Catching the Wind: A Search for God

By Norman Yee

An inspiring memoir, spanning 73 years, from humble beginnings to becoming the head of Fiji’s civil aviation regulator, and participating with ICAO in the introduction of new technologies (such as GPS) which made aviation safer and more effi cient locally regionally and internationally.

And a rare expose into the personal lives of a Chinese migrant family living in Fiji, of childhood escapades, of love and marriage, as well as Norman’s incredible spiritual experiences where in mid-career, God intervened dramatically and changed his whole outlook on life

A book to inspire you to ‘Catch the Wind’ of your dreams of a successful life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499018868

Norman Yee

From an early age, Yee’s ready acceptance of new challenges and his application of self- help concepts set him on the road to worldly success. Unfulfi lled until his encounter with God, he then became involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the FGBMFI and later the Pentecostal Church.

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Copyright © 2014 by Norman Yee.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of the International Bible Society.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 10/07/2014

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CONTENTS

List of Photographs

Acknowledgements

Family Tree

Map of Guangdong, China

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

PART 1: CHASING THE WIND

Prologue

1. Beginnings: The Chinese

2. The Yee Ting Woo Clan

3. The Early Years (1941-1947)

4. Growing Up (1948-1955)

5. High School Years (1956-1960)

6. Overseas Training (1961-1965)

7. Work and Life in Nadi (1966-1975)

8. Trade Unionism (1966-1973)

9 Love and Marriage (1966-1974)

10. A Stint at Nausori (1974-1975)

11. Heading the Section (1975-1979)

12. Flying High: The Heady Years of Change (1979-1998)

PART 2: CATCHING THE WIND

13. Encounter with God (1959-1981)

14. The Charismatic Years

15. Raising a Family (1974-1990)

16. Adult Children (1990-2007)

17. Dealing with Sickness

18. Joining the Pentecostals

19. Turbulent Times (1998-2000)

20. Reboot: CAAFI the Regulator (2000-2005)

21. Without Fear or Favour (2002-2004)

22. Touchdown: The Final Years (2000-2007)

23, The Second Generation (2007-)

24. A Shock

25. More Shocks (2006-2008)

26. The Twilight Years (2009-2013)

27. Janney’s Testimony

Postscript

Bibliography

Acronyms

About the Author

Endnotes

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

1.1. The Early Years

1.2. Teenage

2. Overseas

3. Work Life

4. Janney & Family

5. Weddings (Part 1)

6. Our babies (Part 1)

7. Heady Years (work)

8. The Charismatic Years

9. Family & Friends 1

10. Our Babies (Part 2)

11. Our kids

12. Adult Children

13. The Final Years at CAAF/CAAFI.

14. Weddings (Part 2)

15. Grandchildren

16. Family &Friends 2

17. Retirement Shocks

To my parents whose openness led us to the life that God had set out for my family.

To my wonderful wife Janney, who made this book possible.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There were many people who were involved with the writing of this memoir. Firstly, my mother and my eldest sister, Sui Lan (Sue), provided most of the material of my parent’s early days, and my number 2 sister, Sui So (Beryl), who took an interest in this project from the start and helped with some material and did some research. Especially, to my wife, Janney, who supported me unquestionably when I told her of my desire to do this project and painstakingly read my drafts.

My relations also responded to my request for information: my in-laws, mum-in-law, Eileen Lui, Sue and Greg Harris, Peggy Chung, and Olivia Dunsmore. My nieces Alison Harm Nam, Geraldine Yee, and Roanne Maxeiner. My cousins and cousins-in-law: Angela Yee Joy, for her persistence, Emily Yee Joy, Judy Yee Joy, Loretta Yee, Rosemary Yee, Margaret Brown, Doris Gore, and many others. My grateful thanks.

To the authors of the various books on the Chinese in Fiji, Bessie Ali, Sin Joan Yee, the late Alison Fong, and the Hoy Shang Yee Family, through Gregory Yee, the late Maurice McGreal, and others who gave permission to quote from their works.

To Netava Waqa, CE of the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji, for advice and support and use of its photographs and information in its annual reports.

I am indebted to the following who helped with the finalization of this book: Pastor Conan Hatch, Mohan Lal, Robert Kruger, Don Vandenberg, to N. G. Singh, who provided information on the early days, and especially to Bessie Ali and to Shaukat Ali, who helped with the drafts. I greatly appreciated the kindness of Lionel Yee and Dixon Seeto, stalwarts of the Chinese community, who willingly wrote the introduction and foreword to this book. To the team at Xlibris, especially Chris Lodovice, and Tricia Lee for their advice and support, Emily Laurel, and Peter Lewis, Lloyd Griffith, Ann Porter, Roni Irvin, Grace Allen, et al., during the writing and publication process. Their hard work, patience and understanding is much appreciated.

Unfortunately, due to the requirements of my publisher, I am unable to name everyone with whom I had come into contact unless I had their consent to do so. I apologise if you felt that I had ignored your contribution or your friendship. You may contact me at [e-mail] for me to correct any oversight or errors so that these may appear in the next publication.

As for the photos, I wish to thank those others who had kindly provided them for this book. I tried my best to contact all the copyright holders, but should anyone be omitted or miscredited, I offer my apologies and undertake to amend future additions.

FAMILY TREE

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MAP OF GUANGDONG, CHINA

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FOREWORD

It is my great pleasure to write a few words for Norman Yee’s book, titled Catching the Wind. I have had the pleasure of knowing Norman personally for many years and also working with him, as I was the deputy chair of the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji (CAAF) from January 1993 and was chairman from 1996 to 2003. I found Norman to be most ethical, honest, a hard worker, and a dependable person.

Norman’s book is a genuine effort recollecting his younger days and taking us right through his education, family life, and professional career and up to date, where he enjoys life away from the technical field and being deeply involved in the religious area and as an artist.

Many of us reading this book will reminisce about our own lives and personal developments, especially the migrant community who have made Fiji their home and have risen to greater heights from humble beginnings. Norman is shown to be a determined person with a plan of his life. His stories in the chapters of his book have relevance to us, his scholarship, travel overseas, study, work from unionist to management, love, marriage, children, grandchildren, challenges, happiness, sorrow, and retirement or contentment.

