Some 70 years ago, there was a man who managed to save enough money to travel to the Singapore back then, in the hope of making more money to make life better for his family in China. He left both his wife and his children at the village and sought job oppurtunities in Singapore. It was hard to cope with life with the meagre amount of money that he earns but life changed after he met her, a lady back then in her teenage years. He was more than 10 years older than her but somehow the affinity between them tied the knot between them. He set up another family here in Singapore. Some years after that, he fell ill, really ill and he left her alone to bring up the fourth kids, of age 5-12 yrs old.

He was my ah gong(my dad's father),someone whom I have never seen. Or rather, I had only seen his photo on the tombstone. Since young. there has always been a man whom my parents referred to him as "tang-shan ah pek" in front of us( "tang-shan" refers to some part of China). He has been like a mysterious character that I have yet to seen him in person, only knowing that he resides in China and he was the product of my Ah Gong and his China wife then.

He's my dad's half a brother in other words.

The equations of our relationships are as follows:

Ah gong+ china wife= Tang Shan ah pek +2 daughters.

tang shan ah pek and his wife gave birth to don't know how many children.

Of which, some married and one gave birth to a male called Chong Yong.

On my side, Ah gong married ah ma and had my dad before my dad and mum had me!

Tang-shan ah pek's grandchild, chong yong is of the same age of my kor, but in terms of seniority in the family tree, he needs to address me as "gu-gu" (aunt) and my kor as "shu-shu"(uncle)! Before last night, he was absent in my knowledge of my family. I simply heard my parents mentioning him coming to Singapore with a ship vessel which he's having attachment on. He's a university graduate from China you see, currently completing his attachment on a ship. Still, hearing his background created an impression of a question mark in my mind, awaiting to erase this question mark and fill it with a face.

He came over into my house last night after my dad went to fetch him(they had never met before too!). In his blue-striped shirt and jeans, the bespectacled distant relative seemed to be at ease with us, not showing any signs of discomfort to be in a house of people whom he had never seen in his whole 23 years of life. He communicated with us in Mandarin because his Hokkien is too chim for us to decipher. Even for his mandarin, I reckoned my brothers had a hard time catching it too!

We brought him over to see my ah ma, whom he had to address as great grand-mother! woosh..complex relationships=X

Over at the apartment, the middle-aged uncles(my dad and his brothers) were busy being good host and they bombarded him with suggestions of the ideal brand of international calling card that he should buy. Overseas call to China were made and the adults seemed to have a great time catching up when they hadn't met the other party for donkey years.

We brought him to see the nightlife in orchard road and introduced nasi lemak to him though it was already 12am in the morning. My dad bought the set meal for him-Chicken wing, egg, cucumber(which I consider as just a deco on the nasi lemak rice). Replying that he had too much chicken for his meals on the ship, he offered my dad the chicken wing and refused to eat it no matter what. For a moment, I was just thinking if he would finish the whole plate of rice when what's left was all but a teeny weeny slice of cucumber and an egg.

True enough, he finished the whole plate, clean.

wow.

Reaching home at 130 am last night, I had mixed emotions, not knowing how I should actually be feeling. Exhilarated that I have relative from China? Not really, it was the first time we met! Nonetheless, I thought my dad played a good host, despite several disagreements and bickering with mum.

Though my relationship with him is a distant one, just like the geographical distance between Singapore and China, but at least I know that somewhere in another part of the world, there's someone out there who's related to me!

Shayna sang @ 11:21 AM

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