Family history - my father's side Gan 顏
(4 minutes reading time)
Mysteries are not uncommon in family histories. But I was simply oblivious. Well to be fair my parents were usually reluctant to talk in detail about my lineage at all when I was a child. I decided as much as I can get needs writing down for posterity. These things being passed on as spoken tales after all, would’ve been lost in time. Here are the tidbits I have, starting with my father’s side.
My parents did tell me that my paternal grandfather was a teacher in China. A profession which is revered. And he hails from a region in Fújiàn 福建省 called Yong Chun 永春. I know his name in our native tongue of Hokkien 福建話. Using Malaysian phonetics, it’s spelled Gan Khay Beng. I know this because it was on a plaque by the gates to the house I grew up in for the early part of my childhood. The same house my father grew up in.
And that’s pretty much it.
My paternal grandmother was named Tan Kim Lian 陳金蓮. I have no memory of her as she died of cancer when I was a toddler. Smoking had not yet been regarded as lethal. I didn’t even know her name until my adult life. I only ever knew her as Ah Mah. The only thing I can tell you about her and myself is that she once fed me tortoise soup, which smells wretched. She apparently doted on me. All my grandparents did.
The Tan family come from wealth, and my grandfather found himself in command of several business ventures. The house we grew up in was by no means modest. I recall the house with both a sense of pride but mostly sadness. It was a very lonely place.
Being a man from a scholarly background meant that my grandfather knew the classics and was numerate (he showed me how to use an abacus once), but that did not necessarily mean he had business acumen. The wealth in my immediate branch of the family slowly eroded over decades. I admit that I am not great with money myself. But I live a comfortable life.
One of those businesses was a rubber plantation. The plantation was along the highway between Seremban, where we lived, and the capital Kuala Lumpur. We travelled along that route every weekend as my Mum’s family lived in KL. I often wondered which exact bit of woodland was ours.
Fun fact: my Dad learned to drive a car at the age of 11 while sat on my Ah Mah’s lap. At the age of 13 he drove himself around the plantation in an old, green Land Rover. Years before he got a license. Now my youngest brother has been driving a B-Class at Mercedes World as his birthday present. He was 13 when he did that.
My father was one of 9 children(!). Yes I have a lot of cousins. And he was the only son. These are his sisters, eldest to youngest. Their English (self chosen) names are how I know them as. Their Hokkien names I’ve never really known:
- Angela - Chooi Kee
- Linda - Chooi Hong
- Amy - Chooi Kim
- Dad
- Annie - Chooi Har
- Peggy - Chooi Bee
- Angie - Chooi Eng
- Alice - Chooi Choo
- Winnie - Chooi Peng
What surprised me about this list was that I always thought my father was the 2nd eldest. But he’s in fact the 4th, which I didn’t learn until my late 30s!
Fun fact: some of my aunts decided to nickname my grandparents Sunny and Cher (this was in the 60s, during the height of their shared fame and well before the revelations of how Sunny was an utter bastard towards Cher). So as a kid I heard them having discussions about someone called Sunny. And I found it bizarre that my grandfather was called this. I had to have it explained to me in my teens.
My aunts are spread across the globe:
- Angela - Canada
- Linda - Malaysia
- Amy - Malaysia
- Annie - Australia
- Peggy - Malaysia
- Angie - Canada
- Alice - USA
- Winnie - Australia
With maybe one exception, my aunts and my Dad all look quite alike. They even have a similar quality in their voices. It’s quite uncanny.
That’s what I know of the previous generations of the Gan family.
UPDATE
My Dad told me that the plantation wasn’t between KL and Seremban at all! Ours was actually south, towards Malacca:
“…about 30 miles south east of Malacca. The plantation is one and a half thousand acre (600 Hectare). Not huge but not small by any mean. Kong Kong also have rubber dealer business until the partner decided to break off sold the business and plantation and Kong Kong got all the lands. While his partner got the money. In fact a mistake thinking just land is good. Turns out business without cash can be problematic.”