The book is very entertaining and written in a very readable style. It captures history as it was, and it makes the reader share memorable moments where there are similar experiences and lessons in life. I acknowledge Norman as a professional, a gentleman, and a man of God. He is a fine example of a member of our Chinese community who rose from humble beginnings by determination and sheer hard work (like most of us) to be the top professional in civil aviation and, along the way, raising a large family and now enjoying his retirement with grandchildren, spreading the word of his religion and developing his hidden talent as an accomplished painter.

His detailed recollection of events is often amusing, but he tells it as it is and explains his stories with his philosophy on life. His stories on people, places, and events are a credit to his memory and research and will be a piece of Fiji’s history.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and greatly recommend it to those who wish to understand Fiji’s culture better.

Dixon Seeto, former Chair, Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji

Past president, Chinese Association of Fiji

President, Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association

PREFACE

10.00 p.m., 4 February 1989. My son Jonathan was doing his homework project and asked about his ancestors. So I dug out the notes on the family I had made in 1985 in Sydney after Mom had died. At that time, I realized that an era was passing by and important family information would soon be lost. My father and other elderly relations were too old then to be able to recollect past events accurately.

There were family stories that bear retelling often when we siblings get together, as well as those that I share with my children as they grew up. Future generations might be interested in who they were and where they came from. Our clan members might find value in reading about the clan’s early days.

In the recording of a series of incidents of one’s life, the age-old questions of ‘Who am I? Why am I here?’ continue to be raised from time to time. Is there a god? And if there is, where is he, as he seems to have forgotten about us altogether? Then there are those who are oblivious to the spiritual dimension and continue living blissfully unaware that there is a god who cares for them and wants to impact their lives.

The book is about a search for God and ultimately encountering Him amidst life’s toils and having caught the wind, endeavouring to remain there, continuously walking with Him wherever He leads.

I want to advise my readers that this is not a scholarly tome but rather one of a more personal nature, a narrative capturing the highlights of my life more for family consumption than for the public. It is not, I emphasize, a comprehensive account of civil aviation, where I had spent forty-six years of my life, but rather my take on events that had occurred where they had personally impacted me. Other participants may have another view, and history one day may see these events in a different light as well. In some cases, I had to skim or gloss over issues to protect others who might be identified.

Because this is my memoir, unfortunately, the I is used frequently, but we is also used, since the work was a collective effort of many dedicated people serving in the organization over the many years, and credit must go to them as well.

Those interested in a detailed historical study of civil aviation prior to the split of 1999 may look up the history Fiji’s Aviation Story, written by Mr Maurice McGreal of New Zealand.

Norman Hok Yok Yee

Nadi, Fiji

14 May 2014

INTRODUCTION

Norman Yee’s rich descriptions of childhood in post-war Fiji, of a distinct Chinese minority migrant group, struggling and successfully surviving in a new alien environment through their children, is a treasure trove of detail that resonates with me as a contemporary.

His account of childhood joys and tribulations weaves a colourful mosaic of life anchored by moral values and hard-work ethics, producing ambitions that drove him and others to achieve goals beyond the limited life envelope of their parents.

As for his professional life, Norman Yee’s long public service career covered the public sector reform period in Fiji’s civil aviation sector. His recording of those events is both painstaking and objective. How his life was threaded through those tumultuous times, and how he skilfully and steadfastly waded through rough political currents and emerged performing his duties responsibly, in the best interest of civil aviation in the Pacific, shows up a laudable character trait in the man.

That he had some fun in writing the account would ensure his longevity in retirement.

His book is a wonderful addition to the history of the Chinese minority’s contribution to Fiji’s development. Thanks to his efforts, his interesting and sometimes humorous account is now preserved for posterity

Lionel Ding Sun Yee, CF, JP

Past President, Chinese Association of Fiji

PART 1

CHASING THE WIND

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done

and what I had toiled to achieve,

everything was meaningless,

a Chasing after the Wind;

nothing was gained under the sun.

—Ecclesiastes 2: 11, NIV

PROLOGUE

Then it was my turn. The healer looked up towards me and beckoned. He sat on a native mat near the kitchen doorway, surrounded by his assistants and ‘patients’. A close friend of mine had told me of this healer who was a carrier driver, hiring out his utility van by day and performing amateur healing by night. He assured me that Tevita, as he was called, was a reputed healer and a staunch Methodist, and he does not take money for his services. His relations in Suva have had good results from him, so he encouraged me to go.

I had come all the way from Nadi Airport, on the western side of the main island, for the treatment of my sinuses, which had been bothering me for many years. Desperation had brought me and my family to this poor man’s shack at Raiwaqa, a suburb in a poorer part of Suva, the capital of the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific. Here a number of underprivileged families were stacked together like sardines in multi-storey apartments á la Singapore and where crime was rife. Tevita’s hut seemed to be part of a squatter settlement. Its back was perched precariously and almost tilting into a deep ravine on one side. It was difficult sitting cross-legged on the mat-covered floor with the whole contraption about to pitch itself into the ravine that I could see out the back door to the left of me. For my ‘consultation fee’, I had earlier given a twenty-cent coin for the purchase of a small bag of grog or kava¹, as it is called in the iTaukei (native Fijian) language.

My family sat behind me in the sitting room as I nervously inched my way up the front towards Tevita as a single light bulb threw weird dancing shadows on the corrugated tin walls. I was just a little nervous as I explained in English my sinus problems to Tevita, a middle-aged iTaukei (native Fijian) man with a number of grey bristles on his slightly bald head. He nodded wisely as I described the symptoms, the number of qualified and unqualified doctors I had been to, and the money spent on tablets and nose drops and even the surgery I had in Australia for a constantly blocked nose. My frustration at not finding a cure through conventional and unconventional means led me to this back-road shack. When I finished, there was a discussion between Tevita and a part-European lady of enormous proportions. I gathered that she was translating my problems into the iTaukei (native Fijian) language for Tevita’s benefit. Then she turned to me and explained what would happen next. She would scan my head with her naked eye and look into my skull like an X-ray to check for the spread of the disease, and then Tevita would do the healing. Following the scan, there was a further discussion between Tevita and the big lady. Then he said that someone at work was jealous of me and my success and had thrown a spell on me, but a good spirit had been protecting me so far. The matter is now under control, and could I come back in two weeks to see if the spell had been successfully broken? So it was as easy as that?

