One Chinese way of restricting children's movements: 02 (Only as far as the toilet)

 

The first story in this mini-series reminds me of my childhood days.

    The two siblings immediately above me lived on my grandma's coconut plantation, attending the primary school there.

    My uncle, being the older of two sons, lived there with my grandma, as his filial piety.  (It's the duty of the oldest son to live with the parents.)  He was also the one dishing out the discipline, being a teacher at the kampung ("village" in Malay) primary school there.

    One Saturday, my uncle was going into town, which is a long way away (by Singapore standards), involving two or three changes of buses on the way there, and the same again on the way back.  This also meant that he'd be gone for a good five hours or so, if not the whole day.

    I happened to be visiting as it was the school holidays.

    Not wanting to leave my two siblings at home for the day without doing some schoolwork, my uncle decided to tie their ankles to the dining table which was where they were to remain for the day, working on homework and revision.  The rope was long enough for them to walk to the loo, but not to go out of the house.

    As soon as my uncle had left, my siblings untied the ropes, and we scooted off to the mangrove swamps to catch razor clams as it was low tide.  (See https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2024/12/lost-singapore-childhood-03-catching.html for an account of this.)

    We spent a few hours in this (for us) fairly rare activity, getting all muddy (which most children love, I think), keeping an eye on the time.

    Then, we got back to the house, washed off all the mud, changed into clean clothes, went back to the dining table, and re-tied their ankles to the table.  My uncle came back and found them both engrossed at their schoolwork.  He was happy.  (So were we...)

(Singapore, 1961)