My Class Batch 5 + Addendum by Chong See Kui on 11/11/2014

My Class
By Kat Liang Chow

My class was the 5th graduating batch of the Post WW II Kuala Belait Chung Hua Elementary School. We were a small class of 15 (9 boys and 6 girls) but we were a close knit group. I recall the class wanted to continue the tradition of inviting the 1st to 4th batch alums to our graduation ceremony, but we lack the funds to do so. We were keen gardeners and had grown a variety of vegetables on the plot located right in front of our class building. A classmate who thought of a brilliant idea suggested that we raffle off the produce. Every day we would put an equal amount of our pocket money in a hat, a name would be drawn and the lucky classmate took home the prize. By school year’s end we had successfully accumulate sufficient funds to meet our goal.

Due to the shortage of teachers and lack of classrooms in the 1940’s & 1950’s, the school often combined classes and shared the same classroom. For example, my class was combined with the 4th graduating batch for one school year and we shared a classroom with the 6th batch for another. This system worked real well with small size classes.

My class was not only close knit bunch but was also very mischievous. We got into trouble with the school principal numerous times. The principal, the late Mr. T. S. Sung, a disciplinarian was exceedingly strict especially during our final year. One late afternoon while we were awaiting the supervisor’s arrival to begin “human pyramid or 叠 罗 汉” practice, an incident ensued that I still vividly remember today. Instead of playing ping-pong someone jumped on the table, others followed and this became a contest of “打 擂 台”. The winner would be the last one standing, so a bunch of guys, maybe 10 to 12 were pushing, pulling, grabbing and clinging onto each other and struggled for a long time before anyone was pushed off the table. Eventually, because of the tremendous amount of weight, the edge of the ping-pong table gave way and there was no winner as we all fell to the floor together with a piece of the ping-pong table. When we heard the footsteps of the approaching Principal, we scrambled at all directions and low and behold he caught me with my shorts down (I am not proud of this) and obviously was called back. He gave me a slap on the head and ordered me to stand at a corner of the classroom for the remainder of the evening. When I got home late, I had to explain to my father why and received a second scolding for the same incident. The next day Mr. Sung gave us the sternness lecture we ever had on becoming good citizens and not to destroy school property to begin with. In addition to the lecture, he made us move the broken ping-pong table to the front of the class and to demonstrate how we broke it. We were all scared stiff, no one moved, but the brave late Nee Chung Ren jumped onto the ping-pong table first and beckoned us to come on. The rest timidly followed but dismounted without even getting the slightest push. It was hilarious. One has to be there to appreciate it. Our punishment was to clean the urinals for a month and since I got a whack on the head, he made me Captain of the Urinals. The Captain supervises and does not get his hands dirty. Mr. Sung and his wife Mrs. M. Z. Lin, also a teacher, have no children but they loved us as if their own. Their “tough love” style of teaching made us what we are today and I am grateful for that.

Addendum to My Class

By Chong See Kui 11/11/2014

Dear Kat Liang,

Your story brings me back once more to memory lane. I agree that parents always sided with the teachers. To be sure, we knew that parental authority and food were never to be taken for granted.

The four of the youngest and the smallest in Batch 5 were very famous doing community work in keeping the school’s boys urinals clean many times throughout our final year. I was told that after we have graduated, many more students that followed were also given the same task cleaning the urinals, as punishment and maybe this was the clever way to save the school money in the employment of a janitor?

Many of us in our class participated enthusiastically in many after school activities, such as the stage performances to raise school building fund, the formation of the first school brass band, sports, etc. In this respect we were famous in contributing to the development of the school and recognized on stage! Many of us in our class also did excellently well in sports and won many noble prizes, thus we were famously recognized off stage as well!

We had much fun learning and growing up during our early days!

In conclusion I have attached photos illustrating our achievements.