As I came out of the building, there were more questions than answers buzzing in my head. I also saw my brother-in-law Grahame waiting outside. He had been sitting with us inside, but now I saw him outside; he explained that he had to leave as he was feeling nauseous whilst sitting inside. In fact, as we reviewed the whole episode, it did seem rather bizarre. There was this kava that we had to drink, the house seemed to come straight out of Grimm’s fairy tales, and the lady had X-ray eyes? And a spell had been cast on me by jealous rivals? And the people in the hut—some appeared to be like zombies, or were they grog doped?

It seemed I had been duped or had just taken part in some iTaukei (native Fijian) witchcraft ceremony. This was more than likely, as Grahame was spiritually sensitive, and the presence of evil spirits would have that effect on him. Stories abound of people casting spells on their rivals or competitors, in love, business, or sports. Was I one of these victims? Or had I unwittingly taken part in a witchcraft rite?

As a first-generation migrant Chinese in Fiji, from a poor market-gardening family, with a good education, a successful career in civil aviation, a happy family, and a firm believer in God and His powers, what was I doing there? I know my life has had its twists and turns, but what was I doing there in that weird place?

To explain all that, let me start at the very beginning.

CHAPTER 1

BEGINNINGS: THE CHINESE

BEGINNINGS

My mother told me when I was old enough to understand that I was an unusual baby, for I was born, ‘miraculously’, feet first, between 11.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. on 18 July 1941 at home in Tamavua, a suburb of Suva, in Fiji. Miraculously, because this type of birth (a breech birth) was a rarity: a very difficult birth, usually resulting in the death or injury of the baby or the mother. The midwife was Mrs Ah Tong, a friend of the family. How she managed it, I was never told.

Ruth Park, author of Fishing in the Styk,² her autobiography, had a similar experience in bringing her second child into the world: ‘It was a major battle to bring that child into the world, for it was a breech birth and seemed to go on for days. I pleaded with the… doctor not to let the baby be hurt, no matter what.… I remembered lying in bed, feeding this battered fellow, so bruised and scraped.’

Normally, the other midwives or nurses would have tried to position the baby so that the head would come out first. As I said earlier, in the olden days many babies and women died because the midwives did not know how to do this. The usual problems³ associated with these would be the umbilical cord becoming squeezed for long periods, causing oxygen deprivation, or the head got caught and became injured or brain got damaged. But somehow I came out with my feet first, ready to do battle with the world.

What the future held for me, only God knew. I was the fourth of five children, two boys and three girls: two elder sisters, an elder brother, and the youngest, a kid sister.

Why was I not born in hospital? Probably my mother did not know about hospitals, having come from China, where midwives usually assist with the births. In fact, in China in the rural areas there were no hospitals to go to. So all the five Yee children were born at home.

My father first came to Fiji in 1923, and fourteen years later, in 1937, Mum came to build a better life for us. Due to the situation in China, many of its citizens migrated to many parts of the world.

THE CHINESE DIASPORA

Wherever one goes around the world, one would inevitably meet up with Chinese in restaurants, shops, markets, or in the professions. They are obviously adventurous and enterprising. There are many reasons for this Diaspora.

Some emigration took place during the T’ang Dynasty (AD 618 to AD 907) and Ming Dynasty (AD 1368 to AD 1644)⁴ for trading purposes, mainly to South-East Asia and later to the South Pacific when the Manchus (AD 1644 to AD 1912) overcame the Ming Dynasty. Constant warfare created instability, resulting in the need to seek a better future elsewhere despite an imperial decree forbidding such movements on pain of death.

The Manchus were a foreign dynasty and feared the overseas Chinese could threaten their rule. In addition, their rule was ineffective in dealing with the social and economic conditions of the time, especially in dealing with Western powers (Britain, France, USA, Germany, and Japan). Ironically, it was an emigrant, Dr Sun Yat Sen, who led an uprising that eventually overthrew the dynasty and the whole dynasty system.⁵

MIGRATION FROM GUANGDONG

Because of the isolation and distance of Guangdong (Kwangtung), the southern province, from Central China and the government,⁶ it was easy to defy its edicts on non-migration. Since Guangdong is close to the sea, it was easier for such migration to take place, as most of the migrants, being intrepid sailors, have ventured far and wide, looking for the elusive Kum Saan (Kum Shan, Gold Mountain) such as in California and Australia.

As stated by Sin Joan Yee in her booklet The Chinese in the Pacific, the Chinese ‘left for foreign shores and new opportunities, with or without government approval’, beset as they were with a shortage of land and housing, employment opportunities, poverty, bandits, and social unrest.

So from the southern coastal provinces, they dispersed to Europe, Britain, USA and Africa. A smaller number ended up in the Pacific, hoping to strike their personal Kum Saan away from China.

THE CHINESE IN FIJI

The Chinese in Fiji came mainly from the three provinces in the Pearl River Delta and other seacoast provinces, i.e., Sze Yap (the Four Districts), Zongshan (Chungshan), and Dongguan (Tung Koon).⁷

According to Ms Bessie Ng Kumlin Ali, in her book Chinese in Fiji, ‘the isolation of Guangdong is reflected in its language, which is an ancient form of spoken Chinese, commonly referred to as Cantonese. Fiji Chinese speak Cantonese. Cantonese itself has a number of dialects. For instance, the people of Taishan (Toi Shan), Xinhui (Sunwui), Kaiping (Hoiping) and Enping (Yanping) speak Si Yi (Sze Yap, Four Districts), those of Nanhai, Punyu and Shunde, speak Sam Yap (Three Districts) as do the people of Zongshan (Chungshan), whose dialect is Shiqi Hua but who also speak a subdialect, Longdu Hua.’⁸

The initial Chinese arrivals came to Fiji as free settlers and not as indentured labourers, which were provided by Indians from India. In Fiji, they took up trading, shop keeping, market gardening, etc.

