2010: Dies at age 89, 11 weeks before her 90th birthday.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT A LOVED ONE'S SUFFERING
Aug 29, 2010 , STRAITS TIMES
Difficult to accept a loved one's suffering
Feeling compassion with a detachment is wise, but tough when it comes to Mama
By Lee Wei Ling
The writer, then 19, with her mother and father in Rajasthan, India. Those were happier times before her mother suffered a stroke in May 2008 and became bedbound. -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF LEE WEI LING
I awoke with a start, a while ago, from a dream. I looked at my watch. It was 4am.
It was a dream worth remembering, so I decided to write it down immediately. If I had not done so, I would not have been able to remember it later.
In my dream, I seemed to be simultaneously at home and outdoors at some unfamiliar place. Suddenly, a monster appeared and attacked me. I struggled with the monster but it matched me strength for strength. I did not utter a sound, nor was I frightened. Instead, I wrestled silently with it.
Suddenly my mother appeared. She walked towards us, but did not say anything either. Instead, she made a dismissive gesture and the monster turned tail and ran away.
That would be Mama's way of tackling problems, I thought: no need for unnecessary words or actions; just do things quietly and effectively.
At that point, I woke up. I got up from the floor where I was sleeping and went into my mother's room to see how she was doing. She was sleeping peacefully. I am now back in my room recording what I can still remember of my dream - for a 'dream' indeed it was, as it cannot be classified as a nightmare.
For two years and three months already, my mother has been too weak to get out of bed. But in that brief moment in my dream, I saw her again as she had been - physically normal.
I wished I could have dreamt on, and after some time, together with Mama, vanquished the monster in the dream and then walked off together.
In dreams, everything seems possible. That my mother appeared magically in my dream did not surprise me - either while I was dreaming or when I awoke. This is because between Mama and me, there was always some form of telepathy.
Once, when I was staying with my brother Hsien Loong, my toothbrush was worn out and needed to be replaced. I hardly ever shop, so I did what I had always done before: I told Mama I needed a new toothbrush.
Since we were in different houses and I did not want to wake her if she was sleeping by calling her on the telephone, I e-mailed her: 'Ma, I need a toothbrush.'
She e-mailed back: 'I am telepathic. I just got a toothbrush for you. But one day, the commissariat will not be around. If you don't know the word 'commissariat' go look it up in the dictionary.'
She was correct: I did not know what the word meant. And since I did not know where the dictionary was kept in my brother's house, that evening at dinner, I asked him what the word meant.
He knew, of course. 'Commissariat', he explained, is a department in the army charged with providing provisions to soldiers.
Now Mama is no longer in a position to be my commissariat. Worse yet, she is bedbound and no longer able to read - a favourite activity of hers.
Mama had wide interests. She knew things that even many highly educated people would not know or be interested in, as would be obvious if one rummaged through her bookshelves, as I did recently.
There were several books on the flora and fauna of Singapore. There was a hardcover book of children's nursery rhymes, which she had used to read to her grandchildren. Of all her grandchildren, my albino nephew enjoyed reading the nursery rhymes with her the most.
There were several books on Buddhism and Hinduism. There was a King James version of the Bible printed in a large font so that she could read it even without her reading glasses. There were many books on the Indian caste system, and a book describing the ancient city of Harappa in the Indus valley. The city dates back about 4,600 years ago, and was an important trade centre in the ancient world.
Mama was interested in the Silk Route long before it became a fashionable subject of interest. She had a book chronicling the travels of a Victorian lady on the Silk Route.
There were six Malay kamus, or dictionaries. There was a book on Chinese customs and symbols. And of course, there were many books of poetry, including a collection of Rudyard Kipling's poems.
There were also books relating to the early days of Singapore, including The Battle For Merger, a collection of radio talks my father delivered in 1961, detailing the early history of the People's Action Party's struggles with the communists. It is now out of print.
There were many books, too, written by others about my father, including Lee Kuan Yew In His Own Words, excerpts of his speeches from 1959 to 1970, edited by S.J. Rodringuez.
Mama also had the kinds of books one would expect to find on the bookshelves of someone so cultured: among other things, The Tale Of Genji, Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum And The Sword, Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto's The Daughter Of A Samurai, the novels of Jane Austen, and a book I enjoyed tremendously as a child, Anne Of Green Gables.
Mama didn't just collect these books, she read them.
It is now 5.30am. I popped into her room again a while ago and she was still sleeping. I comforted myself that at least when she was sleeping, she was unaware of her unfortunate situation.
Now I am trying to go back to sleep myself, but I cannot do so - not because of the dream but because of Mama's unhappy predicament. It is acutely felt by her three children, my two sisters-in-law, and my cousin Kwa Kim Li, who is my mother's favourite niece. But the one who has been hurting the most, and is yet carrying on stoically, is my father.
It is easy when thinking in the abstract, to conclude that being born, growing old, falling sick and eventually dying is what happens to all of us. I accept these facts with no resentment that life is unkind. I have had more than my fair share of bad luck, but I never resented it, for I think suffering built up my resilience.
But I find it difficult to accept my mother's suffering. The Buddhist principle of feeling compassion but with detachment is wise, but it is not an attitude that I find humanly possible to adopt when it comes to Mama. I cannot see her suffering with detachment.
But there is nothing I can do to get her back to where she was before she suffered a massive stroke on May 12, 2008. She has been suffering since then, and so has my father. But that is life, and we all plod on, fulfilling our duties as best we can. Indeed by focusing my mind on my duties, I manage to temporarily block Mama's suffering from my consciousness.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.
Difficult to accept a loved one's suffering
Feeling compassion with a detachment is wise, but tough when it comes to Mama
By Lee Wei Ling
The writer, then 19, with her mother and father in Rajasthan, India. Those were happier times before her mother suffered a stroke in May 2008 and became bedbound. -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF LEE WEI LING
I awoke with a start, a while ago, from a dream. I looked at my watch. It was 4am.
It was a dream worth remembering, so I decided to write it down immediately. If I had not done so, I would not have been able to remember it later.
In my dream, I seemed to be simultaneously at home and outdoors at some unfamiliar place. Suddenly, a monster appeared and attacked me. I struggled with the monster but it matched me strength for strength. I did not utter a sound, nor was I frightened. Instead, I wrestled silently with it.
Suddenly my mother appeared. She walked towards us, but did not say anything either. Instead, she made a dismissive gesture and the monster turned tail and ran away.
That would be Mama's way of tackling problems, I thought: no need for unnecessary words or actions; just do things quietly and effectively.
At that point, I woke up. I got up from the floor where I was sleeping and went into my mother's room to see how she was doing. She was sleeping peacefully. I am now back in my room recording what I can still remember of my dream - for a 'dream' indeed it was, as it cannot be classified as a nightmare.
For two years and three months already, my mother has been too weak to get out of bed. But in that brief moment in my dream, I saw her again as she had been - physically normal.
I wished I could have dreamt on, and after some time, together with Mama, vanquished the monster in the dream and then walked off together.
In dreams, everything seems possible. That my mother appeared magically in my dream did not surprise me - either while I was dreaming or when I awoke. This is because between Mama and me, there was always some form of telepathy.
Once, when I was staying with my brother Hsien Loong, my toothbrush was worn out and needed to be replaced. I hardly ever shop, so I did what I had always done before: I told Mama I needed a new toothbrush.
Since we were in different houses and I did not want to wake her if she was sleeping by calling her on the telephone, I e-mailed her: 'Ma, I need a toothbrush.'
She e-mailed back: 'I am telepathic. I just got a toothbrush for you. But one day, the commissariat will not be around. If you don't know the word 'commissariat' go look it up in the dictionary.'
She was correct: I did not know what the word meant. And since I did not know where the dictionary was kept in my brother's house, that evening at dinner, I asked him what the word meant.
He knew, of course. 'Commissariat', he explained, is a department in the army charged with providing provisions to soldiers.
