Life with the Lees

Feb 1, 2009

Life with the Lees

Ouyang Huanyan looked after MM Lee's household from the 1940s. Mavis Toh and Lim Ruey Yan report

		PM Lee Hsien Loong as a child, posing for a photograph with a maid.
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In 1945, Madam Ouyang Huanyan found employment as a housekeeper with a Lee family.

Never did she expect the eldest son of the family to eventually become the Prime Minister of Singapore.

She also witnessed the wedding of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Madam Kwa Geok Choo, his classmate from Cambridge University. It was a simple affair where relatives were invited to dinner.

This anecdote and others are published in a book titled Zishu Nu From Shunde, by China Women Publishing House in 2006.

It features the history and stories of Madam Ouyang and other women who left China to work as housekeepers and nannies in South-east Asia in the early 1900s. They all came from the Shunde district in Guangdong province.

The book came to the attention of National Neuroscience Institute chief Lee Wei Ling recently. Dr Lee, Mr Lee's daughter, told The Sunday Times that a friend had chanced upon the book while visiting a village in China.

In one of the chapters, Madam Ouyang, now 91 and still healthy (see box below), recounted her life in Singapore.

Born in 1918, she left her hometown in Cangmen at the age of 14 to join her sister in Singapore.

They were women - known variously as majie, zishu nu and amah - who took vows of celibacy so they could commit to serving their masters, and were a common sight then.

Her first employer was the famous Tan Kah Kee, a rubber magnate and Chinese community leader who gave money to start numerous schools. But she had no idea who he was. Her sister was already working in the household.

The Tans thought highly of the Ouyang sisters. When Japanese troops invaded Singapore in 1942, the Tan family had wanted to leave together with the sisters, but Madam Ouyang's sister did not want Madam Ouyang to go to a faraway place as she was still young. The Tans left their youngest daughter in the care of the two women as they fled the country.

After the war, so grateful were they to the women for keeping the girl safe that Mrs Tan asked the sisters to live with the family. Recalled Madam Ouyang in the book: 'She said, 'I've always treated you sisters like my daughters, please stay'.'

But by that time, Madam Ouyang was already working for the Tans' neighbour - the Lee family.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew returned home from his studies in Britain during her second year with the family. She witnessed his wedding - a simple affair where relatives were invited to a meal to celebrate the occasion.

Madam Ouyang recalled that although Mr Lee's home was big, it was furnished simply 'and was in fact a little bit old'. She and the other workers felt at ease there because the family was friendly and warm.

She remembered how Mrs Lee, a lawyer, was especially kind to the majie. She once told them: 'We're busy in the office and will arrive home late, so please have your meals first and do not go hungry. You can prepare the dishes after we get home from work. Everyone will not be inconvenienced this way. Is it all right?'

Hence, the practice in the household was for the workers to eat before the employers.

Most of the workers in the Lee household came from the Pearl River Delta because Mr Lee felt that they were 'well-disciplined, refined and hardworking'.

The family also welcomed other majie when Madam Ouyang invited them over for chats and visits. Mrs Lee addressed them as 'jie' (sister) and Madam Ouyang would feel a sense of pride.

Even after Mr Lee became prime minister, his style remained simple, she remembered.

She recalled that the maids used to address Wei Ling by her name. When Mr Lee took office, Madam Ouyang started addressing her as 'Da Xiao Jie', a term used for the employer's eldest daughter.

But the young girl told her sternly: 'It's my father who's the prime minister, not me. So please address me by my name.'

The Lees often took her on their outings so she wouldn't be cooped up at home. As she watched Mr Lee hold the hands of his children, Madam Ouyang felt that the prime minister was more like a patient father and a friendly friend. 'Someone you can trust and be at ease with.'

Mr Lee also valued tradition. She recalled one Chinese New Year where he ordered a set of mandarin jackets for the children.

She added that he told his elder son Hsien Loong: 'We are Chinese, so we should follow the traditional customs when celebrating the Spring Festival.'

In the late 1980s, Madam Ouyang returned home to Cangmen due to her poor health. She often received letters from Dr Lee inquiring about her health and asking her to return to Singapore.

Dr Lee, who still refers to Madam Ouyang as 'Yan Jie' today, had been raised by her since young. She told The Sunday Times that Madam Ouyang's voice was strong when she phoned her last year.

'She said her nieces and nephews were taking good care of her,' said Dr Lee. 'She remembers all the time with us and invited me to stay and visit.'

Having worked under two historical leaders, people are always interested in hearing about their stories from Madam Ouyang, noted the book.

But in her eyes, her employers were ordinary people. 'The only difference is that they were very busy, working constantly with hardly any time to rest,' she said.

She added that her encounters with the historical figures have made her life memorable.