The numbers were mainly small, as the colonial government strictly controlled their immigration. For example, in 1911 there were 305 Chinese counted in the census.⁹ The control was due to the fear by the European and Indian traders that the Chinese had a detrimental effect on their businesses. This was in some way supported by the Colonial government, due to the influence of settlers from Australia and New Zealand, as they have had experience of the Chinese in their own homeland.¹⁰

Details of the Chinese in Fiji would be found in Ms Bessie Ng Kumlin Ali’s book of the same name.

The Chinese immigrants were mainly menfolk, as there was a tendency for men to leave home and seek their fortunes overseas and return home.¹¹

ANCESTOR WORSHIP

There is an obligation upon the sons of overseas Chinese to return home in order to pay the proper filial duty and respect towards one’s parents by visiting their graveside. This is done at least once a year at the time called Ching Ming (Haung Shan). This is the worship of ancestors, which required the surviving offspring to give proper honour to and worship of one’s parents after their death so that their ancestors might continue to shower blessings and good fortune to them.¹²

Confucius,¹³ a sixth-century BC philosopher, had also greatly influenced the Chinese in their behaviour to everyone, from government officials to the offspring of a family. ‘He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children, of husbands by their wives. He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself, an early version of the Golden Rule.’ (Very similar to Jesus’s teaching.)

It is believed that the proper way of behaving leads to stability in the family, the clan, and the country. The clan itself is the mainstay of the family.

He has family obligations to his wife and children. He looked after his son’s welfare, and he in return would show him his respect. The sons would inherit the father’s property, as they were to continue the family line. The community is centred round the extended family, with each one having a definite role to play. Reputation and honour is very important. If someone broke the law, he would disgrace his extended family.

Confucius therefore taught the meaning of fairness, righteousness, and virtue. In addition, men are dependent on each other as they needed each other to be successful in life. It is thus worthwhile for a man to be humble and give in to others when they ask for a favour; otherwise, he may hurt their feelings and they would lose ‘face’. The face is important, as it represents pride and honour. It is unthinkable to cause a person to lose face.

CHINESE BUSINESSES

The following, quoted with thanks from Mr Yee¹⁴ Hoy Shang’s book Three Score Years and Ten, are on the businesses the Chinese in Fiji were involved in:¹⁵

While many Chinese established themselves in commercial pursuits, others made their living on the land. In the early days, banana growing was the main occupation of Chinese farmers. [Due to the shortage of bananas in Australia,] Chinese growers were sent to Fiji to establish banana plantations. [Later this came to an end due to restrictions placed by Australian authorities. Hence the iTaukei {native Fijian} name for banana is called Jaina, meaning ‘China’.] Vegetable gardening came next.

Another type of venture some Chinese went into was coconut plantations. The sizes of plantations ranged from a few hundred acres to over a thousand acres. Due to the lack of management personnel and the instability of copra prices the Chinese had mostly abandoned this field of activity.

In the manufacturing sector, Chinese in Fiji also extended their involvement into bread and biscuit baking, aerated water and small goods manufacturing. For a long time bread baking was almost entirely the domain of the industrious Chinese.

Other businesses of Chinese ownership included hotels, night clubs, restaurants, milk bars and tea rooms.

However, as time went on, the sons and daughters of the early migrants did not normally follow in their fathers’ footsteps. Education was important. So the children were sent to schools, then universities, in most cases by the sacrifices of their parents. There they became accountants, doctors, lawyers and businessmen, executives in government and the hotel industry, and even marine biologists. Many did not want to go back to their farms or into their father’s business.

Many great early Chinese businesses in Suva now no longer exist, such as Kwong Tiy and Company, KW March Ltd, Joong Hing Loong, Honsons Ltd, and Yee Joy Ltd. Others, like Wahleys Butchery, and Leylands, still remain, and so does Hop Tiy, but perhaps not run by the original families. In the west, in Lautoka, Eddie Hin grew from strength to strength from a supermarket into a conglomerate manufacturing soft drinks, etc., but the Wong Sing Bakery and its corner shop no longer exist, as they have all migrated. However, many small businesses continue to exist, and even new ones began.

Meanwhile in recent years, from the mainland came the ginger farmers and family members of residents who would help in their restaurants and shops. Very soon from being market vendors they would open teashops, as in Nadi, bring up their children, who would become professionals, and later migrate to Vancouver in Canada, to Australia, and to New Zealand, etc. At the time of writing this book, others from Taiwan and as far as Beijing came to work in the garment factories, the tourism industry, and lately to learn English.

In the three decades since starting this book, some small Chinese businesses in Nadi have flourished. Using the business acumen of their parents as a springboard, the sons of these entrepreneurs have grown their businesses from strength to strength. These include the Rosie Holidays, an in-bound tourism company started up by Rose (a relative by marriage) and Roy Whitton and now operated by their son Tony, who said recently that they were in the ‘business of exporting dreams’. The company and its famous resort, Likuliku Lagoon, featuring Fiji’s first and only overwater bungalows, have regularly won tourism prizes. Then there is the Yee family (no relation), who owned a grocery shop along Queens Road in Namaka, whose daughter was a typist at CAAF and whose sons (Joseph and Christopher) started an import business called Yees Cold Storage and Seafood Ltd, supplying frozen and cooler goods to hotels, etc. as ‘a food service and retail distributer’. They have expanded beyond expectations with its claimed ‘largest cold storage in Fiji’. They have a Yees Gourmet Deli next to the Sheraton in Denarau and a Duty Free outlet at the Denarau Port Commercial Centre. An enterprising young doctor, Zen Low, started a practice called Zens Medical Centre in town and had branched into acupuncture, dentistry, X-ray, and more recently, a kidney dialysis setup and a branch in Namaka and Lautoka as well. Of course, there is Kevin Gock, who took over his father’s construction business, now called Lake Development, and had built a number of houses in the high-end Denarau Residential Estate and elsewhere. A schoolmate of my daughter, Moon Chan, had branched out into his own Chan’s Seafood Restaurant after helping out his family’s. Not only that, he has opened up his own electrical parts and contractor company, Superb Electrical.

