what’s in a receipt – 36.11.21

1. Money home

松口, 圳头. 

Though it is a small piece of paper not  more than 14X7cm, what is printed and written on it tells a story of a different era, a different time.

 Whenever I walked past the ICBC Bank in People’s Park, Chinatown, and seeing the foreign labors from China lining up to send money home, I would visualize  a century and more ago, grandfather  would have been doing a similar thing –i.e.  remitting his hard earn money to his family in Songkou -

Perhaps with this thought in mind – it makes me feels a sense of connectedness & affinity to these folks. Our family too started off like them – albeit a hundred odd years earlier.

Well, by the time of this receipt dated 36.11.21 – that is,  the 36^th year of the Republican era （民国）in 1947 November 26^th,  grandpa was 64 years old, and had returned to his village for good.  He came to Nanyang – 南洋- and ventured to the tin mining outpost of Menglembu in is his early twenties, together with his 2^nd brother.  

For the greater part of the next forty odd years and more – he was engaged in th timber industry – a service industry to the tin mines, supplying logs and planks for the palong ( in open cast mines) and the mining kongsi (dwellings for workers, operations headquarters,  depot  - all rolled into one) in the vicinity of Lahat, Papan and Menglembu.   His circle of business partners were mostly fellow Hakka tin miners  who hailed from the  neighboring  Hakka districts of South China.

Remittance to the home village was similarly sent thro the Hakka business network, in Ipoh.

On this  receipt, one can find two English words  – a)  LEEBROS –  which was the telegraphic code of the remitting company – Li Sanmao - 李三茂 - and b) Koo Kwat Chin – 古国祯 - in the red stamp  on the right bottom corner – grandpa’s chop which was a modernized version of the seal.

LEEBROS located at 39, Leech Street, was the main agent used by grandpa to remit money to the village.  The other agents were Eu Yang Sang, and thro Charted Bank.

This receipt was an acknowledgement that the sum of 5 million Republican yuan - 圓- was duly received by the countersigned– on 21Nov1947, and stamped with the grandpa’s chop.

The person countersigned on the receipt was not grandpa, but was 4^th uncle – with his nicely written namely as 古锦琳. – Gu Jinlin  (pinyin) . The person who remitted this sum from Ipoh – was dad -古锦宏 – Gu Jinhong.

The establishment where this sum was remitted to, was located in the upper main street of Songkou town – Xinhe Zhuang - 信和庄松口上大街 – marked by the dark colored chop in the center of the receipt.

2.       Exchange rate 121 - Straits $ to Republican 圆  1945 – 1947

How much was this princely sounding sum of 5million Republican yuan  equivalent to?

  Well, luckily the sum could be traced to accounting record.  From the handwriting it further confirmed that it was dad’s entry.

It stated : On Nov 06, a remittance of  $5million republican yuan was made thro Li SanMao to  - to be received by Daren – 大人手收 -  (Daren - an honorific old school address for one’s superior - grandpa) .  Following was a note in Suzhou character for a sum of $190.00 Straits dollars.

 This would make it at an exchange rate of $1= ¥26,315

Interestingly from the first record entry made just after the end of WW2 in Dec 1945 to the last entry made two years later in Dec 1947, the Republican yuan would have depreciated by close to 140 times against the Straits dollar!  The slide was especially drastic starting from 1947 -

Here’s a sample the exchange rate on remittance sent thro Li Sanmao, Ipoh, to Songkou, China.

10Dec1945          $1=¥256

16Mar1946          $1=¥625

27Jan1947           $1=¥2,040

26May1947         $1=¥10,000

26Aug1947          $1=¥11,674

23Sep1947          $1=¥Y14,705

06Nov1947          $1=¥26,315

09Dec1947          $1=¥35,714

Well, this is an unexpected lesson in economics coming out of the family history.  This was a period of turbulent upheaval in China. Perhaps we have a pretty good hindsight now, to come to think of it.

To grandpa who longed for his homeland – come what may home was where the heart was. In the hills lie his ancestors, and it would be there he would return.   Perhaps, the mountainous terrain of the Hakka highlands had nullified the impact from the hyperinflation, and dulled the distant din of the gunshots raging south.

PS –

1.       Republican Yuan  -indicated  as ¥    /   圓

Here to mean the existent currency in circulation at that time.  It could be called by different notation。

Well, a google on the republican yuan  - leading to Chinese currency indicated that there were two period of hyperinflation in China that brought about the downfall of the regime.  One was towards the end of the Yuan dynasty - 元 - (1271–1368 ) and the next was during the end of the republican rule in mainland China  - 民國 - (1911-1949)

Chinese currency –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_currency#1945.E2.80.931948

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老照片 – to china 1927

When the folks are no longer around to tell the tale, the only means to unravel the story behind the old photographs is to postulate & from what one know and heard  from the elders.

