It’s Cheng Beng (Qing Ming) Time again!

Posted by Victor under Reflections
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Cheng Beng (Qing Ming) this year falls on 5 April. Looking at Cheng Beng this time and the time when I was just a little boy (1950s), much has changed.

I remember in those days, Cheng Beng spelt fun to me, my brother and sister. It’s a day’s excursion on top of the big wooden planked lorry with its canvas roof. It was a challenge climbing onto the lorry. It was an outing with my maternal grandmother who seemed to have a very big extended family. My father, being from China, did not have any relatives in Singapore.

Qing Ming Offerings of Food and Ritual Papers to Ancestors | PhotoCD Number : 19990007473 | Image Number : 107
Image courtesy of www.a2o.com.sg and National Archives of Singapore.

So early in the morning, Mum and we three kids would take a trishaw (since we would have to carry some of the praying paraphernalia) from Tern Tiam Hung (Craig Road) to Lim Teck Kim Road, where my grandma had a kopi-tua (coffee shop under a shet), a watering hole for the bus repair shop just opposite. Those days, I knew the cigarette brands by heart, as I helped to sell them, by pack or by single sticks, whenever I stayed there.

The aunties and uncles and cousins were all gathered and it was something like 20 or more people, old and young, big and small, all on board the creaky lorry, when we moved first towards Kopi-Sua (I suppose it must be the bigger part of Bukit Brown). Each family within the extended family had its own ancestors to pay respects to, on both sides of the family.

I remember Mum would stop at one place and all would be looking for this unmarked grave that could only be like a small mount. That was the grave of her adopted father (she was given away when young) who died during WWII and there was no proper burial. And so, it was more like recognising the spot based on trees and neighbouring tombs.

The lorry would make regular stops and different people would alight to do the necessary, putting the coloured papers on the tomb, cutting away the lallangs that were covering the tomb. There were smoke from the burning of the joss papers as well as those from burning grass. The caretakers of the tombs (they were paid to take care of them by the descendants) normally would burn the grass just before Cheng Beng. And they would be there to collect the subscription for the following year. We came with parang and scythe, ready to cut the lalang overgrown on the tomb. Some would bring along red paint to paint over the words on the tombstone. The elders would then show the kids what they could do, and to pray to the occupant(s) of the tomb, many of us would have not idea who they were other than the faded pictures on the tombstone.

Back to the lorry, there’s always drinks and plenty of food to eat. The light breeze blowing across the wide plain of the cemetery brought relief as we kids clambered on to the lorry, waiting for the rest to return. The elders would kneel before the tombstone and “converse” with the occupants of the tomb

After we have combed Kopi-sua, we then headed for Pek San Teng (what is now Bishan). It was a quiet cemetry came alive with congestions as lorries and cars negotiated to pass each other, and those parked by the side. There were a number of Tengs, but I was too young to notice other than there are such pavilions then. There were even fu-chok (beancurd sticks) on sale from the cottage industries in the midst of the cemetery. My grandma’s extended family was a mix of Hokkien and Cantonese. While Kopi-sua was more Hokkien, Pek San Teng was more Cantonese.

Many years later … in 1970s, I would follow my girlfriend (now my wife), and her mother on another excursion. This time, in a bus with all the tong-hiong-wui (fellow clansmen from the same place in China) from Zhong Shan Association (at that time, the association was at Chin Chew St), we would head for Pek San Teng, where there was a cemetery for the Zhong Shan people. Zhong Shan is near to Macau in China. They speak their own dialect. So, only the elders spoke the dialect while for most, their adopted dialect was Cantonese.

At this rather big compound, was a central memorial monument dedicated to the ancestors of Zhong Shan, with the surroundings filled by tiny tombs of the Zhong Shan people who died in Singapore. The families spreaded out to their respective ancestral tombs. There were distinct display of offerings with joss stick and food from the Taoist and Buddhist descendants, and flowers from the Christian descendants. Each in his/her own way convey their greetings and feelings to their departed loved ones.

When all had done their duties, all gathered in front of the central memorial monument where the leaders of the Zhong Shan Association led the group in paying respects to the ancestors with three bows. After that, it was picnic time .. with the butcher members (those who sold the roast pigs) chopping up some 6-8 huge roast pigs into bite-size chunks. The members quickly formed into their own family or friend groups as the leaders passed plates of the roast pork to each group. Buns were also given with drinks. Roast pork had never tasted so good, I remembered.

When everyone had their fill, they were still given more to take home, all lined into the bus for the return journey, ending another year of one of the important activities of the clan association. Most of the elders have since passed on, and so were the tombs .. and what is now is just memories.

Cheng Beng for many will never be the same again. While many would head for the hills, many would be heading for the temples or columbariums to pray to their departed ones. For me, those bumpy lorry rides remained in my memory, to share with my children, and hopefully, my grandchildren. (^^)

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