Now Mama is no longer in a position to be my commissariat. Worse yet, she is bedbound and no longer able to read - a favourite activity of hers.
Mama had wide interests. She knew things that even many highly educated people would not know or be interested in, as would be obvious if one rummaged through her bookshelves, as I did recently.
There were several books on the flora and fauna of Singapore. There was a hardcover book of children's nursery rhymes, which she had used to read to her grandchildren. Of all her grandchildren, my albino nephew enjoyed reading the nursery rhymes with her the most.
There were several books on Buddhism and Hinduism. There was a King James version of the Bible printed in a large font so that she could read it even without her reading glasses. There were many books on the Indian caste system, and a book describing the ancient city of Harappa in the Indus valley. The city dates back about 4,600 years ago, and was an important trade centre in the ancient world.
Mama was interested in the Silk Route long before it became a fashionable subject of interest. She had a book chronicling the travels of a Victorian lady on the Silk Route.
There were six Malay kamus, or dictionaries. There was a book on Chinese customs and symbols. And of course, there were many books of poetry, including a collection of Rudyard Kipling's poems.
There were also books relating to the early days of Singapore, including The Battle For Merger, a collection of radio talks my father delivered in 1961, detailing the early history of the People's Action Party's struggles with the communists. It is now out of print.
There were many books, too, written by others about my father, including Lee Kuan Yew In His Own Words, excerpts of his speeches from 1959 to 1970, edited by S.J. Rodringuez.
Mama also had the kinds of books one would expect to find on the bookshelves of someone so cultured: among other things, The Tale Of Genji, Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum And The Sword, Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto's The Daughter Of A Samurai, the novels of Jane Austen, and a book I enjoyed tremendously as a child, Anne Of Green Gables.
Mama didn't just collect these books, she read them.
It is now 5.30am. I popped into her room again a while ago and she was still sleeping. I comforted myself that at least when she was sleeping, she was unaware of her unfortunate situation.
Now I am trying to go back to sleep myself, but I cannot do so - not because of the dream but because of Mama's unhappy predicament. It is acutely felt by her three children, my two sisters-in-law, and my cousin Kwa Kim Li, who is my mother's favourite niece. But the one who has been hurting the most, and is yet carrying on stoically, is my father.
It is easy when thinking in the abstract, to conclude that being born, growing old, falling sick and eventually dying is what happens to all of us. I accept these facts with no resentment that life is unkind. I have had more than my fair share of bad luck, but I never resented it, for I think suffering built up my resilience.
But I find it difficult to accept my mother's suffering. The Buddhist principle of feeling compassion but with detachment is wise, but it is not an attitude that I find humanly possible to adopt when it comes to Mama. I cannot see her suffering with detachment.
But there is nothing I can do to get her back to where she was before she suffered a massive stroke on May 12, 2008. She has been suffering since then, and so has my father. But that is life, and we all plod on, fulfilling our duties as best we can. Indeed by focusing my mind on my duties, I manage to temporarily block Mama's suffering from my consciousness.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.
Devoted Mother
Oct 3, 2010
Devoted mother
Mrs Lee raised her children to be well-mannered and disciplined, and took pride in their achievements
To the country, she was Mrs lee. To her husband, she was Choo
To her three children, she was Mama - who corrected their English, took time off from work to lunch with them every day, occasionally wielded a cane, and continued to look out for them when they were adults, down to replacing her daughter's toothbrush when it was worn out.
She took Hsien Yang, now 53 and chairman of Fraser & Neave, out to the beach, watching over him like a hawk as he built sandcastles.
She bought clothes for Wei Ling, now 55 and director of the National Neuroscience Institute, as the latter was a 'reluctant dresser'.
And when her eldest son, Hsien Loong, now 58 and the Prime Minister of Singapore, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1992, she agonised as only a mother could.
With a mother's telepathy, she knew instinctively when her children were in trouble.
Dr Lee Wei Ling, in a column for The Sunday Times, wrote of how in 1995 she had called home after a brush with death on a hiking holiday in New Zealand, but without intending to tell her parents what had happened.
Her mother nevertheless sensed instinctively that something had happened - 'but I'd rather not know what', she told a relative.
Wrote Dr Lee: 'My mother knew me better than I knew myself.'
By accounts, Mrs Lee practised tough love when the children were growing up, making sure that they never threw their weight around although they were the offspring of the prime minister.
When the need called for it, she did not spare the rod 'when the children were particularly naughty or disobedient', recounted Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in his memoirs.
'She brought them up well-mannered and self-disciplined,' he wrote.
As the family's main breadwinner during the early days of MM Lee's foray into politics, she worked long hours at the law firm she had co-founded with MM Lee and his brother, but would forego business lunches so as to be with the children.
In the evenings, she would take them to 'run around the Istana grounds while Kuan Yew played golf or practised on the practice tee and the putting green', she recalled in an interview with The Straits Times. 'And I remember taking them along to PAP picnics, and to Pulau Ubin to visit the Outward Bound School.'
For holidays, the family would visit the Cameron Highlands or Fraser's Hill in Malaysia at least once or twice a year - up to 1965. After that, they would vacation in Changi.
She took quiet pride in the children's achievements.
For instance, when Dr Lee had essays published in the Chinese newspapers, she would cut them out and paste them neatly in an exercise book.
Educated in Chinese-medium schools, their command of English is her achievement. A voracious reader with a passion for literature, she corrected their grammatical errors.
But the couple left it to the children to decide their careers, although she did dissuade Dr Lee, who was fond of dogs, against a career as a vet.
After the trio grew up, Mrs Lee's role evolved from a disciplinarian to that of confidante and companion.
In cahoots with her daughter, she persuaded Mr Lee on his 75th birthday to donate the proceeds from his book sales to polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education students instead of academically gifted students.
Her advice was often laced with her trademark humour.
Dr Lee recounted how as a by-product of being MM Lee's daughter, various people would ask to meet her though they had nothing specific to say to her.
'My mother used to say wryly of such people: 'If they cannot see the panda, the panda's daughter may be an acceptable substitute.'
She was a brilliant student and a sharp conveyancing lawyer. But it was clear that being a wife and mother were the most important roles to Mrs Lee.
In 2003, when the family auctioned for charity various personal possessions, she kept one thing: a pair of small ivory seals which she and Mr Lee had used to stamp the report cards of their three children. Another of her prized possessions was a gold pendant that Mr Lee had commissioned for her, with the engraved Chinese characters 'xian qi liang mu' (virtuous wife and caring mother) and 'nei xian wai de' (wise in looking after the family, virtuous in behaviour towards the outside world).
Dr Lee has written of how she had once e-mailed her mother when her toothbrush needed replacing. Mrs Lee e-mailed back:
'I am telepathic. I just got a toothbrush for you.
'But one day, the commissariat will not be around.'
Devoted mother
Mrs Lee raised her children to be well-mannered and disciplined, and took pride in their achievements
To the country, she was Mrs lee. To her husband, she was Choo
To her three children, she was Mama - who corrected their English, took time off from work to lunch with them every day, occasionally wielded a cane, and continued to look out for them when they were adults, down to replacing her daughter's toothbrush when it was worn out.
She took Hsien Yang, now 53 and chairman of Fraser & Neave, out to the beach, watching over him like a hawk as he built sandcastles.
She bought clothes for Wei Ling, now 55 and director of the National Neuroscience Institute, as the latter was a 'reluctant dresser'.
And when her eldest son, Hsien Loong, now 58 and the Prime Minister of Singapore, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1992, she agonised as only a mother could.
With a mother's telepathy, she knew instinctively when her children were in trouble.
Dr Lee Wei Ling, in a column for The Sunday Times, wrote of how in 1995 she had called home after a brush with death on a hiking holiday in New Zealand, but without intending to tell her parents what had happened.
Her mother nevertheless sensed instinctively that something had happened - 'but I'd rather not know what', she told a relative.
Wrote Dr Lee: 'My mother knew me better than I knew myself.'