Where were these two photographs taken, who were they & when?

The ancestral home in China Songkou, Meixan- 松口， 梅县。The courtyard of the house was much the same from what we saw years later on a visit in 1997.

There could not be any doubt that the litte boy was dad. These two photographs were kept with dad’s other old photographs all these years. The boy was possibly 3 or 4 years old then. With that setting, the photograph would then had been taken in 1927 or 1928 – and in the deep of winter.

As to the woman holding the hand of the little boy – it should be 2nd grand aunt ( 二伯婆). . The facial feature of this middle age woman, with strong cheek bones look similar to that of her in another photograph taken 20 or so odd years earlier in 1906. From the elders, she was tall of stature, and this was very much borne out in the photograph.

As to the grand old lady in a pair of round spectacles, she must be great grand mother. She ought to be in her seventies by then. In the genealogical record she was addressed as a 黎氏 – from the Li Family – though there was no mentioned of her year of birth.

Postscript

1. For whatever reasons – dad had never told us of the family history or for that matter the folks in China. Possibility cos it was a memory of of grief and anger, that to him was better left there and be forgotten.

For when his dad returned to China in autumn of 1946 & died two years or so later –it was a sad closing chapter of a 40 odd year sojourn in Nanyang.

2. In the genealogical record it was stated that dad was half-adopted as a 2nd son to 2nd Grand Uncle -

過繼半嗣永亮為次子 guojibansi yongliangweicizi
The Gu-family (Koo) record- 古氏族譜革公派 - was completed in the 18th year of the Republic – 1929.

3. This trip was possibly dad’s first trip to his ancestral home to see his grandmother - travelling with 2nd Grand Aunt.

- 08Sep11/5:15pm/depot road

4. Visited Songkou a 2nd time on 23-34Dec2011.  In transit in HKG - heard from aunt Nyukmoi - that dad had a scare on his forehead close to his eyebrow.   She had previously tried look out for this scar - but it was not visible. 

- recall a tale that while on a visit to the ancestral village when he was a kid, dad had a deep cut while going up the steps visiting a temple.  Possibly this tale had lived on in the village, and the trip could be this one when he was a boy of 3-4years of age.

updated 13Feb2012

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old photographs - 老照片 - the early generations

1906

The photograph was taken at the Young Cheong studio - 容昌- in Ipoh.

Ipoh was written in Chinese as 壩羅 – Balo - instead of 怡保。

Seated in the middle was great grandfather and great-grandmother & their family. Grandfather the 3rd son was seated on his far left .

As the photograph was not dated, the year 1906 was derived at from the age of the baby seated on the lap of the lady dressed in peranakan attire on the far right of great-grandmother. The nyonya lady was grandfather’s wife.

According to the record in the family genealogical record – grandfather’s son was born in the year of Emperor Guangxu - 光緒乙巳年 – in the 7th lunar month. That would be Aug 1905.

Assuming that the baby to be about 6 to 8 months’ old, that would make put the photograph to be taken between Feb – Apr 1906.

Grandpa was born in the year 1883 – and he would be 23 years old.

What a dashing scholarly figure he looked - in his traditional garb, wooden cloth shoes with thick soles and complemented with a round fan. Being the 3rd in his family – he was known as Gu San - 古三– to his town folks in later years.

It was common then for young men to marry local peranakan ladies. Grandfather's first wife the nyonya maiden was from the Xie Family- 謝氏.

The Gu family genealogy - 古氏族谱- recorded that she gave birth to two sons and died at an early age of 22 years old. Only the first son survived to adulthood.

Grandfather's two other brothers were in the picture. 2nd granduncle was seated next to great-grandfather, and the one next to grandfather was 4th granduncle.

2nd granduncle's wife was seated next to great-grandmother. She was from China.

As a Hakka’s it was not a custom for the womenfolk’s to have dainty bound feet – for the Hakka women folks had to work in the fields, tending to the housework bringing up kids, and attending to the elder in-laws, while the husband venture out to work in distant land.

What was the occasion for this family photograph? Why was  great-grand father and great-grandmother & all the family members here in Ipoh. Grandfather and 2nd grandunlce and their families stayed on, while great-grandfather, great-grandmother and 4th granduncle returned to China. How long was their stay in Nanyang, and when did they return to China?

If I remember well, I heard from dad that great-grandfather initially went to Burma, that is Myanmar, but later made their way to Malaya. As such grandfather could have left the village for Nanyang - 南洋 - in the late 1890/s or early 1900/s.

