Last night, I had the good fortune to attend this wonderful Hokkien Story Telling at He Ji Wen Hua Ting at 352A Joo Chiat Rd. Mr. Fan Shou Chun, 78, who hails from Xiamen, is one of the leading, if not the leading storyteller (known in Hokkien, or rather the correct term for this dialect is Minnan or Bannam) – known as Kong-Kor-Xian. He enthralled the audience of people, mainly in their 60s (men and women), with short stories. These short stories ranged from how a Hokkien term came about – like bo bol bog au (literally translated as no wife, no monkey) to stories with moral linings on the heavy responsibilities of parents. Nothing beats story to drum the realities to the people!

A Story-teller and his captivated audience in Chinatown. Collection of National Archives of Singapore.

Ah, for the ah-um and ah-pek, these storytelling sessions might have been the best way to make them bilingual, that is from Hokkien to Mandarin. (^^) In the old days, according to Mr. Fan, when one out of a hundred villagers could read and write, storytellers played many roles .. from being the interpreter for the village to petition writer (drafting of contracts) to writing letters for them to their relatives in Nanyang (South East Asia). To many generations, they learnt about morals and history of China through the storytellers.

This reels me back to my childhood days when, each evening, with my grandma, and the landlady, and other adults and children all living in the same pre-war house, I would sit under the air-well listening to the solo Rediffusion with Ong Toh telling us the gungfu stories. Ah, the Heroes of Condor could be seen by our children visually, with all the computer generated tricks. In those days, our fertile minds had to conjure up how the heroes fought. (^^) Imagine these words from Ong Toh, “Yi eh chiu ji eh yet, huay ji eh sit … lo ki, tio diam diam ..” [With a wave of his hand, the light went out .. and there was silence ..]

People of my generation still miss the storytellers. The Hokkiens miss OngToh, the Cantonese miss LeiDaiSoh and the Teochew, NgJiaKeng.

I think there are also other storytellers, mostly from Rediffusion.