Windows and cultures
I migrated to Victoria as an overseas student from Penang Georgetown, Malaysia with friends on 16 January 1969 for further education. I went to Thornbury High School and lived with Aussies and a Malaysian at 47 Dundas Street, Preston. I left my home, where the weather was warm and humid for changeable Melbourne.
In Penang, as a child, I tended to catch cold easily and I got sick quite often. Mum took me to visit Chinese and western medical doctors and had me take lots of bitter medicine. My health issues meant that the family was very careful about leaving the windows open when it rained or was windy. My grandfather, who lived with us in Penang, was very healthy, until he had the flu vaccination. He went downhill after that. My grandfather had big ears, which was supposed to be one of the reasons why he had a long life. There is a popular proverb saying, "If you have big ears, you lived longer." He passed away when he was about ninety years old. Luckily, I have big ears too. Windows in our old house had bars for security. As a young boy, I used to squeeze through them. If someone locked the front doors of our house and windows, then I stayed outside and played with other kids. I inherited the habit of closing windows. I did for security but also because of my deep fear of cold weather and the effect it would have on my health. I went to a popular Chinese school, Chung Ling High School in Penang. I kept up my obsession with open windows and studied the ones built into houses for ventilation using the book, Health Science for the Tropics, written by A. Godman in 1962.
[edit] Connie
During school holidays in 1969, I worked as a student tram conductor at the Preston Tram Depot. I used to wake up very early and walk to Preston Tram Depot for the first tram out. Finished the last tram and walked back home. Of course, we have to learn all the streets and count one cent, two cent coins, etc. Punched tickets. Talked to customers or passengers from different cultural backgrounds. Lots of learning of human interaction skills and fun.
During the tram trips from terminus to the City, I naturally closed the windows when it was cold outside so that the seats would not get wet. I used to catch red rattle trains to the City for recreation or visiting friends. I remembered when it rained, the passengers would scream. “close the bloody windows!”
I earned $40 per week which was for student's earning a good income for those those days. Of course, you earn a little bit more because of the public holidays, etc.
When I worked on the trams, there were a few passengers lost their items on the trams. Conductors left the items at the depots, where they worked.
Once when I worked my shift, I found a bag of employees' pays. There were lots of cash in this bag. I handed the bag to the paymaster of Preston Tram Depot. Whoever, lost the bag, would have been very happy.
I studied Economics at Thornbury High School. Economics was one of my favourite subjects, beside Maths. I learnt about Gold Rush, Trade Unionism, ACTU, etc.
I am very interested in community safety and employment opportunities for newly arrived migrants.
I published three books on stories of migrants, on behalf of North Eastern Melbourne Chinese Association (NEMCA) and Whittlesea Chinese Association (WCA). They were well distributed in Victoria, Australia and other countries in the World.
The second book is known as Chinese Settlement in Darebin, which won the Victorian Community History Awards in 2004, in the category of Best Collaborative and Community Work. I still received purchase orders for this book.
I was Vice President of NEMCA and no longer with this association. I am President of WCA.
By Arthur B. W. Yong, JP
The majority of this article was first published in reference below.
Reference
Yong, 2009: Arthur B.W. Yong, “Windows And Cultures”, Town Crier, Volume 231, June 2009, p.10.
