Uncle Lóng: 01 (Singapore)

My mother’s cousin, Uncle Lóng (“dragon”) featured in blog The Chinese perspective on “fat vs thin”, lived on my maternal grandma’s coconut plantation in Tampines on the east side of Singapore, near Changi International Airport.  If he was going into town (south side of Singapore) for some official business, he would always stop by at Chia Keng (the area where I grew up, between grandma’s and downtown) and take me with him. 

I loved car rides (still do — all journeys), and would always say to anyone about to leave the house: “Where are you going?” and before they could give me the answer, I’d follow it up by saying “I want to go!”「你要去哪裏，我也要去」in the same breath.

Uncle Lóng would turn up and find me playing somewhere outside (a bit scruffy and dirty), and say, “Hey, Daftie, do you want to go into town with me?” He always called me Daftie (daft = silly, foolish). I’d say “I’ll go change out of these clothes”, and he’d say, “No need, you’re good as you are”. So off we’d go into town: this big fat man from the coconut plantation, and this little girl all dusty from mucking around in the garden.

In the car, I’d be peering out of the window at everything throughout the journey. He’d warn me to be careful not to stick my head too far out of the window or I’d “get blown away by the wind 被風吹走”. 

I love his whacky approach: never mind the head being taken off by a passing car if you stick your head too far out, just make sure you don’t get blown away by the wind haha haha.

One of the places he’d taken me to was a bank downtown — maybe 崇僑銀行 Chung Khiaw Bank. 

Outside would be a guard: a Sikh in full uniform (white with red braids, I seem to remember), and a rifle. Uncle Long would tell me if I didn’t behave, the mung-ga-li would arrest me and take me away.  (mung-ga-li is the Teochew dialect rendition for all Indians in general, from “Bengali”.)

The Sikh guard seemed about 7ft tall to this little girl, towering above everyone else — I had to look up up up to see his face. 

Oh yes, and all that hair too: head hair in a big turban, facial hair in a big beard, hairy arms, hairy everything.

(Singapore, 1960s)