By accounts, Mrs Lee practised tough love when the children were growing up, making sure that they never threw their weight around although they were the offspring of the prime minister.
When the need called for it, she did not spare the rod 'when the children were particularly naughty or disobedient', recounted Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in his memoirs.
'She brought them up well-mannered and self-disciplined,' he wrote.
As the family's main breadwinner during the early days of MM Lee's foray into politics, she worked long hours at the law firm she had co-founded with MM Lee and his brother, but would forego business lunches so as to be with the children.
In the evenings, she would take them to 'run around the Istana grounds while Kuan Yew played golf or practised on the practice tee and the putting green', she recalled in an interview with The Straits Times. 'And I remember taking them along to PAP picnics, and to Pulau Ubin to visit the Outward Bound School.'
For holidays, the family would visit the Cameron Highlands or Fraser's Hill in Malaysia at least once or twice a year - up to 1965. After that, they would vacation in Changi.
She took quiet pride in the children's achievements.
For instance, when Dr Lee had essays published in the Chinese newspapers, she would cut them out and paste them neatly in an exercise book.
Educated in Chinese-medium schools, their command of English is her achievement. A voracious reader with a passion for literature, she corrected their grammatical errors.
But the couple left it to the children to decide their careers, although she did dissuade Dr Lee, who was fond of dogs, against a career as a vet.
After the trio grew up, Mrs Lee's role evolved from a disciplinarian to that of confidante and companion.
In cahoots with her daughter, she persuaded Mr Lee on his 75th birthday to donate the proceeds from his book sales to polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education students instead of academically gifted students.
Her advice was often laced with her trademark humour.
Dr Lee recounted how as a by-product of being MM Lee's daughter, various people would ask to meet her though they had nothing specific to say to her.
'My mother used to say wryly of such people: 'If they cannot see the panda, the panda's daughter may be an acceptable substitute.'
She was a brilliant student and a sharp conveyancing lawyer. But it was clear that being a wife and mother were the most important roles to Mrs Lee.
In 2003, when the family auctioned for charity various personal possessions, she kept one thing: a pair of small ivory seals which she and Mr Lee had used to stamp the report cards of their three children. Another of her prized possessions was a gold pendant that Mr Lee had commissioned for her, with the engraved Chinese characters 'xian qi liang mu' (virtuous wife and caring mother) and 'nei xian wai de' (wise in looking after the family, virtuous in behaviour towards the outside world).
Dr Lee has written of how she had once e-mailed her mother when her toothbrush needed replacing. Mrs Lee e-mailed back:
'I am telepathic. I just got a toothbrush for you.
'But one day, the commissariat will not be around.'
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Commonwealth Essay Competition: THE DAY I SAW MY PO-PO
Aug 24, 2010 , STRAITS TIMES
THE DAY I SAW MY PO-PO
Singaporean Tee Zhuo, 17, from Hwa Chong Institution, won a Gold Award (Special Award) at the 2010 Commonwealth Essay Competition organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society. The theme was 'Science, technology and society'. He wrote on inter-generational relationships.
GRAMMAR
IT WAS a swelteringly hot Saturday morning. Then again, which day isn't hot in this country? I couldn't help but wish I 1. ________(opt) to stay at home. Mum 2. _________(narrow) her eyes at me and I'd be in for a round of painful nagging later - but anything, anything just to stay at home. Away from this burning heat. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Away from what was sure to be an hour of 3. _______(listen) to dear old Po-po (Grandma) muttering under her breath about her husband. Who wasn't even alive. Trudge, trudge. Away from 4. ________(carry) enough groceries to last her last years. Trudge.
'Choy! Watch your tongue!' I immediately 5. _______(hear) Mum's voice sound inside my head, the forceful reproach followed immediately by the image of her 6. ________(flap) her hands, as though to frantically wave away my inauspicious mental comment. The real woman 7. ______(be) in front of me, handbag hanging from one hand, keys in the other, clacking-clapping against the jade bangle she wore. Po-po couldn't tell the front door from the TV, so Mum had to unlock the door herself.
'Hurry up. You waiting for Chinese New Year?' she 8. ______(snap) impatiently without looking back.
Glaring at her back, I 9. ______(trudge) on, feeling the poorly designed supermarket plastic bags cut into my palms. Up four flights of stairs, because this particular neighbourhood of Housing Board flats 10. _______(be+been+overlook) for refurbishment.
Refurbishment, which might 11. ________(include) a new lift. The old one served only odd-numbered floors and, well, Po-po just 12. _______(be) to live on the fourth floor, didn't she? In any case, the lift was faulty. Not that I 13. ______(will+be+enjoy) travelling in that metal box reeking of aged incontinence.
Finally. Knock, knock. Mum always knocked, even though she knew no one would answer. Then, sighing, she would fit the key into the padlock that sealed shut Po-po's kingdom. And with that horrible squeaking noise, the gate would open, and the door next. Today was the same. Knock, knock. Sigh. Click. Squeeeak.
'Ma, I'm here,' Mum said. As she did, every time. Then, depending on how my mother 14. ______(look) that day, one of the following replies would come from Po-po:
(A) 'Ah-Jing, come here, come here! So long since we've met!'
(B) 'Ah-Xiu, good to see you. 15. ________(be + you+eat) ?'
(C) 'Who are you? What are you doing in my house?'
(D) Bahasa Indonesia words that I can't comprehend. When we brought her along one day, our Indonesian maid giggled and said they meant: 'Stupid people, stop begging for money.'
Ah-Jing was the name Po-po gave my mother. But that wasn't her real name. Ah-Jing was given as a nickname because jing meant 'gold', 'shiny' or 'smart' in Chinese; (B) happened whenever my mother wore too much red and had her sunglasses on. Ah-Xiu was Po-po's favourite cousin. She was incredibly rich, but had died some years ago of pneumonia; (C) could happen any time at all, and happened the most often; (D) was when Mum brought me along. Somehow I reminded Po-po of beggars.
VOCABULARY
Sure enough, the moment we stepped in, an 1. __________ string of Bahasa Indonesia was feebly directed at us from what looked, at first 2. __________, to be an oddly shaped and purple-coloured batik bag on the sofa. Looking closer, you could see stick-thin limbs poking out of the bag, and the likeness of a face somewhere at the top of the bag. Po-po was a pitifully aged and tiny creature, having been 3. _________ ripped from her mother's womb, a story she was fond of 4. __________. A web of mustiness hung over her, an immovable, 5. __________ fortress. Even while standing just a few feet from her, I felt like she was miles away, locked away in some distant 6. ________ perhaps. Much like those cracked pieces of pottery you see at the museum.
The window in the flat was always shut tight, for the simple reason that Po-po would probably shatter in the wind if the window were left open. Therefore the air was still and 7. ________, like it was reluctant to part for anyone. Stepping into it gave no relief at all to the heat outside. It was like stepping into a 8. ________. Even the walls looked liked they were burnt, with black imprints where old bookshelves or a table had been.
My mother repeated: 'Ma, I'm here already. Ma?' As Mum shook her gently, it seemed as if Po-po was roused from some pleasant dream, her glazed-over eyes immediately 9. _______ back to the dark, angry black of reality.
'Ah-Xiu?' she croaked, a slight smile 10. _______ up her face.
'No, Ma, I'm Ah-Jing', said my mother resignedly. 'Zhuo, take the groceries to the kitchen and then come back and sit with Po-po.'
All hope was lost. Faintly, I heard the promise of a beautiful and relaxing Saturday float away like the dust in this flat. Half-formed ideas of swimming and ice cream 11. ________away.
Sigh. 'Po-po,' I mouthed almost noiselessly, hoping that she wouldn't catch it.
For someone so old, her hearing was 12. _________ keen. Beckoning to me, she patted the 13. _______ moth-eaten sofa beside her. Glancing at my watch, I made a mental note to time how long she would take today to tell the same old story.
