love nature, live free & be happy always - part i
TRANSCRIPT
"Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered"
"Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016 www.BiganFanli.com
You may NOT realize that the most valuable thing in life is with you all along... until you make the journey to Re-discover yourself.
It's a unique and thrilling LIFE experience!
THE GREATEST GOOD ONE CAN DO IS TO
CULTIVATE ONESELF IN ORDER THAT ONE MAY BE OF GREATER USE TO HUMANITY
LOVE NATURE, LIVE FREE & BE HAPPY ALWAYS MY LIFE RE-DISCOVERED
Part I
2 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Herbert Lee a.k.a. Bigan Fanli - Nature Artist Self-Portrait (2013)
DEDICATION This Book is dedicated to My Grandparents, My Parents,
My Wife Cecilia Mayor Herb Hays and Marilyn Hays,
All my Brothers and Sisters and
Lonn Lee, Anna Cheung, Ellise Lee, Aimee Lee, Jason Tablante, Jonathan Tablante, Justin Tablante, Jacob Tablante, Pearl Lee, Jackie
Leung, Lana Leung, and Crystal Lee
All Rights Reserved 2016
Publisher: Bigan Fanli Group Inc
3 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Introduction - 2016
"Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-
discovered" is divided into four parts.
Part I is my First 12 years in the "Paradise" (1948-1960). Part II is
Surviving the "Concrete Jungle" and University Life in USA (1960-
1974). Part III and IV are for the Rooting Saga in Canada (1974-
2016).
Love nature and be happy always.
Between following the US presidential election "wars" of the
Democrats and the Republicans for more than a year, and working
on my own nature stuff, I find happiness by writing and baby-
sitting three of my five grand children who are part of the
inspirations for me to write this Book.
Life can be forgiving but time isn't, my world is vanishing fast.
There is only one certainty in life after you are born, it doesn't
matter if you are the most powerful persons on earth now, the
likes of president-elect Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Bill Gate, Xi
Jinping, Shri Modi, Pope Francis or Angela Merkel, one must die.
Of course, the most influential people will continue to "live" on in
the world history books of humanity. Their deeds or evils will be
judged by many generations to come. They don't have to write
about their own affairs if they so choose, as many people will
write about these exceptional small percentage of individuals
called the elites because numerous lives depend on what they did
and will do. Their powers come from the vast majority, and that
includes me and maybe you. As one of the majority lodged
somewhere in the middle of the bell curve*, I'm not powerful or
influential, not just yet I know.
I have more grey hairs now, as a matter of fact, my hairs and
beard are all white. I think I have more experience and wiser than
I was twenty years ago. I certainly look like it. Again, looks can be
deceiving. I don't want "me" to be powerful, but I want "we" to be
4 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
powerful, so that each one of us can fit in comfortably with
nature, live free and be happy always.
This is the 19th or 20th books I have ever published, many of
them are available from Amazon.com. I have to justify why I'm
writing this book, or the Part I of this book, as none of my other
publishing is on the best seller lists of Amazon. Making some
money isn't one of the reasons. I simply felt that I had something
in my chest that I wanted to say, and the time is now.
America must be in the dump otherwise Donald Trump won't
have to "make America great again". I think America is already
great but compared with many parts of the world, it isn't doing as
great as it can be. I want to see if he is really draining the swamp
or swelled by the swamp in the coming years.
Regardless, the power of the elites cannot be trusted.
The folks in and around the middle of their respective income
distribution bell curves* are the true power of all the peoples on
earth. The world's peace, stability, growth and prosperity depend
on this group of individuals, our children and their children, our
future and their future depend on all of us; the larger the number
of this group can achieve in their respective own countries, the
better the world will be.
This is my way of solidarity with this group by communicating,
first with my family and then you and whoever may be interested.
I think the best way for me to do this is to walk back to my life for
more than 68 years, as I believe I'm always in the middle of
somewhere; and tell you what I went through, first-handed. I
believe the more this group communicate deeply with each other,
the more solidarity will be achieved. The world will definitely be a
better place!
Cheers!
Herbert Lee, a.k.a. Bigan Fanli - 2016 (www.BiganFanli.com)
*I've a lot to say about this in the later parts of my Book
5 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Part I
My First 12 years in the "Paradise"(1948-1960)
There was no sight of electricity, no rings of telephones, no noise
of cars, no tap water or flashing toilets around. It was just the
continuous flow of the warm breeze carrying with it the ever fresh
air infused with the occasional rich fragrance from the nearby
blooming flower plants. On a Sunday afternoon nesting among
the gigantic bamboo trees 10 feet above ground and gently
swaying with the breeze, I was trying to take my afternoon nap
with my older brother Doug in one of our most favorite spots in
our fruit Farm. I was disturbed by this little fellow I called Kow-
Mo-Chung* (dog-hair- caterpillar) nibbling a fresh new shoot of
bamboo leaf a few inches from my face. This little guy could be
really mean if you touched him with your bare skin, you would be
itching all over.
We retreated down to the ground, skipped on the benches which
were built circling the bottom of the bamboo trees, in our bare
feet and jumped over a big piece of solid granite stone with a
indentation of a big bowl in the ground, laying flashed with the
ground and a weir looking flat piece of lumber with a stone
"beak" directly over the indentation, and rested on two stone-
column supports, so someone could step on it and raise it, then
drop it. Of course, this was the place where we stone-grinded our
rice grains to make rice flour. We forgot how tired we were that
day since we were up before the sun rose at six o'clock and had
been playing everywhere ever since. our greyish white T-shirts
were becoming greenish and brown... (*my Cantonese translations
throughout the text)
I was about 8 years old and brother Doug was about 13. This was
in the mid of the 1950s and I was in a place called 18-Mu Farm (3-
acre Farm, 1 acre = 6.07 mu) surrounded by vast acreage of fruit
orchards, ornamental flower growers, vegetable growers and rice
paddies situated at the fringe of a place called Fa-Day (Flower-
Land) in the fertile Pearl River Delta, Southern China. Great
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majority of the farmlands, fruit farms were once privately owned,
belonged to the Cooperative Commune. The neighborhood
villagers followed the government guidance to produce whatever
crops required for the year and shared the works for the common
good. Family units could retain their residents and some areas
around their houses to grow fruits and vegetables or to use them
for whatever they needed personally. Our family retained 18-Mu
and some other properties nearby.
Painting #2104 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
This was what happened around the world in the 1950s:
May 1950 - First Human organ Transplant
Jun 1950 - Korean War started
May 1951 - Rock and Roll began
February 1952 - King George VI died
March 1953 - Joseph Stalin died
May 1953 - DNA discovered
Jun 1953 - Queen Elizabeth's Coronation
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January 1954 - First Atomic Submarine Launched
February 1954 - Report released that said cigarettes cause cancer
May 1954 - Birth Control pill trials began
June 1954 - Racial segregation in America ruled unconstitutional
in public schools
May 1955 - Warsaw Pact signed
October 1955 - Winston Churchill re-elected Prime Minister of
Great Britain
November 1955 - Vietnam War began
May 1957 - Soviet Union launched satellite "Sputnik" - Space Age
began
May 1958 - NORAD Radar System set up to detect missile attack
from Soviets on North America
January 1959 - Alaska became a part of U.S.A.
December 1959 - Antarctica Treaty signed to make it a scientific
preserve.
While the world was bustling with wars and the launching of the
space age, 18-Mu was full of joy and happiness with 9 energetic
kids. Of course that was the impression of this eight-year old,
despite the facts that we had no electricity, no telephone, no
radio, no television, no tap water, no flush-toilet. But we had
basic food from our Farm, clean water and always fresh air, a vast
"playground" for adventures, schooling, laws and orders, and the
feeling of safety surrounded by like-minded simple people...
My family bought this 18-Mu property just for us during the
Chinese civil war, and many other real estate around the area for
investment purpose as we were based in Hong Kong (Fragrant
Harbor) at the time and considered to be foreign capitalist
investing in China, and from the feel of it, my older generations
were full of confidence about the New China because they sent us
8 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
back there to live and be educated. My two oldest brothers were
born in Hong Kong, a British Colony at that time and they were
back to here to attend Chinese universities. Because of age gap, I
didn't have that much memories of them. My buddies were my
brothers immediate above and below me as we were only a few
years apart in age. I couldn't recall too much about my four sisters
either, one older and three younger, as they were very quiet and
tended to stay with my mother most of the time and played
among themselves.
18-Mu fruit Farm isn't really a farm, it was more like a rural
garden resident surrounded by farms. My grandmother and/or
my mother were always there with us. My grandfather and my
father took terms to come back from Hong Kong to stay with us,
usually a short period of time for each visit. I didn't miss them that
much because I was always kept busy by one thing or the others
and they came and went fairly often. Hong Kong was only about
120 kilometers away. A very short distance physically, but
ideologically they were two different political systems with
thousands of miles apart in similarity.
I spent quite a lot of time with my grandmother as she was the
only one really working for the Cooperative and around the
house. She was really kind and never yelled at me. She cooked
meals for all of us every day. There was no instant foods then,
well, maybe except the salted fish and salt-cured pork, salted
bean curds, pickles and dried vegetables and fruits. Every cooked
meal came from this huge wok sitting on top of a large brick stove
fueled by the burning of dried rice plant stalks (hays). I loved my
grandma, she was petite, pretty and had curly black hairs which
sometimes I pulled and made fun of her.
My mother was always busy looking after us especially the little
twin sisters, my father knew how to keep her occupied. With her
Singer sewing machine, my mother made most of our daily
clothing. When my grandfather came back to stay for a few days,
my mother usually went to Hong Kong to stay with my father, and
during her absence periods, everything was usually in big mess.
9 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
We had one big brick building and a smaller structure in 18-Mu.
The brick building was a simple house divided into three equal
sections one next to the other with the middle one as the main
entrance which had a 10-ft tall thick double wooden doors. There
was one smaller front double doors on each of the other sections,
one on the east side and one on the west side of the Main House.
All doors were facing south and we could walk out of the doors
right into a flat and leveled cement ground which was about the
size of two basketball courts. The main purpose of this court was
for drying rice grains and hays after harvesting in the fall.
Painting #2054 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Every section of the house had inside doors to walk through and
there were walls and wooden lofts built on the back half of every
section as our "bed room" quarters, and sometimes some big rats
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also found their ways up there to build their little home too. My
grandparents' bedroom and the big kitchen were on the east side,
all the boys stayed in the middle section with the sitting room
area in the front half of the section. My mother and the girls were
on the west section along with their activity room and an ancestor
worship area.
We used kerosene lamps for lighting at night, wood and dried
hays from rice plants to boil water and cook meals. Inside the
house, we only had little portable toilets for small kids and
portable water drawn from the river ponds for cleaning and
cooking. No bathroom or toilet inside the house but we did have a
big pond for cleaning and bathing and an outhouse for toileting. I
didn't know what snow was until I was in Tennessee, USA. Who
needed snow anyway as the weather was always hot and
comfortable and there were plenty of sunlight to give me the
vitamins I needed. The sun always rose around six o'clock in the
morning and set around six in the evening. With the exception of
a few odd thunderstorms, the weather was always perfect. I
could wear one T-shirt and one pair of shorts day in and day out,
and shoes were an inconvenience as I enjoyed the feel of the
earth with my bare feet.
18-Mu was mostly sheltered by mature fruit trees of which almost
all the fruits were edible and many of them were commercial
fruits like the huge Olive trees, the Lychee fruit trees, Guava fruit
trees, Longan fruit trees, Pomelo fruit trees, Banana and Papaya
fruit trees. We had only a few of each of them in our 18-Mu fruit
Farm. It was truly heaven when any of them was ready for picking,
we usually ate the ripen fruits right out of the tree.
Right off the front court of the house, there were acres of rice
fields and just beyond those rice fields was one of our neighbors.
There was an 8-foot height dike with some fruit trees growing on
it, separating our side with their side. There was a low dike
meandering through the rice paddies for us to walk through as a
passageway going to different villages and towns in the south
side. These rice paddies, once ours, were the property of the
Commune or Co-operative.
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Immediate on the east side of the house, there was a pond
signaling the end of the river water coming into our property
through a half of a kilometer long little creek, from here the
water fed into the rice fields.
The other brick structure which we called the Chai-Fon (Wood-
House) was on the east side of the Main House and many of our
fruit trees were located just further east of the Chai-Fon, and our
drinking water pond and the outhouse were also located on this
side. There was a 30-foot long dike joining the Main House and
the Chai-Fon, the outhouse, the pond and the fruit gardens.
Under the dike were three small wooden gates to control the flow
of the water to the rice fields on the south side.
The east side was where I spent most of my summer and after
school hours. We had a 10-foot tall stone-made gate in 18-Mu just
off the main road, as our east entrance to the Main House. The
Entrance Gate was about half of a kilometer away from the House
and we had to walk along the creek through the east gardens back
to the Main House.
Right at the edge of the creek-end pond and just north of the 30-
foot dike was the clusters of "hundred-year old" bamboo trees.
Some of the Bamboos were about fifty feet tall reaching way up
into the sky, and they gave great shelters to the rice-grains
grinding area.
My parents built a leisure place under the bamboo clusters with
benches and tables for enjoying a cup of tea and taking a nap in
the hot summer days. Brother Doug and I had built a little
bamboo "tree-house" ten feet above the bamboo trees. These old
clusters of bamboo trees made fantastic music when the breeze
came through and made the stiff bamboo leaves rubbing against
each other and produced a wave of soothing sounds. It was even
more wonderful when a flock of the golden-eye finches were
playing and feeding among the bamboo clusters and singing their
songs right along. The finches loved to eat the caterpillars in the
bamboo trees.
12 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Next to the clusters of Bamboo trees and the resting area to the
east was the Chai-Fon. This was the house that my older brothers
hated and scared of, because inside this structure was dark and
always full of hays and...rats. They had to come here to fetch the
hay for daily cooking, and had to re-stock when the hay was low.
There were rumours of ghosts appearances from time to time... I
tried to avoid and ran past this place every time... Our mother
threatened to put any of us in there if we were bad and not
behaving ourselves. Luckily, no one of us was actually locked in
that place ever.
Painting #2001 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Connected to the east side wall of the Chai-Fon and before the
starting of the fruit tree gardens was the chicken coop. This was
where my grandmother raised her chickens and my older sister
got the chicken eggs. We didn't have any other kinds of farm
animals in the 18-Mu Farm, except a big brown Sha-Pei (Sand-
Skin) dog named Ah-Choy (Oh-Wealth) who was our best friend
and always accompanied us to the Entrance Gate when we went
to school early in the morning, and he usually was the first one to
show up when we were back to the Entrance Gate. I had never
seen him leaving 18-Mu property once, and he was always around
13 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
us. He was the true protector of our place. The only problem with
Ah-Choy was that he woke us up quite often in the middle of the
night mostly in the Fall, and it was creepy.
At night, Ah-Choy always slept just outside of the main entrance
doors of the Main House. In one Fall night, when the air was light
and crispy, the night sky was clear with a new moon... and there
was great visibility as the rice paddies south of our Main House
were all dried and cleared after the harvest... in the middle of the
night, Ah-Choy suddenly barked like crazy.
My elder brothers jumped out of their rattan mats rushed down
the loft with a six-foot bamboo pole in hand and ready for
combat. Brother Doug was holding his slingshot with one hand
and holding Ging with his other hand, and I just followed. My 2nd
oldest brother quickly removed the big piece of wood blocking the
wooden doors from inside and slowly opened one side of the
door... then, Ah-Choy rushed in with its tail down between his legs
and quit barking completely.
Through the narrow opening of the door and momentarily, I saw
two blue-light fireballs moving swiftly around the bare trunks of
the trees on the south high dike yonder...it was spooky, I felt
goose bumps all over me. My oldest brothers shut the doors real
quick and started looking through the peep holes from the
doors...
Everyone was quiet and I heard them saying there were three
fireballs and then there was none. Then, they reopened the
double doors and let Ah-Choy out again. My oldest brother told
us that there were dead animals or people buried on the dike
before, and the phosphorus from the dried bones would create
the spooky moving blue "fireballs". My eldest brother studied and
majored in chemistry in university.
There was a single papaya tree just off the path in front of Chai-
Fon. This papaya tree grew straight up and was taller than the
roof of the Chai-Fon and it always filled with an abundant of
different sizes of papaya fruits hanging in a cluster right below
where the hand-like long and slender leaves grew. Those fruits,
14 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
when ripen, were heavenly juicy and sweet, that was when they
started turning into reddish golden color from green, one after
the other. I couldn't climb up that huge lamp-post-like trunk of
the papaya tree to fletch the fruits at the top as I wasn't as strong
and big as my older brothers. These papaya fruits kept their
attention from the "ghosts" of the Chai-Fon and diluted their
fears of the area.
My 2nd oldest brother always saw ghosts in the Chai-Fon. One
day, in broad day light, brother Ging and I were playing in the
courtyard in front of the Main House. I heard grandma was asking
my 2nd oldest brother to fetch some hay for cooking from the
Chai-Fon, then I saw him ran over the dike heading to the Chai-
Fon.
In a few minutes, and all of a sudden, I heard some rambling noise
and saw my 2nd brother scrambling back from the Chai-Fon with
no hay in his hands, and he was breathing hard and pale. He
scared brother Ging and I.
Painting #3932 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
He said he saw the shadow of our Tai-Kung (Great Grandfather)
when he was picking up a bundle of hay from the inside of the
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Chai-Fon and was just turning around to walk out of the door... He
said Tai-Kung was really tall and smiled at him. From that day on,
my 2nd oldest brother never set foot on the Chai-Fon without
taking brother Doug, Ging or me together.