This community normally kept a low profile, preferring to go about doing its business quietly without attracting much public attention. But it also had its rare scandals and murders, involving overseas Chinese businessmen (some say triads) and prostitutes, much to the dismay of this generally law-abiding and low-profile community.

The fears of a confrontation between the Indians and the Fijians¹⁶ were in the minds of many elderly Chinese, including my parents. They could foresee this years before and migrated prior to the eruption that took place on 14 May 1987 with a military coup.

Against this backdrop is the story of my family, which is therefore no different from that of the many other Chinese in Fiji, yet in some ways it is uniquely and singularly different.

FIJI

Fiji is today a tourist haven: a land of sun, sand, and sea and the famous Fijian ‘Bula’ smile.

Fiji comprises of over 300 islands, of which only a hundred are inhabited, and located in the South Pacific Ocean just south of the equator and straddling the international dateline, east of Australia and north of New Zealand.

Prior to Christianity making a foothold in these islands in the 1830s, there were many tribes making war with each other and also eating the flesh of their enemies. Later, due to various problems involving the Americans, the chiefs in the east got together and ceded the islands to Queen Victoria of Great Britain, to avoid the demands of the Americans. This was on 10 October 1874.

In the early days, to help the sugar industry, which eventually became a big money earner for Fiji, it was decided to import labourers from India to work the fields, generally known as the Girmit. There is a history of difficulties and many hardships the indentured labourers, as they were called, suffered under the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, CSR. This is a story in itself. These labourers decided to stay on after finishing their indenture and were allotted farms to produce sugar cane. However, other businessmen came independently.

Apart from the iTaukei (native Fijians), Indo-Fijians, and the Chinese, Fiji is populated by other races as well, Europeans (Caucasians), part-Europeans, and other Pacific Islanders. The different races here provide a myriad of cultures in food, language, and a way of life.

Under colonial rule, the islands made progress socially and economically. By the time independence came on 10 October 1970, sugar, the manufacturing industry, and commerce had grown, and so did tourism. The location of an international airport at Nadi on the drier western side of the main island was no doubt one of the major assets that contributed to the increase in tourism. The airport built after the war was equal to none in the South Pacific, as it was built to standards of Australia and New Zealand and ran by a consortium of Commonwealth countries called SPATC to provide an alternative route to Europe via the Americas.

SPATC was the acronym for the South Pacific Air Transport Council, which operated Nadi Airport as a separate entity until 1975, when it was handed over to the Fiji government. The running of Nadi International Airport, in fact, forms a large part of this story, as I was one of the first locals trained to work and gradually take over the highly technical posts at the airport.

CHAPTER 2

THE YEE TING WOO CLAN

TheYeeTingWooClan.jpg ¹⁷

The Yee/Yü ( 77231.png ) Surname¹⁸

ORIGINS

In mid 2009, as I was working on this book, a Chinese friend of my daughter asked her the meaning of our surname. She in turn asked me, and of course I did not know. So I gave her the Chinese character, and her friend searched Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia on the World Wide Web, and came up with the information from cn.hujiang.com that Yee meant ‘change’ or ‘easy’ and Yü meant ‘surplus’ or ‘extra’. As for its beginnings, there are several possibilities:

The Yee surname is quite widespread and is among the top 100 Chinese surnames. Yü (Simplified Chinese: 77309.png , Traditional Chinese: 77311.png or 77335.png ) is one of the many Chinese family names. In 1990, it was listed as the 61st surname in the list of top ‘Hundred Common Surnames’. (In the latest version, 2005, it was now number 41.) Yü is also sometimes written as Yee, (the Taishanese Cantonese dialect) spelling in English. It is also a common Korean surname and a place name.

How the name started is part of the myths of old. One can read it as a nice story or a myth to tell one’s grandchildren. The following story appearing in Wikipedia was still to be referenced and source confirmed. Parts of it were taken from the People’s Daily Online, 15 December 2005. There are several possibilities of how the name came into being:

Yü is an ancient surname in China. The ancestors of the surname were closely linked with ancient sage-king of Yü Shun.

When Yü Shun was getting old, he took his initiative to hand over the state power to Xia Yü. And Xia Yü made his son Shang Jun the duke of Yü (it is now in Yucheng Henan Province) with the founding of Yü kingdom. Later, the descendents of Shang Jun began to take the kingdom as their surname, according to the overseas edition of People’s Daily Online.

Another Yü family was originated from the surname Ji. According to history records, Zhou Wu Wang (1134–1115 BC) overthrew the Shang Dynasty and made many dukes. He made later generations of his second uncle Zhong Yong the Yü kingdom (now in the northeast of Pinglu in Shanxi). Afterwards, the descendants of Zhong Yong bear the name of the kingdom as their surname.

After the surname coming into being, Yü people lived in Kaifeng and Chenliu areas in Henan for a long period of time, becoming big families. After Tang (AD 618–907) and Song (AD 960–1127) dynasties, Yü families started to move to Huiji (now in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province).

So that’s how the Yee (Yü) surname supposedly came into being.

THE YEE CLAN

Most of what now follows came from my mother, my eldest sister Sui Lan (Sue), and those relatives who kindly contributed nuggets of information for me:

The Yee Fook Choong clan is from the province of Guangdong (Kwangtung), in the district of Hoi Ping, subdistrict of Sze Ha, in the village of Saam Hin Lae (Three Garden Valley). Our dialect is Sze Yap (Four Districts or Counties). According to my mother, Sze Ha itself was possibly divided into 7 chaaps (villages) of 100 families each. Each village was about 4 miles (4.27 Km) square. The houses (mainly of mud) were like townhouses, sharing a common wall and had alleyways 5 to 6 feet (152 to 183 centimetres) wide and shared a common toilet and water well. In a recent photo a small creek was seen running through the side of the village.

Dad’s father, Yee Fook Choong (Taka), and his mother, Chan Koo Hoo, had six sons:

The eldest son was Kok Wah, who fathered Yun, Kim, Lim, and Gow:

• Yun was the father of Henry (Fat Kow), who came to Fiji as a teenager in 1950 and stayed with Kim. After learning English, he became an electrician and married Rosemary Chan of Flagstaff, a primary school teacher in 1970. For a time Henry worked at the Fiji Sugar Corporation and the Fiji Electricity Authority at Nadi Airport, where I also worked. After his mother arrived from China they migrated to Elkford, Canada, where he worked in the Fording Coal Mine for twenty-five years. They have four children, Regina, Tony, Edward, and Keith. His mother died in 1984, aged 79.