'Good, Zhuo, be a filial grandson and keep her company,' my mother smiled encouragingly from behind the mountain of groceries.
I rolled my eyes at her, and then 14. _______ myself, as a soldier readies himself against the onslaught of the inevitable.
'When I was just a young girl in Jakarta...' That was odd. Po-po had never related the story of her 15. __________ in Indonesia. It was either 'My husband, that accursed mongrel, that infidel, that...' or just Bahasa Indonesia stream-of-consciousness complaints about everything in Singapore, from the heat to the food. It was with interest that I continued listening to this old woman in a purple batik dress that hung off her like an elephant's skin.
A small, pretty girl, probably not older than seven, stood in the middle of an equally beautiful garden. Orchids, ixora and spider lilies dotted the cool green grass of the garden like brilliant splashes of paint on an emerald canvas. The evening sunlight softly beamed on the little blur of purple, as the girl twirled around the garden.
'Pulang (come back), Wan Li. Dinner's almost ready,' called a voice from within the grand manor that towered behind the garden.
Happily, the little girl skipped back to the house, sure that her favourite beef rendang was waiting for her. And she wasn't disappointed. The smell reached her quite before the sight, the rich aroma of spices and coconut milk leading her towards the large rosewood table, where among a dozen other mouth-watering dishes stood a pot of piping hot rendang.
As though already predicting what would happen, her mother called out from within the kitchen: 'Don't touch the rendang, Wan Li.'
'Yes, Ibu (Mother)', but in the next second, she immediately scooped up a spoonful of the stew. Ah... Heavenly. The tender meat melted in her mouth, followed by the heart-warming sensation that comes only from homemade food.
After dinner, the little girl played Bengawan Solo on her grand piano, her small hands dancing carefully over the keys. She looked around, and saw her mother smiling indulgently while singing softly and clapping to the beat. Then, a long bath, a cup of hot wedang serbat (spiced drink), and the little girl was tucked into bed by her parents, sleeping with a smile on her face, knowing tomorrow would be yet another happy day, without worries - wonderful, perfect.
'Selamat tidur, sayang (good night, dear),' they would say.
'Selamat tidur, ibu. Selamat tidur, pak,' she would reply.
* * *
I HAD never seen Zhuo so attentive before. I unpacked the groceries, went to see if the laundry was done, swept the kitchen floor and came back. He was still sitting there.
No drooping head, or mechanical nodding. Unable to help myself, I smiled. Every day, I nagged at him: 'Can you be more caring towards Po-po? Talk more to Po-po! Go sit beside Po-po.' I knew he thought it was pointless to talk to an old woman, stricken with dementia, barely knowing to whom she was talking. How do you pull your child away from his teenage paradise of Wii, PS3 and iWhatever?
When Pa was still alive, he and Ma would take Zhuo to the kindergarten. They were so happy then, Pa driving the old Suzuki lorry and Ma beside him balancing Zhuo on her lap, laughing all the way to school. All differences between the two set aside, just for their grandson. But that was before Pa passed away. Then Ma grieved for so long, I was worried every day. She wouldn't eat. She grew depressed, angry at the world, angry at everything. Angry that she had come to Singapore. Angry with Pa, whom she cursed for tricking her. Tricking her into leaving family and home in Jakarta, only to come to this stifling 'neraka' (hell), as she called it. Her mind broke. I have never seen her smile since.
And yet today, she is smiling. Zhuo is smiling. My son is not looking at his watch impatiently, he is not sighing or making faces. Today, I see what my heart has wished for so long.
* * *
LAST week, I would have sat up, stretched, given a great sigh of relief and then bid farewell cheerfully. Today, however, I saw Po-po in a different light. I saw past the sagging skin, the old, mouldy dress. I saw deep into the eyes, found in them a little girl in a purple dress smiling back at me, and I felt an unfamiliar feeling. I think it was guilt. I had been so convinced that my ideal world was all just about me, and nobody else. Now, I could feel, almost see, the boundaries of that world stretching, making space for Po-po and Mum.
'Po-po, I didn't know you had such a happy childhood.' Po-po's laugh carried into the kitchen. My mother poked her surprised face out, and laughed too.
AT THE unfamiliar sound of the family laughing, the little girl in the purple dress nudges Po-po through that web of musty memories, and for the first time, Po-po turns her back on her to embrace Zhuo and his mother.
ANSWERS
Grammar 1. had opted 2. would have narrowed 3. listening 4. carrying
5. heard 6. flapping 7. was 8. snapped 9.trudged 10. had been overlooked
11. have included 12. had 13. would have enjoyed 14. looked 15. have you eaten
Vocabulary 1. unintelligible 2. sight 3. prematurely 4. recounting
5. impenetrable 6. memory 7. dead 8. furnance 9. snapping 10. lighting
11. melted 12. remarkably 13. mouldy 14. readied 15. childhood
THE DAY I SAW MY PO-PO
Singaporean Tee Zhuo, 17, from Hwa Chong Institution, won a Gold Award (Special Award) at the 2010 Commonwealth Essay Competition organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society. The theme was 'Science, technology and society'. He wrote on inter-generational relationships.
GRAMMAR
IT WAS a swelteringly hot Saturday morning. Then again, which day isn't hot in this country? I couldn't help but wish I 1. ________(opt) to stay at home. Mum 2. _________(narrow) her eyes at me and I'd be in for a round of painful nagging later - but anything, anything just to stay at home. Away from this burning heat. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Away from what was sure to be an hour of 3. _______(listen) to dear old Po-po (Grandma) muttering under her breath about her husband. Who wasn't even alive. Trudge, trudge. Away from 4. ________(carry) enough groceries to last her last years. Trudge.
'Choy! Watch your tongue!' I immediately 5. _______(hear) Mum's voice sound inside my head, the forceful reproach followed immediately by the image of her 6. ________(flap) her hands, as though to frantically wave away my inauspicious mental comment. The real woman 7. ______(be) in front of me, handbag hanging from one hand, keys in the other, clacking-clapping against the jade bangle she wore. Po-po couldn't tell the front door from the TV, so Mum had to unlock the door herself.
'Hurry up. You waiting for Chinese New Year?' she 8. ______(snap) impatiently without looking back.
Glaring at her back, I 9. ______(trudge) on, feeling the poorly designed supermarket plastic bags cut into my palms. Up four flights of stairs, because this particular neighbourhood of Housing Board flats 10. _______(be+been+overlook) for refurbishment.
Refurbishment, which might 11. ________(include) a new lift. The old one served only odd-numbered floors and, well, Po-po just 12. _______(be) to live on the fourth floor, didn't she? In any case, the lift was faulty. Not that I 13. ______(will+be+enjoy) travelling in that metal box reeking of aged incontinence.
Finally. Knock, knock. Mum always knocked, even though she knew no one would answer. Then, sighing, she would fit the key into the padlock that sealed shut Po-po's kingdom. And with that horrible squeaking noise, the gate would open, and the door next. Today was the same. Knock, knock. Sigh. Click. Squeeeak.
'Ma, I'm here,' Mum said. As she did, every time. Then, depending on how my mother 14. ______(look) that day, one of the following replies would come from Po-po:
(A) 'Ah-Jing, come here, come here! So long since we've met!'
(B) 'Ah-Xiu, good to see you. 15. ________(be + you+eat) ?'
(C) 'Who are you? What are you doing in my house?'
(D) Bahasa Indonesia words that I can't comprehend. When we brought her along one day, our Indonesian maid giggled and said they meant: 'Stupid people, stop begging for money.'
Ah-Jing was the name Po-po gave my mother. But that wasn't her real name. Ah-Jing was given as a nickname because jing meant 'gold', 'shiny' or 'smart' in Chinese; (B) happened whenever my mother wore too much red and had her sunglasses on. Ah-Xiu was Po-po's favourite cousin. She was incredibly rich, but had died some years ago of pneumonia; (C) could happen any time at all, and happened the most often; (D) was when Mum brought me along. Somehow I reminded Po-po of beggars.
