Reviews & Press : : Days Gone By: Growing up in Penang

Issue No. 92. 1 January 2008
by Leslie A.K. James

Days Gone By: Growing Up in Penang
Revised Edition
Areca Books, Penang, 2007
by Christine Wu Ramsay

One of the inexplicable aspects of international book publishing and distribution is that books on Malaysian themes are often not available in this country. One such book, first published in Australia in 2003; was Days Gone By: Growing Up in Penang by Penang-born author Christine Wu Ramsay. Now, however, thanks to local pub­lisher Areca Books, this autobiographical gem in an updated edition is readily acces­sible to readers in Malaysia. It was launched at a 50th anniversary gala dinner of the St. George's Girls' School Ex-Pupils Association on 4th November 2007 – most fitting as the author herself is a St. George's ex-pupil who on completion of her secondary education at the school left Penang in December 1957 to continue her studies and eventually settle overseas.

Days Gone By recounts the tale of the Penang descendants of nineteenth century Hakka tin magnate Leong Fee. The life she describes is that of a local elite built on the hard work and ambition of a first generation ancestor who came to this land with nothing but a determination to better himself and provide for his family. Wu also attributes the success of her kong tai (or great-grandfather) Leong Fee to that elusive but, for many Chinese, all important fac­tor called fook or luck Leong Fee had fook, she says adding that it plays a dominant role in her story.

Leong Fee arrived in Penang from China in 1876 and six months later moved to Perak where he was to make his for­tune in tin mining. In time, he had homes in both Ipoh and Penang, marrying with four wives and an untold number of mistresses. His Penang house was at 7 Leith Street (now the Equator Art School), opposite Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion on George Town's "Hakka Millionaires' Row". Leong Fee's success, however, was measured not only in the acquisition of wealth and wives but also in attaining prominence in civic life as a community leader and philanthro­pist. He was active in local government as well as serving as vice consul for the Manchu government. His greatest contribution to the Chinese community was undoubtedly his support for education in the founding of schools such as the Chung Hwa School and the Shih Chung School.

While Leong Fee's accomplishments set the scene, Christine Wu Ramsey's story is really that of the second and third generations of the family he established. Her book is amply and beautifully illustrated with remarkable photographs documenting the family's life through the first half of the twentieth century. Her account reveals a life of luxury that combined tradition and modernity, in which cosmopolitan values were embraced alongside such timeworn practices as mui tsai (bondmaids). It was also a life in which the women of the family had great influence. Wu herself was raised mainly by her maternal grandparents -- and their "black & white" amah -- at 16 Farquhar Street, a seaside mansion since displaced by an ugly row of modern shops near the E & O Hotel. Along the shore next door at 32 Northam Road (now restored as a well-known restaurant) was the magnificent Italianate-design villa of her grand­uncle Leong Yin Khean.

It was a lifestyle destined not to endure. War and the Japanese Occupation intervened, of course, physically divid­ing the family and reducing life to its essentials. More significantly, however, the generation that had inherited Leong Fee's wealth did not share his industry and entrepreneurial ethic. Rising costs made it difficult to sustain a life of leisure with servants in large villas. Thus, while Wu was in primary school her grandparents moved to a house on Codrington Avenue.

With her lively anecdotal style Christine Wu Ramsay has provided a sympathetic and informative first-hand perspec­tive on the lives led by the Chinese elite who lived in the ang moh lau, the once stately European-style mansions that still characterize Penang. Her story enriches our understanding of this by-gone era which with its villas is part of Penang's identity and heritage.