• Kim married in China, returned to Fiji, and had four children, John, Peter, Janet, and Kenneth. Kim managed a furniture shop called Hop Sing, initially at Marks Street, then at Walu Bay. They migrated in 1964 to Canada, where Kim ran a successful business restoring old homes and reselling them. John also did the same. He had married Maria Fong. Peter became a fireman and married Margo. Janet initially married Boris but later married Cristino. As an adult, Janet had returned to Fiji and spent several years here. After his first wife died, Kim remarried.

• Lim Fu (1918 to 2006) was also a cabinet maker and married Kattie Fong of Tamavua and had seven children: Monte (1949 to 1980), Margaret, Jeannie, Collan, Doreen, Doris, and Allan. They also migrated to Vancouver with some of the children, Jeannie and Doris. Monte married Karolina and had two children. He died in 1980. Margaret has a senior post at Westpac and married Richard Brown. They have three children. Jeannie married Lee, and they have four children. They live in Canada. Amazingly three married siblings, Collan and Roberta. Doreen and Fabian, Allan and Asena all have four children. Doris married Norman and have one child. They live in Canada. Allan worked in the now-defunct Air Fiji. Margaret, the second eldest, Allan, and others remained in Fiji.

• Gow (Yü Sai Lau) remained in China, married Chan Sau Mui, and have two children, a son, Wai Hung, and a daughter, Mei Lan. They later moved to Hong Kong. Sai Lau worked for a while as an electrician but took up truck driving at the Tai Koo Waste Material Service until his retirement in 2001. Mei Lan married Ben Ho in 2004.

The second was Hung Wah, who was childless and adopted See Wing, who married Yuk Hang. They had a son, Yui Keong (Ross), who was born in mid April 1935 and who worked in Hop Sing as a carpenter. He was also an avid photographer, even had his own dark room. He later married Loretta, a nursing sister from Hong Kong whom he met while she was in Fiji. She worked as a nurse and midwife in Hong Kong’s Queen Mary and Elizabeth Hospitals. They now live in Sydney and have two girls, Iris and Grace. Grace works in London with Disneyland, and Iris is there also as a teacher. Ross also has a brother in Hong Kong.

The next was deceased.

The fourth, Han Wah, who adopted a son, Fun, who was a farmer in Fiji, was near-sighted and since deceased. He left a wife behind in China.

The fifth was Sin Wah (Yee Joy), and he had six children, Charlie, Lee, Henry, Sang, Grace, and Keith. In China, the Yee Joys had a shop in Kong Man and much land. They were also well-off in Fiji, owning a market garden and were ship chandlers, running a grocery and vegetable shop first in Mark Street, then in Cumming Street, a hotel in Lami for a while, and later a popular restaurant, the Wan Q, upstairs of the grocery shop.

• Charlie married Seinie and had several children, Judy (Evelyn), Barbara, Nigel, and Debbie before he died at an early age of 60. Seinie then migrated to New Zealand with Nigel, Barbara went to Australia, and Debbie to Florida, USA. Judy remained in Fiji and worked for Asco Motors for many years before retiring. Recently on 3 June 2014, Sienie passed away at the age of 83. Seinie, rest in peace.

• Lee married Rose but later divorced after four children, Shareen, Ronnie, Vicky, and Randy. Rose later married Roy Whitton, a Qantas Airways manager in Nadi and, with Roy, started Rosie Tours, which today is known as Rosie Holidays, one of the top inbound tourist organizations in Fiji. They also own and run a number of prize-winning resorts and the Thrifty rental car franchise. Roy died in March 2009, and the company is now managed by their son, Tony.

• Henry went to China to marry Sylvia in 1950, and they have five children. Caroline, Josephine, Patricia, Michael, and Angela. The first three girls studied in the USA and later married and raised families there. Caroline married Lee. They have a son, Jonathan, who married Qi Yan in 2013. Josephine later returned to Fiji. She has two daughters, Jasmine and Jenna. Initially a teacher, she later became an executive with Fiji’s major airline and now enjoys her retirement raising funds for the extension to Mt St Mary’s Catholic Church, etc. Patricia married Walter, and they have three children, Brandon Kimberly, and Kevin. Michael, now a senior partner with KPMG in Suva, married Lai (née Yam) and has four children, Vanessa, Natalie, Stephanie, and Nicholas. Finally, Angela, the youngest, is in Australia with her parents. Sadly, Cousin Henry passed away after a fall in December 2013, aged 85. During the operation on his hip, his heart failed, and he gradually passed away.

• Sang married Emily Seeto in 1978, and they have two sons, Christopher and Alexander. They migrated to Australia in 1978. Sang died in December 2002. Christopher has a Bachelor of Economics degree and works in a senior position with the New South Wales Trustee. He married Bernadette (née Sue), and they have four children, James, Philip, Timothy, and Joshua. Alexander works for the Australian Defence Department and married Kim (née Seeto), and they have two children, Jessica and Elizabeth. While in Fiji, Sang took an active interest in community affairs: the president of the Hibiscus Festival Committee in 1971, a long-time member of the Suva Lions Club and its president from 1975 to 1976, board of the Chinese Education Society of Fiji, and foundation life member and management committee of the China Club in Suva. Sang was a Fiji Broadcasting Commission’s Executive Team member, holding the position of advertising manager until his move to Sydney,

• Grace eventually came to Fiji from China and later married Chuck Toy of California, where they now reside. They have three children, Eugene, Nancy, and Glen.

• Keith married Shirley Kwok, and they migrated to Auckland with two children, Andrew and Pamela.

Finally, the sixth was my father, Ting Wah, or Tang Wah (depending on who was doing the translating into the official documents), but better known as Ting Woo, as shown in his driving licence, who had six children. One died at childbirth. They are Sui Lan (Sue); Sui So (Beryl); Hok Sing (Daniel); myself, Hok Yok (Norman); and Sui Kam (Lily).