The creek started from the Main House and ran easterly
bordering the gardens on the north and gently turned northerly
along the main pathway all the way to the east Entrance Gate;
and then, it went under the Big Dike through a tunnel with a
controlling wooden gate to regulate water flows from the River on
the other side of the Big Dike.
On top of the Big Dike, which ran along the River bank basically
from east to west, was our main walk paths to the outside world.
The River was an estuary of the huge Pearl River. The Big Dike was
actually formed the banks of the meandering river, there were big
fruit trees, like Olive and Guava trees all over and they provided
shades from the sun for passersby. These trees formed the
borders of many fruit tree farms and little cluster of small villages
along the way. This made walking along the River very enjoyable.
One side was the clean river and the other was fruit trees, we
could play and we could eat as we went. We walked and trotted
and ran and dashed on this path thousands of times.
Back to our papaya trees and just twenty paces easterly along the
garden path, was two Longan trees (Dragon-eye fruit trees). These
trees had a classic look of a tree with many branches just on top
of a straight trunk about ten feet off the ground. The branches
were packed with leather-like dark green leaves, thick and dense.
And when they bloomed in the Spring, the whole tree was
covered with millions of yellowish milky-color flowers and
frequently sent out puffs of fragrant freshness. Clusters of
brownish fruits the size of a marble each soon covered the whole
canopy of the tree and attracted birds all over. Usually, a good
portion of Longan fruits was sold off to the market in Fa-Day and
it took us weeks to finish the left-over fruits.
Anyone could tell which tree had the better tasting fruits by the
tree trunk, as one tree on the south side had very smooth barks
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because of frequent climbing, the other one not so. This was one
of our off school stops before putting down our backpacks.
Dragon-eye fruit season was also our "diarrhea season" as we
tended to over eat too much at a time. Some of these dragon-eye
fruit trees were so huge in one of my auntie's village that we
could walk on one of its branches about forty feet above ground.
My father had a younger brother and two younger sisters. One of
my aunties lived about an hour's walk from us and she had two
kids. Their family always came to visit us during special occasions
such as the Moon Festival and the New Year Celebrations. One kid
was older than me and the other was couple of years younger
than me. We were good friends. My father's younger brother, my
uncle was an aerospace engineer and I had only seen him a few
times as he worked and lived very far away in a secret military
base somewhere in central China. My mother had a sister with a
son, and my mother's parents were killed in Hong Kong by a bomb
in the war.
That was all I knew about my immediate family. My two oldest
brothers were born in Hong Kong and I was born at home in 18-
Mu. I was really chubby when I was a baby and everyone called
me "Ah-Fe" (Oh-Fat), and actually all the family members always
called me Ah-Fe and no one ever called me by my real name,
except my teachers.
I was always busy with ventures. If I wasn't sitting up with my
brothers on an olive tree branch eating olives with Tze-Tin-Jew
(Finger pointing-Sky-Pepper or cayenne pepper) juice rubbed all
over them, I would be somewhere building a hide-out on our river
bank with my younger brother Ging who was very energetic but
quiet and curious, and he was like my shadow following me
everywhere.
We had a lots of Po-Kew (Water-Hyacinth), water lilies and lotus
plants growing in the moats and ponds. The water hyacinths were
beautiful even without the blooms, but there were too many of
them growing together and slowing down the water flows into
the fish Tongs (ponds), so someone usually cleared them by piling
17 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
them on the dike. Brother Ging and I loved to build play shelters
with them because with their shallow root system and large thick
jade green leaves, and sometimes with fragrant blooms still on
them, they made exceptional staging and stacking material,
especially if they were just been on the dike for a couple of days.
We collected some falling branches, or sometimes with bamboo
sticks, to make a tipi and pile the water hyacinths on top. Inside
the tipi was cool, fresh and fragrant and it was a great hideout to
play with.
I loved everything about water lilies and lotus, especially the lotus
seeds. We pretty well used up the whole lotus plants for food.
Brother Doug and I usually collected the lotus roots from the mud
in the bottom of the ponds, cut off the big and round leaves to dry
to use as wrappers for dumplings, and collected the lotus seeds
after the lotus flower bloomed. Once and awhile we cut some
lotus and water lily blooms and gave them to grandmother, and
she would put them into a big vase and set them on the worship
bench table.
Painting #3661 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
We usually helped grandma to clean up the lotus roots and she
would chopped them into slices and cooked them for dinner.
18 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Sometimes she would mix dried lotus roots and some dried squids
and made soup out of them. They were very delicious. We didn't
have too much luck with lotus seeds as a dish because brother
Doug and I loved to eat them as snacks while freshly pick out of
their pod. We just removed the lotus pod from the lotus plant and
squeezed out the seeds one by one, removed the bitter "core-
needle" inside the seed and yum yum. Usually there wasn't any
left when we got home.
The olives were the least fruit we liked to eat but the one olive
tree we had was a fantastic hot spot for us because that tree was
absolutely clean and beautiful to climb and it bore fruits most the
time, and especially when other fruit trees were out of fruits, our
olive tree would still carrying some olives on its branches. Imagine
the shape of an upside down octopus, the branches of our olive
tree were only feet from the ground spreading out like a gigantic
upside down octopus , and some branches were over a foot in
diameter.
The bark of the tree was very smooth and clean and that made it
easy to climb and rest. There were millions of olives all over.
There were more olives than leaves at some point of the fruiting
season. Usually, if we had other choice, we wouldn't eat the olives
because they had bitter taste but the juice out of the fruit was a
kind of sparkling and refreshing. Well, eating olives kept our
mouths busy. As we were tired of the taste of the olive
sometimes, we just picked a few ripen cayenne peppers which
were growing near the foot of the olive tree, and rubbed on the
olives and ate them. We all wanted to see how many we could
take. Once and awhile, I had to crush down the tree, rush to the
creek and rinse my mouth with water to calm the "fire" inside.
One olive tree was our favorite. This one was growing out of a
mound on the bank of the creek on the north side of the garden,
and we could walk on one of its branches to the other side of the
creek. Many times, when the creek was full of water, we just
slipped off the branch and dropped into the creek to play and
catch cat fish. My 2nd oldest brother tied a big rope with a big
knot on the bottom of that brand just above the creek, so we
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could climbed back up the olive tree from the creek. On the south
side of this Mound , there was a flat clearing which was really flat
and clay solid as this was the only flat and smooth patch of land
where the sun could shine through most of the day and that we
must walked pass to rejoin the main path leading to the Entrance
Gate. This was where our marble championship competition took
place every now and then.
We got our marbles from our older brothers and from friends in
school. Playing with marbles was fun and challenging among
brothers. One way to play was that we drew a small and a big
circle with a stick on the clay surface, everyone placed the same
amount of marbles in the center of the small circle and each of us
took terms and tried to knock them out of the small circle with a
"master" marble started shooting just outside of the big circle. If
your "master" was trapped inside the small circle, you had to
replace it with another of your marble, so you could redeem your
"master marble" and started from the big circle again.
You kept the ones you knocked out of the small circle as reward. I
could keep "shooting" if I got any marble out of the small circle
and my "master" marble also stayed out of the small circle, until I
couldn't get any more marble out of the small circle, or if my
"master" marble was trapped inside the small circle, then it was
somebody else turn. You could only power the "master" marble
by holding it tight inside your folded hand just behind your
tugged-in thumb and by unfolding your thumb in lightning speed
your master marble would fly toward your target, that was if you
had good aim and control. There were many ways to play and we
didn't usually quit until our necks and thumbs got sore.
South of our "marble-championship" court and went westward
back to the Chai-Fon was the main garden area.
This stretch of garden land was amazing. Bordering this land on
the east was our big "Pond", a square dug-in the size of two
basketball courts, and on the eastside bank of the Pond, it was
completely covered with large "Poe-Toe" (grape-peach) fruit
trees. They were not grape or peach.
20 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
The Poe-Toe fruits were different shapes, some shaped like a little
baby hulu, most of them were just round and a bit flat. They were
all bright yellowish-orange color, with thick sweet shell and one
big round seed inside like a baby's rattle. The edible part was the
thick shell covering the seed. It was crunchy, juicy and freshly
sweet. These trees were as big as the olive tree with smooth tree
trunks and large branches stretching to all directions. I could walk
on one of the Poe-Toe tree branches from one side to the other
side of the Pond.
Painting #2003 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
There were five Poe-Toe trees growing sideway off the east bank
of the Pond and crisscrossing the Pond with their thick branches
21 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
and formed several super hangout platforms. Those were our
favorite diving spots into the Pond and also the favorite hunting
spots for the many colorful kingfisher birds we had in the area.
These birds with long beaks and liked to be quiet and hunted
little fish by waiting patiently on the Poe-Toe branches and diving
into our Pond to catch them.
There was our outhouse among the Guava trees on the south
side. A couple of banana trees just grew out of the earth five feet
from the outhouse. A bushy lemon tree, only 3 feet tall covering
part of the walk way to the outhouse, always challenged us to
jump over it, as when you had to go, you really had to go and you
didn't want to circle around the bush.
Not too far westward, there were two Pamola trees, four Star-
Fruit trees, some herbs and one very tall and skinny orange tree
which produced only green sweet oranges.
The fruits from the Pamola tree were bigger than my head size,
but there were not too many of them and we could only harvest
them once a year for special treats usually just for the celebration
of the Moon Festival. The blooms from these trees were very
refreshingly fragrant, so were from the lemon tree and the orange
tree. Their fragrances actually made the outhouse area less
noticeable as far as the smell was concerned.
There were characters with the Star-Fruit trees because all of
them were planted many years ago. They were not very big and
under ten feet tall. The branches were crooked and the scaly dark
brown bark made them look really old. They produced elongated
fruits with 5 ridges, if you cut it up and it resembled the shape of a
star in the sky. Every time when the fruits were ready, I just
jumped right up and picked one. The fruit was juicy but a bit on
the sour side, only the just ripen ones were the best tasting. My
grandmother usually collect them, cut them into small stars and
dried them under the sun to preserve them with some sugar as
our snacks for the off season.
Different kind of Guava fruit trees scattered everywhere. The
good tasty ones usually got picked real early and there were the
22 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
not so good ones kept dropping to the ground and made some
places not so pleasant to navigate, and when you stepped on
them, it was a yuk feeling.
Some Guava trees were thirty feet tall, some were much smaller.
Big or small they all bore fruits fairly quickly and the fruit color
and texture and taste were all different, but they all had a soft
core with a lot of seeds stuck in it. We always got constipation by
eating too much of the seeds. The fruit meat in the core mixing
with the seeds was the best tasting, when I was hungry I just ate
them kind of unintentionally.
There was one big Guava tree that we all liked very much. The
fruits from this tree were dark green color and never turned color
or softness like most of the other Guava fruits, and each fruit was
bigger than my two fists together. They were dense, meaty,
crunchy, and loaded with that natural goodness of spring
sweetness. Of course, we all paid attention to that tree and
usually fought each other trying to get the biggest ones all the
time. The Guava fruits smelled wonderful when they were not
ripen, once they were ripen and dropped to the ground, they
smelled bad. We always could tell which Guava trees were the
best tasting by the amount of fruits dropped on the ground. Our
favorite one had never had any one dropped to the ground. In a
rare occasion if one fell to the ground, someone lucky would pick
it up and eat it.
The Guava tree branches were very resilient and strong so we
always liked to climb them and bounced up and down and we also
used the smaller branch to make slingshots and other handy
tools.
We always carried slingshots in our pockets or in our book bags.
Brother Doug was really good with slingshots and he always had a
few around and he made them for me and brother Ging. I wasn't
good at shooting birds, and I liked to shoot the little mud crabs
along the creek banks for target practise. We called those little
mud crabs "Poun-Kay". They might not be mud crabs at all, they
moved sideways though and had craws just like crabs. They were
23 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
edible. Brother Ging and I caught buckets of them by fishing them
out of the river banks with a bamboo stick equipped on one end
with six feet of thread but no fish hook.
I just tied a small piece of pork fat with the skin, or a piece of
smelly dried fish on the end of the thread, dangling it in front of
the Poun-Kay's burrows, they would rush out to get the meat.
They trampled each other, usually the biggest one got the bait
with it big pincher. I just lift up the bamboo stick, and it wouldn't
let go, all the way to the bucket, and lowered it to the bottom of
the bucket, with a little shake it released the bait and dropped
itself into the bucket and became our dinner. My grandmother
just removed the top shell and a little piece on the underside,
cleaned it with a used toothbrush and put some black beans and
shredded ginger on it. She put a whole bunch of them in a plate
and steamed them with the wok. We ate the whole thing and
they were good.
Painting #2139 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
The high dike on the east side of the Pond was about fifteen feet
wide and ran from the southern end of our property northward all
the way to our Entrance Gate. This high and wide dike served as a
divider for our property and the neighbors on the east.
24 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
The west side of the dike was our creek and the east side of the
dike was our neighbor's twenty feet wide moat circling their
property and their large commercial fish ponds. The banks of the
dike were occupied by various trees and several large clusters of
bamboo trees . The west side of the dike ran along our creek
which served as the only waterway to supply fresh running water
to our property from the River on the north beyond the Big Dike.
Beyond the creek on the west was the property of one of our
distant relatives. They were elderly couples with no kids, and their
house was just north of our Main House. we called them uncle
and aunt and I didn't know their real names. There was a path
immediately along the east side of our Main House extended
northward through the uncle and aunt's property all the way to
the Big Dike. We called this our central pathway. Their farm was
all rice paddy fields, so it was wide open and very bright without
any shades along the path. We used this center path quite often
in the winter times instead of our Entrance Gate path on the east
side.
It was always a thrilling experience coming back home at night
using the east Entrance Gate route. I never went out of our
property by myself, day or night. If I was going to school or a
special night out for something, it was always someone with me.
At night, our dog Ah-Choy didn't usually show up to greet us on
the Entrance Gate pathway and we didn't know why. However,
we always felt that the east pathway was very spooky, especially
when it was really dark without the moonlight and only a little bit
of breeze in the air. Our eastern neighbor buried someone in the
middle of their property, and the little mound shape grave was
visible from our side when we walked past that section of their
property.
Sometimes, it was deadly quiet and pitching dark at night.
Walking on the Big Dike was not as disturbing as it was wide open
but when we turned into our Entrance Gate to head home, things
were completely different because both sides of the path were
bodies of water and shaded by all these trees on the banks. We
25 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
always had a flash light with one of us and sometimes it wasn't
really helpful.
As we walked, everything around us seemed alive, we heard weir
noises, large objects jumped into the water, trees were screaming
and everything was trying to grab and hit us... Brother Doug was
always walking in the front with two of us formed a line behind
him with my two hands touching Ging's back and brother Ging in
the middle touching Doug's back... Half way down the path, just
after passing the neighbor's distant grave, I always felt something
was behind me. Unknowns created fears and we started to sprint
and then, we would hear Ah-Choy barking and running toward us
to save us. It was crazy and scary but really fun, and we just had a
big laugh out of it when we reached the House, and we pointed
figures at each other accusing who the initiator was.
There was a third pathway on the west side of our Main House
that led to the Big Dike on the north side. I seldom played on the
west side of our Main House because the land between our Main
House and our neighbor's property on the west was not as roomy
compared to the east side of our Main House. It was about 200
feet of elevated dike land joining our property with our west
neighbor's, but this westerly pathway was frequently used by
brother Doug and I during school days.
The west side was the most fragrant area around the Main House.
Just 5 feet off the outside wall in the west section, there was a
beautiful hedge of jasmine shrubs. The white jasmine flowers
bloomed continuously throughout the year, sometimes more
blooms, sometimes less, but it seemed there were always jasmine
flowers with that fresh fragrance circling around the area. Bees,
song birds and butterflies hung around all the time.
My mother always picked up all the white fragrant flowers and
put them in a rattan-made basket to dry in the sun. The dried
jasmine flowers had that deep rich and subtle fragrance even
better than the fresh ones. She made tea by mixing some green
tea with the dried jasmines and I loved the smell and the tea.
26 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
At the end of the jasmine hedge, there was an ancient looking old
cedar tree with tightly-packed dark jade-green needle-like leaves.
It went right up the sky with its skinny body and looked very
different from the other plants around. The whole tree had a very
strong and distinct pleasant oily smell, fresh and pungent with a
sharp penetrating aroma. I loved to squeeze and crush the small
and flat needle-like leaves and rub it all over my hands to keep my
hands kind of fresh, especially after I helped cleaning fish.
Painting #3582 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
My grandma was almost always the first to get up in the House,
and the first thing she did was to light up six sticks of incense. She
held them in her hands in front of her chest, tilted her head
upwards with eyes closed for a few seconds, she then planted
three sticks of the incense in a special incense burner on the top
of the worship bench and the rest under the bench on the floor
burner. My grandmother always asked us to cut a few patches
of the cedar leaves for her God worship ceremonies. She tied a
patch of the cedar leaves to a cooked chicken or put it in its beak
and left that in the worship table for a few hours each time.
Sometimes, the little wing of the chicken was missing. I swore I
27 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
didn't do it. Thanks for those worship days, we had chickens for
dinner.
Next to the cedar tree was a big olive tree with some branches
overhanging the roof of the Main House. We didn't usually play or
eat out of this tree, but this tree was useful to the Main House.
Not only it provided some good shade to the Main House, as it
was on the west side blocking the sun, it also served as a
convenient pathway to the roof. During a thunderstorm, some
tiles on the roof might have been moved by the gust wind, one of
my older brothers would climb up the olive tree, followed one of
its big branches and landed on the roof to repair the tiles. There
was no other taller trees around the Main House and they were
lazy to get the long ladder out from the Chai-Fon.