VOCABULARY
Sure enough, the moment we stepped in, an 1. __________ string of Bahasa Indonesia was feebly directed at us from what looked, at first 2. __________, to be an oddly shaped and purple-coloured batik bag on the sofa. Looking closer, you could see stick-thin limbs poking out of the bag, and the likeness of a face somewhere at the top of the bag. Po-po was a pitifully aged and tiny creature, having been 3. _________ ripped from her mother's womb, a story she was fond of 4. __________. A web of mustiness hung over her, an immovable, 5. __________ fortress. Even while standing just a few feet from her, I felt like she was miles away, locked away in some distant 6. ________ perhaps. Much like those cracked pieces of pottery you see at the museum.
The window in the flat was always shut tight, for the simple reason that Po-po would probably shatter in the wind if the window were left open. Therefore the air was still and 7. ________, like it was reluctant to part for anyone. Stepping into it gave no relief at all to the heat outside. It was like stepping into a 8. ________. Even the walls looked liked they were burnt, with black imprints where old bookshelves or a table had been.
My mother repeated: 'Ma, I'm here already. Ma?' As Mum shook her gently, it seemed as if Po-po was roused from some pleasant dream, her glazed-over eyes immediately 9. _______ back to the dark, angry black of reality.
'Ah-Xiu?' she croaked, a slight smile 10. _______ up her face.
'No, Ma, I'm Ah-Jing', said my mother resignedly. 'Zhuo, take the groceries to the kitchen and then come back and sit with Po-po.'
All hope was lost. Faintly, I heard the promise of a beautiful and relaxing Saturday float away like the dust in this flat. Half-formed ideas of swimming and ice cream 11. ________away.
Sigh. 'Po-po,' I mouthed almost noiselessly, hoping that she wouldn't catch it.
For someone so old, her hearing was 12. _________ keen. Beckoning to me, she patted the 13. _______ moth-eaten sofa beside her. Glancing at my watch, I made a mental note to time how long she would take today to tell the same old story.
'Good, Zhuo, be a filial grandson and keep her company,' my mother smiled encouragingly from behind the mountain of groceries.
I rolled my eyes at her, and then 14. _______ myself, as a soldier readies himself against the onslaught of the inevitable.
'When I was just a young girl in Jakarta...' That was odd. Po-po had never related the story of her 15. __________ in Indonesia. It was either 'My husband, that accursed mongrel, that infidel, that...' or just Bahasa Indonesia stream-of-consciousness complaints about everything in Singapore, from the heat to the food. It was with interest that I continued listening to this old woman in a purple batik dress that hung off her like an elephant's skin.
A small, pretty girl, probably not older than seven, stood in the middle of an equally beautiful garden. Orchids, ixora and spider lilies dotted the cool green grass of the garden like brilliant splashes of paint on an emerald canvas. The evening sunlight softly beamed on the little blur of purple, as the girl twirled around the garden.
'Pulang (come back), Wan Li. Dinner's almost ready,' called a voice from within the grand manor that towered behind the garden.
Happily, the little girl skipped back to the house, sure that her favourite beef rendang was waiting for her. And she wasn't disappointed. The smell reached her quite before the sight, the rich aroma of spices and coconut milk leading her towards the large rosewood table, where among a dozen other mouth-watering dishes stood a pot of piping hot rendang.
As though already predicting what would happen, her mother called out from within the kitchen: 'Don't touch the rendang, Wan Li.'
'Yes, Ibu (Mother)', but in the next second, she immediately scooped up a spoonful of the stew. Ah... Heavenly. The tender meat melted in her mouth, followed by the heart-warming sensation that comes only from homemade food.
After dinner, the little girl played Bengawan Solo on her grand piano, her small hands dancing carefully over the keys. She looked around, and saw her mother smiling indulgently while singing softly and clapping to the beat. Then, a long bath, a cup of hot wedang serbat (spiced drink), and the little girl was tucked into bed by her parents, sleeping with a smile on her face, knowing tomorrow would be yet another happy day, without worries - wonderful, perfect.
'Selamat tidur, sayang (good night, dear),' they would say.
'Selamat tidur, ibu. Selamat tidur, pak,' she would reply.
* * *
I HAD never seen Zhuo so attentive before. I unpacked the groceries, went to see if the laundry was done, swept the kitchen floor and came back. He was still sitting there.
No drooping head, or mechanical nodding. Unable to help myself, I smiled. Every day, I nagged at him: 'Can you be more caring towards Po-po? Talk more to Po-po! Go sit beside Po-po.' I knew he thought it was pointless to talk to an old woman, stricken with dementia, barely knowing to whom she was talking. How do you pull your child away from his teenage paradise of Wii, PS3 and iWhatever?
When Pa was still alive, he and Ma would take Zhuo to the kindergarten. They were so happy then, Pa driving the old Suzuki lorry and Ma beside him balancing Zhuo on her lap, laughing all the way to school. All differences between the two set aside, just for their grandson. But that was before Pa passed away. Then Ma grieved for so long, I was worried every day. She wouldn't eat. She grew depressed, angry at the world, angry at everything. Angry that she had come to Singapore. Angry with Pa, whom she cursed for tricking her. Tricking her into leaving family and home in Jakarta, only to come to this stifling 'neraka' (hell), as she called it. Her mind broke. I have never seen her smile since.
And yet today, she is smiling. Zhuo is smiling. My son is not looking at his watch impatiently, he is not sighing or making faces. Today, I see what my heart has wished for so long.
* * *
LAST week, I would have sat up, stretched, given a great sigh of relief and then bid farewell cheerfully. Today, however, I saw Po-po in a different light. I saw past the sagging skin, the old, mouldy dress. I saw deep into the eyes, found in them a little girl in a purple dress smiling back at me, and I felt an unfamiliar feeling. I think it was guilt. I had been so convinced that my ideal world was all just about me, and nobody else. Now, I could feel, almost see, the boundaries of that world stretching, making space for Po-po and Mum.
'Po-po, I didn't know you had such a happy childhood.' Po-po's laugh carried into the kitchen. My mother poked her surprised face out, and laughed too.
AT THE unfamiliar sound of the family laughing, the little girl in the purple dress nudges Po-po through that web of musty memories, and for the first time, Po-po turns her back on her to embrace Zhuo and his mother.
ANSWERS
Grammar 1. had opted 2. would have narrowed 3. listening 4. carrying
5. heard 6. flapping 7. was 8. snapped 9.trudged 10. had been overlooked
11. have included 12. had 13. would have enjoyed 14. looked 15. have you eaten
Vocabulary 1. unintelligible 2. sight 3. prematurely 4. recounting
5. impenetrable 6. memory 7. dead 8. furnance 9. snapping 10. lighting
11. melted 12. remarkably 13. mouldy 14. readied 15. childhood
Describing Places: THE HILLS ARE ALIVE- Guilin, China.
Sep 14, 2010, STRAITS TIMES . Describing Places.
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
...with the sound of music as Zhang Yimou's Liu Sanjie is staged near Guilin
VOCABULARY
Mention the city of Guilin and two images come to mind. One, a postcard-pretty portrait of limestone mountains beside meandering emerald rivers, shrouded in a veil of mist, forming a truly breathtaking tableau of natural beauty.
The other, a classic 1960 Chinese movie, Liu Sanjie or Third Sister Liu, about the love story between a folk singer from the Zhuang minority in Guangxi Autonomous Region where Guilin is located and Ah Niu, a young fisherman. Not unlike a Western musical, the movie is well known 1. ________ for the many folk songs of the Zhuang minority.
Which was why I was skeptical - and 2. _________ - when I heard that the highlight of a recent four-day trip to Guilin was to watch an ongoing stage production of the movie, never mind the producer is acclaimed director Zhang Yimou, who also produced the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The sense of 3. _________ only grew when I turned up at the ticketing counter at the city of Yangshuo, about 60km from the city centre of Guilin, and realised the tickets did not come cheap at all.
