Keeping heritage alive

JACELYN Lai has been captivated by Chinese culture since she was a young girl in 1970s Singapore, listening to songs and music in her grandparents' home in Serangoon Road.

From the courtyard of their house, she would be entertained by the sights and sounds of her neighbours - members of a local street opera troupe - playing musical instruments and rehearsing songs for upcoming performances.

Those wayang memories made a lasting impression on her and would become even more meaningful during Chinese New Year, when celebrations typically included extended family gatherings, plenty of home-cooked food and unofficial talent contests.

"It was usually a time of games like charades and sometimes we'd end up playing the piano or just making music," says Ms Lai, 56.

"Nowadays I enjoy talking with my uncles and aunts about those childhood days, reminiscing about my grandmother's cooking and tales of my grandfather during World War Two."

In recent years, Ms Lai has developed a need to find out more about her family's roots. She and a cousin who lives in the US have started doing research on a family tree.

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"We're keen on revisiting the life stories of our grandparents and also on tracking down more extended family members - our family is pretty big," she says, adding that it was the life of her grandfather Lye Kah Hong that spurred her to start tracing the family origins.

"He arrived here as a teenager on a steamship from Canton in 1922 - he could only speak Cantonese, but he managed to get into school and build a life for himself."

By the time of World War Two and the Japanese occupation, her grandfather had worked his way up to a position where he had an office in a shophouse on Stamford Road.

"His office was the only unit with a ceiling fan, so it was popular among the soldiers," says Ms Lai.

Her grandfather took over several neighbouring businesses - including a bookstore, a goldsmith and a hair salon - when their owners got into financial difficulties. "When we were born, we were each given a small piece of jadeite from the jewellery store - I still have mine," she says.

"Chinese New Year is a time of connecting, sharing and bonding for our family. The memories are old but they're still very much alive as long as we keep revisiting those stories."

As each new year approaches, she feels compelled to reconnect with the past and instil some old-fashioned family values into her four children.

"There are benefits to knowing about your culture, and the beginnings of immigrant life in Singapore," she says.

"I want to keep my grandfather's story alive - he died in 1999 but we're always still talking about him. I believe in preserving our heritage, whether it be art and artifacts, old books or my mother's soya-sauce chicken recipe."

Ms Lai said: "In earlier years, we'd have reunion dinner with my side of the family and next morning drive to Kuala Lumpur to visit my in-laws, where we'd have a huge popiah lunch at home. Dinner would be at one of the popular local Chinese restaurants.

"My in-laws have passed on, so we don't make this road trip anymore. These days, reunion dinner is celebrated at my brother-in-law's home, together with my mother and our children - there will be the traditional lohei followed by a steamboat dinner."

Ms Lai keeps her family's culinary tradition alive every year by faithfully replicating her mother's decades-old recipe for yam cake, and delivering the results to family and friends.

"This is one thing I will continue doing, and eventually have my children continue the family tradition."

Over the years, Ms Lai developed a wider appreciation of Asian culture - especially a love of Asian art.

Before starting a family, she worked in the financial industry, where she met her banker husband.

Even before he was posted to Taiwan for work, she had compiled a small collection comprising several pieces of contemporary Chinese art.

She added sculptures, brush paintings and ink-based works during a four-year stint in Taipei.

Lately, Ms Lai has developed a taste for contemporary art from Myanmar. She travelled there regularly, developed working relationships and forged friendships with many artists, to the extent that she now serves as an unofficial patron to some prominent names in Myanmar's artist community.

"I have gotten to know the people behind the brush," she says.

A large acrylic painting of shimmering rice terraces by noted artist Ngwe Aung is her current favourite.

It occupies one wall of her living room, while colourful works by Moe Myint Zaw (depicting a bright tribal headpiece) and hyper-realist Kyi Hlaing Aung decorate other parts of the home.

"Their art is so vibrant, just the opposite of the adversity they face in real life," she says.

"I want to support these artists because not everyone has an equal chance in Myanmar - they have so little, but their art gives them hope."