A few paces to the west and across the path in the middle of the
dike was this amazing Bak-Lan-Fa tree (White-orchid Flower). I
didn't know if this was really one of the orchid family trees, it was
better than any other flowering trees I had seen. This tree was
simply beautiful, a specimen plant no doubt.
This patch of land west of the Main House was actually a tall and
wide dike joining the neighbor's dike on the west and sloped
down toward the north and east sides and ended up in a moat
which separated our property with our uncle and aunt's property
in the north. The moat was only 10 feet wide, and there was a
narrow stone crossover bridge so that we could walk through.
There were lush vegetations growing out of the banks of the moat
and because they were so thick and also there was a huge Star-
Fruit tree on the bank of the uncle's side, which was so big and
thick that it covered a good section of the moat and the branches
extended to our side, it made the moat area very spooky. So we
never ventured into the "murky" water in the moat, with the
exception of cutting some Keung-Fa (Ginger-Flowers) from the
bank on our side. We also had plenty of ginger flowers on the
banks of the creek.
On many occasions, brother Doug and I cut the blooms of the
Keung-Fa and sold them in Fa-Day. Keung-Fa blooms were like
28 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
gladiolus but pure white color with very pleasant light fragrance
which would last and last. Brother Doug and I cut the ginger
flowers for grandma all the time for her worship table. The white
and fragrant ginger flowers, and the burning incense were the
year around items for grandma.
The Bak-Lan-Fa tree was symmetrical and looked exactly like a
gigantic clone. It was about 25 feet tall, and the branches
radiated from the main trunk just about 3 feet from the ground
and went all the way to the top. Thicker and bigger on the lowest
and tapered up to the top. Beautiful thick waxy slender long
leaves and seemingly endless flower buds covered all branches,
the buds grew and grew, and the fragrance started to explode
into the air. About one and a half inches long, these ivory color
buds bloomed and emitted a very light and elegant fragrance into
the air and it lasted and lingered. Many times, brother Ging and I
just put a rattan mat under the Bak-Lan-Fa tree and napped under
it. We loved this tree because frequently our breakfasts depended
on it.
Painting #2134 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
A lot of times, we didn't have to go to school, especially
weekends, brother Doug and I usually got up really early before
29 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
sunrise and claimed our shares of the Bak-Lan flowers... People
from the cities loved Bak-Lan-Fa and there was a very good
market for it.
It was stunningly beautiful before the sunrise in 18-Mu.
There was a veil of mist hanging just above the pond and the rice
fields yonder, a funnel of smoke from a distant farm house rose
almost straight into the sleepy and misty sky. Everything was still
and everywhere was quiet except the soothing rhythms of the
running water from the creek. I loved the fresh air with a tiny bit
of moisture in it and it was arousing.
After a cold water facelift from the creek, we were fully awaken.
We ran to the bank of the moat on the north side of the House,
and cut off a couple of leaves from the taro plant. The taro leaves
were big, green, shiny, thick and nicely shaped and we put one
inside our shallow rattan basket for what we were about to do.
Around the Bak-Lan-Fa, we carefully snapped off the about-to-
open or just opened buds in between the stalk of the leave and
the branch. I picked whichever I could reach and brother Doug
was always quick and very efficient. If we couldn't get enough
buds from the lower branches, we just climbed up and got more
until there were about three layers of buds covering the taro
leave inside the rattan basket. Time was always the essence when
we hit the farmer's market in Fa-Day to sell what we got.
From time to time, brother Doug and I sold fresh stuffs from 18-
Mu to get more pocket money. I guessed that he was the one he
needed pocket money, he was five years older than me and he
knew why he needed some pocket money. I had no notion of
money and I didn't really see the needs for it.
I just enjoyed the things we were doing and I thought I was always
an exceptional helper to brother Doug. We sold Guava fruits when
there was just too many for us to consume, we sold Poe-Toe
fruits, Guava fruits and Longan Fruits for the same reason.
Brother Doug and I never sold any olives. My grandmother used
30 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
some olives for pickles as I remembered, and most of the excess
were just dropped to the ground and recycled naturally.
After picking the Bak-lan flower buds, and before the sunrise, we
had to hurry to the farmers' market. Sometimes, we had some
other stuffs picked the day before for the market. There were
some herbs which the jobbers liked to buy from us. We got 10
bundles of Bung-Tai-Woung (Broken-Big-Bowl) and couple
bundles of bamboo needles under the old bench on the dike,
where we put them there the day before.
Painting #2022 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Bung-Tai-Woung grew everywhere on the gentle slopes of the dike.
They were ground-hugging weeds with big circular leaves each shaped
like a bowl with some part of the edge missing, and that was how they
got the name. The bamboo needles were just the new growth of the
bamboo tree, before unfolding into a full size bamboo leave; it came out
as a rolled up needle, we just unplugged it before it opened up and
turned into a leave. I didn't know their medical power and how people
used them, we just knew people wanted to pay money for them. There
were a lot of jobbers to buy different things from the locals and resold
them to the city people.
31 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
The earlier we got to the farmers' market, the better price we
could fetch for our goods. We put the bundles of Bung-Tai-Woung
and bamboo needles under the taro leave inside the basket, we
spread and sprinkled some fresh water on top of the Bak-Lan and
put the other taro leave to cover up everything inside the basket,
and then we headed out the west pathway along the neighbor's
dike to get to the Big Dike and followed the River to the market.
Our west neighbor's dike was very well managed. Their main
house was way back from the moat, and located in the center of
the property. This moat, like our neighbors on the east side was
big and wide; and dug circling around their vast property with
comb-teeth sections cut into the portions of land in the center,
and on top of those little "peninsulas" were all kinds of fruit
trees.
The moat was always stocked and full of fish. Their farm was
pretty well covered with shades. The dike which joint ours was
immaculate, clean and flat and with very little undergrowths and
home to all of the gigantic olive trees; and the very impressive
rows of beautiful Lychee trees extended from the middle of the
dike, this was where our dike met theirs, and southward about
half of a kilometer away to the end of their property.
About once a year or two years they drained the moat, harvested
all the fish and diligently dug up all the very dark matters on the
top of the bottom of the moat and piled them up on the dike.
That was how the dike grew, and that was why the dike could
support so many beautiful and health fruit trees. These very dark
matters were the composed dead leaves dropped from the trees.
We seldom saw our west neighbors as they had no little kids
around. I remembered visiting their main house with my
grandmother, and seeing the old lady a few times and I was
instructed to call her auntie. I had never seen the man of the
house. I heard they had a pretty tragic story behind them. She
was originally from the Old-Golden-Mountain (San Francisco).
There was another resident house north of their big main house
closed to their entrance gate and there were a few people live
32 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
there. There was a teenage girl there too. She was pretty and very
nice, she gave me little stuff she made sometimes and she always
wore two pony tails with her hair. I saw her a lot as we went in
and out of their entrance gate and had to pass her house during
the school days. I still didn't know her name.
Painting #3084 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
With our rattan basket in hand, we quickly walked past the west
pathway on the dike, through the entrance gate to the Big Dike.
Here was the River bordered by the Dike. The River was about 30
feet wide and we had to go to the other side by crossing this very
unique stone bridge just 10 feet east from the entrance gate. This
bridge was the only way connecting this side of the Big Dike to the
other side of the River along many kilometers of the river in this
33 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
area. We called this bridge Sam-Boc-Kew (Three-Joint-Bridge)
which was built with six slabs of long granite stones and
supported with horizontal and vertical logs. Each granite slab was
about 12 feet long and 4 to 5 inches thick, two set side by side and
resting over two scaffold-like log structures rising out from the
water about 10 feet apart in the middle part of the river. There
was a 3-foot high wood railing on one side to prevent people from
falling over.
The bridge was about 8 to 12 feet above the water line at low
tides. I always liked this stone bridge because it gave me a very
safe and secured feeling, and also it was a great diving platform
for us. As this spot was close to the a T-junction of the River, the
water moved very slowly. The main River was coming from the
north and at this point split into two directions. The fresh water
we were getting into our property was from this split east-flowing
river. Obviously, this easterly section of the river was an added-
on. as the river itself continuously flowed westward, and I didn't
know where it was actually ended. I had never seen any boat on
this river.
After crossing the River, we walked, skipped, jumped and ran
following the meandering river on the Big Dike. We passed many
farms, a few villages and about thirty minutes we were in the
farmers' market. When the sun was just shinning, everything in
our basket was sold. It was about time to enjoy our rewards.
I didn't know if the farmers' market was opened everyday but
every time we came here it always had a lot of people. My
brother Doug should know. Every time we came here I just
followed Doug, so I didn't know what I was doing. The crowds got
smaller and smaller as the sun kept rising higher and higher. We
knew because Doug always wanted to buy our breakfast from this
little stall in the market place. The Yau-Chow-Qui (Fried Dough)
and the Chu-Cheung-Fun (Streamed-Rice-dough) were the very
best and also our favorites. We put a lot of sweet bean sauce and
hot-pepper sauce on the Chu-Chung-Fan, and then found a shady
spot and dug in. We ate our food and watched the people went
34 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
back and forth, then we started to feel the early risers syndrome
and headed home.
Once we left the market place, there were very few people
around. The further south we went the less people we saw
walking on the dike. Some day when there was a night rain, and in
the morning there were lots of giant snails crawling on the path.
Unlike the field snails, these were 5 times bigger in size and were
very pretty looking snails too. Somehow, we never tried to collect
them for food, and that I didn't know why. In the hot summer
days, there were also a lots of pretty lizards crawling all over the
dikes. We called them Say-Kirk-Share (Four-Legs-Snake), they ran
fast, and were about six or seven inches long with very bright
multi-colored skins. Brother Ging and I usually wanted to stay
away from them and I didn't know why.
Painting #2147 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
There was a bunch of wild shrubs growing near a long time
abandoned brick house a little distance before the road from the
farmers' market joint up with the path on the Big Dike. The
shrubs were full of thorns and they produced a lot of little round
green berry-like fruits. These berries are the size of a dragonfly
head, and they were very hard inside but soft outside. We never
35 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
tried to eat them but we always stopped there and pick a whole
bunch of them and put them in the basket or some into our
pockets, then we pulled out our Bic-Bark-Tungs (Bic-Bark Hollow
Tubes) from our pockets and as we walked we shot them out of
the Bic-Bark-Tung. We tried to hit little insects or animals met
along the way, or shot the berries right into the river to see who
shot the farthest. Sometimes, without exception, we shot at each
other too.
The Bic-Bark-Tung was a little toy made out of hollow bamboo
and a stick. My other older brother and Doug made it for me.
They cut out a piece of straight bamboo about 8 inches long and
the size of their middle finger. They always cut the piece between
two knots of the bamboo to make sure it was hollow without any
obstructions inside, then they made another short piece, about 3
inches from the same bamboo and made sure this time there was
a knot at one end of this piece. Then, they used a thick piece of
bamboo or went to the Guava tree and cut a very straight branch,
and shaved it down to the size which could tightly fit into the
hollow of the shorter piece of the bamboo. Doug made sure that
the piece of Guava stick was tightly fit and stopped by the knot
inside the bamboo, then, he fit the stick into one end of the long
hollow piece and cut off the stick about one inch to the top. He
made sure again that the Guava stick was rigid and loose enough
to move ups and downs of the long piece. He pulled the short
piece with the stick out of the long piece, and loaded a wild berry
into the hollow, reinsert the short piece with the stick and push
the berry up the hollow of the long piece until the short handle
with the stick matched with the long piece. Now the Bic-Bark-
Tung was half-loaded.
He pulled the short piece with the stick out of the long piece, then
pushed a wild berry into the hollow opening of the long piece. He
re-inserted the stick and pushed the short piece bamboo
forcefully and fast up the long piece hollow, then we all heard the
"Bic" "Bark" noise and the first wild berry shot right through the
hollow and landed fifteen feet away. That was how brother Doug
made the Bic-Bark-Tung for me. Doug was good for doing many
36 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
other things especially catching frogs for dinner and saving my
life.
When we got home, everybody was usually up and helping
grandmother to make lunch.
My two eldest brothers were home that weekend. I didn't see my
eldest brother that much because he went to university
somewhere in the city and stayed in the campus most the time.
The second eldest brother just started university in another place
closer to home so he was home more often. He had a bicycle so I
was happy to see him more often and had the chance to learn
how to ride the bike just in front of the Main House.
Painting #2034 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
It was a really nice day, there were patches of fluffy white clouds
in the sky floating ever slowly to the west. All the brothers wanted
to go catch fish and dig clams in the River that day, my younger
brother Ging and I were delighted to tag along. We didn't usually
went outside of our property for fish. This was like a little outing
treat when the big kids were home.
Everyone took a bucket and Doug had a small net with a long
bamboo handle also and we always had slingshots. All of us were
37 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
wearing short and t-shirts but no shoes and no hats. We headed
west.
We started from our west pathway on the dike, but instead of
going north to the Big Dike, we went south. The Lychee fruits on
the west dike were pretty well all gone, only the lush dark green
leaves remained. They still looked very healthy and full of life. The
Lychee fruits were sold to the markets or exported to Hong Kong.
At the end of the west dike, we turned right and this dike was the
southern border of our west neighbor.
We skipped, we trotted, we jumped and Ging and I always walked
behind the other brothers. There were Longan trees and Poe-Toe
fruit trees on the dikes and when I saw a really nice one, I jumped
up and got it. We very seldom climbed other people's fruit trees
and pick the fruits because our grandmother and mother told us
not to. Many of these trees actually belonged to the Co-op. As we
walked along all these seemingly intricate dikes westerly and
southward, the land got lower and much flatter, a lot more rice
paddies, and clusters of bamboo trees abound. It was all golden.
Some rice paddies yonder were almost ready for harvesting and
swirls of golden waves raised and fell when the breeze swept
forcefully but gently over them. Flocks of happy Mar-Jer
(sparrows) followed the wave rhythms, singing, chirping, chanting
and dancing. It was their time in the paradise. Doug took out his
slingshot and tried his luck on a few and nothing happened, they
were just too fast and too far.
After forty minutes or so we arrived at somewhere resembling the
beginning of a river. The water was very shallow and spread out
like my fingers over mostly sandy and pebble areas. it appeared
that the river was at low tide. I was in this place a few times
before, it was just beautiful and relaxing. The water was very clear
and I saw little fish dashed by frequently and that energized us,
and we started digging for clams with sticks and hands.
This area was a little shangri la. It was wild, nobody except us was
around, no farms, no paddy fields and only a pair of Ba-Hoc
(White Cranes) was in sign. The water retreated very slowly
38 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
toward the west where the river was. We didn't get too many
Wong-Sha-Tai-Hin (Yellow-Sand Big Clams) this time after about
half of an hour's digging, we caught a few little fish and some
crayfish. My other brothers were pretty disappointed, but not me
and Ging. Two of us were already completely soaking wet as we
chased each other, threw water over each other with the bucket
and splashed into the shallow clear water from time to time. It
was really fun for us. I could stay in there for the whole day and so
was Ging, but our older brothers decided to change spot. That
was fine with me too because I was a bit hungry and I didn't mind
to have something to eat, and as we walked the breeze would dry
up my clothes and I would feel a bit more comfortable.
They decided to move westward and went back to the dike of the
River, and a few minutes later we passed a spot where I could still
see the evidence of some charcoal inside a dug-in which was
bordered on three sides with big rocks. That was a sight of
disaster.
Painting #2032 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
That was the image reflection of our last visit to this place. Same
people, same place and we were lucky last time, we dug up two
whole buckets of Wong-Sha-Tai-Hin and we decided to have lunch
39 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
in the little shangri la. The fresh clams looked delicious and very
tempting. Doug, Ging and I scouted and collected dried wood and
sticks around the area and the other brothers built the stove with
three pieces of big rocks.
My eldest brother always carried a lighter all the time and it was
just very handy for our cookout. They used one of the better
buckets, which was made with zinc metal, and filled it up half way
with water and set it on the just-made stone stove. They piled
the sticks and wood under the bucket and used the lighter to start
the fire.
I heard all these cracking sounds and the sparks were shooting out
as the fire got hotter and the white smoke from the fire was
getting less and less. The water started to boil, my brothers
dropped the yellow clams into the boiling water, holy molly, they
all opened up wide real quick. With that sweet fishy smell, we all
couldn't wait. My brother used couple of long sticks made out of
some branches from a nearby tree, tilled the hot bucket while
blocking the clams and drained the hot water on to the still
burning fire. The sizzling sound, the ash and the smoke filled the
place.
It was lunch time. After five or six clams later, I started to slow
down and I thought a couple of them had too much sand in them
and that they tasted a little bit of what, but wow, that was a really
delicious lunch, and I wasn't expecting what was about to happen
next.
Very soon, and one by one, we all experienced tummy ache. It
was diarrhea big time for all of us and all the clams we ate fifteen
minutes age were left behind the brushes. We all knew what had
happened. We should have leave the clams at least couple of days
in clean water at home and let the bad things get out of their
bodies before properly cooking them for food. Or, maybe the
wood sticks from the nearby tree that brother Doug used to stir
the clams in the cooking bucket. We just cleaned us up in the
river and kept going.
40 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
That was what happened last time when we visited that place.
This time we didn't get as many clams as before but we knew we
could always get something else.
The journey continued along the bank of the River and we
stopped here and there to fill our tummy with Guava fruits and
Poe-Toe fruits. Those trees grew everywhere on the banks of the
river and nobody owned them. We were walking toward the west
and then turned northeast along the dike following the River.
Actually this was the direction going home as well. Nobody
seemed to have any idea of what to venture next and we were
just enjoying the walk. Then, my second eldest brother who was
walking farther in the front started yelling, and I sensed there
were some excitement and urgency in his tone.