They cost no less than 198 yuan (S$40) and go up to a princely 680 yuan for a VIP ticket. That kind of money could buy me a good seat for a Tony-award-winning musical on Broadway.
But the prices did not appear to deter hundreds of chain-smoking Chinese domestic tourists, milling around outside the counter, waiting for their tour guides to usher them into the show.
What would I, a third-generation Singaporean bred on Hollywood movies, possibly enjoy in a musical about a rather predictable romance between two young lovers in a minority tribe in China, and featuring 'shan ge', or mountain song, a genre of Chinese folk song commonly sung in rural provinces?
About an hour later, I was singing a different tune. True, I understood not a single word of the folk songs. True, too, I had only a vague idea of the plot or the key characters among the 600-strong cast comprising villagers and minority tribes living along the more than 100km Li River.
But Impressions: Liu Sanjie was well and truly a spectacle. The 70-minute performance took place on a Li River lake, no smaller than two football fields, encircled by limestone hills and with the violet-hued night sky as the 4. ________. It could be one of the world's largest 5. _______ theatre spaces.
The enveloping mist, moonlight, hills and their inverted reflections in the river formed a constantly changing background, made all the more 6. _______ with strategically hidden floodlights 7. _________ the facade of the mountains.
As the lights fell on the faces of the hills, numerous torches 8. _________ from the far side of the lake as scores of fishermen on bamboo rafts snaked their way across the lake, creating a depth and perspective probably impossible to achieve on a 9. ________ stage.
As the fishermen unfurled large bales of red silk across the lake, now lit up by floodlights, they looked as if they were walking on water.
The finale was no less stunning: Hundreds of performers, each wearing a series of tiny light bulbs, formed a long column across the bridge over the Li River and appeared like an army of 10. ________ pixies.
The performance, which took five years to 11. ________ from page to stage, is no doubt one of the reasons for a growing number of tourists to Guilin.
In 2002, there were close to 11 million tourists, of which about one million were foreigners. The most recent figures in 2008 revealed about 16.3 million tourists, 1.3 million of whom came from outside China.
The city, long 12. ________ for its natural beauty, is one in transition. While villagers continue to hawk their produce - watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbages - from the back of their lorries and tricycles, evidence of change is unmistakeable.
Every turn you take, roads are paved and 13. ______. Scaffoldings wrap old buildings to indicate a new facade is on the way. Elsewhere, new developments - commercial buildings and 14. ______ apartments - dot the city landscape.
In March this year, luxury hotel operator Shangri-La opened a seven-storey, 449-room property, located just a 35-minute drive from the Guilin Liangjiang International Airport and 10 minutes from the heart of the city.
The first new five-star hotel in 20 years in Guilin, it has a 9,999-yuan package which includes a two-night stay in an Executive Suite and a chartered 15. _______ down the Li River, Guilin's main attraction.
The cruise down the 16. ________ stretch of the river lasts 90 minutes in an air-conditioned barge, with a hotel chef on hand to prepare the meals.
A village where time stands still
The 10km stretch from Long Chuan Ping Jetty to Die Cai Mountain passes through 10 of Guilin's most famous mountains - the ones which have been the subject of many 17. _________ and postcards depicting the beauty of the area.
Along the way, you will pass the must-see sight of the Elephant Trunk Hill, a karst formation which resembles an elephant drinking from the Li River, as well as Laoren Hill, or Old Man Hill, which bears an 18. ________ likeness to a hunched old man with a protruding forehead, looming over the mountains.
My favourite moment on the cruise was the stretch from Yangshuo to Yuchun, a village by the Li River which was established in the Ming dynasty. Former United States president Bill Clinton visited it when he was on a nine-day visit to China in 1998.
On my visit, save the makeshift stalls that lined the flight of stone steps leading to the entrance, time seemed to have stood still in the brick-and-mortar village.
Water buffaloes grazed on the banks as women did their laundry by the river. Kids dived into the river from small rocky 19. _______ as the older folk hawked deep-fried crabs, shrimps and fishes caught from the river.
Fishermen on bamboo rafts drifted leisurely down the river with their cormorants, which did the work for them snagging fish from the resource-rich river.
In the village, winding 20. _______ streets appeared to lead nowhere and every turn was an 21. ______ in itself. Up on the roofs of the houses (pay 10 yuan to the owner for access), I saw a village of stone houses built along a 22. _______of streets, a village of order in 23. _____. This, just 24. ______ four hours away from Singapore by 25. ______.
ANSWERS- Vocabulary- 1. worldwide 2. apprehensive 3. trepidation
4. backdrop 5. natural 6. magical 7. illuminating 8. flickered
9. conventional 10. shimmering 11. conceptualise 12. famous
13. repaved 14. residential 15. cruise 16. fabled 17. paintings
18. uncanny 19. outcrops 20. cobbled 21. adventure
22. maze 23. chaos 24. under 25. plane
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
...with the sound of music as Zhang Yimou's Liu Sanjie is staged near Guilin
VOCABULARY
Mention the city of Guilin and two images come to mind. One, a postcard-pretty portrait of limestone mountains beside meandering emerald rivers, shrouded in a veil of mist, forming a truly breathtaking tableau of natural beauty.
The other, a classic 1960 Chinese movie, Liu Sanjie or Third Sister Liu, about the love story between a folk singer from the Zhuang minority in Guangxi Autonomous Region where Guilin is located and Ah Niu, a young fisherman. Not unlike a Western musical, the movie is well known 1. ________ for the many folk songs of the Zhuang minority.
Which was why I was skeptical - and 2. _________ - when I heard that the highlight of a recent four-day trip to Guilin was to watch an ongoing stage production of the movie, never mind the producer is acclaimed director Zhang Yimou, who also produced the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The sense of 3. _________ only grew when I turned up at the ticketing counter at the city of Yangshuo, about 60km from the city centre of Guilin, and realised the tickets did not come cheap at all.
They cost no less than 198 yuan (S$40) and go up to a princely 680 yuan for a VIP ticket. That kind of money could buy me a good seat for a Tony-award-winning musical on Broadway.
But the prices did not appear to deter hundreds of chain-smoking Chinese domestic tourists, milling around outside the counter, waiting for their tour guides to usher them into the show.
What would I, a third-generation Singaporean bred on Hollywood movies, possibly enjoy in a musical about a rather predictable romance between two young lovers in a minority tribe in China, and featuring 'shan ge', or mountain song, a genre of Chinese folk song commonly sung in rural provinces?
About an hour later, I was singing a different tune. True, I understood not a single word of the folk songs. True, too, I had only a vague idea of the plot or the key characters among the 600-strong cast comprising villagers and minority tribes living along the more than 100km Li River.
But Impressions: Liu Sanjie was well and truly a spectacle. The 70-minute performance took place on a Li River lake, no smaller than two football fields, encircled by limestone hills and with the violet-hued night sky as the 4. ________. It could be one of the world's largest 5. _______ theatre spaces.
The enveloping mist, moonlight, hills and their inverted reflections in the river formed a constantly changing background, made all the more 6. _______ with strategically hidden floodlights 7. _________ the facade of the mountains.
As the lights fell on the faces of the hills, numerous torches 8. _________ from the far side of the lake as scores of fishermen on bamboo rafts snaked their way across the lake, creating a depth and perspective probably impossible to achieve on a 9. ________ stage.
As the fishermen unfurled large bales of red silk across the lake, now lit up by floodlights, they looked as if they were walking on water.
The finale was no less stunning: Hundreds of performers, each wearing a series of tiny light bulbs, formed a long column across the bridge over the Li River and appeared like an army of 10. ________ pixies.
The performance, which took five years to 11. ________ from page to stage, is no doubt one of the reasons for a growing number of tourists to Guilin.
In 2002, there were close to 11 million tourists, of which about one million were foreigners. The most recent figures in 2008 revealed about 16.3 million tourists, 1.3 million of whom came from outside China.
