Most honoured and respected Wong-ma,
Please accept your son’s deepest regard, respect and greetings. It is hoped that this letter finds you in good health and good cheer. May the gods bless and protect your comings and goings. May good fortune accompany you every step of the way.
My adoptive father also sends his greetings. He is in good health. He wishes to know if the village stonemason has started work on the headstone for his parents’ grave. He is most anxious about it since the auspicious date for its erection has already been set by the geomancer. “Hurry the stonemason,” he said. “Pay him more if necessary. But complete the headstone before Lunar New Year.”
Your son deeply regrets having to write the above. Please understand that it is written upon the instructions of my adoptive father. My duty is to write his letters for him so that he need not go to the letter-writer in Temple Street.
Because of this appointment, Madam Siok Ching resents me. However, this is something which cannot be helped. Her own sons, Boon Leong, Boon Haw and Boon Pin, are studying in a school run by the foreign devils and they read and write in a foreign tongue. They cannot read and write in the language of their father’s homeland.
But do not worry too much. Your son knows how to look after himself. Please be assured that Baba Wee and everyone, both the elders and the young masters in the family, treat me very well. The only one who keeps aloof is my adoptive father’s eldest son, Boon Leong. He is probably influenced by his mother. Your son, however, will continue in his effort to befriend all his brothers.
Last week my adoptive father and his family moved back into their own house, rebuilt after the fire. It was a grand and joyous occasion. Two long strings of firecrackers were let off when the lion dancers arrived. My adoptive father and his wife hosted a grand dinner for all the leaders and important men in the White Crane kongsi as well as all their relatives.
The new mansion is like one of the grand houses of the foreign devils. Some relatives are jealous of my adoptive father and they say that his mansion is built with Baba Wee’s money.
Three days ago, Baba Wee, his sons and my adoptive father went to the pier to welcome the English Resident of Perak, the new ruler in Perak. My adoptive father wore the official Qing robes and looked like one of the mandarins of the imperial palace. Some people say that one day he might be appointed the kapitan China of Kinta Valley by the new king of Perak! Everyone thinks that there will be peace and prosperity, now that the English great lord has made the Malay chiefs and all the Chinese societies sign what people call the Pangkor Treaty. The Hakkas have even named one of their settlements Taiping, Great Peace, to show that they truly wish to live in peace with us! There will be no more fighting, and everyone will be able to trade and live safely.
Perak Country is a strange land to me. And so are the Malay people and their language. When I leave Penang to travel to Kinta Valley after Lunar New Year, there will be many things to learn. My adoptive father is taking me and Uncle Chan Ah Fook and three thousand miners to open tin mines in Kinta Valley. We will travel first by boat and then by elephants through the jungle so that we can also visit other White Crane mines along the way. One of the first places we will visit is Bandong Valley. The elders in the White Crane have asked my adoptive father to bring a Taoist priest to the site of the last battle to say prayers for the repose of the dead. We must also comb the area for bodies so that we can give all the miners a proper burial ceremony. I intend to look for Old Stick’s body and offer prayers to thank him for saving my life. I am looking forward to the journey and hope to learn many things.
In the meantime, your unworthy son pleads with Wong-ma to take good care of her health and not to worry too much. I will work hard and save up enough money to bring you back here to live with me.
Your filial adoptive son,
Wong Tuck Heng