This place was one of the branch of the bigger River. The water
was shallow but quite clear and it meandered with close bends so
the water ran very slowly and it was only about 10 to 15 feet
wide. I could see many of times that the Guava trees on the bank
of our side stretched all the way to the other side and vise versa
and that made this branch river very scenic. We were looking up
for nice pieces of Guava fruits and my second brother was looking
down into the water of the shallow river all the time. He thought
he saw a school of fish swimming against the tide up the river and
he wanted us to seize the opportunity to catch some fish. Was he
surprised again, we actually ended up catching more fish than we
could handle.
Luckily, it was low tide in the river and actually the lowest of the
low tides and the river water should reverse itself in an hour or
two for the beginning of the high tide. The water was almost
stagnant now. My 2nd oldest brother pointed his finger to signal
us to be quiet and moved us to where he was standing. He
wanted three of us to go down to the river and start immediately
building a dike from this side to the other side of the river to
choke off the water flow. Very quickly he and his older brother
went about 15 feet south of us and started piling up a dike across
the river. There was only about 8 to 10 inches of water, building
41 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
the dikes of that kind shouldn't be that difficult. We were
instructed to work swiftly and quietly.
We emptied our buckets containing a few clams, crayfish and
some others very quickly and started digging out the mud and
gravels with the buckets. A bucket at a time, all standing outside
of the section we wanted to block off. Doug was very fast and
quick to pile up mud from the river bottom because he had much
longer arms than me and Ging. Sometimes, he just used his bare
hands, he said it was even faster for him. I just tried to do my best
and piled mud on top of what he started. I saw little fish jumping
and sometimes hitting us and that made us really motivated to
finish building the little dam. The eldest brother came back to our
side and helped us. Finally, very soon, this 15-foot section of the
river was blocked off on both sides.
Painting #2071 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
We all stood inside the block-off section just by the side of the
dam and started empting the water out of the section toward
south. Five buckets were working at lightning speed, very soon
there were lots of commotions in the water behind us, some fish
started shooting out of the water hitting us everywhere.
42 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Hundreds of fish about 4 to 5 inches long each were trapped by
the dams and they couldn't go anywhere. Doug and my second
brother started to scoop up the fish with the net and bucket, and
we tried to catch them by hands and scoop them up with our T-
shirts. They hit my head and landed on my back and couple of
them almost got into my mouth. We had to use all the buckets to
store the fish and we didn't have any bucket to keep the water
out of the section anymore. We were so intense and occupied to
keep the jumping fish in the baskets and pitch them up the bank
where brother Ging was already standing by; he was busy trying
to keep the fish from jumping out the two buckets that Doug had
just carried up there, which were all filled with fish to the brims.
We didn't see the north side dam was overrun by the rising river
water. It was like a war. We had to retreat, and haul our catch to
the river bank despite a lots of them were still on the loose. But
we were very satisfied and happy. We hit the jackpot!
I didn't know the name of these fish. They were 4 to 5 inches long,
slender with dark grey back and white and silvery body. They
were common in the area, usually they weren't that many
together at one time because quite often we could catch some
with a fishing rod and a special net by the river banks.
The bad thing about this bonanza was the fish cleaning part. The
good thing was that we had salted fish dishes for a very long time.
My grandmother wok-fried a whole bunch for dinner, and she had
to put a lot of these left-over dressed fish in four very big and
round shallow rattan wares, put salt over them and spread them
out under the sun to dry. It was fishy smell all over and attracted a
lot of uninvited flies at the beginning; it was a real nuisance. After
a few days of drying, less flies was attracted and the fishy smell
turned into something aromatic...That was one way grandmother
gathered her food for us. We had many other types of food
gathered for grandma.
The bamboo shoots was one of them, the lotus roots, the plums,
and tiger lilies were the other one.
43 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
In the Spring time, there were many new shoots growing under
the clusters of bamboo trees. They were just popping out like the
ears of corn, and they grew very fast. Before they were ready to
morph into a new bamboo tree and about a foot tall, brother
Doug usually used a flat piece of steel, actually was a broken
kitchen chopper, to pry the bamboo shoot off from it base. During
the season, he got three or four a day. We soaked the over grown
"ears of corn" in water to soften the stiff protective "leaves" and
the white hairs growing on them and then stripped them bare
with our hands to expose the nice ivory colored tender bamboo
"meat" .
My grandmother usually sliced one or two bamboo shoots into
edible thin slices and stir-fried them with garlic, some salted black
beans, and sometimes with salted fish for dinner. She put a lot of
them in vinegar to preserve them in some fancy china jars and let
them stay in a dark corner and used them for some other times.
Some she added vinegar, salts and cayenne peppers to preserve
them. We liked them, they always tasted fresh even pickled.
Another fruit that she preserved was the plums.
Not too far from the Peach tree was a sour plum tree on the west
side of the Main House. This plum tree was about six feet tall and
very bushy and by the middle of summer, it was completely
covered with gorgeous plums. Everyone tended to forget this tree
despite its beauty because the fruits was so sour that it was
difficult to try a second bit of it. No one ever tried to finish one bit
of it. But my grandmother love it.
We picked up all these very healthy looking plums dropped onto
the ground for grandma, and she just pickled them with salt in
many small china pots each with a cover. She then put them in a
very tall wooden bench just off the east side of the court by the
creek-end pond, where she also kept the salted black beans and
other pickled stuff. She usually used the pickle sour plums to cook
cut-up spareribs and many steamed dishes with. We all loved
those very appetizing dishes.
Tiger lily were gathered for food as well.
44 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
On the bank of the creek, just north of the Mound with that huge
olive tree, we had a lot of tiger lilies. They flowered year around
and spring was the most productive period. Hundreds of orange
lily flowers just bloomed and wilted, opened and closed. When
they wilted, they rolled up like a tiny cigarette and started to dry
up and fell off the stalks. I usually pick them before they fell off.
Painting #2040 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Brother Doug, Ging and I collected sacks and sacks of them and
my grandmother took them out of the sacks and dried them
under the sun. They looked like a lot but actually they were very
light, and got a lot smaller when they were cooked. My grandma
45 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
called these Kum-Jum-Fa (Golden-Needle-Flowers). She always
steamed them with some black fungi, spices and pork. They were
delicious.
In the Spring time, we had to go to school. 18-Mu and everywhere
in the neighborhood were bombarded with heavenly blooms of
many kinds, and when none of the fruits was ready to pick, it was
time that we had to stay around the house a bit more to help out
with chores.
In 18-Mu, many of our daily provisions were gathered on the
sources. My mother usually went to the market in the weekends
with my oldest sister. My mother was always very busy taking
care of the other younger sister and the youngest twin sisters. She
sewed very often and also helped preparing foods for
grandmother to cook the meals.
Grandmother was always working in the gardens, taking care of
the chickens and sometimes working with a group of people in
the fields close to our property. She said all those places where
our eyes could see were our land before and formed parts of our
property. She always came back during meal hours to cook for all
of us. She always wore this funny looking bamboo hat, carried a
hoe on her shoulder and wore a subtle and sweet smile on her
face. Sometimes I asked her for coin money and she always gave
to me. She lifted up her outer Sham (dress) and revealed a little
secret pocket where she put her coins. I just used the coins to play
with my brother Ging.
Spring cleaning before New Year was a ritual for all of us. The
boys had to clean up our loft in the middle section of the Main
House, and the area below it. My bed and Ging's bed and Doug's
bed were all up in the loft. They were just rattan mats on the floor
of the loft. When the other brothers came back, they just unrolled
their rattan mats and sleep. The loft was constructed with thick
wood planks with a square opening in the middle where the step
ladder was installed for us to go up and down.
Below the loft was all kind of stuff stored in there, even some hay.
We had no window up in the loft, we got the light from the front
46 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
windows and the big doors as the loft was not completely blocked
on the front door side. There were couple of small windows below
the loft, this place was completely enclosed and separated from
the front section except two door openings on the sides by the
walls, so was quite dark all the time.
The floor of the middle section was made of large pieces of
reddish tiles. My older brothers didn't like the cleaning that
much, and I really didn't know what to clean, and we didn't have
that much stuffs of our own up there in the loft anyway. I just
moved some stuff around and sweep the floor.
The fun part for cleaning was grandma's big stove. Grandma
cooked with a big iron wok which I couldn't even lift it up by
myself. My older brothers had to lift it and three of us had to
clean the inside of the brick stove and then the chimney. We
needed to remove all the ashes and left over charcoals from it and
get it ready for the new year cooking. It was really brutal, but, for
some reasons we all found it was funny. We teased each other
and to see who came out as the dirtiest of all. Ging always won
and got pushed into the cold water in the creek to clean up.
Early Spring before the big New Year festival was probably pretty
boring for us because there wasn't much happening in the garden
and around the fields. Sometimes it was pretty wet and cold, we
couldn't run around with shorts and T-shirts all day anymore. We
didn't like to play in the "cold" water that much anymore. When
the sun came out shinning, everything was so pleasant again. The
cement court in front of our house became our favorite spot. We
ran after each other playing tags, the girls played their little games
with little sack filled with sand, and jumping ropes and skipping
rubber bands.
We often climbed the only Guava tree in the south west corner of
the court and swing from one branch to the other like a monkey
and came down again, and then repeated everything again. This
was one of my favorite trees. My father told me he planted that
tree there. The tree was bushy, about 8 feet tall and bore
fantastic Guava fruits that remained green when ripen. Actually,
47 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
the fruits did turn yellowish red eventually and they became soft
and aromatic, but they never had the chance as we all liked them
to be crunchy, juicy and sweet. Too bad, the fruits tasted so good
when they were still green that they never had a chance to turn
their colors.
My older brothers liked to play their chess games in the court
yard and my mother usually did her needle works while sitting in
her favorite bench against the wall, enjoying the sunshine and
watch the twins "fought" each other. The court became really
crowded during the New Year Holidays.
Painting #3731 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
New Year was the odd time that both my father and my
grandfather came back together from Hong Kong. Relatives and
friends usually came to our place to have huge meals and for
celebrations. I didn't know many of those people. I knew Soak-Por
(wife of my grandfather's younger brother), I knew my 4th auntie,
4th uncle and their son Ming-Wah, my mother's older sister, her
husband and their son, and the 2nd auntie and 2nd uncle with
two boys and one girl.
48 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
One new year day they all showed up early one family after the
other, then the big people set up three big round tables on the
court for brunch and dinner. We practically ate foods all day long.
The women were busy making different kinds of food, the older
men were all busy sitting around talking to each other. The young
kids were all out on the dried field in front of the court talking,
playing and shooting fire crackers. We, the smaller kids all gone
bananas, chasing Ah-Choy and each other around the big tables,
laughing, yelling, knocking down benches and jumping up and
down from the court to the field and back to the court again.
One New Year Holiday, my 4th uncle took a 22mm hunting rifle to
our house for my older brothers for target practise. My 4th uncle
was originally from northern China and was the chief- of- police in
one of the large police bureaus in the region. They drew a target
on the bare part of the side of the dike, stood on the dried rice
paddy and shot at the target. That was the first time I ever
handled a gun, too bad they didn't allow me to shoot it. I was just
as happy to play with it for awhile though. After that, my 2nd
brother was able to use that gun for several hunting trips.
We always had chicken, pork, duck, fish, and plenty of fresh and
delicious vegetables for dinners; and many sweet stuffs to snack
on during the new year holidays. I loved helping mom to make
three kinds of New Year snacks.
The first one was Inn-Sigh-Bang which was a soft and chewy
cookie made out of the sap of a plant called Inn-Sigh. Brother
Doug, Ging and I usually collected the dark green leaves from the
Inn-Sigh plants in the garden. The Inn-Sigh had heart shape dark
green smooth leaves and was a fast growing climber and it
climbed onto almost anything, it was a kind of weed. We put the
leaves into a big wooden bowl and smashed them with a
hardwood bat, then poured them out into a piece of clean cloth
to squeeze out the dark jade green juice which smelled kind of
fishy, a bit pungent and very fresh and I wouldn't try to taste it
for anything. But it was a real surprise after it was cooked and a
lot of fun doing it.
49 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
My mother mixed that potion-like stuff with the rice flour she
already prepared and mixed it with her secret ingredients. Soon, it
became a big pile of soft greenish rice flour dough, and then the
funs really began because we wanted to find out who could make
the best looking Inn-Sigh-Bang.
She took out a whole bunch of wooden molds with different
motifs engraved in them, birds, fish, leaves, and even people. We
had to use those beautiful molds to make the Inn-Sigh-Bang.
Mother told us that we couldn't touch anything only if our hands
were clean. The sisters always got the choice of molds first and we
got to clean our hands to pass my mother's inspection. I took this
leaf mold just like the impression of a Inn-Sigh leave, rubbed some
pork lard onto it and squeezed a whole handful of dough to cover
it, I took the time to patch it down really smooth and nice. Like
the others, I turned over the mold and knocked it again the table
to loosen up the Inn-Sigh-Bang inside, flipped it over and very
carefully peeled it off the mold.
It wasn't exactly what I had expected. The whole cookie didn't
come out perfect. The veins and the tip of the leave were still in
the mold, I just didn't rub enough grease into those little creases.
The good news was that this ugly cookie would surely be mine
after it was cooked. My sisters always outperformed our boys as
far as detailed works were concerned. My mother steam-cooked
those various shaped cookies in the big wok when they were done
they all turned transparent. After I tasted one I had to have
another one. With a little bit of sugar and the rice flour, the taste
of the Inn-sigh had tamed and became an inspiring taste and that
fresh chewy texture made me craving for more.
The other fun sweet thing to make for the New Year was the Jin-
Dura (Fried-Lump). Everyone pitched in because we had to make
so many, my ma, grandma, brothers and sisters all wanted part of
the fun. We usually did this chore outside the house in the court.
We started with a big round wooden table and on the middle of
the table was a mountain pile of pop corns. My mother and
grandma had already mixed some liquid brown sugar with the pop
corns, so the pop corns were sweet and edible.
50 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Before starting, my mother always reminded us about her clean
hands rule, and told us that once we joined the operation Jin-
Dura, we couldn't leave until all was done. The operation was to
hand squeeze those sugar-coated pop corns into balls or the
shapes of fruits or any natural shapes, then wrap a coat of thin
rice flour paste on each of them, roll them over a bed of sesame
seeds, and lastly, grandma would brown them in a pot of hot
vegetable oil. No one could go near the hot oil only my grandma.
Painting #2051 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
I used my hands to shape and press the pop corns into a big ball
and had to struggle to keep the pop corns together for long
because they were stretchy and full of air. It was tricky and it was
fun because it gave me an excuse to gobble up some nice sweet
51 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
pop corns. By the time I finished five or six of pop corn balls, I
already lose my apprentice for another one. They didn't all come
out as round balls. There were always new shapes created, and
we knew we had to eat those new inventions somehow. Because
the Jin-Duras were deep fried, they could be kept for a whole
month for visiting guests. With the white sesame seeds on the
outside, the golden brown Jin-Dura looked tempting after being
deep-fried. My mother usually cautioned us not to touch them
while they were hot, and then she cut a few up and served the
slides to us. My grandmother always put a few odd-shaped Jin-
Duras on the ancestor worship table and left them there for many
days.
I liked to work with my hands to create things. It was difficult for
me to not having anything to do to challenge my hands. Brother
Doug and Ging and I usually played a game called Da-Hor-Bog (Hit-
Mud-Pop) with clay-mud. This was the material we dug out with
our hands from the bank of the creek. We found this mud-clay
where just a bit above the water mark. This clay-mud was like the
rice flour dough with good elasticity and it was fun to make stuff
with. We made birds, frogs, fish, people, masks, vases and
anything we could think of at the time. I always dried my
creations in the shade slowly so they wouldn't crack. I made a big
soldier boy once and painted it green and yellow after it was dried
and leave it in the front wall by the door of the Chai-Fon. It was
meant to scare away the devils.
My father usually brought me water-color sets, paints and
crayons, pens and papers when he came back from Hong Kong for
visit. He got those stuffs from one of his shops in Hong Kong. I had
a whole pile of creations by the outside wall at the back of the
Chai-Fon, and sometimes I went there by myself, repaired some
cracked and broken ones with fresh mud-clay, and picked up
some really dried ones to paint and play with.
One game we really enjoyed playing in the summer in the
courtyard, was Da-Hor-Bog (Hit-Mud-Pop). Each one of us used
the clay-mud to make a bowl which was like a ball cut into half. In
turns, we slapped it as hard as we could onto a flat surface
52 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
ground, the pressure of the trapped air inside the "bowl"
exploded and usually brew a hole at the bottom of it. The cement
court in front of the House was a perfect place for this game.
With the sound "bog", Doug's bowl had a big hole, brother Ging
and I each had to give Doug the amount of clay-mud to cover the
hole. Ging was the one always lost all his clay-mud first. We
played until someone lost all his mud or when our clay-mud all
turned very hard to make anything else with. During the New Year
we didn't usually play this game because it was so dirty. However,
there were other challenges with our hands. The making of Yau-
Kwok (Oil-Bits).
Jin-Dura and Yau-Kwok always went together during the New Year
as both of them needed to be deep-fried with oil, so it was a
matter of convenience, too. My mother would make a whole pile
of dough and two kinds of fillings. One kind was a mix of sesame
seeds, shredded coconut and white sugar , the other one was
sugar, paste of lotus seeds and red beans. She used a roller to
flatten and thin the dough so it would be good for wrapping. My
older sister would use a small bowl as a cookie cutter and
produced piles of round dough wrappers.
The mission was to put a little lump of the filling into the middle
of the round paste and folded it together so that the filling would
be safely tucked inside the wrap. This was the product Yau-Kwok.
