Her extended family

10 of her siblings grew to adulthood whilst the older 2 died in infancy (quite common in those days). Growing up in a family of 4 boys and 7 girls was just one long soap opera.


The family was poor but my mother had lots of good memories of growing up with her brothers and sisters.

Her father was a gentleman of the old school which is to say he was very much tradition-bound. Her mother never went to school but if you listened to the stories she told, you would have learnt lots of life’s lessons. Po-po was a very good story teller and I know she brought up her children well.

Just look at my mother! Soft, gentle and always caring. Excellent cook. Efficient and thrifty housewife. Wonderful mother.

Who is Poh Chee?

Chang Poh Chee (曾宝珠) was born in Port Swettenham in Malaya (now called Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia) on 30 th August 1933, the 11 th child of Mr. Chang Kwong Tian and Madam Moy Choi Heng. In the Chang (曾) family, it was the tradition to name the daughters Precious (宝), followed by the name of a bird but when it came to this baby, Mrs. Chang told her husband that she did not want another daughter named after a bird, even though (or maybe BECAUSE) 1933 was the year of the Water Rooster. Which was just as well because we have now Precious Pearl (宝珠) who is as invaluable as that beautiful creation of nature.

Childhood was a series of family moves from Port Swettenham to Sentul in Kuala Lumpur to Seremban and then to Kuala Pilah. The last was especially memorable for Precious Pearl because when she was 8 years old (Chinese age), the Japanese occupied Malaya. The family was in Kuala Pilah. She had already started to go to an English school (it was the time of the colonial masters). After just 2 years, she had to study Japanese in school. After the Japanese went back to their homeland, she was enrolled in a Mandarin school but all the historical upheavals seemed just too much for the child and she never did manage to catch up in school again.