Of the six sons of my grandparents, I only knew Fifth Uncle Sin Wah (Yee Joy), his wife, Fifth Auntie, and his six children. The rest of the brothers had passed away years ago, and only their children, my cousins, except for Gow, all adults, had been in Fiji, married, raised children, and then migrated to Vancouver, Canada, the USA, Australia, or to New Zealand. A few remained in Fiji, working in major companies.

MY FATHER

My father, Ting Wah (or Yee Ting Woo, as in his driving licence), was born in 1896. His father died when he was 3 years old. He used to look after cows in his younger days. He only had about ten to twelve months of schooling. The teacher taught about ten children between the ages of 10 to 15. When he did not go to school, the teacher would get angry, and when he went to school and did not look after the cows, his elder brothers would also get angry. A real catch-22 situation for a young lad.

When he was 10 years old, he went to Hock San to be a cobbler in the shop Wing On Shoes, run by Kok Wah, the eldest brother. Hock San is thirty miles away, a day’s walk. He was there for fifteen to sixteen years, working as a cobbler and then shoe salesman. Sue said he used to tell her that he would cut the top part of the shoes and let the women of the village sew flowers on them. Then he would collect these and complete the shoes. He was also a cook’s assistant for twelve years.

Dad married Mum, Chang Nui Oi, in 1920, when he was 24 and she was 18. The dowry helped her family. Of course, in those days the marriages were arranged. I understand that upon marriage he was given another name of Yee Woon, which he seldom used. Three years later in 1923, aged 27, he left for Fiji, leaving my mother behind. There was a stillborn baby girl. When he left for Fiji, Kok Wah sold the business and went back to farming.

As noted by authors on the subject of Chinese migration, relatives would normally sponsor a person to Fiji. Chinese migration was restricted in those days by the colonial government¹⁹ due to fears that the Chinese may badly affect the businesses of the Europeans and Indians. Dad’s sponsor would have had to apply for him to come to Fiji. However, my father, who was quite apolitical, did not relay these issues to us.

According to an undated note Beryl wrote a long time ago and recently passed to me, it seemed that Uncle Yee Joy sponsored Dad and others to help him with his farm called Mow Sing Yon, a fairly large farm roughly from Brown Street, Lekutu Street, right up to Waimanu Road, where St Joseph’s Secondary School now stands. The note said that Fifth Uncle Yee Joy was brought to Fiji by one Brown Ah Jack to be a carpenter. (That would explain why he had a thumb or a finger missing from his hand, due to an accident with a machine saw!) Henry and Sue said the same thing about Brown Ah Jack. So three people have come up separately about this aspect. Fifth Uncle also wanted the first brother, Uncle Kok Wah, to come, but having recently got married, he wasn’t interested. So Second Brother Hung Wah (Ross’s grandfather) came instead. The note also mentioned that Yee Kam and Yee Chin²⁰ also worked on the farm. They all stayed at this house at Brown Street. I had earlier noted that Yuen Koong also worked at the market garden at Brown Street, where Dad worked for nine years. Later Second Brother returned to China with nine pounds as his share of the farm.²¹

Yuen Koong was from the same village. Apart from a Chinese wife, he also had a Fijian lady who bore him several children. One of them, Maria, married a Rova, a Pastor in Nadi. We meet quite often nowadays, as her son, Ron, married an expatriate also named Maria, an artist of renown. Ron remembered his grandfather having a restaurant at the lower end of Marks Street, where one of the Yee Joy sons would come in regularly for breakfast of bacon and eggs. He would receive a friendly cuff from them as they went past.

Yee Kam was also from the same village but later left to be a cook. Auntie Yee Kam decided to open a stall at the Suva Municipal Market. Since it was quite lucrative, Uncle decided to join her as well. Unfortunately, he died at an early age. Five years later his son John also passed away, aged 10, of a heart problem. The second eldest sister, Bernadette, then migrated to Canada and, a year later, sponsored her mother and younger sister Angela. She, however, died at an early age of 35 from lupus in 1988. Angela married George Sun of Trinidad and Tobago, and they have two children, Kameron and Danica. The family has remained good friends with us.

According to Sue, who told me most of the stories in this chapter, one day, Dad suggested to his brothers to sell their produce themselves. So Ross’s grandfather challenged him to do it himself. And he did. He started off selling long bean, using sign language, one finger for one penny and half a finger for half a penny. Eventually, he learnt a smattering of English, Fijian, and Hindi. In 1932, he began his own business near the Nurses’ Home in Tamavua. He sold vegetables from two baskets balanced on his shoulders by a pole some five or six feet long. Then he got himself a van to cart his produce around. He was possibly one of the few drivers at the time. He knew very little English. When he signed his name Yee Ting Woo, it was with a shaky scrawl, but it was quite different when he confidently wrote it in Chinese script.

Ten years later, in 1933, Dad went back to China, and Sui Lan (Sue) was conceived. He left for Fiji two months before she was born in 1934. Mum used to complain that she lived in a house with a leaky roof for thirteen years after marrying Dad. So before Dad left for Fiji again, he and his brother Yee Joy built a large special duplex house for their families, with a common wall and an interconnecting door. It was two stories high, with walls nine inches thick and one-inch-diameter iron bars in the windows to keep out bandits. Most of the houses were of mud bricks, joined wall-to-wall with a group of houses separated by five- to six-foot (152= to 183= centimetres) alleyways. My parent’s house was all by itself in a new separate open area, surrounded by clumps of bamboo.²² It was quite befitting for one who has made his fortune by having been to the Kum Saan, the golden mountain. Mum stayed in the new house²³ for seven years before leaving for Fiji.

In 2006, my sister Sue Wong and my cousin Henry Fat Kow (nephew of Kim and Lim) and wife Rosemary visited the village. They were unable to take photos of my mother’s house, as other houses had since built up right against it. But no one was living in it. One of the relations there had a key to the place.She managed to take some photos inside of the shrine to the kitchen goddess.

About 1937 or 38, when Mum was 35 years old and Sue was 3, Dad borrowed money to bring them to Fiji because of the war with the Japanese. A firm, Yat Wah Loong, in Hong Kong looked after people travelling to Fiji. The boat stopped in Sydney before going to Suva, Fiji, and took nine days.