The trick was to seal the folded edges so it wouldn't be busted
while being deep-fried. I had to use my thumb and another finger
to press and twist the two edges together while holding it with my
other hand. Once and awhile I had to dip my figure into a bowl of
water to keep the dough edge moist so it would stick together. It
made me focused and feeling good when a perfect piece was
made.
After deep-frying, the Yau-Kwoks all turned golden brown, and we
got our tongues burn while we ate them too fast. After they
cooled down they were very crunchy and sweet, and every bite
would cause a little explosion in your mouth. I always kept eating
until I got the yuk feeling. My mother also made two completely
53 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
different kinds of Yau-Kwoks with the sweet lotus pastes and
minced pork and vegetables as fillings. They all tasted very good
and I liked them all.
Painting #2182 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
On New Year days, we all behaved ourselves and always very
polite all the time, as we got red pockets from our grandparents
and our parents and relatives and sometimes from adult friends.
Red pockets were not always money, and sometimes they were
candies. It was a happy time for all kids. One year was an
exception, and an awful accident had happened.
For us kids in the New Year, the best things we did were eating,
laughing, chasing each other and playing horse-riding. Brother
Doug always had a few bamboo sticks laying around, and our kids
would use those to play horse-ride.
For that year, we had five kids closed to my age visiting and we
were playing horsy as usual while all the big people were huddling
together telling their stories and the other bunch of older kids
showing off each other's skills in the field. We galloped ups and
downs from the court to the field and from the field back to the
54 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
court, inside the Main House and out again, inside the house
again and outside again.
One of the boys, we called him Ah-Chung decided to gallop out of
the court to the Chai-Fon side with his long bamboo stick between
his legs. We all raced after him, yelling, screaming and laughing as
usual, passing Chai-Fon and we headed to the gardens, circling
around several Star-Fruit trees and Guava trees, and the Longan
trees, we were all out of breathe. We slowed down and trotted
instead of galloped and we came to the Bo-Tao (Step-Pier) which
was the access point to the big Pond, not too far away from the
outhouse.
The Bo-Tao was made of big slabs of flat granite rocks, very
smooth and clean because of its constantly used by us getting in
and out of the Pond and my mother always washed our dirty
clothes there. The Step Pier was a wide area and was a nice spot
to check things out in the Pond, and we did some fishing for fun
from there when there were high tides. The big Pond was filled by
the creek on the north side and drained on the south side to the
rice paddy fields.
Seven of us were laughing, yelling and chatting, and boasting who
was the best runner. We were a little bit exhausted after that long
and hard ride, we all slowed down and strolled near the path
looking and wondering and trying to regain our breathe.
Something attracted Ah-Chung in the big Pond and he walked to
the Step Pier with his long bamboo stick in hand, swaging tree
leaves as he went. We all followed him to see what was
happening. I was behind everyone and was looking up in the sky
searching the tree canopies to see if there were any leftover
fruits. Six of them were standing on the Step-Pier and Ah-Chung
was in the front with his bare feet almost touching the water .
It was low tide and the water in the Pond was not too deep. All of
them was standing there very quietly and kept looking for
something, then it got my attention, and I saw this bamboo stick
from Ah-Chung swinging up in the air trying to hit something. He
missed and there was a splash, Ah-Chung was in the water. I
55 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
heard the laud laughter from the kids and then there was silence.
I heard someone yelled in panic that Ah-Chung couldn't swim.
I threw away my bamboo stick and dashed through the crowd into
the water. I only saw Ah-Chung's hands above the water, I
grabbed him and struggled back to the edge of the Step-Pier. Both
of us climbed back up the edge to the Bo-Tao. Ah-Chung was
crying loud chokingly and I felt the cold started to set in and both
of us were soaking wet and shaking like leaves.
Painting #3801 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Yelling , crying and panicky, we all headed back to the Main
House, Brother Doug was already meeting us half way. Adults
were kept asking what had happened and the kids were pointing
fingers here and there, some still crying and were in shock. Only
brother Ging was very quiet all the time and he was just trying to
follow everyone. Ah-Chung and I got strip down and had our wet
clothes replaced and got to stand by the big wok where the
cooking was taken place to get our hair dried. An hour or so after
that, we were again galloping in the court, down the field and
back to the court, again down the field and up the court, yielding,
laughing and stuffing some Yau-Kwok along the way...
56 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
We had a New Year tradition which was fun. At the very last day
of the outgoing old year, in the evening after dinner, all the
children had a ritual to perform before the coming of the new
year.
The ritual was to rid all our laziness and bad habits so that it came
the new year we all would be free of bad things and became
lucky, hard working, diligent and had good grades from school.
Painting #2191 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Starting from the court yard of the Main House, we all lined up
from the oldest to the youngest. Yes, my oldest brothers were in
this too. Each one of us held a burning incense with one hand and
with the other touching the person in front of you. This line would
dance and chant with slogans related to the riding of the bad
things and parade to its destination in the Mound where the big
olive tree was located, then each of us would shoot a few fire
crackers with the burning incense and after that plant the burning
incense in the Mound and let them finished burning. We, then all
raced back to the court yard to set off a few more fire crackers to
scare off all the bad and scary things from the house. It was fun
and exciting and we all loved to do that every year.
57 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Nobody ever taught me how to swim. All my older brothers were
good swimmers. I just had the urge to swim like them, and
watched them swim all the time and practiced swimming on my
rattan mat a few times, and one day I was swimming in the water
with my brothers.
My younger brother Ging loved to play in the water but wasn't
good in swimming. We swam a lot in the summer . We weren't
allowed to swim alone and I always swam with someone or in a
group. Sam-Bok-Kew on the Big Dike was one of our favorite
swimming holes, and also we usually met our neighboring kids
there too.
There were wide stone steps built for everyone to walk down the
River from the top of the Big Dike just west of Sam-Bok-Kew, so
people could easily go up and down the River. Those big slabs of
granite stones were just perfect for big people to do their laundry,
taking bath and getting fresh water from the River. This spot was
near the T-junction of the River so the water flow slowed down
considerably compared to the other sections of the River.
Another good thing about that place was because the river
bottom was filled with gravels and not ugly mud like some other
part of the River, and it was pleasant to touch, to walk and swim
on the bottom. We usually dived, dropped and jumped down
from Sam-Bok-Kew bridge, making fool of ourselves and to make
the neighboring girls happy. There were a few neighboring boys
and girls swam there frequently.
One bad thing about this swimming hole was that there were
swirls created on the top of the T-junction when the River split
into east and west, so we didn't usually swim and venture close
to that area. This was in the east side of the Sam-Bok bridge and
this spot almost killed me and brother Ging once.
It was one hot summer day, my 2nd elder brother and brother
Doug were going to catch some fish for dinner just outside of our
stone Entrance Gate by the River bank. My 2nd brother had a
hand-held rectangle-shape fishing net. It was made with six rattan
sticks about one inch diameter each, four sticks made up the
58 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
bottom of the net and two bow-shape ones crossed each other on
the top and tied to the joints of the bottom four sticks. There was
another triangular piece came with the net. It was simply made of
three long pieces of rattan sticks with a shorter piece in the
middle part of the triangle, there was no net on this piece. It was
just like a moving gate to drive the fish into the net. All sides of
the rectangular net were enclosed except the front so my 2nd
brother could hold the top of the net where the bow-shaped
rattan crossed each other, with one hand, and held the driving
gate with another hand. My brother Ging and I always tagged
along and carried a bucket for the caught fish.
This net system was good to catch fish on the shallower banks of
the River because it could easily drive the fish feeding and hiding
in the grass into the net. A lots of fish loved to feed on the tender
river grass growing right along the banks, and Li-Yu (grass-Carp-
Fish) was one of them. This fish was not too big, only about one
foot long with a bulging stomach and usually full of fish eggs. This
fish was very delicious if cooked properly, and my grandmother
was an expert cooking it. She just had to remove the gills, and the
bile of the fish from its stomach and nothing else, and she left
everything intact including the big shinny scales of the fish. She
seared the Li-Yu in the wok with oil and browned it nicely, then
she cooked the fish in a clay pot with a lot of green onions and
fresh singer roots from our garden. We always had to fight for a
taste of the fish and usually gobbled up a lot of rice with it. The
dish was just wonderfully delicious. We always liked and wanted
to catch more river Li-Yu.
We all got down to the water, and my 2nd brother and Doug were
busy catching fish in front of us, working their way westward
toward the River T-junction. The water was calm on our side of
the River. We already got a few little fish and quite a few of
shrimps. Ging and I filled the bucket with some water and Doug
put all the catch in it. We let the bucket float with a string loosely
tied to my hand, and we played and swam behind it and followed
our brothers in front. By the time we got to the T-junction, we
59 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
already had caught two smaller Li-Yu and they were very
enthusiastic and confident that a big one was coming.
All of a sudden, I sensed and didn't feel brother Ging was around
me and the bucket any more. I turned my head to my right and
behind, and there was Ging about six feet from me and the River
bank. I saw the face of a person about to be drowned. I pushed
off the bucket and dashed toward him, I grabbed him and he
grabbed me too. He was dragging me down with him like a ton of
iron. I struggled and I struggled, and I couldn't get out of the
swirls. Sheer Fear and panic struck me and I couldn't breathe any
more. I was going to die.
Painting #2072 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
I opened my eyes, I saw the faces of brother Doug and Ging... I
closed my eyes again and shake my head and opened my eyes
again, and they really were Doug and Ging. I was not dead and
none of us was dead.
Brother Doug told me that when he noticed all the commotions
behind him, he turned and saw both of us were drowning so he
swam over and lift two of us up and dragged us back to the bank
where our 2nd brother was standing by. We lost all the fish and
60 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
shrimps in the bucket, and also the bucket. Luckily we still had the
net. We quitted our quest for Li-Yu that day, instead we changed
our operation for shrimps or whatever in the creek.
Brother Doug saved our lives and was our hero.
One late Spring day when I was about ten years old, Dough was
having problem going to school. We always went to school
together, even thought we were in different schools but the two
schools were very close together. He couldn't walk very well, and
his left knee was swelling up pretty bad, that worried my mother
and she took him to the doctor.
Doug had some kind of arthritis attack in his left knee and he
needed some plants called Gap-Joke-To for curing. We knew
where the Gap-Joke-To was, and I and Ging were happy to get
them for Doug.
Gap-Joke-To was wild grown, about five to six feet tall with hollow
stalk like bamboo but it was easily cut and fragile, and had the
soft long leaves like any regular plants. It had reddish stalk and
leaves which grew out of the stalk, so there was no branches. It
had fragrant pink flowers and liked to grow pack tight together.
Actually they looked very clean and pretty and unique and easily
recognized. There was a big patch of them just in the northeast
corner of the River T-junction. We went by this corner all the time
on the opposite bank of the River.
There was no path leading to the Gap-Joke-To patch because that
corner was completely inhabited and situated not too far from
Sam-Bok-Kew, on the other side of the River. The only short way
to get there was to swim across the River near the T-junction or to
take the long way, by crossing the bridge and took the path on the
Big Dike on the west side of the River up north, then, found the
shallow crossing in low tides about half a kilometer up and forded
to the east side bank, then headed back south through the trees
and bushes to the Gap-Joke-To patch. We took a knife and some
strings and went for the long way because we didn't feel like
getting wet that day.
61 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
There were Gap-Joke-Tos tightly packed there, all taller than us.
The stalk was soft and hollow so it was easy to cut. We got two
bundles and tied them with strings, but they were heavy and long
and made carrying them difficult for us, so we had a plan.
Painting #3148 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
We put extra long strings on them and decided to roll them down
the bank over to the River east side of the T-junction. Water there
was quiet and tame, we could then retrace them with a long
bamboo stick when we got back to the Big Dike on the south side.
We dragged the bundles toward the south bank through the
dense patch and badly rattled the other uncut Gap-Joke-To on the
way, and successful dumped the two bundles into the water. We
were just started to congratulate ourselves for a job well done,
disaster struck.
While we were retracing our way north, and all in a sudden,
hundreds of wasps or bees or hornets were upon us. We must
had disturbed a hornet's nest built somewhere in one of those
Gap-Joke-Tos. We screamed and tried to defend ourselves
fervently and fought back. That excited them even more, I tried to
get them off my head, my face and then my ears, my eyes... It was
a losing battle and painful and we ran back to the south bank
62 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
where we discarded the bundles and in a flash we were down the
bank and submerged into the water.
We swam back under the water surface most of the time to the
Big Dike across, and luckily none of the wasps were following us
around anymore. We set on the bank where we got some Li-Yu
before, and carefully and painfully removed the stings still stuck
on our hair and ears and on our T-shirts. Some still had the
abdomen attached with them. They came so fast and I didn't
know if they were bees or wasps. It was painful but we did drag
the Gap-Joke-Tos home that day for brother Doug.
Our mother and grandmother rubbed honey over our wounds and
both of our face and head were swollen up like the pig's head.
After a week or so, our faces were back to normal and the good
news was brother Doug no longer had those arthritis attacks. I
knew he could walk me to school again.
I went to the Law-Kar-Tze (Law-Family-Temple) for my first school.
This place was marvelous and very grand. In the front, It had a
large granite slabs covered square. The Law Temple was on the
north side of the Square and elevated about eight feet above it,
and facing south where the three rivers ran into each other. The
main River was running straight south and was the same river that
ran to Sam-Pok-Kew, our favorite swimming hole in the River. The
river dike bordering the Square was lined with large slabs of
stones all the way down to the bottom of the River. Law-Kar-Tze
was built hundreds of years ago, as a grand temple, not as a
school.
There were two gigantic Tai-Yhung-Shu (Gigantic -Ficus
Benjamina-Tree), one on each side of the Square, grew out of two
huge stone circles built around the trees. The trees looked really
old with roots dangling down from their branches like moustache
and beard. The trunks of the trees were so big that five people
holding hands couldn't circle one of them. On top of the twelve
stone steps leading to the main entrance of the Temple was two
big sitting lions, one on each side facing each other. The double-
wooden-door entrance was dark red color with many little brass
63 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
fittings framing them and there were two very large bronze door
knobs one on each door.
Painting #2081 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
I had to jump over an eight-inch high horizontal door-guard to get
inside the Temple. It was very bright inside. There was a sky-
opening in the middle section of the inside looking like a court
yard, and the sun could shine in most of the day. There were
beautiful dark red colored posts, some with colorful decorations
on them, strategically spread over the inside space. There were
long corridors, fancy walls, colorful ceilings and stone statues of
animals everywhere.
64 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
My class room was behind one of those decorative walls. The
"school" was really big inside and I could run zigzag to the back
and out to the fenced backyard which was the size of two
basketball courts with one side against a brick wall and one side
back to the slope of a hill with huge trees growing on it and with
some of their roots sticking out of the slope.
I always set by the side of one of the stone lions in the front to
wait for brother Doug to pick me up to walk home together. It
was a breath-taking view from that spot looking down the Square
and yonder. The edge of the Square was very straight against the
lake-like pool of water which extended straight down like a
promenade bordered by evenly tall trees with dark jade green
colors on the Dikes on both sides.
Brother Doug and I just had to cross a single stone slab bridge on
the west side of the Square and walked south along the Dike
following the River, in less than thirty minutes we should have
walked across the Sam-Pok-Kew and followed the west pathway
and be home. If we were hungry sometimes, we ran half the way
and be home in less than twenty minutes.
My older sister always went to school with brother Ging. I didn't
know where they went to school but I always very happy to see
Ging everyday back in 18-Mu. There were always some ventures
awaiting for us.
School was fairy strict. We had to put our hands behind our backs
while sitting and sit straight and we had to raise our hands to ask
a question or answer a question. The little wooden desk that
everyone had in front of the chair, was very handy to take a nap
on it, as we always had to take a nap after lunch which the school
provided. My favorite class was gym class which we all got to play
at the backyard. There were two seesaws, four slides and three
swings. We always chased each other and I liked to climb up the
yellow clay slope and slide down until and my bottom and back
were all full of dirt.
On both sides of our school or the Law's Temple were rows of
brick town houses extending far on both directions with
65 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
occasional little ally between them. These houses and shops were
all facing the river and between the houses and the river edge was
this ten feet wide granite stone walkway. The stone slabs were
placed straight down to the water from the edge with several Bo-
Tao (Step-Piers) made of stone steps extending into the river.
People used these to get water from the river, do laundry, swim
and other things. Both water front walkways led to market places
not too far from the Temple. There were Ying-Su (Shadow-Trees)
and Do-Dul-Su (Knife-Bean-Trees) planted on the walkways and
they looked very nice. These trees had no edible fruits and they
grew fast and provided good shades for the passersby. The Do-
Dul-Su did bear fruits the shape and size of a curve machete.
When the "machetes" were dried, they dropped to the sidewalk,
and we usually pick them up and pretended to fight each other.
Sometimes, Brother Doug and I chose the westerly walkway to get
home instead of crossing the bridge on the Square and followed
the River home. This way was more interesting and always had
more traffic with people and hawkers who were selling goods and
shouting to tell people what they had for sell. Actually this way
home was about the same distance and time, we just had to cross
the other river further down west and headed south from there,
and then, passed a small village to join back the Big Dike along the
River home. More and more often we used this route as I was
growing older.
Boys at school didn't usually played with girls, as we always
couldn't sit still and had to jump, run and yell all the time
whenever the opportunity presented itself. There were two girls
in my class and they lived not too far away from each other on
and near the westerly path. One girl was named Mei-Wah and the
other one was Wen-Lei. They usually walked home side by side
every day, one was always very quiet and the other was a bit
more active, but they both behaved very well.
