ADD YOUR MEMORIES , COMMENTS AND THOUGHTS AND CONVERSE WITH OLD FRIENDS.. HERE

TO WRITE IN THIS BLOG, CLICK THE "NEW POST" LINK IN THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS PAGE (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR OWN FREE GMAIL ACCOUNT AND ARE LOGGED IN.) A flurry of emails have been exchanged recently. Many of them contain memories of our days at Yuet Wah, the teachers and priests who taught us and life in Macau over 40 years ago. As you look back at the past please use this space to jot down your recollections and thoughts. Or use this space to converse with friends. It might revive old experiences we all shared but have long forgotten.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

May 30, 2007


Hi Frank:

Thanks to new technology so that we can connect each other all over the world after more than 40 years.

Firstly I must clarify my identity and the names of our old classmates which were not used during our Yuet Wah age.

Keith Leung was an English name I adopted when I emigrated to Vancouver, Canada 20 years
ago, my student's name was Leung Shing Kay. I am now staying in HK but still maintaining a
family in Vancouver.
Stephen Lo's student name was Lo Wing Yiu who is the Chief Officer of the Continental Airlines
of South East Asia. His family is in Tai-Wan but works in HK.
Philip Cheng is Cheng Koon Sum in student time who changed to St. John College since
Form IV.
David Leung's student name was Leung Shu Kong who has emigrated to Vancouver in the
same year as I did and is living there now.
Rosaliayeong's e-mail address is Yeung Tak Hing (Christen Name Benedict) wife's contact
email. (The Captain)
Edmund Lau is Lau Yat Man in student age who is working in New Jerrsey.
Cheung Kung Leung transfered to a HK college since Form III who is a sucessfully garments
manufacturer. You may not know him.

The names of the 1st attached classmates photo are as follows:

Start from Last Row L-R:

Lo Wing Yiu , Cheung Kwai Sun, Lai Wing Lok, Chan Sek Fai, Lai Yick Choi, Victor Kwan.
Cheng Koon Chue, Ho Chi Kwan, Lee Chung Yuen, Leung Shu Kong, Frank Geefay, Paul Chiu
Cheang Kok Chong, Lau Yat Man, Leung Shing Kay, Lee Wing Sun, Ng Wing Chiu, John ???
Chiu Sin Wai, Chiu Shung Chou, Wong Shiu Kwan, E. Geefay, Ho Chen Lam, Wong Kam Tin
Ho Yiu Man (passed away),Yeung Tak Hing, Fr. Cotta, Fr. Rubini, Cheung Shu, Mak Yiu Huen.

The 2nd photo was taken 2 weeks ago when Habhajan visited HK who is living in CT, USA

Were the photos attached in your e-mail taken some years before when you visited Yuet Wah with your Eldest Daughter? I can recognise your face which changed a little bit from student to a handsome young man. But Ernie changed completely, I can't chase any sign from his baby face as a student.

As some of our old classmates suggested, I agree to set up a web-site or web-blog so that we can up-load our precious old or recent photos, events and chat with each other. I suggest to use our Club's Name: Great Bear II as our blog's or web's name. I think Ernie is an expert of setting up this web. I do appreciate Ernie's student diaries which bring us back to 44-46 years ago. Thanks Ernie.

This time I started a new topic because some e-mail addresses has been added or changed: Victor Kuan wants to communicate at the first instant in his office; the e-mail address of Ho Chi Kwan was missed before who is retired in Tai-Wan now


Keith Leung

16 comments:

Hamster said...

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the clearification. I can now recognizes some of the names. I will look at the class photos when I return home and match the names up with the faces. It's great how the internet places everyone so easily in touch with one another. It would be nice to share old times as well as how our lives have been molded with the test of time. We need to find a way to conveniently share our stories and photos without sharing them to the world via cyperspace. When doing a Google search for Yuet Wah there appears to already be a Yahoo group of the school for the class of 1992 as well as other references.

Best Regards,
Frank

Hamster said...

Good morning from Macau
Hi Frank and Ernie,
I am amazed to see all the active responses after I have traced Ernie. Indeed it is also nice for me to see the new face of Harbhajan, without his turban, in the recent gathering that I have missed.
Well we should get closer by all means with cyberspace and to share our lives and memories.
Please note that I have added the address of Prof. HO Chi-kwan, (second on the left of second top roll), retired in Taiwan.
Love you all.
Victor
P.S. For all the messages I have to build a special folder of GB2.

Victor Kuan

Hamster said...

