Grace on Time: The Story of Sian - Overseas Chinese Women in Transition

By Meideli Saw

GRACE ON TIME is the story of about three generations of overseas Chinese women whose lives were intertwined in the fast moving history of British Malaya, independent Malaya and Malaysia. Though subconsciously and consciously rooted in the deep traditions of ancient China, these women faced life challenges of poverty, illiteracy, prejudice , injustice, critical illness, betrayal of marital vows and changing cultures with a commitment to their families which is becoming rare in today's global communities. Do not charge a book by its size. This short and vividly written book is hard to put down once reading commences. It may also speak to your soul.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Sep 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781482897159

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Copyright © 2014 by Meideli Saw.

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Contents

Reviews

Acknowledgment

Notes

Prologue

The Extended Family of Ah Li and Sian

Chapter 1: A Daughter in Early Twentieth Century Singapore

Chapter 2: Sian

Chapter 3: Ah Li

Chapter 4: The Moment of Faith

Chapter 5: Marriage and Motherhood

Chapter 6: The Penang Adventure

Chapter 7: War in Nation, War at Home

Chapter 8: Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 9: Near Death Encounter

Chapter 10: Three Flew Off, Four Left

Chapter 11: To China with Love

Chapter 12: Guts and Grace

Chapter 13: Empty Nest

Chapter 14: The Tussle of Priorities

Chapter 15: Last Years, Months and Days

Epilogue: Blessings and Transforming Grace

REVIEWS

An inspiring firsthand testimony of God’s grace, faithfulness, and loving kindness in the lives of a mother, her mother who nurtured her through thick and thin, and her daughters. Truly those who fear and honor the Lord are blessed in the end. The touching return of a prodigal gives hope that kindness and prayer will win in the end. God is the Promise Keeper indeed.

Goldie Chong

Counselor

Australia

The writer carefully and prayerfully weaved the uncertain minefield of conflicting generations through the intertwining fabric of Chinese culture and Christian values. While sharing the agony of three generations of Chinese women, she managed to trace the goodness and grace of our God who is no one’s debtor. He is the Keeper of the biblical promise that God will honor those who honor Him.

Chong Kwong Tek

Doctor and Pastor

Australia

An amazing story well told, as real and as dramatic as it can be, even if written incognito. Reading Grace On Time—The Story of Sian, we are immediately transported into the broad world of the overseas Chinese diaspora, yet are immediately pulled back into intimate, personal accounts that resonate with our personal, family, church, and national life.

Soo Ewe Jin

Senior Journalist

Malaysia

Dedicated to

The Provider of

Grace upon Grace

Acknowledgment

The author is grateful to her siblings who kick-started the process of writing of Grace on Time and for those who took time to read through the manuscript and gave reviews and useful comments for editing. A special thanks is also extended to the publishing team of Trafford Publishing who delivered this book into the world.

Notes

Though this book is based on a true story, the names of people, places and events have been changed to provide privacy in a small-BIG world where personal space has largely been intruded for better or for worse. Any identification of persons mentioned in the text is accidental.

Prologue

8 March 2012

I am a creature of intuition and feeling. Writing this novel will exhilarate me a lot. After an eight-year hiatus of the writer’s block, words and sentences seem to be flowing rapidly out of my mind and heart again. My several previous attempts to bring myself to write a story have failed miserably, despite my having written, produced, and distributed several titles on a variety of topics in my homeland since 1992. There must be a reason for this. You may yet be the benefactor of something meaningful and beautiful. It is said that a seed must die in order for it to become a shoot. Where will this lead me? I shall pray, wait and see.

Furthermore, I find it rather strange that I do not know how to invent a story about people. I have heard firsthand tales of thousands of people in five continents, yet I am at a loss to write fiction. Nevertheless, I do know how to retell stories of real people in the real dramas of life. That is why I am writing now. If you see yourself in any of these characters or scenes and events, so that the reading becomes therapeutic for you, I would be rewarded as a writer. I would be even more rewarded if these tales put a handle to the door of forgiveness and reconciliation in your personal, family, church, or national life.

A writer is only a scribe. She is like an artist who paints her objects with words; she is also like a weaver who brings together the threads of human relationships into a more meaningful whole with which readers may identify, be healed and be a blessing to others. By writing, she wishes to make some sense out of the nonsense of the lives of her characters. Truly, if the world is like a stage and all its citizens are players, then please allow me to draw back the curtains of a human community for us to view, to listen and to ponder afresh what words may reveal in our own hearts.

Sometimes, I wonder, from the other side of the world from the United States, what could have happened if those responsible for the September 11 tragedy had been declared forgiven at a personal level yet brought to public accountability? Would not that have been a timely open door to let the world experience the reality of the truth of God’s grace as never before? Is there hope in anything else apart from grace, anyway? Would not the hope through forgiveness and reconciliation, with whoever our enemies might be, reverberate through the universe? There is a marginal hypothetical possibility that it could have happened in a dramatic and yet unintentional manner. That is history now but lessons gleaned on hindsight can help ordinary people like us who come from a multitude of nations and backgrounds. Reflections can help us in our current interactions with one another as fellow broken men and women in a damaged world hopefully, on the mend.