Both girls were very pretty. Mei-Wah always had her hairs nicely
fixed with 2 little tails at the back and she carried a very clean
canvas book bag with a shoulder strip. She was neat and always
wore skirt, socks and a black pair of leather shoes. She was quiet
66 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
and looked like she was thinking all the times. I never seen her
getting dirty or getting excited. I didn't talk to her that often, or
play with her, but we did smile to each other when we passed
each other. Wen-Lei had two long braided hairs over her
shoulders and she wore a pair of flops and bare footed
sometimes. She was very pleasant, giggled and laughed quite
often. She looked a bit older than me and Mei-Wah.
Painting #2098 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Brother Doug didn't know why I wanted to walk westerly home
instead of southerly right after we got off the temple Square.
Doug usually was quite hungry after school so he would prefer the
southerly route to get home for we could run all the way home
fast without banging on someone along the way. We couldn't run
on the westerly route because there were always traffic there.
But I liked the idea of having more chances bumping into Mei-
Wah and Wen-Lei. I just felt happy when I saw them walking in
front of us. Doug always complained why I walked so slowly on
the smooth stone-paved pathway and so fast on the dirt-covered
Dike path. Wen-Lei's house was just on the north side of this wide
and short stone bridge on the pathway. Her house just looked like
67 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
one of the brick town houses next to the Temple. The front door
of her house was always open, and from above the top of the
door a canopy was built across the complete walkway to the edge
of the river which was becoming very narrow as it was ending in
this area. We had to cross from here to head south for home and
so did Mei-Wah.
There were always some tables and other stuff by Wen-Lei's front
door under the canopy, which occupied almost half of the
walkway. The first thing she always did was to throw away her
book bag down on the ground and started working with match
boxes right away. It looked like there was always stacks and stacks
of little things piling on the tables. Her mother was always sitting
there already with her hands busy gluing match boxes with some
white rice paste. Wen-Lei was anxious to help. I saw my mother
talked to her mother sometimes when we passed this place going
to the markets on the weekends.. Mei-Wah's house was just
across the stone bridge.
There were all dirt paths and farms after crossing the short bridge.
Immediately on the left after two buildings by the river bank was
Mei-Wah's place. I couldn't see her house anywhere from the
path. There was a tall chain-link fence in front of the property and
behind it were rows of clay-potted ornamental flowers and many
little pots of kumquat trees, many of them were resting on long
benches. She passed the fence through the fence opening door,
walked between the rows and soon disappeared among the big
fruit trees. I never met her parents or saw any adults walking with
her to and from school. Brother Dough and I continued our
journey home from there.
My parents were seldom seen with me in school functions except
in one fairly rare occasion and that happened in a German church.
I was picked as the lead performer in a play glorifying a war hero
who blew himself up with his own explosive in front of his
enemy's fortified machine gun hideout, so he could save his
comrades from being shot at and being killed. During the attack,
he was the first one approaching but he couldn't find anything to
68 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
support the explosives in a right position to destroy the hideout,
which was still generating tremendous firing power, and about to
kill many more advancing comrades. He used his hands to hold
the explosives and destroyed the hideout so that his comrades
could advance and be saved under the slaughter of the machine
guns. He blew himself up at the same time. He was only 18 years
old. The play was performed in a German church before parents
and other audiences. It happened that my father was back from
Hong Kong so my mother took him to the show. It was a sad play
but my parents were quite proud of me that time and they were
relieved that I wasn't really blowing myself up in the play.
After crossing Sam-Bok-Kew and through our west neighbor's
entrance gate and before onto the west path heading home,
brother Doug and I always stopped at the Bo-Tao (Step-Pier) just
off the right inside of the entrance gate.
This was the beginning of our west neighbor's moat that went
around their vast property. The water came into the property
from the River through a tunnel with a big wooden gate just a bit
west of the Bo-Tao. The Bo-Tao sloped down to the edge of the
moat and was almost leveled with the moat water all the time
and it was constructed with many slabs of big rocks which piled
up from the bottom of the moat, the horizontal stacking slabs
formed the wall of the Bo-Tao. This submerged stone wall was our
secret paradise for fresh snacks after school time when fruits
were not quite ready for eating.
Brother Doug just knelt down on the Bo-Tao almost touching the
water, leaned forward a bit and put out his right hand with the
palm wide opened. Slowly and quietly he dipped his stretched
hand into the water and ever slowly brought it back toward
himself against the submerged stone wall of the Bo-Tao. Voila!
there came two big shrimps yanking and trying to get loose from
his hand. He passed them to me and very soon got another two,
and another two.
Those moat shrimps were sweet, delicious and refreshing.
Sometimes we just snapped off the sharp saw-like spike off the tip
69 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
of its head and ate the whole thing, crawls, shell and head all. Just
so crunchy and mushy but very delicious. Sometimes, if we got
more than we could handle, we just ate the body part with the
shell, but I still loved to eat the head part, as it was more
interesting, delicately sweet and juicy.
Painting #3178 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
We all had homework to do from time to time and our mother
wanted us to do extra stuff like practising our calligraphy and
drew pictures. We had no electricity in 18-Mu, and we always
were too busy doing homework when there was light outside and
we usually dragged until after dinner or when it was dark to start
working on our homework. My mother wasn't too happy about us
dragging, but she often was bogged down by some chores and
70 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
couldn't bug us all the time. But we always finished our
assignments on time. We always did our homework in the middle
section of the Main House. Mother usually put a big Ap-Tsui-Dunk
(Duck-bill-Lamp) in the centre of our rectangular wooden table
and all kids just huddled around it to do whatever there was to
do. We did help each other if we could.
The Ap-Tsui-Dunk was a kerosene lamp with a duck-bill-like
burning tip holding up the wick for burning. It was bright. We had
a few in the house. If we needed to go to the outhouse at night,
we just took a flash light and also asked someone to go with. No
one liked to pass the Chai-Fon alone at night.
Generally, summers were really fun because there were plenty of
fruits to eat and no schools. A lots of fun things and adventures
which always drove mother and grandmother nuts.
My grandmother usually put an awful lots of different offerings on
the ancestors-worship bench table which was narrow but tall and
it was painted with bright red paints and decorated with golden
trims. This was the best smelling room in the Main house. Always,
there were fresh and blooming white ginger-flowers and fragrant
incense burning under the table and above the table. There were
seasonal fruits, sometimes a cooked chicken and some barbeque
pork etc., and always three small cups of rice wine as offerings.
The funny thing was that things on display seldom missing from
there except the three little cups filled with rice wine. The rice
wine in the cups were always empty once awhile. My
grandmother was a little bit concerned because she knew my
mother didn't drink, my older brothers didn't drink and Doug and I
never never liked that thing. She was a little bit scared and happy
at the same time as she suspected that someone from heaven
had taken them.
One day, brother Doug and I came back from the west path after
selling some herbs in the market, and we had our breakfast and
saved some fried-dough for brother Ging to surprise him, because
he loved fried-dough too. We tried to keep quiet when we
reached the Main House. When we walked pass the west section,
71 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
the front door wasn't entirely closed so we could see the worship
table, then we saw Ging standing up on a stool and drank up all
three cups of rice wine in a swift motion, then he went down and
carried away the little stool with him walking back to the middle
section of the house continued playing with our dog Ah-Choy.
Painting #2022 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
I tried to get in and yell at him, brother Doug stopped me and
took me back to the west side of the Main House and told me not
to tell grandma as he didn't want Ging to get into trouble. Then,
we saw this big blue jay making a lot of loud noise and flew right
above our heads and landed on the peach tree a few feet away
from the Bak-Lan-Su, and there was a big, beautiful peach ready
to be picked. We were more interested in who could get to that
just turning-red- from-green peach first.
We had never told grandmother about brother Ging's little secret
but brother Doug did scold Ging and asked him not to do that
again. During special celebrations, some adults always drank and
their faces always flashed and turned ugly red after a few cups of
rice wine, but not Ging. Of course, he was not allowed to drink
wines as he was a little kid. One time, when everyone was busy
during the New Year, I saw him gobbled up almost a whole bottle
72 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
of rice wine, his face remained just the same and he acted just the
same. It was just like he had drunk a bottle of water.
This peach tree was very old and with character. Besides the
jasmine bush, the old cedar, the Bak-Lan-Su in the area, this was
one good fruit tree we wished we could have more. The fruits it
produced were heavenly. Year after years, we thought this peach
tree was going to die, miraculously, we got fruits out of it again
and again, but it was producing less and less every year, and we
didn't pay much attention to it except when the fruits came.
Ah-Choy and Ging were good buddies. Ah-Choy didn't follow us
that much and that was brother Ging he followed and played with
all the time in 18-Mu. Ging wasn't that active as Doug and I,
because he was younger and liked to be quiet. Ah-Choy was
getting old and older and slowed down a lot, and sometimes he
didn't even run out to the Entrance Gate to greet us anymore. He
just laid around the house and preferred to play with Ging. One
day in the early morning when grandmother was looking for him
to feed him, she found him dead in the court yard by the dike
going east. We buried Ah-Choy by the Mound in the garden. We
were very sad and brother Ging cried and wept for the whole day.
Summer was the time to catch fire flies, field frogs, pond frogs,
catfish from the creek, little fish from the rice paddies, and big fish
from the Yu-Tong ( fish ponds) and from the moats. We picked all
kinds of fruits, collected lotus seeds and fought battles in the sky.
There were so much going on day in and day out in the summer,
we hardly had enough time to sleep as the two eldest brothers
were home as well. My older 2nd brother always loved to catch
fish.
One hot summer day, He and I were walking along the east path
and was intended to catch some fish coming into our creek from
the River during high tide. Instead, he heard some commotion on
the other side of the dike where a narrow opening was cut into
the moat to allow running water to drain into the big fish pond.
We sneaked over where the noises were coming from, to our
surprise, there was a bunch of very big Dai-Tao (Big-Head) fish
73 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
trapped in there. My 2nd brother jumped right into it and tried to
catch a two-foot long big head, and he was hit left and right by
the other jumping fish. It was very exciting to watch.
Painting #3486 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
He was struggling to hold on to one and then it slipped away, and
he was hit on the back by another flying big head. He tried to hold
on one by its gills, but again it didn't work. I was too small to
jump in to help. My brother finally realised there was a better way
to catch the biggie, he used his two hands, instead of grapping the
fish, he just flipped it onto the bank where I was standing, and he
quickly rushed up and pinned it by its tail. Wow, that was a
powerful and muscular fish. He caught a big-head with his bare
hands. That one was almost 3 feet long.
Grandma made two very delicious dishes out of that big-head.
She steamed just the chopped up big head of the big-head fish
with salted black beans, the pickled bamboo shoots and a lot of
fresh cayenne peppers. She used some salted black beans and a
lots of fresh ginger slices and green onion to steam the rest of the
fish. We liked her dishes, and we had those dishes from time to
time. Actually, we liked the head part more than the body dish.
74 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Sometimes, summer time is beyond excitement. One activity was
really thrilling, which was the sky war and Brother Doug was a first
rated sky fighter.
The winds always blew from the south and southwest in the
summer. It was a great time to fly our kites. We always flew kites
from the high dikes south of the Main House, these were the
dikes we often saw the blue "fireballs" at night. These dikes
divided our property with the south neighbors' farms which were
mainly rice paddies and yu-tongs. All the neighbors' kids, big and
small, usually gathered here when the sun wasn't strong and the
winds were blowing. In a good day, I could see, from our
courtyard, many kites flying high above our property cutting
through the sky in high speed, from left to right, right to left and
dropping from high to low and swooshing up like a rocket again,
going straight up or curving to the left and to the right. Spinning
like a windmill in high speed sometimes, and almost completely
staying still in the air, the fighter kites were the Go-Jongs (High-
Form) and they were dazzling. I could hear the powerful swoosh
sounds when the kites accelerated. It was just a spectacular air
show. The slow mover kites were the ones with tails and they
didn't usually stay long in the sky as the Go-Jong-Ji-Yew (High-
Form-Paper-Kites) simply slaughtered them by shearing their lines
in the sky.
Go-Jong-Ji-Yew had no tails and they were the formidable class of
fighting kites in the sky. Brother Doug made his Go-Jong with a
kind of tough but very thin paper called Sha-Tze (Sand-Paper)
which was brownish or white in color, very thin and looked
transparent. My father brought us those papers from his shop in
Hong Kong. He cut out a perfect piece of 2 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet,
folded it diagonally so that he got a crease from corner to corner.
He took out his dried bamboo sticks which he always had a pile
cut and put them against the west wall of the Chai-Fon for drying.
He pick the driest piece with long sections between knots and
split it into thin and long pieces. He selected two straight pieces
and striped the inside of the bamboo pieces with a dull knife
75 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
carefully and smoothed them nicely leaving the thick bamboo skin
untouched.
With the outer skin of the bamboo intact, he cut both pieces to fit
into the Sha-Tse to form the frame of the kite. He fitted one piece
with the skin side contacting the paper on top of the crease. He
trimmed the top to fit the shape of the angle on top and left the
bamboo piece a bit longer than the bottom corner. Then he used
very fine rice paste to stick the bamboo piece to cover the whole
length of the crease. He took the other thinner piece, side way
and with bamboo skin facing outward, carefully bend and
adjusted it as a semi-circle with the ends to touch the opposite
corners in a cross position to the crease.
He marked and cut the bamboo piece so it would fit perfectly.
Using part of the edges of the square Sha-Tze, he glued the
bamboo stick by folding in the paper edge inside; started from
one corner. I helped him by holding it in place so that he could
continue all the way to the other corner. When he was done we
put two pieces of small wood blocks on top of the bamboo piece
to keep them in places and to let dry. The Go-Jong was basically
done, and he just had to add a little upside down heart-shaped
paper at the bottom of the kite as a rudder of the flying machine.
Brother Doug also had some secret weapon with his flying
maniac.
He got all his mile-long threads out of our mother's sewing room
and transferred them into a specially made spool with a long
wooden handle passing through the center core, so that the spool
was perfectly set in the middle and he could hold the spool handle
with both hands, one hand on each side. The special spool shaped
like a mountain and valley with a 4-inch diameter wall on both
sides. This was brother Doug's controller for the kite.
He found some dried fish maw, which my grandmother collected
from the bigger fish that we caught, and she always stored them
in a big glass jug in the kitchen. Brother Doug put some dried fish
maw in a tin can half full of water, and boiled them over a
makeshift small stove he made just east of the Papaya tree. It
76 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
usually took him a long time to cook until it became liquid, very
sticky liquid. Doug then took out some very fine white powder in a
small glass jar and poured it in the boiling liquid and stirred them
well. The white stuff was Doug's secret weapon, it was made by
grinding the broken glass of a light bulb, very carefully and
dangerously, into that fine white powder form.
Painting #3454 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
While he was cooking the fish maw, I helped him to stick four long
bamboo poles straight up on a soft ground to form a rectangle
cage about ten feet by four feet in size. Doug removed the end of
the thread from the big spool and ran it through the two little
holes he made near the bottom and in the center of an open
match box and tied the end of the thread to the lower side of one
of the bamboo posts. We were ready.
Brother Doug poured some hot liquid from the tin to fill the match
box submerging the thread entirely, and I started walking
backwards with the special spool full of thread, in my two hands.
He held the match box steady with his right hand and guided the
thread by holding it loosely in front of the match box with his left
hand and started to walk toward me. I walked backward circling
the bamboo poles and Doug walked forward facing me. We
77 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
stopped frequently to refill the match box when the liquid inside
the match box was getting low. The wet thread stayed on the
bamboo maze to let dry as we walked. We stopped when the fish
maw sticky liquid was all gone.
Dough's lethal weapon was almost ready and it just needed to be
completely dried under the sun. Some parts of the thread if pulled
in fast motion were as sharp as a razor. We were very careful and
wore gloves all the time, and the job took a whole day to
complete.
Doug cut a string of regular thread from another spool, waxed it a
little and tied it to the almost finished kite like a triangle, started
from where the two bamboo pieces crossed each in the Go-Jong
and tied the other end down the bamboo piece which was glued
on top of the crease. He constantly judged the balance of the kite
by holding the apex of the thread triangle; when he was satisfied,
he fixed the thread to its position. The Go-Jong must be perfectly
balanced on two halves and four sides as well. He then tied the
thread from the special spool to the triangle. It was ready for a
test flight.
We had to wear gloves to handle this awesome thing. I held the
rudder of the Go-Jong or the tips of it wings facing the wind and
Doug was facing me and backed away from me letting go the
thread from the spool while he was backing. About 20 feet away,
he stopped.
When I felt the wind was coming, I signaled him and let go and
that kite shot straight up into the sky with the swoosh rumbling
sound from its wings, and Doug let his spool free and very soon it
started to get smaller and smaller way yonder up in the blue sky.
What a sign and what a feeling! At some point, Doug just held it
still and practised maneuver by jerking the spool, tilting the spool
and dragging the spool; moving it to his left and then to his right.
It was amazing, and that thing was just responded like a
formidable fighter jet.
The thrills always came when we spotted another kite "intruding"
our sky. Doug and I just went up to the south dike and launched
78 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
his Go-Jong. Up in the air, he tightened up his spool and did a
swift maneuver and his kite crossed the line of the "intruder"
under in a fierce up swing, and he let loose the grip on the handle
of his spool very fast, in less than two seconds the other kite was
gone and dropping out of the sky like a falling leave. I then ran
and tried to follow the falling kite and tried to catch the barely
seen floating thread lurking behind it.
Most the time I had to ran into the paddy fields, fall into ditches,
circumvent brushes, trees and swim over Yu-Tong. The falling
kites usually ended up in one of the tall fruits trees and some in
the paddy field and in the water . When I grabbed the thread of a
falling kite, I used my left hand and elbow to wind up the thread
and bring it down, and that it became my prize. For precaution, I
always wore one cotton glove for my catching hand. Sometimes I
got competitions and the strongest kid usually got the prize.