'I have not lived my life in vain,' she said.

mavistoh@sph.com.sg

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Lee Wei Ling: What keeps me rooted to Singapore

Lee Wei Ling: What keeps me rooted to Singapore

By Lee Wei Ling, for the Sunday Times
01 Feb 2009

This is an era when international mobility is a privilege that many of our bright young men and women enjoy. The world is their oyster.

They were born and raised in Singapore. Some may have completed their tertiary education here, while others did so overseas. But I have cousins whose children have chosen to exchange their pink Singapore identity cards for United States passports.

If ever there is a major crisis in Singapore, those who would be able to emigrate, be accepted by another country and get jobs there would invariably be people who are wealthy and/or professionals with marketable skills.

The Government knows that talent is mobile and that Singapore must compete with other countries to offer an attractive living environment and vibrant culture so as to retain talented Singaporeans and attract foreign talent here.

I am a paediatric neurologist. I can pass any medical examination that Canada, the US, Australia or New Zealand may impose before accepting me as a high-skilled immigrant or ‘exceptional alien’. Would I take such opportunities?

Perhaps in a moment of madness, when my yearning for hiking outweighs all the other factors that keep me in Singapore and make me want to fight for it if the need should arise.

I have been fortunate in having true friends in Singapore. They and my nuclear family are the main reason I will stay if foreign armies invade or bombs are dropped on Singapore.

In 1975, the year South Vietnam fell, I was a medical student training in paediatrics. Paediatricians are especially kind and decent people, for only such people would be drawn to work mainly with children. Still, there was serious talk of emigration among my paediatrician mentors. One did emigrate with his entire family.

My parents called a family meeting in their bedroom soon after Saigon fell. My father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, then Singapore’s Prime Minister, told us: ‘Mama and I will stay here to the bitter end. Hsien Loong is already in the SAF and must do his duty. But the three of you need not feel obliged to stay.’

In the end, the Vietnamese communists did not march down Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore thrived, Hsien Yang followed Hsien Loong in accepting both the SAF and President’s Scholarships, and my brothers both served out their bonds.

I myself had accepted a President’s Scholarship in 1973 to study medicine at the University of Singapore. It was a five-year course for which the Public Service Commission paid me approximately $3,000 to $4,000 annually. Most of it went towards my medical school fees. I was bonded for eight years.

Subsequently, I accepted several more scholarships from the Government and have served a total of 16 years of bond. I stayed on in the public sector after completing my bond and am now in my 31st year in service. I have also had the opportunity to live and study overseas for four years. I enjoyed living in North America.

As a nature lover, I appreciated the magic of the seasons. I enjoyed observing spring trying to announce its arrival with crocuses that may subsequently be buried by a late spring snowfall.

Spring in its full-blown splendour of trees, with budding leaves in the most tender hues of green…The daffodils…The cherry blossoms in full bloom along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts…Running alone at first dawn or twilight, as petals fluttered down on you, was a magical experience.

Then fall with its burst of colours, turning what was an almost uniformly green landscape into a tapestry of yellow, gold, rust, red and green that met your eyes as you jogged. And then winter announcing the end of the year - time to go cross-country skiing or find an indoor track to run.

The changing seasons enhanced the quality of life in a way that only someone who has lived in New England for three years, as I did, can appreciate. But I always returned home. I never doubted that home was anything other than Singapore.

I suffered a serious surgical complication on Jan 9 and am now recuperating in Singapore General Hospital as I write this.

I was in pain earlier this afternoon and, unable to do much, I dozed off. When I woke, my friend Gino was quietly sitting in the next room.

He had brought along with him brand-new running shorts and socks. I had messaged him at noon to ask him to get them for me but did not expect him to do so immediately. Gino is an excellent physiotherapist who helped me through an extremely difficult rehabilitation in 2002. We have been close friends since.

He had recently resigned from the Singapore Sports Council and we discussed the best location for him to set up shop. He gave me a sports massage and we chatted for some time until I felt up to doing my step aerobics.

This morning, one of my cousins dropped by, followed by my doctor-friends from the National Neuroscience Institute.

I am now staring at the skyline that I had stared at from the same window in 2002 and 2003. Then as now I was hospitalised for prolonged periods because of serious surgical accidents, which I later pulled through against great odds.

There are many more tall buildings now than there were in 2002 and 2003. This is a city-state. I am unlikely ever to go hiking again - in Hawaii or Bhutan, Kerala or New Zealand - my one and only real hobby.

What keeps me rooted here are my nuclear family and my friends. We enjoy good times together and help and support one another during bad times. They - rather than Olympic medals or National Day Parades - are the main reason why I feel this place is home and why it is worth fighting for if the need should arise.

The idea of dying does not scare me. But to be willing to stay on and fight for Singapore - that goes beyond simple logic. It is the result of the emotional bond I have with those who are important in my life as well as with those for whom I feel a sense of responsibility.

Lee Wei Ling

The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.

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