i was born naturally in the late evening of 17 dec 1966 in kandang kerbau hospital after a half-hour labour (according to my mum). my birth was one of the many thousands that constitute the post-war baby boom generation. mine was also one of the 39,835 birth that year that won the hospital a place in the guiness book of world records for the most number of birth in a maternity ward for that year.
i was the pride and joy of my parents and my birth was received with much relieve given that my mum had had two previous miscarriages (of boys, and if she had successfully given birth to them, i would not have been conceived in the first place!). being peranakan, my mum gave me an english name (which was quite rare back then) and had it registered in my birth cert - it was something not very common for a hokkien family in the mid-60s. my dad gave me my chinese name. translated to english, it sounded rather cheesy but hey, i am proud of it!
from what my mum told me, i was a large baby weighing 5 pounds & 12 tahils (or 5.75 pounds). fed with human milk, i grew fast and furious and when i was 4 months old, my mum entered me in a baby contest (that was in mar 1967). well, i did not win. i was overweight. i had weighed over 40 pounds by then... heavier than the baby that won the contest by about 10 pounds!
i was the pride and joy of my parents and my birth was received with much relieve given that my mum had had two previous miscarriages (of boys, and if she had successfully given birth to them, i would not have been conceived in the first place!). being peranakan, my mum gave me an english name (which was quite rare back then) and had it registered in my birth cert - it was something not very common for a hokkien family in the mid-60s. my dad gave me my chinese name. translated to english, it sounded rather cheesy but hey, i am proud of it!
from what my mum told me, i was a large baby weighing 5 pounds & 12 tahils (or 5.75 pounds). fed with human milk, i grew fast and furious and when i was 4 months old, my mum entered me in a baby contest (that was in mar 1967). well, i did not win. i was overweight. i had weighed over 40 pounds by then... heavier than the baby that won the contest by about 10 pounds!
anyway, i slept in the sarong when i was a baby. it was not until i was a year plus before i was transfered to sleep in the bed. some of the things i remembered my mum doing when i was a kid was - praying to the `sinbu' or `shenmu' for me and my brother to grow up protected and healthy (sinbu is also known as the `mother of gods' in hokkien - she is the guardian goddess for babies and pregnant women. she is also known as the `goddess of fertility' or zhu sheng niang niang. accordingly, she is known to play and communicate with babies. babies smile because of her and she would disappear once the baby learns how to talk). my mum would burn incense and do offerings to sinbu on the bed while my brother and i would play around the little room. and from what i understood, i underwent some of the traditional rites accorded to a baby - namely, shaving my head when i celebrated my first month in this world (so that my head will have an even spread of hair when i grow up), smearing of my lips with a minced meat porridge at the age of four months (not sure of reason but noted this same treatment given to my nieces - with chicken drumsticks instead as late as the early 90s), no shoes until age one (or my feet will be deformed), no chicken feet until my teens (for it will make my hands tremble), etc.
and to protect me from harm's way, my parents found me an adopted mother (a woman who had lots of children was the criteria according to the temple medium). my mum went further to give me to the sheng-hong kong (cheng huang laoye in hanyu pinyin) for adoption so that he may protect me with his powers. for both adoptions, i underwent all the taoists rites. that would be the start of my annual rituals to visit and pay respect to my ah-bu (mother in hokkien) or khueh bu (adopted mother) every year during major chinese festivals and to visit the temple to pay respect to sheng-hong kong on his birthday. reflecting, it's funny how, unlike my khueh bu, i never address the god as my godfather. rather, in front of him, i would address myself as his godson or khueh kiah.
and to protect me from harm's way, my parents found me an adopted mother (a woman who had lots of children was the criteria according to the temple medium). my mum went further to give me to the sheng-hong kong (cheng huang laoye in hanyu pinyin) for adoption so that he may protect me with his powers. for both adoptions, i underwent all the taoists rites. that would be the start of my annual rituals to visit and pay respect to my ah-bu (mother in hokkien) or khueh bu (adopted mother) every year during major chinese festivals and to visit the temple to pay respect to sheng-hong kong on his birthday. reflecting, it's funny how, unlike my khueh bu, i never address the god as my godfather. rather, in front of him, i would address myself as his godson or khueh kiah.
i had two elder sisters. being the first boy in the family, my dad would take lots of photos of me. some of the most memorable photos of a 1.5 year old me running around the chup-lau-chu (hokkien for `ten-storey house' - aka new hdb flats in the circuit road housing estates) eating ice cream cones. i also seriously think my dad was a cheeky person for his shots of me were always in singlets and without pants! of cos, being a chubby one and a half year-old baby, i would always get stares and laughters from people around me.
the earliest memory i had of myself in my baby years was when i was about 3 years old. i remembered sitting in a lorry and where my relatives would give me pow and see-hum to eat. the whole extended family was returning from the funeral of my paternal grandfather who had passed away in 1969. and toddler me was just too young to understand wat was loss/death...
these are some of the glimpses of my earliest days.
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