Doug and I built a lots of kites throughout the years to replace the
fallen, the broken and worn out ones. This activity usually lasted
through autumn till the southerly wind started to change
directions and brought chill with it.
Doug had a fun and sleeking way to catch frogs in the Yu-Tong.
We had a lots of frogs around our area. Sometimes after a rain,
they even got onto the dikes where we walked and they liked to
linger along the edge of the dikes and jumped into the Yu-Tong or
the moats when we walked by. Their jumping into the water was
one noise we frequent heard year round and sometimes scared by
it because of its suddenness. Many frogs just liked to float in the
warm water with their little triangular heads and eyes sticking out
of the water, staying there still trying to catch an easy meal. This
was where Doug and I liked to catch them. They were good
proteins for our diet.
I followed Doug along the edge of the water usually a Yu-Tong. I
had a covered wire cage in my hand, and he carried on his
shoulder a small net with a two feet opening and attached to an
8-foot long bamboo handle. There was a three inches tall little
bamboo stick wedged between where the net joint the pole, and
79 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
it served as a marker for Doug while in the water. We scouted the
smooth water for little blobs and movements on the surface. The
frog head was easy to spot. Then Doug went swimming.
Painting #3012 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
He quietly got down to the water and extended his long net in
front of him, walked or tread or swam with the long net
submerged just below the water surface and the marker above
the water targeting at the floating frog. Before the frog knew it,
Doug lift the net and the frog had no chance of escaping. Then he
tilt the net and folded it so the frog couldn't escape and passed it
to me to unload it, and he continued for the next one. We always
came home with a full cage of frogs.
80 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
My 2nd eldest brother loved to trap the big frogs along the moats.
He and Doug made some "shoe-box" bamboo cages with a
lockable lid on one side, with many strips of thin bamboo pieces
weaving together. The center of the lid had an opening allowing a
big frog to enter, and it tapered down like a side-way funnel. Once
the frog crawled in, there was no way out unless the lid was open.
These were my 2nd eldest brother's frog traps.
This frog-catching operations took a longer time, but it was very
efficient and the catch was always "wow". It started with them
baiting the inside of the cages with the stinky fish guts that Ah-
Choy didn't even eat. Brother Ging and I usually tag along when
the elder brothers were ready to set the traps. We helped them
to carry some traps. It was usually done after dinner and when it
was started to get dark.
We walked along the dikes and around the Yu-Tong and the rice
paddies with a flash light, and they could hear and sense where
the big frogs were likely to be and the traps would be set. My
elder brothers would set ten traps before we quit and went back
home to sleep.
We got up early the next morning, and off we went to see the
results from the traps we set last night. If we had a rain at night,
the catch was always fantastic, some cage would have up to four
frogs in it. Normally, we would get an average of one frog per
cage. We recovered all the traps and tied up all the frogs on the
hip and leave them in one big bucket. My older brothers didn't
trap frogs this way too frequently because it was too easy, and
that we didn't want to eat them all the time, and they loved to
see more of them around 18-Mu.
Summer went and autumn came, we had to prepare for school
and replace our tattered summer clothing. My mother usually was
very busy taking care of the needs of the girls, and grandma was
busy pickling foods from the gardens and the small vegetable
patch just east of the Main House and north of the bamboo trees.
She also busy working with other farmers in the fields.
81 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
In the earlier years, when rice crop was still cultivated in "our"
paddy fields, we usually had a lot of fun during rice harvesting.
When the rice paddies were turning golden, my grandmother
closed up all the drain tunnels under the dikes going into the rice
paddies. The rice paddies were all drying up slowly and there
were even cracks appearing in the drying mud. From these cracks,
we usually caught a lots of Tin-Law (rice field-snails) and little field
eels. The snails were good to eat. We usually collected them in
bucketful, and grandma would put them in different buckets filled
with clean water for a few days to even weeks. When she was
ready to cook them, she would chop off the little end of the snail,
and then stir-fry them with black bean paste, a lots of garlic and
the shredded leaves of Tse-So (Purple-beard) which was a herb
type of weed with large hairy jagged leaves, purple color on top
and silvery on the underside. Tse-So had a very distinct smell and
favor, like the cross of citric and something fragrant which was
indescribable. When they were cooked, the Tse-So took off the
earthy taste of the field snails, we just sucked the meat out of the
shell and they tasted very sweet and different, but very good
snack and even for dishes.
The little field eels were easy to cook. Grandma just put the
cleaned eels into the boiling rice with a bit of grounded fresh
ginger. When they were cooked she messed them up with the rice
and served to my little sisters and brother Ging. I liked them to be
deep-fried with a coat of flour mixed with black pepper and salt.
The rice field was completely dried, and it looked golden. We got
to help with the harvesting and it was always fun time for us.
There were many people working in the dried paddy fields. They
cut the rice plants from the bottom with a curve thin knife and
piled them up in bundles on the field, then couple of people
came along with a big oval shaped wooden barrel and they picked
up the cut rice plants and threshed the rice grains from the plants
and the grains all felt into the barrel. We were allowed to
"treasure hunt" in the parts where the rice plants were removed
and threshed.
82 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
We found Poun-Kays (Mud-Crabs), eels, field snails and Kow-Mei-
Lang (Nine-Tails-Beauty) fish in some deep cracks. This fish
colored like a rainbow with long fins like an angel, and it was a
very aggressive fish which I liked to keep in a glass bowl for show.
My older brothers got the job to clean up those big wooden
barrels after the harvest was done and brother Doug, Ging and I
were all allowed to help. We carried and rolled the empty barrels
one by one to our Pond, and each one of us had a barrel to
ourselves, and then the naval war in the Pond started.
Painting #3042 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Every barrel was a wooden boat. First, we let all five empty and
dirty barrels floated in the Pond. Then, we raced to get into the
best barrel, the ones that didn't seem to leak as much. I got into
my barrel by jumping down from one of the branches of the Poe-
Toe tree, and so was brother Doug. My elder brother lifted Ging
and put him in his "boat", usually the worst one. Anyway, no one
ever attacked Ging's "boat" as it would sink by itself slowly.
I started by rocking my barrel back and forth to make it go. We
had other spectators watching us from the banks including our
sisters. The winner was the one who stayed afloat the longest.
83 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
We were trying to ram into each other, flip, rock, drag, push, pull
and throw water at each other... Water was getting into my
"boat" real fast, and it soon up to my knees. There were laughing
and yelling from the banks, and even buckets of water were
throwing at us. A little drag from my older brother, my "boat"
tipped over on its side and I was out of the game. We all ended
up in the water in less than 10 minutes and we all helped to clean
the barrels and with help from others, we dragged them back to
the bank, turned them upside down and let dry. It was really fun
and exhausting.
When autumn was turning into winter, the rice paddies turned
into golden, and very soon after the rice crop was harvested, the
fields became empty. Then, there were flocks of happy birds and
big field rats scavenging the fields. On one occasion, our "uncle"
on the north side of our Main House gave my grandmother a big
piece of dried meat we all thought that was a big squirrel with its
head chopped off. Our "uncle" said it was soaked in old soy sauce
and wind dried. It was almost golden color, aromatic and had the
look of a good tasting piece of dried meat. My grandma cut it into
small pieces and steamed it on the top of the rice. We ate it and
it was good.
One day, brother Doug and I walked past the house of our distant
uncle on the north side, and we saw him putting out four freshly
cleaned "squirrels", all nicely stretched and mounted to dry. We
were curious where he got all his squirrels as we hadn't seem too
many around, and we knew they were fast runners and hard to
catch, except with a good slingshot. Brother Doug asked uncle
where did he find those squirrels, and uncle said what "squirrels",
they were big field rats I caught from the paddy fields. Oops!
We used to have rice grains and rice stalks drying on our court
yard during this time of the year but as the Cooperative wanted to
grow what they wanted, the crops were changed almost every
year, from rice to cantaloupes and back to rice, to sugar canes and
to soya beans and back to rice again. The Coop transferred the
rice grains to somewhere else for drying and cleaning so our court
wasn't used for drying grains anymore. My sisters loved the front
84 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
court and it became their favorite hangout place. They played all
kinds of games and there were always some kind of game
drawings on the court.
We caught catfish out of the fields, little fish, mud eels, frogs and
Wor-Chung (rice-worms). My grandma and my older sister loved
rice-worms for dinner. We didn't always had rice worms all the
time, they showed up very suddenly and only occasionally in the
rice paddies. One day in the early morning after a night rain, we
were just making breakfast and we heard my older sister yelling
outside.
She was on her way to the outhouse, by passing the dike east to
the Chai-Fon she noticed a swarm of things wiggling and
struggling in the water tried to get into and out of the paddy field
through a narrow opening on a small mud dike just after the small
pond of water draining into the paddy field from the creek tunnel
under the dike. She knew these were delicious rice worms.
It was a piece of cake to remove them out of there with a small
net, My older sister and Doug had caught half of a bucket of fat
and ugly looking rice worms enough to fill up four big china dish-
bowls.
My grandmother was using the wok, so she just refilled the wok
with some water at the bottom and asked us to put more wood
and hay into the stove to bring the water to boil. She just
sprinkled some coarse salt over the rice worms and instantly they
all burst like an bad egg was cracked. She put a few long pieces of
flat bamboo on the bottom of the wok and stacked the four dish
bowls over them, covered the wok with the heavy wooden cover
and steamed the rice worms inside.
We had breakfast, lunch and dinner with those worms. They just
tasted like steamed scramble eggs with some spices on them, and
we had quite a few rice worm days in the years.
In the later part of the 1950s, things in 18-Mu had changed
dramatically.
85 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
My grandmother had to go back to Hong Kong, and she took my
two sisters with her. My two oldest brothers went back to Hong
Kong one after the other, and my mother was ready to leave with
the twin sisters to Hong Kong very soon. But first, we had to leave
18-Mu.
Six of us, my mother, the twins, Doug, Ging and I moved to Fong-
Tsuen, a suburb of Canton (Guang Zhou), the biggest city in the
province. My parents had some property there.
Fong-Tsuen was only about an hour's walk from 18-Mu and in the
south-west side of Canton. My parents had three townhouses on
the street, each had three stories and a sky garden on the top. We
settled on the ground floor of the very first townhouse. The
ground floor had a kitchen at the very back, three bedrooms and
two sitting rooms. There were other people living on all the other
stories. There were no gardens, no other space. Just out of the
front door was the street, next to the house on one side was also
a paved street, and the other side was other townhouses.
Painting #3576 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
The townhouse complex was built right at the edge of a narrow
river, a small estuary of Pearl river. The back door of the ground
86 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
floor was the river, the back door opening was blocked by three
big vertical poles only, and there was no door. if I had to swim in
the river I just had to lift the middle pole up, set it on the side and
I could just jump in at high tides. At low tides, we were 10 feet
from the water. All the dirty water and solid waste from the
residents were dump into the river. I definitely did not want to
swim in there because it smelled and I saw filth and garbage
everywhere in the water even in high tides. This wasn't the same
river that we had in Sam-Bok-Kew.
In the front was a well paved six feet wide concrete walk path
with the edges depressed so rain water could drain. The same
kind of townhouses were on the other side of the walk path. It
only took a few minutes of walking to the nearest market with
plenty of people.
Very soon after the move, my mother and the twins were gone to
Hong Kong and our Soak-Por (wife of my granduncle who was also
in Hong Kong) came to live and take care three of us. My mother
and my grandmother took turns coming back from Hong Kong
taking along lots of food items for us every time. They didn't
usually stay very long, but came back to see us periodically again,
and again.
Brother Doug, Ging and I still went to the same schools. We
already changed our schools long before moving to Fong-Tsuen. I
only stayed in Law-Kar-Tze for two years and then moved to this
school in Fa-Day, which was very close to the market place. Ging
was in another school closed to me and brother Doug stayed in
his old school, and still not too far from us. It took Ging and I less
than twenty minutes getting to our schools. We went to school
together and came back home together since we moved to Fong-
Tsuen.
I didn't walk with Doug to school any more since the move
because he was always busy with his peers doing many different
things, and I had to take care of brother Ging more often. We
didn't see each other as much as in 18-Mu. Brother Doug was a
Hung-Lan-Gun (Red Guard).
87 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Brother Ging complained often and told us that he missed all the
activities in 18-Mu, especially playing with Ah-Choy. He sat around
the house a lot and played sometimes with some neighbor kids of
his age just outside next to our townhouse.
My school was still beautiful. There was a brick entrance gate
proudly displaying our school name on the top. Just outside the
gate, there were benjamina trees on one side and different shops
on the other side. There used to be very crowded in this place
when I first started coming here but people were getting less and
less as the shops had less and less stuff to sell.
Painting #3052 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
We used to attend school full time with classes scheduled for the
whole day. After we moved to our new home, I needed only to
stay in classes for half a day, and then the whole class would be
out doing different chores and projects for the rest of the school
day, like removing weeds from the fields, patrolling public areas
to go after passerby who threw garbage or spit on the floor and
gave them warnings or fines, cleaning up streets, helping to take
down iron bars from the windows of the houses around the
school area and building little furnaces to make steel.
88 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
There was no homework to do and we just had to recite
quotations from the little Red Book from time to time. We didn't
even have to worry about where to eat our lunches, as they were
always provided for us on the third floor of a nearby restaurant
which, I was told, the building still belonged to my parents. We
had enough rice and vegetables to eat for lunches and usually we
only ate some kind of pork meat once a week, chicken and beef
were rarely available.
I loved to eat my big bowl of rice for lunch. I usually mixed the rice
with a big spoon of spicy pepper sauce, a lot of lard and "old" soy
sauce. I just continuously shuffled the rice into my mouth with my
chopsticks in one seating, and I was done. There was nothing else
available to eat. I was happy because I was always kept busy and
always around a big group of classmates. I had no home work and
had no worry. I didn't even miss my mother and my grandmother.
When I walked through the school gate, and immediately to my
left there was a small pond with koi fish in it and then, there was a
very big and tall Kapok tree with very pretty badminton-shuttle-
like bright red flowers way high on the canopy. I was hit on the
shoulder by one of the falling flowers once, and it hurt a little, but
the Kapok flower was truly beautiful with bright orange and
purple center and thick shiny flower pedals. The offices and class
rooms were built and appeared on the right side. There were six
class rooms in a row inside a single story building and it ended
with a much bigger room served as the kitchen and cafeteria.
There was a sheltered long corridor joining all the front doors of
the classrooms and the cafeteria.
Each classroom had a lots of glass windows, and from outside, I
could see all the students inside. Immediate from the corridor
was the wide and long dirt playground with a elevated stage on
the entrance side. There was another big pond with beautiful
rocks surrounded it just at the back of the stage, which had a tall
wall between the pond and the stage. There were six more
classrooms on the left side of the playground, and they were all
inside a brick building. My classroom was in one of those rooms.
89 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Joining the dirt playground, there was also a full size dirt
basketball court with real baskets on both ends. There was a row
of dormitory further from the basketball court and those houses
were for the teachers. Not too far away was a big isolated
outhouse with one side for boys and the other for girls.
One side of the basketball court was backed into an ornamental
plants garden which was owned by one of my classmates, who
was a paraplegic. He was always on a wooden wheel chair. He
always had someone to pick him up after school.
He was a tough boy and sometimes we walked him home as the
entrance of his house was on the dirt road and in the direction
leading to our home. We had to exit the school entrance and
made a big circle back to where his house entrance was. On a few
occasions, when his help was late showing up, and when no
teachers were around, he wanted me and a few school mates to
scale him up the wall of the basketball court and over to his
property. Those were hair raising moments. I didn't know how we
managed it but each time we were successful getting him and his
wheel chair and everyone else over the wall. We got him home
the short way and I got my short cut to home as well. Those were
the few times the school was not too happy with what we did.
Tens of millions of people spoke Cantonese in the province of
Guangdong and in Hong Kong. Once we stepped inside the school,
Mandarin speaking only. All classes were given in Mandarin. It
was very easy to learn Mandarin as the written words were the
same as Cantonese. It was a kind of automatic thing, when we
were out of school, we all conversed in Cantonese, and when we
were in school, we all talked in Mandarin. Each morning after the
bell, we had our morning exercise in the assembly play ground
with the elevated stage and the basketball court. Then we
attended classes, studied literature, history, mathematics, arts
and gym. The school provided lunch for every student. After a
short nap, we had various organized activities around the
neighborhood community and farms. There was no classes to
attend in the afternoon.
90 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Sometimes, some classmates were picked to help in big projects,
like road building, dike building and bridge building. Usually, all
students enthusiastically volunteered for those activities, and
some kids always felt disappointed if they weren't selected. I was
always happy because I was always selected. Many of those
afternoon organized activities lasted only two or three hours
each. Then we had "homework" and assignments.
Some assignments lasted for weeks or even months. I had been
killing flies and stuffing them inside empty match boxes provided
by the school for as long as I could remember. I needed to return
a few matchboxes of smashed dead flies to school each week to
meet voluntary "quotas". I just went around with a fly swatter
provided by the school and when I saw a fly resting still, I smashed
it with the swatter and then used a toothpick to bring it in the
match box. It took quite a few smashing to fill up a match box.
Painting #3157 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Then there was another fun assignment after school.
We were given power to warn, "harass" and even fine big people
who threw their cigarette buds on the street, spit on the street,
left garbage on the street, parents who allowed their kids to pee
91 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
or poo on the street, and any acts or actions that could cause
harms to public health and damage property on the street.
We all wore a red scarf on our necks, because we were all Red
Guards. We followed our group leaders, always a teacher or two
and a Red Guard platoon leader who wore an additional red band
on his arm with a horizontal white bar printed on it. We usually
position ourselves on any major intersections near the market
place and spread out two in a group to show our presence to the
passerby.