Photographs of great-grand fathers’ and great-grandmothers’ graves in China, used to hang in the old house together with this photograph.

These questions of when the early generations left their village and what was the occasion for the gathering in Ipoh / Menglembu - were family history lost in antiquity.

Perhaps, some living elders who still have the answers, be it here or back in the village in China.

1926

This wedding photograph was badly soiled when it was salvaged from the old house 1A.

As a wedding memento - it was clearly dated and the event and date recorded in ink at the back of the photograph -
映於〡〩〢〧年乃民國〡〥年　六、二六号
陰暦 丙寅五月十七日

It was taken on the 26June1926, the 15th year of the Republic in the lunar year of binyin on the 17th day of the 5th lunar month. The bridegroom, age 21, standing in the middle of the photograph in black suit and bow tie was the baby in the 1906 photograph.

Grandfather was seated on the right of the bridge, a maiden from the Liang family -
梁氏. Grandpa would be 43 years old.

Seated on this right was his 2nd wife, and our immediate grandmother. His peranakan wife – as we heard died at a young age and subsequently grandfather re-married. Grandmother was born in China and she was from the Zou family - 鄒氏.

Seated on grandmother’s lap was a baby - about six months’ old. He would be our 3rd uncle, while the groom being the eldest son of grandfather was our 1st uncle. The first of grandfathers’ sons from his 2nd wife, was dad. Dad was on the far right among the children seated on the floor in the front row. He was 2 years old then.

All in grandfather had six sons and 6 daughters that lived to adulthood - one from his firt nyonya wife, and the rest from his 2nd wife.

2nd granduncle and his wife, were seated on the right of the photograph. The adult womenfolks were his daughters, as we know that 2nd grandmother had three girls, and did not bore any male.

The house where this photograph was taken was in Menglembu. It was probably behind 1A across Jalan Lee Man Hin. That was before they moved to another house where the current police station is located. When I was small, I heard that dad was born in that house - and it was probably this house in this wedding photograph.

Interestingly, there were two big lantern's - one was written with the characters - Gu Family and the other - Welcoming the bride. It was the custom and tradition of then, and these red character lanterns were too seen in the peranakan wedding ceremony.

Grandfather returned to China in 1946 after the the Pacific War ended. By then he would have left his village close to 50 long years. His vision then was to bring his brood back to China.

However, before it could materialise, he passed away in 1948, and his wife, his children and the grandchildren remained in Nanyang...


Postscript:

This 1926 wedding picture, together with the 1906 photograph, was left behind in 1A when the family moved house in 1983. In the late 1980/s or early 1990/s went back to 1A and found these two photographs on the floor in dad’s room, beneath the windows. The photograph frame had rotted badly after years of exposure in a dank and humid room where water would seep thru the windows during heavy rain.

The numbers written in the back of the photographs consisted of Shuzhou numerals蘇州碼子– which was the numerals for Chinese accounting then -

Reference:

1. Chinese calendar – 万历年
http://www.51baozhi.com/wannianli/

2. Shuzhou numerals蘇州碼子 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzhou_numerals

3. 古氏族谱- 革公派 - Gu Family Record - Ge-gong branch -

卅五世 ( 35th Generation)

顺元公之子
鴻慶號雁如諡謹慈配李氏
生四子永明永亮永禎永祥

卅六世 (36th Generation)

鴻慶

長子 永明
幼亡係錦榮錦麟錦桂房承鼎

次子 永亮
清光緒辛巳（１８８１）年十？月廿三丑時生配李氏光緒庚辰八月廿六日生生一子錦麟嗣半子錦宏妾孫氏現生一子錦添

(2nd granduncle died in Lahat, Perak, and 2nd grandaunt in Menglembu. They were buried in the 'old hill' cemetery, Menglembu.

三子 永禎　　
清光緒癸未年（１８８３）十月十七曰子時生配謝氏操烈廿二歳生二子錦榮錦鑫継妻鄒氏光緒壬辰（１８９２）八月廾日丑時生現生三子錦宏錦環錦琳　（後錦朱錦昌）

民國卅七年戊子年五月卄五日寅時去逝於梅縣松口諡慎詒公
民國卅七年戊子金秋月吉曰葬

Grandfather passed away in his home village Songkou, Meixian, in 1948, and buried there. While grandmother passed away in Menglembu in 1961 and buried in 'new hill'.

All their sons and daughters have too since passed away.

四子 永祥
光緒戊子崴　（１８８８）四月廿七自曰配李世

(4th granduncle and family remained in China. The elders from China mentioned that one of his daughters migrated to Malaya too).

Update -
12.04.2012 - replace  photographs re-taken on 13Mar/Menglembu

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