Greetings to all our relatives from near and far. First of all, I must congratulate Adrian Lim for launching the family web-site in the middle of this year. I hope that most of you have by now, had the opportunity of enjoying his web-pages. I am indeed very pleased and honoured to have been asked by Adrian to help with his web-site.

Over the past four months, I have approached many of you to write about the children of Lim Chean Hock & Khoo Saw Saik. In doing so, some have asked me to mention the topics to be covered. In response, I hope that this write-up that you are about to read will be a useful general guide to those who wish to participate by contributing one or more articles for the family web-site. Obviously, there has to be some uniformity, especially when each member is writing about his or her own family, and the articles are placed into the same web-site.

Some of the topics that come to my mind are:

1] Birth & childhood:
year of birth, place of birth & days during childhood;

2] Schooling:
name of school attended..... Convent Light Street / St. Xavier’s Institution

3] Marriage:
year of marriage, celebrations during weddings........
occupation of husband & place of work;

4] Places of residence:
· during child-hood days & before marriage…. likely at 25 Farquhar St.;

• after marriage;
• during the 2nd. world war;
• after the war.

5] Household items:
Furniture: ...... "Hup-soo-ee", "tok panjang" ; ancestral altar at front of house; kitchen altar dedicated to the Kitchen God, etc.
Everyday usage: type of crockery, cutlery, & other utensils used .... tiffin carrier ["Uah Chan" or Tingkat], "seah nah", mortar & pestle ["cheng-ku"], grinding stone ["batu giling"], etc.
use of telephones, radios, gramophones, table fans, etc.

6] Lifestyle:
a] Up-bringing of children:
children's schooling & higher education; child-hood discipline, etc.;
b] Hobbies:
mention the type of hobbies........ sewing [including embroidery] , cooking, reading, playing mahjong, listening to radio/ rediffusion, use of gramophone, etc. [No TV until early 1960's]...... dancing at parties... ...western music, also traditional "rong-geng";

c] Religion:
religious affiliation...... mainly Buddhists & Taoists....
regular places of worship....
Kuan Yin temple[Goddess of Mercy],
Kek Lok Si temple,
Beoy Hiang Lim temple,
Por Tay temple;
other religions and places of worship.

d]Attire:
type of clothing and footwear worn ..... especially for formal functions.....sarong kebaya, kasut manik, kerosang, etc.

e]Holidays:
week-end breaks to Penang Hill & Batu Frengghi....
names of bungalows stayed in Batu Frengghi.......
one belonged to Heah Joo Seang's family, another belonged to Soon Eng Kong's family, also "Wu Sun" bungalow in Tanjung Bungah,
Penang Hill bungalows at top station, Viaduct station, etc.

f] Family dinners/ celebrations:
usually for birthdays.....
restaurants frequented: Spring Tide / Garden Hotel / Sin Hai Keng / Hollywood / Violet Cafe / Chooi Lim Koo /
Loke Thye Kee restaurant and others

g]Chinese New Year celebrations:

• preparations for New Year;
• visits to siblings during the first & second days of New Year;
• New Year family gambling sessions ..... "Tai Sai", etc.
• "Pai Tee Kong" .... Jade Emperor's birthday on 9th. day of New Year
• "Chap Goh Meh" to end the New Year.

h] other festivals observed:

• "Tang Chek" .... preparing "Kuey Ee"
• Mid-autumn moon festival........buying moon cakes, children playing with lanterns
• Dragon boat & dumpling festival.....making rice dumplings ['Chang']
• "Cheng Beng" ....prayers at graveyards of departed parents, grand-parents

i] Culinary delights:
Food enjoyed by family.....
Nyonya food like Choon Pneah, Loh Bak, Too Tor Th'ng, Curry Kapitan; Enchee Kabin, etc.
j] Weddings / new borns:
Preparations for weddings, wedding procedures & formalities, "pang-teh", etc.
New borns: .... names of new borns, one month "Muar-guey" celebrations
k] Deaths / funerals:
Death announcements, rituals to be followed, funeral schedules, burials [hardly any cremations in the past], period of mourning, etc.
In addition, you may wish to include the following:

1] in writing about your beloved one, please highlight his/her contributions to our family;

2] outline his/her accomplishments in life..... give credit to his/her strengths, personality & integrity;

3] give thanks to his/her role in fostering unity in the family.....

[at the 2004 family reunion dinner, veteran Madam Wee Keow Hoon had this to say....."I am greatly satisfied to see so many members attending the family reunion dinner. I am most delighted that the family is very united and that most have found time to attend the dinner and exchange greetings with relatives"].

4] recollect his/her vision for the family;

5] pay tribute to him/her as being a role model in shaping the early lives/personalities of immediate family members
[i.e. children & grand-children].

As in many aspects of life, there will be challenges and difficulties along the way.......
if you so wish, you may include the following:

[But omit those items that you consider too intrusive, sensitive or embarrassing]

- career setbacks;
- marital problems;
- coping with any major illnesses;
- financial difficulties;
- bereavement on loss of immediate family member;
- other setbacks or challenges.

Finally, please look for photos of your family members and submit them together with your article.

Dear relatives, please do not be put off by the long list of items that I have written above. You are not expected to write on all the items. Whilst some may have more than others to offer, bear in mind that it is your participation that counts and not how many pages you write.

The above request is not restricted to articles about the children of the Patriarch Lim Chean Hock & the Matriarch Khoo Saw Saik. If you belong to the third generation [i.e. grand-children of the Patriarch & the Matriarch] and wish to write about yourself and your immediate family, please feel free to do so. Similarly, if you are in the fourth generation [i.e. the great grand-children of the Patriarch & the Matriarch], you are also invited to participate.

To sign off, kindly allow me to thank the following relatives for their kind contribution of family articles:
Ong Poh Kee [Penang], Ch’ng Keong Aik [Perth, WA], Lim Ewe Yang [Singapore], Ch’ng Keow Geen [Mississauga, Canada], Esther Lim [Singapore] and Angela Ang (daughter of Quah Keow Huah) [Penang].

Several others have accepted my invitation to participate and we shall be hearing from them soon.

Happy writing & best regards,

Wilson Lim
4 Nov 06