When they arrived they stayed in the Lami area outside Suva. In those days there were no roads linking Lami with Suva, so small boats were used between Lami and Suva. Mum didn’t like this. She felt that this was too dangerous, as one of their friend’s father drowned after falling off one of these punts. So they moved to Tamavua, near the Ah Tong family, where the rest of us were born.

Dad was the strong silent type, keeping to himself and not saying much. He was simple, humble, and without any pretensions. He was thrifty, hard-working, and led a strict moral life. He frowned upon those that drank, gambled, and womanised. He did not think much of women who went to hotels and nightclubs. In many ways this rubbed off on us, as we were even not allowed to play cards at home. He saw the harm done to families when the husband drank and gambled.

He always wanted to return to China²⁴ and used to remind us that we were visitors in a foreign land and to respect the aspirations of the indigenous population. To him China was home, where he had already spent a fortune building himself a mansion and his hard-earned savings in war bonds, which awaited him back home. I guess he had to do his filial duty to his dead parents. So he strongly supported the local fundraising efforts to help China’s war against the Japanese.

I was told that Dad used to take part in Chinese plays. He used to sing those operas in the bath. It was possible, as I noted in Hoy Shang Yee’s book²⁵ that during the war years the Chinese formed an opera company, Fiji Chinese Save China Opera Company, to raise money to assist China’s war effort. Actors and musicians were drawn from the local populace.

During the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, Dad made his money supplying vegetables to the overseas military stationed in Tamavua, a suburb of Suva. But according to Mum, he was so patriotic that he spent the money foolishly buying Chinese war bonds. As the story went, he was hoping to cash them in China after the war in 1945, when he returned home, but he never did.

When I asked Sui So Beryl about the war bonds, she produced a set of five at a hundred dollars each. Whether that was in Chinese or American dollars is not clear. (But five hundred dollars would have been a lot of money in those days.) A portion of the hundred dollars is claimable each year at 4 per cent interest for the next thirty years, payable at any designated branch of the Central Bank of China. Called liberty bonds, the Republic of China hoped to raise five hundred million dollars. These bonds were the proof of my father’s patriotism for his country. Mum wanted to burn them, but Beryl kept them.

After the war we made ready to return to China. I remember getting our passport photos taken. Ten years later, we still had them locked in my mother’s drawer, showing my brother and me in our little dark suits. But because of the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communist at that time, we remained in Fiji. Fortunately for us we did not board ship; otherwise, we as landlords would have been badly treated by the vicious Red Guards when the Communists took over in 1949. We used to get letters from our relatives, telling us of the hard times they suffered under that regime.

I wonder now what my father must have felt then. His desire to return to his homeland was thwarted. He could not even cash in his war bonds. He was now stranded in a land not his own and most of his funds inaccessible. Like all Chinese, he took this blow stoically and resigned himself to his fate. He was never to regain the success of those war years. He never expressed his feelings to us, unlike Mum. Had we returned to China, this story might never have been written.

As the overseas army had returned home after the war, Dad had to find other work. His hope of returning to his homeland never materialized. So it was back to selling vegetables, this time from house to house in his van. At that time, the New Zealand Air Force had a Sunderland Sea Plane base at Laucala Bay, with a huge housing complex for its officers. There was also the Cable and Wireless station nearby with its expatriate staff. Though Dad had a large expatriate clientele to do business with, it was obviously not as lucrative as before. By that time, we had moved to Toorak in Suva.

He was known all over the Suva area as Jone or Johnny. He was a handsome, slim, small-built person, about five feet tall. He was always dressed in a khaki bush jacket, with four pockets and matching long pants. Around his waist, he wore a leather wallet very much like the pouches we wear nowadays. But his was bulging with notes and coins, driving licence, hawker’s licence, etc. The whole ensemble would be topped off with one of those rumpled cowboy hats he wore over his close-cropped head. In one of his pockets we would find a notebook where he would jot down in Chinese the IOUs of his customers. He may well have been the first to introduce the safari jacket as well as the Indiana Jones outfit into Fiji.

He would never stay home even when he was sick. He was very customer-focused. In situations like this, Mum would ask me to accompany him on his rounds. At that time, I was about 10 years old, and we were living on the farm at Nasinu. So I would stay away from school and be Dad’s watchdog. He would first go to the Yee Joy’s grocery shop, load up some vegetables, and off we would go to do his rounds. Later, after the Laucala Bay Air Force Base closed down and the expatriates at the Cable and Wireless station also left, Dad then concentrated in the Domain, some houses in Des Veoux/Knolly Street area, houses at Laucala Bay area, and then home. Being the silent type, he did not say much to me during these journeys. At times, some of his customers would invite him in for a cup of tea or even present him with a Christmas gift.

One day, he came home with his hands wrapped in a dirty rag. I asked him what was wrong. He didn’t reply, but when I grabbed his hands, I saw that the fingers had been cut up. After more questioning, he admitted that the fingers were slashed by the moving fan blades of his van when he was trying to repair something without turning the engine off. Oh my. He didn’t want Mum to know, as she would make a fuss.

At night once a week, he would pull out his black abacus and click away, doing his accounts. We young kids would watch in amazement as his skilful fingers played on the beads. It was a mystery that we never mastered.

For doing his accounts each year he would see Mr C. L. (Charles Luke) Cheng, a dapper, genial, helpful gentleman from Joong Hing Loong. Mr Cheng was always seen at parties with his trademark bowtie and a camera. Everybody goes to him for help when they have to deal with the government. One of his official tasks was to help the Chinese population with their paperwork and administration with the authorities. He was the first vice consul set up in Fiji by the Chinese government due to difficulties the Chinese had with the government’s liquor prohibition order against the Chinese.²⁶

Even when the family moved into Lekutu Street, Suva, in August 1963, Dad, despite our entreaties, continued working until his mid-seventies. At that time, we all had jobs. Business had slumped, and he had ended up with a small orange Morris minivan, selling to the locals, as most of the expatriates had left. He did not like to sit around doing nothing. His work ethics must have rubbed