The city, long 12. ________ for its natural beauty, is one in transition. While villagers continue to hawk their produce - watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbages - from the back of their lorries and tricycles, evidence of change is unmistakeable.
Every turn you take, roads are paved and 13. ______. Scaffoldings wrap old buildings to indicate a new facade is on the way. Elsewhere, new developments - commercial buildings and 14. ______ apartments - dot the city landscape.
In March this year, luxury hotel operator Shangri-La opened a seven-storey, 449-room property, located just a 35-minute drive from the Guilin Liangjiang International Airport and 10 minutes from the heart of the city.
The first new five-star hotel in 20 years in Guilin, it has a 9,999-yuan package which includes a two-night stay in an Executive Suite and a chartered 15. _______ down the Li River, Guilin's main attraction.
The cruise down the 16. ________ stretch of the river lasts 90 minutes in an air-conditioned barge, with a hotel chef on hand to prepare the meals.
A village where time stands still
The 10km stretch from Long Chuan Ping Jetty to Die Cai Mountain passes through 10 of Guilin's most famous mountains - the ones which have been the subject of many 17. _________ and postcards depicting the beauty of the area.
Along the way, you will pass the must-see sight of the Elephant Trunk Hill, a karst formation which resembles an elephant drinking from the Li River, as well as Laoren Hill, or Old Man Hill, which bears an 18. ________ likeness to a hunched old man with a protruding forehead, looming over the mountains.
My favourite moment on the cruise was the stretch from Yangshuo to Yuchun, a village by the Li River which was established in the Ming dynasty. Former United States president Bill Clinton visited it when he was on a nine-day visit to China in 1998.
On my visit, save the makeshift stalls that lined the flight of stone steps leading to the entrance, time seemed to have stood still in the brick-and-mortar village.
Water buffaloes grazed on the banks as women did their laundry by the river. Kids dived into the river from small rocky 19. _______ as the older folk hawked deep-fried crabs, shrimps and fishes caught from the river.
Fishermen on bamboo rafts drifted leisurely down the river with their cormorants, which did the work for them snagging fish from the resource-rich river.
In the village, winding 20. _______ streets appeared to lead nowhere and every turn was an 21. ______ in itself. Up on the roofs of the houses (pay 10 yuan to the owner for access), I saw a village of stone houses built along a 22. _______of streets, a village of order in 23. _____. This, just 24. ______ four hours away from Singapore by 25. ______.
ANSWERS- Vocabulary- 1. worldwide 2. apprehensive 3. trepidation
4. backdrop 5. natural 6. magical 7. illuminating 8. flickered
9. conventional 10. shimmering 11. conceptualise 12. famous
13. repaved 14. residential 15. cruise 16. fabled 17. paintings
18. uncanny 19. outcrops 20. cobbled 21. adventure
22. maze 23. chaos 24. under 25. plane
MINE DISASTER- CHILE: TRAPPED MINERS
Aug 24, 2010, STRAITS TIMES
Trapped miners alive after two weeks
But it could be months before the 33 Chilean miners are rescued
President Pinera holding up a plastic bag containing a message from the trapped miners on Sunday in Copiapo. It reads in Spanish: 'We are okay in the refuge, the 33 miners.' The men were found about 7km inside the winding mine after a drill broke through 688m of solid rock.
VOCABULARY CLOZE
SANTIAGO: Chileans were 1. _____________ after receiving word that 33 miners trapped deep below ground for more than two weeks were alive and apparently in good 2. _____________, though experts warned that it could still be three to four months before they are rescued.
The first black and white images of some of the 33 men were shown late on Sunday after rescuers made their first 3 . _________ with them since a tunnel collapse on Aug 5 at the San Jose copper and gold mine.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who was at the 4. ________ of the disaster, read out one of the two notes sent up by the 5. _______ miners that said: 'We are okay in the refuge, the 33 miners,' as people around him rejoiced.
'The whole of Chile is crying with joy and 6. _______,' he remarked.
The trapped men were found about 7km inside the 7. ________ mine after a narrow drill broke through 688m of solid rock to reach an emergency refuge where they had gathered.
The notes were found tied to the 8. ________.
A remotely operated camera lowered down the 9. ________ hole later showed the miners sweaty and shirtless in the hot shelter, but in apparently good condition and high 10. _______.
'Many of them approached the camera and put their faces right 11. ______against it, like children, and we could see happiness and hope in their eyes,' said Mr Pinera as he vowed a major overhaul of the mining regulator.
Officials said the miners are located in a space about the size of a small apartment and had 12. _______ amounts of food but more would be passed to them 13. _______ the drill hole.
Tanks of water and 14. _______ shafts are helping them survive, they said, adding that the miners used the batteries of a truck down in the mine to charge their helmet lamps. The miners may have lost about 8kg to 9kg each, they said.
National Emergency Office regional director Carlos Garcia said relatives would soon be allowed to speak with them through a cable dropped down the drill bore.
Chief engineer Andres Sougarret, who is in charge of the rescue operation, said it would take at least 120 days or until around Christmas to drill a shaft large enough to bring out the trapped miners.
Rescuers said the miners would have to assist in their own release by clearing 15. _________ away from the hole beneath ground as drillers worked from above.
'They'll come out thin and dirty, but whole and strong, because the miners have shown they have courage and 16. _______, which is what has kept them together,' Mr Pinera said, choking with emotion.
'God is great,' 63-year-old Mario Gomez, the oldest of the trapped miners, wrote in the second note found attached to the drill.
'I hope to get out soon. Have 17. _______ and faith,' he said in the note addressed to his wife.
The men already have been trapped underground longer than all but a few miners rescued in recent history.
ANSWERS: VOCABULARY- 1.euphoric 2. condition 3. contact 4. site 5. trapped
6. emotion 7. winding 8. drill 9. bore 10. spirits 11. up 12. limited
13. through 14. ventilation 15. debris 16. mettle 17. patience
Trapped miners alive after two weeks
But it could be months before the 33 Chilean miners are rescued
President Pinera holding up a plastic bag containing a message from the trapped miners on Sunday in Copiapo. It reads in Spanish: 'We are okay in the refuge, the 33 miners.' The men were found about 7km inside the winding mine after a drill broke through 688m of solid rock.
VOCABULARY CLOZE
SANTIAGO: Chileans were 1. _____________ after receiving word that 33 miners trapped deep below ground for more than two weeks were alive and apparently in good 2. _____________, though experts warned that it could still be three to four months before they are rescued.
The first black and white images of some of the 33 men were shown late on Sunday after rescuers made their first 3 . _________ with them since a tunnel collapse on Aug 5 at the San Jose copper and gold mine.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who was at the 4. ________ of the disaster, read out one of the two notes sent up by the 5. _______ miners that said: 'We are okay in the refuge, the 33 miners,' as people around him rejoiced.
'The whole of Chile is crying with joy and 6. _______,' he remarked.
The trapped men were found about 7km inside the 7. ________ mine after a narrow drill broke through 688m of solid rock to reach an emergency refuge where they had gathered.
The notes were found tied to the 8. ________.
A remotely operated camera lowered down the 9. ________ hole later showed the miners sweaty and shirtless in the hot shelter, but in apparently good condition and high 10. _______.
'Many of them approached the camera and put their faces right 11. ______against it, like children, and we could see happiness and hope in their eyes,' said Mr Pinera as he vowed a major overhaul of the mining regulator.
Officials said the miners are located in a space about the size of a small apartment and had 12. _______ amounts of food but more would be passed to them 13. _______ the drill hole.
Tanks of water and 14. _______ shafts are helping them survive, they said, adding that the miners used the batteries of a truck down in the mine to charge their helmet lamps. The miners may have lost about 8kg to 9kg each, they said.
National Emergency Office regional director Carlos Garcia said relatives would soon be allowed to speak with them through a cable dropped down the drill bore.