Hi Victor
You mentioned seeing a recent photo of Harbhajan.
Can you forward that photo to me. I didn't see him in any of the photos you emailed me.

I remember Harbhajan Singh very well. He left Yuet Way after Form III.
And I never ever saw him without his turban.
I recall when we were in Form III he and I were out in the recreation yard behind the school playing basketball one day.
In the heat of the game someone (not one of our classmates) grabbed ahold of his turban.
Harbhajan got mad and had angry words with the guy in Chinese. Then Harbhajan threw the basketball at the guy and hit him with it pretty hard..
I thought there was going to be a fight.
But the other guy backed off.

Ernie

Hamster said...

Hi Ernie,
I just noticed that Stephen Lo has sent you the picture. I recalled the incident just outside the toilet but cannot remember who that was, maybe Frank Wong or one of our naughty chap. The fellow half bald and half white sitting almost in the middle before the leftover is our Harbhajan, he now looks pretty handsome, no offence without his traditional turban.
Did you received my family photo?
Bye=
Victor

Hamster said...

Hi Victor
Yes. Thanks for the wedding photo. I could easily recognize you after all these years. Except for the little growth under your nose you look the same. Once again Sylvia looks even younger with age. She must have good family genes.
I only seem to get more wrinkles and more white hair as I grow older. The secret to keeping your hair looking young is to dye it.
One day I will get tired of dying my hair and let it go "natural". What a shock that will be. (My mother had all white hair when she was only 55.)


Your job sounds very interesting.
You must work for the Chinese government. What is that like.
I remember when we first went to Macau my father started getting interested in what was going on in Communist China. He took several trips into China (illegal at the time because he was a US citizen and travel wasn't allowed into Communist China) to talk with local officials. He even donated money so the government could buy fertilizer. Fr. Krishner (sp? the priest from Hungary) heard about my dad's trips to China and came to visit my dad, one day, to try to talk him out of having any dealings with the Communists. I recall them sitting in our living room talking.
Fast forward 45 years and now Macau is part of Communist China.
Have there been any big changes to the way you live in Macau. Political and religious freedom? How has the change affected the Catholic Church in Macau?
One nice change is you are not confined to tiny Macau any longer. You can travel throughout China. Back then we could only go to Taipa and Coloanne...or Hong Kong.

Here's a more recent family photo taken a couple of years ago. For some reason my eyesight has improved and I don't wear glasses anymore. That's the only improvement.

I didn't get the photo with Harbhajan in it. could you forward it and any other photos that Stephen may have sent?
Also, are there any class photos from Form III and IV?
Many of our good classmates left before we graduated...Raymond Chu, the Captain, Harbhajan Singh. It would be nice to have a photo of them.

Ernie

Hamster said...

Hi Ernie, Victor, and all,

I received this attached about Macau last week. Tried to forward it to Ernie twice but the email bounced both times. Victor, is this really how Macau now looks? I could only recognize the church on the hill and some of the walls near the waterfront. Macau has changed so much it's almost like a different place even as I remembered on my last visited some time in the late 1980's.

I am also attaching a photo which I happen to have on my computer of my family when we visited China last year in celebration of our 27th anniversary. Like Ernie I am also graying but make no pretense about it. I do not ware glasses but unlike Ernie I should be waring them. Behind the aging gentleman to the left is my youngest daughter Helena who will be going to graduate school in the fall. The one looking down at the delicious cake is of course my wife Karen and behind her is my oldest daughter Frances who currently lives in San Francisco. As you can see I've been blessed with 3 lovely women in my life. I am still somewhat recognizable from my school day photos if you imagine me 40 lbs. lighter and far less wrinkled and gray.

Best Regards,
Frank

Hamster said...

Frank,

Macau has changed a lot, many said we have lost the Macau we knew but unless so we are still a fishing village. Anyway we are now housing a population double to those that was in 1963.

What a co-incidence that I am also blessed with 3 ladies, mind they are all married.

By the way I just had lunch with James Lai and his wife, they may be back to Indiana by late June


V. Kuan :

Hamster said...

Hi Victor,

I see from later correspondences that some of the old Macau has be preserved. That is gratifying for some of us old timers. The last time I was there was in the early 1980's and not much had changed but the photos I have recently seen show a very different picture. Macau appears to be a city of contrasts, between the very old and the very modern. Has Yuet Wah changed much? Is it still run buy the Catholic fathers since China took over? One of these days I may visit Macau again after my retirement.