People usually behaved very nicely when we were present. One
day, my partner Mei-Mei and I saw this big person holding a foot
long sugar cane in his hand, obviously he was eating, munching
and walking to our direction. This was usually a potential violator
because after munching and squeezing the sugar cane juice inside
of his mouth, he usually had to spit out the fiber of the cane. He
walked pass us with a motionless look, and we decided to follow
behind him and expected to see him spit out the finished
mouthful of cane fiber on the street. He didn't look back all this
time, and we saw movements on both of his arms and elbows
from behind from time to time, and we were certain he was
chewing and munching his sugar cane as we followed. He was
clean and nothing was spit on the street after five minutes, and
we had to return to the intersection to stay closer to the group.
Later, I found out from another classmate stationed further down
the road that the man had finished eating his sugar cane and that
he saw him emptied his pocketful of sugar cane fiber into the
roadside garbage bin.
I wasn't doing too good for bring in rat tails and sparrow feet to
school. Rates and sparrows were both on the school's kill list. I
knew brother Doug excelled in catching the sparrows because we
had a few dinners featuring deep fried sparrows and sparrow
eggs. They were small, and our Soak-Por unplugged those feetless
sparrows, took out the guts and fried the whole thing including
the head, in hot oil. We just ate them whole, bones included, and
they were crunchy with a little taste of wild game but delicious.
92 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
There was another fun way to deal with sparrows. In the
afternoons when the rice paddies were almost ready for harvest,
our teachers would organize us and equip us with big noise
making things, like gongs, metal cans, solid wood blocks, cymbals
and led us to the nearby paddy fields. There were usually many
other groups of students from other schools going to the same
area. We just "played" our "music" as loud as we could for hours
as we were walking along and around, and around the fields. I
didn't hear any more birds singing, chanting and chirping in the
rice fields anymore. We turned their paradise into hell.
We had excursions in school for some weekends.
Landmarks, monuments, parks in Canton (Guangzhou) were often
visited. Guang Zhou was big and crowded. I always like this
beautiful Hoi Chu Kew (HaiZhu Bridge, Ocean-Pearl-Bridge), it
wasn't really that far away from Fong-Tsuen. Every time during
the school excursions, we passed this bridge with two distinct
semi circles on top of it. I walked on this bridge several times, and
I admired how grand it was every time I was on it.
One late spring day, we were on our way to Wong-Fa-Kwong
(Yellow-Flower-Mound ) which was a place of heroes. We always
wore our red scarves and had someone with a red flag in the front
to lead the group and a teacher behind the group. Usually, no
parents allowed with the group.
We marched out of school and walked to catch the Pearl River
ferry. The group passed in front of my house and continued
through the market place with many shops and hawkers along the
way, the passerby usually looked at us with some kind of
admiration. We crossed a few wide and short stone bridges and in
less than fifteen minutes from passing my house, we arrived at
the Cheung-Tigh (Long-Dike) on the edge of the big Pearl river,
where a ferry would take us across the Pearl river to the other
side, known as Wong-Sha (Yellow-Sand) and that was the city
boundary of Guangzhou. Wong-Sha was the terminal or station
for many routes of buses, and the trains as well.
93 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
From Cheung-Tigh, I could see the distinctive Haizhu bridge and
the Oi-Kwun (Love-Crowd) High rise building. The ferry was an old
diesel-powered iron boat and it only took a few minutes to cross
the river despite busy traffic of junks and small fishing boats in the
area. Once we left the Wong-Sha Pier, we walked to the Terminal
and boarded a big bus with many other passengers, and we were
on our way to our planned destination.
We were always energetic and cheerful while traveling together,
but the bus ride usually took a lot of steam out of us because it
was always clamped with people and it was smelly and many of us
had to stand all the way and we were choked, dizzied by the bus's
diesel fume and frequent stops.
It didn't matter what we were going to see, or how long the bus
ride was, once off the bus, we were happy and playful again.
Painting #3065 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
Throughout the years, we visited the 5-story Tower, Pagodas, the
White-Cloud Mountain, Museum, 5-Ram Sculpture and Yue Xiu
Park, and many others. Yue Xui Park was my favorite. It was very
big with a lots of trees just like 18-Mu, lakes, hills, beautiful
walkways, and steps for us to play and run, and we could eat our
94 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
lunch there. Our teachers usually bought dried food and can
goods for picnics.
From 1958 to 1960 we did see our mother or our grandmother
much more often, they always brought foods from Hong Kong for
us. Our Soak-Por was still taken care of us and our 4th Auntie also
came to see us quite often.
My 4th auntie also worked in the police bureau where her
husband, our 4th uncle was the chief- of- police there. They had a
son, our cousin, called Ming-Wah. 4th Auntie and Ming-Wah
usually came to see Soak-Por and us once and awhile. Their visits
were usually quite short and we liked to play with Ming-Wah,
especially brother Ging because they were closer in age.
Just on the opposite side of the river at the back of our home,
there were no houses or shops, only a very high and long red brick
wall extended along the bank as far as my eyes could see on both
ways. I heard this was a very famous boarding private school in
the old days. There were many big trees I could see on the other
side of the red brick wall. I always looked at those tall trees by
standing at the back opening of our home and wanted to know
who were behind the wall. That place remained a mystery to me.
The river behind our house became much wider and bigger on
both directions after the section where our townhouse was. On
one rare occasion, in an early evening, brother Doug took Ging
and I to ford across the river behind the house and then we
walked along the red brick wall toward where the Pearl river was.
There was a narrow path between the red wall and the river edge.
A short while later we passed all the red brick wall and came to
the front of the structure, and the path opened up to a nicely
paved big area, and there was the entrance of the school with the
red brick wall. It was grand with three tall arched entrances, and
the center one was well over 20 feet tall, unfortunately everything
was block and it was kind of dark and I still couldn't enter or look
inside.
95 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
We continued our walk to where our river joint with the Pearl
river. Brother Doug was pretty quiet all the way, and he looked a
bit different from the normal brother Doug I knew, and he kept
glancing at both of us with a sympathetic gesture on his face and
didn't say too much.
Painting #3181 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
When we got to the end of the river he decided to treat us with
Tang-Jkai-Jok (Small-boat-congee) which was a well known snack
food around the neighborhood. This was a very busy night spot
with all the little sampans mooring along the well-paved dike with
electric lights everywhere. This was like a little bay harbor
96 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
because a huge water gate was built tunnelling between the Pearl
river and our river to control water flows from Pearl river to and
from our river.
They cooked the congee with a stove from the sampan. Ging and I
always liked this place, but two of us didn't have the guts to walk
here by ourselves, because our mother told us that there were
too many unreliable strangers here. While we were eating,
Brother Doug finally told us why he was so quiet and taking us
there that night.
Brother Doug was going to Hong Kong for good very soon. He
knew Ging and I would have to stay behind with Soak-Por for a
longer while and he didn't know what would happen to us and he
didn't want us to feel too bad. He was happy that he was going to
see his other brothers and sisters again, and he was worry that he
might not be able to see us again for a very long time.
My favorite 4th Auntie invited me to stay with her family in one of
the summer days, as I was pretty bore that summer. I didn't know
where they lived in Guang Zhou and I had never visited their
home before. They always came to our house for visits and
celebrations, either in 18-Mu or Fong-Tsuen. I was happy to stay
with them and play with Ming-Wah. At the same time brother
Ging would be staying with his favorite 2nd Auntie who had 3 kids
to play with him.
She came to fetch me one weekend and helped me to pack a few
clothes, together we walked to the pier and crossed the Pearl
river in the ferry to the Guangzhou side.
Surprised to me, when we left the ferry and right by the pier, a
"private" car with a driver picked us up. I was in a bus before and I
was never been in a car before. I was excited and bounced up and
down at the back seat, and my 4th Auntie just looked at me and
laughed and laughed, she was enjoying the moment. There were
more surprises awaited me!
The car drove along the Pearl river toward the Haizhu Bridge side.
The Long Dike along the River was very clean and pretty because
97 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
everywhere was paved with white stones and planted with
beautiful trees. From the river edge and the wide walkway of the
road to the vertical face of the Dike to the water, everywhere was
stone paved.
When our school group went for excursions in Guangzhou, we
passed this exclusive area many times. These were beautiful man-
made small islands just off the shore. There were several of them
running parallel to the road and walkways on the bank of the
Pearl River, and each island had at least one fancy stone bridge
connecting it to the main road on the bank. Those stone bridges
were very well built with the middle section arched like an upside
down half moon. Both sides of each bridge were heavily
decorated with ornate white stones all the way down to the
water, and there was an arch opening right in the middle side of
the stone bridge for small boats to pass through.
Painting #3115 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
The edge of the islands were paved from the very top and all the
way down to the water and beyond with white stones and they
looked super clean and beautiful. And then, there were the fancy
big trees some with characters, placed just at the perfect spots
and matched harmoniously with all these three-story western
98 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
looking villas. There were flower patches everywhere. The row of
villas was also built with white color materials with green color
roof trims. This stretch of small unique islands was linked to each
other with flyovers or stone bridges. I knew this very unique and
special garden-like place was called Sha-Min (Sand-Surface) and I
heard it was reserved for foreigners only.
Our car passed the first island and started to turn onto the next
stone bridge. It drove over the bridge and zigzagged to the front
of a big villa and stopped.
Before I knew what to make out of this, my 4th Auntie opened the
car door and stepped out, she turned around and asked me to
carry my small bag and come out of the car. She said we had
arrived and that they lived there. I was speechless and my eyes
were wide open and I just uttered the sound "wow".
Everything was so neat. I got to sleep on the second floor all by
myself in a bedroom. Inside the house was bright and airy with big
framed glass windows on all sides and there were drapes, and
even a stylish mosquito net hanging from the ceiling and over my
bed. That bed was soft, tall and big with four poles on the corners
stretched almost to the ceiling. It had everything on that floor and
I didn't have to clean myself on the river or dash out for outhouse.
With beautiful scenery outside of all the windows and I could stay
there forever.
One day, 4th Auntie took Ming-Wah and I to Ly-Chee Wan (Ly
Chee Bay) scenic area to play and eat. I loved that place and I
liked the food there. On our way back, she told me that brother
Ging would go to Hong Kong first with Soak-Por before Brother
Doug. That was really good news, but I was immediately feeling
sad and at the same time shockingly happy and I really didn't
know what should I react. I felt very uncertain.
We visited many places and ate quite a lots of meals. Sometimes,
with 4th uncle in the car, the driver would take us for a very long
drive up the mountains and down to the water fronts and visited
some unknown places along the way. I really enjoyed the week-
long stay with them.
99 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
Brother Ging and Doug were home when 4th Auntie took me
home that day. Ging was happy that he would be leaving for Hong
Kong soon, but he was unhappy because Doug or I wasn't going
with him.
One very early morning, brother Ging was nicely dressed and
Soak-Por was carrying one big bag on one hand and holding Ging
with her other hand, and she said to Brother Doug and I that she
would be back in one week. Brother Doug and I walked them out
the door and then all the way to the ferry, and Doug helped Soak-
Por to carry her bag along the way. We tried to be happy, but
none of us was in the mood to talk very much. Brother Doug with
his hand on my shoulder both stood motionless near the pier until
the ferry carrying brother Ging and Soak-Por had reached Wong-
Sha, on the other side of the river.
Painting #3623 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
We returned home and expected that Yee-Ma (Mother's Sister)
would show up later of the day to stay with us for a few days. I got
back to bed to catch up with my sleep, as I wasn't sleeping that
great with brother Ging and I both woke up several times during
the night.
100 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
I was happy to see Yee-Ma again that day.
While I was helping Yee-Ma washing the rice and she was busy
preparing dinner in the kitchen at the back, I heard someone was
opening the front door, and that must be brother Doug because
he was the only one not in the house, and it was almost dinner
time. I wasn't quite right.
Walking down the corridor toward us were brother Ging and
Soak-Por! I dropped my rice cooker and stood up with water still
running down from my hand. Ging said that he was hungry, and
he wanted to eat! They both looked very tired.
Soak-Por told us that Ging was not allowed to leave China
because incomplete documentation or his age problem, and she
asked us to add more rice in the pot because they needed to eat.
Brother Ging kept very quiet and didn't say too much as usual. I
was happy they were back, and I was sad that Ging didn't make it
through to Hong Kong.
Yee-Ma was very kind and always very nice to us. She was a little
bit plump and rounded just like my mother. She was always happy
to talk about Ah-Pu, her only son and our first cousin, who was
sent to some school in the north and didn't come home that often
and she didn't get to visit him often either. She missed Ah-Pu
terribly.
One day, my mother showed up with new clothes for Ging and me
and Doug, and two big bags of foods from Hong Kong. She had
raisin breads, crackers in sealed big tin cans, candies in wrappers
and some beef and pork jerky. These were all my favorites so
were Ging's. She stayed with four of us for about a week, and
then she took brother Doug with her to Hong Kong. I never seen
brother Doug again in Fong-Tsuen. I wondered why didn't she
take brother Ging with her instead.
Bother Ging was even quieter after being returned from the
border. With only three of us, the house was getting quiet all the
time. Soak-Por always busy sewing something or preparing
something for dinner. Ging went to school and came back and
101 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
played with himself quietly. I was kept busy with school activities
all the time. In early 1960, drastic things were started to happen
again when I was just turning 12 years old.
One day in school, my teacher handed me a red arm band with a
horizontal bar printed on it and told me that I was promoted to be
a leader. Then, about a few months after that, in one early
summer day when brother Ging and I were just out of school, 4th
Auntie came to our house with a big smile on her face and told
Soak-Por that she had to take Ging and I to Hong Kong soon. She
gave me a passport with I being the holder and brother Ging as an
dependent of me. Ging and I were joyful as we knew we were
going to see our brothers and sisters again very soon.
Painting #3115 by Bigan Fanli
Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
My 4th Auntie asked a shoe smith to custom-made a pair of low
cut leather boots for me as a parting gift. I sensed that she was
very sad to see us go, but again she said firmly that we had to go.
In one very early morning before sunrise in the summer of 1960,
brother Ging and I both put on our new clothes, which our mother
brought us when she was visiting us the very last time in Fong-
Tsuen. I wore a pair of navy blue shorts with pockets on the side
and a new slightly over sized T-shirt, a pair of new socks and the
102 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
new boots from 4th Auntie. Both of us had new haircuts, we
looked nice and clean. We picked up our already packed bags and
walked out of our door.
Soak-Por locked the front door behind us and it was the last time I
heard the door closed in Fong-Tsuen, and three of us headed to
Hong Kong.
I could hear the echoes when my boots hit the pavement while
we were walking toward the market place. There were still street
lights but no passerby on the street, it was only the echoes that
followed us, and we didn't talk. None of our neighbor kids or our
friends knew we were leaving for good.
Once we got off the ferry from Wong-Sha pier we walked to the
train terminal nearby. Soak-Por bought our train tickets to
Shenzhen Lo-Wu and then we had to wait. Lo-Wu was the border
point separating China from Hong Kong. As time went, there were
more and more people showing up in the train terminal. It
seemed that we were sitting there forever.
Soak-Por was just sitting there looking a bit tired already and
didn't talk to us that much. We clutched our bags sitting side by
side and just watching the moving crowds, and occasionally
brother Ging pulled some jerky out of his pocket and offered me a
bit or two. We finally boarded the train and Ging got to sit by the
window. The train was moving...
Soak-Por had to wipe and clean brother Gin's face for a few times
as every time he stuck his head out of the train window, he got hit
by the black soot from the train engine. When we were just
almost out of snacks in our pockets, the trained arrived at Lo-Wu,
the border to Hong Kong.
We lined up with Soak-Por in front of us. After a long wait, we
were finally in front of the immigration counter. Soak-Por was
cleared by the officer quite fast and while I was producing my
passport to the officer she was already a distance behind the
counter walking to the Hong Kong side.
103 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
I put up a big smile in front of the officer and he kept looking at us
and he asked me a few questions and I answered him as much as I
knew. One time, he was halfway up his seat looking for brother
Ging who was timidly hiding behind me. The officer was nice, with
a smile he asked Ging to step out, and I heard "chop" "chop" he
gave me back my passport and motioned us to pass.
I didn't see Soak-Por any more after we picked up our bags and
started walking on the bridge to the Hong Kong side. There were
no people on the short bridge and we could only walked forward,
very quickly we reached the end where a few uniformed Hong
Kong police were standing. I was happy to see Soak-Por there but
I was still uncomfortable and I didn't know why.
We had no problem passing the Hong Kong immigration. Brother
Ging and I were in Hong Kong!
We were the last two in our family to leave China, and our family
lost practically everything left behind.
Painting 3504 by Bigan Fanli Limited Edition, Showcase Framed - www.BiganFanli.com
The End - Part I - "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-
Discovered" - By Bigan Fanli 2016 (Part I -total words - -32,000+)
104 "Love Nature, Live Free & Be Happy Always - My Life Re-Discovered" - Bigan Fanli 2016
To be continued...
Part II - Surviving the "Concrete Jungle" and University Life in USA (1960 to 1974)
Part III & IV - Rooting Saga in Canada (1974 -2016)
THE GREATEST GOOD ONE CAN DO IS TO
CULTIVATE ONESELF IN ORDER THAT ONE MAY BE OF GREATER USE TO HUMANITY
LOVE NATURE, LIVE FREE & BE HAPPY ALWAYS
MY LIFE RE-DISCOVERED - PART I
Herbert Lee a.k.a. Bigan Fanli 2016
www.BiganFanli.com
www.myPrettyWall.com)