Before we venture into chapter 1, I would like to mention three points:

First, the overseas Chinese diaspora spans the far corners of the world. For example, I was pleasantly surprised to dine in a posh Chinese restaurant owned by a mainland Chinese boss who employed local black African waiters, together with cheong sam (a Chinese long tight dress) clad Chinese waitresses, right in Cape Town, in October 2010. Indeed, I felt good and happy to be able to treat my new young black female undergraduate African friend to a full Chinese lunch in South Africa. A Chinese is often proud to be one, no matter how many other worldviews they may have collected on the way since birth. They did not choose to be born such, but, having been born alive, most of them accept their temporal genetic identity wherever they happen to land.

Secondly, having studied, lived and worked in five out of six continents in the last six decades, I count it a privilege to be able to sit back and try to put all that I have experienced in a logical form so that it makes sense to my feeble mind. What better way is there to do this than to write a novel based on true stories?

Thirdly, I have tried to fill in my wide cultural gaps by reading biographies or non-fiction novels and watching movies set in various natural-cultural-religious-political context. This sharpens my insight into human relationships and enables me to accept much of my observation of common human nature of the people of the world. The best movies are those with which we can identify. This means that what happens in plots of movies, though coined by scriptwriters, are events which actually happen all the time or will do so again.

One of my husband’s Caucasian Canadian friends once made this observation: that, having lectured and mingled with Chinese college students for decades in the UK and Canada, he used to think that Caucasian kids were dysfunctional till he got to know Chinese students! I leave you to make your personal deductions. However, if you are currently having relational problems with some Chinese friends, please do not forsake them yet. Patience is a virtue for all, irrespective of race, religion, culture and of being of the east or west. I, too, will benefit if you practice this virtue in your reading because I happen to be born and bred a Chinese, even though overseas.

Thanks for reading.

With warm regards

Meideli

Malaysia

The Extended Family of

Ah Li and Sian

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Chapter 1

A Daughter in Early

Twentieth Century Singapore

Singapore 1913

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Papa Saw and Mama Ang left Fujian Province in South China for better days in Singapore with their twelve-year daughter, Ah Chi, and ten-year-old son, Ah Koh. Excitement was in the air as their junk anchored near enough to the old-fashioned jetty at the busy British port of Singapore. Having found a place to stay, the SinKhek’s (literally meaning new guest or new arrival in a Southern China dilect, Hokkien) young family settled down to a new livelihood among other overseas Chinese who came to South East Asia to look for their fortunes. Work was easy to find, and the four nuclear family members lived relatively happy days, despite missing their extended family back home in their village in China.

Without modern medical advice on birth control, Papa Saw and Mama Ang soon had another girl, Sian. Though having one more mouth to feed, everyone rejoiced over the little baby who soon turned one year-old. Sian was a symbol of the family’s fresh start in life on alien ground. Whereas Ah Koh helped Papa Saw to bring in cash, Ah Chi babysat

Reviews for Grace on Time

[nmarun-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I'll begin by saying that my intention of reading Bhagavad Gita was not to find god, but to gain a better understanding of life.Unfortunately, most part of the book is just blind following of Krsna - "DO THIS; DON'T DO THAT because Krsna said so". The primary goal of the book was to provide enlightenment to the ignorant and those in suffering. Instead all it does is to drive people in believing that 'follow Krsna and all your problems will go away'. Hmm.. I don't think so.In 9:23, it says: "Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kunti, but they do so in a wrong way.".And the purport of 3:22 goes as: "The Supreme Lord is the controller of all other controllers, and He is the greatest of all the diverse planetary leaders. Everyone is under His control. All entities are delegated with particular power only by the Supreme Lord; they are not supreme themselves."So are other gods like Jesus and Prophet in agreement with this? Indoctrination breeds religious intolerance.It is deeply disturbing to note what Krsna thinks of women. Verse 1:40 is only concerned about women getting 'polluted', but not the fact that men are equally responsible for 'polluting' a woman. The purport that follows takes this discrimination one step further - "women are generally not very intelligent and therefore not trustworthy". Verse 9:32 considers women as 'lower birth'.Verse 2:31 and the purport that follows seems to be written by a fanatic. Preachings like these cause people to take the law in their own hands and 'kill someone in the name of their religion'. I'm also pretty sure that organizations like PETA completely disagree with 'killing animals in the sacrificial fire benefits'.There's also a contradictory statement made - "The animal sacrificed gets a human life immediately without undergoing the gradual evolutionary process from one form to another". So does Bhagavad Gita endorse evolution?There are some parts of the Gita that stand out brilliantly. My best take aways from the book are versus 2:47 and 2:48 where it is mentioned that every person has to do their duties diligently and equipoised. This point should have been elaborated and stressed more to signify it's importance. Sadly, the author deviates from this topic very soon, giving an impression that it is less critical (than say praying god) to lead a better life.Also, 18:47 clearly states that it is not your 'janma' (birth), but your 'karma' (deeds) that decides your caste. On the whole, chapter 18 is the best chapter where it clarifies what are the requisites if you claim yourself to be a brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya or a sudra.Can we lead a moral life independently and in absence of god? Can we ignore religion, thus removing all the divisions among humans and build a peaceful world? I think yes, but this is not the book to provide answers to such questions.