I'm glad you had a chance to see James Lai recently. I remember him very clearly. Ernie and I were quite close to him and frequented his home over the barbershop I think his parents owned. It's good to hear that he now lives in the US. Perhaps I will have a chance to meet him in the near future.

Best Regards,
Frank

Hamster said...

Dear Frank,
Indeed Macau has always respect haritages and culture. The civil administration has assigned both their Cultural Department and Municipal Office to maintain them most suit. Furthermore many of our historical landmarks have been acknowledged into World Heritage almost 2 years ago. There are measures undertaken to maintain and to protect them while developing Macau to meet her economic development.
Yuet Wah has almost lost all the old look except the old building of the English Section where we were in the last years of Secondary Education. We have taken a picture at the entrance during our last re-union. Even the Grand Stand where we held our activities had been removed and the Millanium Hall was built on the site.

Victor

Hamster said...

Hi Victor
The old building where we had form IV-VI??
Is it still there
That would be great.
The building should be preserved because it must be at least 100 years old. I think it was someone's house once.
It would be nice to go back there and see the old classrooms in case they tear it down one day.
Ernie

Hamster said...

Dear Ernie,
It is still there as we have visited last time a couple of months ago but we couldn't enter. Only two plagues on the wall in the corridor are left there.
Don't know if it belongs to YWC but surely the Cultural Dept will see that it will not be demolished if it has historical value like many those in the city center.
=
Victor

Hamster said...

Hi Ernie,

This is Stephen Lo (Lo Wing Yiu) who is in your diary on May 29 some 46 years ago. We had lunch with Harbhajan earlier this month. Great reunion. He is as humorous as before. The attached pic is from Leung Shing Kay.
Great to have you and Frank back in touch with us ...thanks to Victor.

Stephen

Hamster said...

Hi Stephen

I got a nice surprise this morning...a call from Harbhajan Singh.
"Habang" as I always called him was a very colorful and memorable character in our class. He is always remembered for his fun loving humor..... and for the turban he wore everyday.

I asked him about it and he said he stopped wearing it years ago.

When I asked him what happened to him after Form III, he reminded me that back in 1961 the Indian army had captured the Portuguese colony of Goa The Portuguese put all the ethnic Indians living in Macau into an internment camp. His said his whole family was taken "prisoner". His father, who was a policeman in Macau, not only lost his job, but lost his pension too.
Shortly thereafter they were all expelled to Hong Kong

I don't remember that at all.

Ernie

Hamster said...

Hi Ernie,

My mail box is recently flooded with the communications (and pictures) of my Yuet Wah schoolmates. Never realise the mafia is ganging up again after 46 years. I am seeing most of them on a frequent basis when I'm in Hong Kong (Yum Cha) and earlier this year, a visit to Macau. I am very much amused at reading fractions of your diary and of course looking at your family pictures. Wish you and Frank can come for a visit one day. I'm sure you will have plans to visit Thailand and can stopover in Hong Kong (or Macau).

Take care.

Stephen

Hamster said...

Hi Steven
Yes. This has been equally delightful for me to be able to hook up with all of you after all these years.
Before I got Victors email last month I have to admit that I had forgotten so much of those years.
The internet is a great tool for reuniting with old friends, isn't it.
Now that I see all the old pictures and go through my diary a lot of old memories are floating back to the surface.
Names and faces I had almost forgotten.
It's also interesting to see how everyone has done ...what they are doing for a living...their families.
I liked the photo of Wong Shiu Kwan and his lovely family. I remember how everyone use to tease him because he was a little fat. They called him "pig" , back then, I think. And he didn't like that. Now he is slim looking with a very nice looking wife and daughter.
I hope we can all stay connected even though we are spread out around the world.
And , yes, I will let everyone know when I plan a trip to Thailand and maybe try to stop over and see my old friends and Macau again

Ernie Geefay

Hamster said...

Hi Stephen

I got a nice surprise this morning...a call from Harbhajan Singh.
"Habang" as I always called him was a very colorful and memorable character in our class. He is always remembered for his fun loving humor..... and for the turban he wore everyday.

I asked him about it and he said he stopped wearing it years ago.

When I asked him what happened to him after Form III, he reminded me that back in 1961 the Indian army had captured the Portuguese colony of Goa The Portuguese put all the ethnic Indians living in Macau into an internment camp. His said his whole family was taken "prisoner". His father, who was a policeman in Macau, not only lost his job, but lost his pension too.
Shortly thereafter they were all expelled to Hong Kong

I don't remember that at all.

Ernie