1945-10-06. Some of the bomb damage at Jesselton, British North Borneo.

http://www.northborneohistory.com/jesselton/australian-war-memorials-photos-of-heavily-bombed-jesselton-during-world-war-ii/

On 1955 Liew married to Wong Family in Basel Church Jesselton and began her married life with a husband without job for the first couple of years.

They were to have 7 children. 5 boys and 2 girls

Life was not always easy in this household as times were hard after the second world.
Laundry for all had to be done, meal preparation for all had to be completed and during this time she tender the backyard garden for some vegetable and chicken to sale to supplement the income that her husband brought in.

She also sewed extensively the clothing's for the 7 children of whole family.

She missed her childhood day. When I was young I remember she used to recall "Dong nya jo moi jai si..." (When I was a teenage girl....). Those days were the most happy days of her life - a life of a teen age girl in Papar Town, a town still unknown to many Malaysian today.
 

Liew Soon Tshing was born and grew up in Papar Town. A town of low lying coastal areas extending inland towards the Crocker Range,

During her time Papar was good rice growing land. My family came to Papar a few times. My childhood images of Papar is the flat open padi fields. The Town is on the bank of a Papar River miles from the sea. This areas of tidal wetland also home to mangrove and saltwater palm or nipah.

The town has seen growth in recent years but still manage to maintain some of its older buildings. The Railway Station is much the same as ever and the huge old banyan tree is still there.

St Joseph's Secondary School still stands opposite the station and behind the Catholic Church of St Joseph's. The old town is being renovated either by design or as the result of fires destroying parts of the town.

Wong Syak Kee, the young man who later married her, wrote about Papar in his diary when he came to the town several times between 1952 to 1953.  The dairy managed to survives till this day. More about Wong Syak Kee

June 2008 I returned to Kuching a few days for the funeral of Wong Syak Kee where the children were present.

After the burial I had a day behind before returning to home. While at parent's home Stella brought to me 2 plastic containers of Note Pads and Note Books all belong to Liew Soon Tshing before she passed away in 2003. Because I could read Chinese (these hand written scripts were written in Chinese) so it was hope I could keep theses notes books that have memorable value while all the remaining would be dispose eventually.

I found a valuable book that like a treasure time capsule of late 1940s after 2nd world This 16cm X 20.5 cm note books of about 50 pages of singled lines . Its a song book cum photo album of Liew Soon Tshing kept by her before marriage. This is an ordinary plain notebook used 1st part for songs and 2nd parts as photo album of friends and relatives.

There were 12 copies Chinese love songs and 25 black and white photographs with 4 were still stick on the pages. See image below or see some Photos of Liew Soon Tshing.

I could identify almost no one in the photos she kept except a few close eldery relatives.
If you happen to identified someone in the photos to be you parents or grand parents, I would be just too happy to hear from you. My email is wong@ikenet.com.sg

内心的阴影也许就来自于苍凉的童年。童年的苦难深深烙在她的心间，使她的性格变得抑郁、内向、多愁善感。

Photo Album of Liew Soon Tshing

Her album is a time machine. Her photos are time capsules.  These valuable images tells me those day and environment, who I am, who I came from.

The Song Book : The first part of this book is a song book with 12 Chinese songs which I never heard of.

Liew Soon Tshing kept her photos in 3 different ways/places.

1st type of photos are those in grass framed and hung in the sitting room. These are her favorite photos, mostly family photos after her marriage to the Wong family.

2nd type of photo are her favorite photos that include her teenage and marriage photos. These were in 3 or 4 very old photo albums that she had not attended to for last 20 years of her life. The above photo is once among her favorite photo kept in one of these album - a photo that she might even forgotten by herself.

3rd type of photo were those of her friends and relatives given to her as remembrance. These photos were all kept in Song cum photo album converted from a plain notebook. Click here to see this album

NO 872 LORONG 4
JLN CHONG KHUN KUNG
KENYALANG PARK
93300 KUCHING
(28.08.96)  (K233204)
WARGANEGARA

The white circle at left side is the location of Liew's old home.  The wooden house she once grew up had long dismantled and replaced by the 2nd son of the Liew Family with a red roof  concert house.

This physical landscape of Papar has changed mush sine Liew Soon Tshing's time in the 1950.

In those years  rubber trees are planted around this town but today hardly a tree is seen. Most Chinese then were involved in cash crop cultivation such as Cocoa, Coconut, Oil Palm, Rubber and Paper. But my mother's  family was very unique, they plant rice and rear pigs. Hardly I hear of any other Chinese family plant rice. The rice planting usually the tradition of the local habitants.

In 2009 Chinese New Year I came to paper to visit her eldest brother's family. One of the members happen to mention a fact which I always puzzled on ".....All the surround neighbor plant rubber trees. Only our family plant rice....." But he did not go further to explain why they do the unusual works then the other Chinese.

Liew family has long stopped planting rice. But other Kadazan race families around that area still carry on the traditions (see photo above) The area beside Liew's house is still paddy field today.

Beside their house is the long irrigation drain that looks like a road from the air. This drain was constructed by government back in the 1960s'

1952

Basel Church Jesselton