Past Memories of a Chinese
New Village
Mrs Lai have
many remarkable happy, sad and eerie stories about living in the 1960s in a
Chinese New Village in Tanjung Malim, Selangor.
Her parents
were rubber tappers and she lived with 4 other siblings in New Village at
Tanjung Malim in Selangor. The like other people they were extremely poor but
live a blissful life of swimming in rivers, climbing trees and stealing fruits
for the kids at that time.
A Typical Chinese New
Village
An incident
happened when she was about 10 - 11 years old a long time ago, when she was
with her brother and they were walking back to their home. It was late evening
at the time and they were rushing back as their mother would give them hell for
coming back so late.
Walking in
the gravel road they saw three people (she guess it must be a father, wife and
a young boy) walking behind them. When they were slightly surprised when the
family suddenly walked in a small footpath filled with over grown lalangs (long
coarse weeds) away from the gravel road. She did want to be a ‘kaypoh’
(busybody) so did say anything but hurriedly along the narrow road.
As they
walked past the family in different direction they noticed something odd about
their walk. As if they slightly were like gliding among the tall lalangs. As
they were busy walking they casually looked again at the family which was much
further away they suddenly realize the reasons the difference of walking. The
family, the father, mother and the young boy, did not have legs!..... She
looked at her brother shocked and in disbelief…screaming and blabbering they took
off for their lives and both of them ran all the way back to their house.