Chief engineer Andres Sougarret, who is in charge of the rescue operation, said it would take at least 120 days or until around Christmas to drill a shaft large enough to bring out the trapped miners.
Rescuers said the miners would have to assist in their own release by clearing 15. _________ away from the hole beneath ground as drillers worked from above.
'They'll come out thin and dirty, but whole and strong, because the miners have shown they have courage and 16. _______, which is what has kept them together,' Mr Pinera said, choking with emotion.
'God is great,' 63-year-old Mario Gomez, the oldest of the trapped miners, wrote in the second note found attached to the drill.
'I hope to get out soon. Have 17. _______ and faith,' he said in the note addressed to his wife.
The men already have been trapped underground longer than all but a few miners rescued in recent history.
ANSWERS: VOCABULARY- 1.euphoric 2. condition 3. contact 4. site 5. trapped
6. emotion 7. winding 8. drill 9. bore 10. spirits 11. up 12. limited
13. through 14. ventilation 15. debris 16. mettle 17. patience
OLD WAYS OF LIFE SWEPT AWAY BY FLOODS
Aug 28, 2010, STRAITS TIMES
Old ways of life swept away by floods
Pakistani survivors return home to ruins
Mr Anar Gul and his son collecting belongings on Thursday from the rubble of their house, which was demolished by heavy floods in Azakhel, Nowshera, in north-west Pakistan. It is the same scene for many other survivors. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
GRAMMAR
AZAKHEL (PAKISTAN): This is what Mr Anar Gul found when he came home: Eight mattresses 1. _______(cover) with polyester swirls, a dozen blankets, a broken tape player and a large metal box buried deep in the mud.
After more than 30 years of 2. _______(carve) out the semblance of a working-class life, this junk spread out to dry on the wreckage of his house 3. ______(be) now all Mr Gul had.
'This is everything,' he said, waving his hands at the muck and the garbage. The former woodcutter 4. ________(build) a mud-walled house with three bedrooms, a guest room and a bathroom.
Nearly a month after floods first 5. _______(begin) battering Pakistan, and as waters still sweep through the south, the first victims are returning home. Millions of people may soon find that, like Mr Gul, their old lives have disappeared.
'We understand the devastation is so intense that even the government cannot help everyone,' said Mr Gul, who 6. ________(add) that he was about 70 years old. 'But the government 7. _______(need) to help us.'
The floods began here, in north-western Pakistan, late last month when the annual monsoon rains began falling. Azakhel, a small town outside the city of Nowshera, saw thousands of homes 8. _______(submerge). Most people 9. _______(flee) by the end of last month and came back only in the last week or so.
Rivers 10. ______(swell) by rain that fell in the mountainous north 11. ______(flow) southward, ravaging a massive swathe of the agricultural heartland. Only in the coming days are floodwaters expected to fully drain into the Arabian Sea.
More than 1,500 people 12. ________(die), most of whom perished in flash floods in the initial days. The death toll does not reflect the scale of the crisis, with millions of hectares under water and the agricultural economy 13. ________(devastate).
More than eight million people need emergency assistance, and the international community 14. _________(pledge) hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.
Mr Rahimullah Yousafzai, a prominent Pakistani writer, said the promises of international aid could backfire.
It is not yet clear what help people will get.
The Pakistani government 15. _______(promise) 20,000 rupees (S$320) to families affected by the floods, with a presidential spokesman calling the payment 'initial assistance'.
Most Pakistanis are, however, distrustful of their government.
Mr Yousafzai said 16. _______(squabble) over aid 17. ________(be+lead) to ethnic and regional tensions and possibly anti- government unrest.
Government officials, for the most part, are nowhere to be 18. ________(see).
'The government hasn't even bothered to ask if we are living or dying,' said Mr Karim Baksh, a retired bureaucrat with the state electricity company. His home in Nowshera was all but 19. ______(level) by floodwaters.
His neighbour, 23-year-old business student Yasir Naseer, 20. _______(urge) international aid groups to distribute help on their own.
'Don't give any cash or anything to our government officials. They cannot be trusted.'
EDITING: The following words are wrongly spelt. Write the correct answer on the lines.
1. rabble ___________
2. devastetain ____________
3. domelished ____________
4. reveging __________
5. missive sweatha ___________ __________
6. amergancy essistence _________ __________
ANSWERS
Grammar – 1. covered 2. covering 3. was 4. had built
5. began 6. added 7. needs 8. submerged 9. had fled
10. swollen 11. had flowed 12. have died 13. devastated
14. has pledged 15. has promised 16. squabbling
17. could had 18. seen 19. leveled 20. urged
Old ways of life swept away by floods
Pakistani survivors return home to ruins
Mr Anar Gul and his son collecting belongings on Thursday from the rubble of their house, which was demolished by heavy floods in Azakhel, Nowshera, in north-west Pakistan. It is the same scene for many other survivors. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
GRAMMAR
AZAKHEL (PAKISTAN): This is what Mr Anar Gul found when he came home: Eight mattresses 1. _______(cover) with polyester swirls, a dozen blankets, a broken tape player and a large metal box buried deep in the mud.
After more than 30 years of 2. _______(carve) out the semblance of a working-class life, this junk spread out to dry on the wreckage of his house 3. ______(be) now all Mr Gul had.
'This is everything,' he said, waving his hands at the muck and the garbage. The former woodcutter 4. ________(build) a mud-walled house with three bedrooms, a guest room and a bathroom.
Nearly a month after floods first 5. _______(begin) battering Pakistan, and as waters still sweep through the south, the first victims are returning home. Millions of people may soon find that, like Mr Gul, their old lives have disappeared.
'We understand the devastation is so intense that even the government cannot help everyone,' said Mr Gul, who 6. ________(add) that he was about 70 years old. 'But the government 7. _______(need) to help us.'
The floods began here, in north-western Pakistan, late last month when the annual monsoon rains began falling. Azakhel, a small town outside the city of Nowshera, saw thousands of homes 8. _______(submerge). Most people 9. _______(flee) by the end of last month and came back only in the last week or so.
Rivers 10. ______(swell) by rain that fell in the mountainous north 11. ______(flow) southward, ravaging a massive swathe of the agricultural heartland. Only in the coming days are floodwaters expected to fully drain into the Arabian Sea.
More than 1,500 people 12. ________(die), most of whom perished in flash floods in the initial days. The death toll does not reflect the scale of the crisis, with millions of hectares under water and the agricultural economy 13. ________(devastate).
More than eight million people need emergency assistance, and the international community 14. _________(pledge) hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.
Mr Rahimullah Yousafzai, a prominent Pakistani writer, said the promises of international aid could backfire.
It is not yet clear what help people will get.
The Pakistani government 15. _______(promise) 20,000 rupees (S$320) to families affected by the floods, with a presidential spokesman calling the payment 'initial assistance'.
Most Pakistanis are, however, distrustful of their government.
Mr Yousafzai said 16. _______(squabble) over aid 17. ________(be+lead) to ethnic and regional tensions and possibly anti- government unrest.
Government officials, for the most part, are nowhere to be 18. ________(see).
'The government hasn't even bothered to ask if we are living or dying,' said Mr Karim Baksh, a retired bureaucrat with the state electricity company. His home in Nowshera was all but 19. ______(level) by floodwaters.
His neighbour, 23-year-old business student Yasir Naseer, 20. _______(urge) international aid groups to distribute help on their own.
'Don't give any cash or anything to our government officials. They cannot be trusted.'
EDITING: The following words are wrongly spelt. Write the correct answer on the lines.
1. rabble ___________
2. devastetain ____________
3. domelished ____________
4. reveging __________
5. missive sweatha ___________ __________
6. amergancy essistence _________ __________
ANSWERS
Grammar – 1. covered 2. covering 3. was 4. had built
5. began 6. added 7. needs 8. submerged 9. had fled
10. swollen 11. had flowed 12. have died 13. devastated
14. has pledged 15. has promised 16. squabbling
17. could had 18. seen 19. leveled 20. urged
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