Goh sooi seong
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Title : Butterfish
Title (Original Language): 鲳鱼
Words in the Drawing: “When we had our drawing activity for the first time, Ean Nee has invited art teachers to teach us how to draw. That time, I was so scared and nervous because I have never drawn any picture over the past decades. I was so worried that other people were able to draw nice picture while I failed to draw on my own. It would be so embarrassing. I didn’t have any idea about what to draw. As a result, I drew fish. I am grateful that I enrolled myself in the drawing class. At least I manage to learn some new things. If not, we only eat and sleep, or watch television or read newspaper to kill our time. We end up do nothing. Special thanks to Ean Nee for giving us a chance to draw and do something meaningful.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong
Title : The Wooden House at Valley of Hope
Title (Original Language): 希望之谷的木屋
Words in the Drawing: “Our art teacher asked us to draw a house. So I drew my house which was located at the central section of the settlement. Last time I worked as a section attendant. We had to go to the section to wait for others to distribute food for us everyday at about 7am. The government assigned lorry to send rice, bread, vegetables and fish to the settlement. After they had loaded all the stuff, we were responsible to estimate how much stuff we needed to distribute to the residents at the chalets. After the stuff was weighed and recorded, then we started to distribute to each chalet. In average, one section attendant was responsible to distribute to more than 10 chalets and we usually completed our duty at around 10am. At first, I distributed stuff by bicycle. I changed to motorcycle after a while. That time, Malay section attendants were in charge to distribute stuff to Malay residents and Chinese section attendants distributed to Chinese residents. The government provided lamb to Malays but after quite some time, it was changed to chicken. The salary for section attendants was very low. It was only RM142.80 a month. All the staff got our salary paid at the hall during pay day. I had been working till I was admitted to the ward in year 2005.I retired after being admitted. The government paid RM100 monthly to the retired staff as allowance. With this RM100, I can at least spend it on food. Whenever I think of eating something, I can get someone to assist me to buy.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong
Title : My Little Hut
Title (Original Language): 我的小屋
Words in the Drawing:“This was the chalet I stayed in previously. I had been staying there for more than 10 years. I used to stay there alone and I cooked for myself. I went to work every day. Before this, I stayed in Jerejak Island. I came to Sungai Buloh because I wanted to study. However, when I was admitted to this settlement, I was being overage for school. The school didn’t want to accept me and asked me to go back. I went back to Penang and stayed at my friend’s house for one year and then went back to Jerejak Island again. When I was a kid, I only completed my study till year 3 in primary school and I suffered from leprosy. I wore skirt when I was having morning physical exercise in the school. I was under the sun and the teacher noticed that my legs were red and asked my mother to find out the reason. My mother brought me to see doctor. After taking the medicine, there was no improvement at all and I had to stop schooling. After that, I started to learn from home on my own. I liked to learn new skills. I loved to find out what people were doing. That is why I have learnt to plant flowers, cook and sew clothes.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong
Title : The Year of Rooster
Title (Original Language): 鸡年
Words in the Drawing: “This year is the year of rooster. This is my first time drawing rooster. When I just started to learn how to draw, I totally had no idea what to draw. So I looked around to see whether there was anything I could draw. I drew whatever I saw or whatever in my mind. For this drawing, I followed the picture printed on the red packet (ang pao). During Chinese New Year, people gave us red packets and there were rooster images on the packet. So I just followed. I have coloured one of the roosters but I don’t think it is nice. I have worked on another rooster and I left some space in between, I guess it looks nicer.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong
Title : Cows and Goats Eating Grass
Title (Original Language): 牛羊在吃草
Words in the Drawing: “There is a Hindu temple at our settlement. The Indians raise cows and goats. They eat grass at the field near the temple. Every evening, after having the grass, the cows and goats usually walk back but I am not sure where they stay. Someone told me before that the cows will attack if you wear something in red. Hence, I am so scared that they will attack me. That’s why I don’t dare to look at them.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong
Title : Sunflower
Title (Original Language): 太阳花
Words in the Drawing: “One of the art teachers asked me to draw a flower during the last session when we drew together. She drew a very beautiful flower but I told her that I couldn’t draw. She asked me whether I would like to draw flower. I told her that of course I wished to. So she taught me how to draw. She guided me by giving me some tips. She told me to make use the point of the brush and press it one by one. Then she told me to draw a cross at the centre. I found that it was not that nice because the pistil didn’t look like this. So I drew little circles slowly. It looked more alike. I have planted many types of flowers before this but I have never planted sunflowers. The sunflowers can grow very high. Hence, they can’t be planted in the pot. This is because customers are unable to load them in their cars. So sunflowers are not marketable. Last time, there were many people selling flowers. Some suppliers came to sell their pots to us. We bought 100 units each time and the pots were quite cheap, about few cents each. So the total cost was only few dozens Ringgit Malaysia for 100 units of pots. I was able to earn my living by planting flowers when I was young. When we became older, we stopped planting because we were not fit to do so anymore. Now those who sell flowers are all outsiders.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong
Title : Sweet Potato and Yam
Title (Original Language): 番薯芋头
Words in the Drawing: “These are sweet potato and yam! I totally had no idea what to draw, so I drew a sweet potato first, then I added the yam. People who speak Hokkien and Cantonese used to scold people ‘sweet potato’ which means they are stupid or dumb. On the other hand, the sweet potato and yam soup (a kind of dessert) can be cooked easily. First of all, we need to remove the sweet potato skin and the yam skin. Then, boil them in plain water. The most important ingredient is the pandan leaf. After the water boils, add some sugar. Finally pour some coconut milk into it. Previously when I stayed at the chalet, I was busy planting flowers and I had no time to cook. I usually cooked my meals in a very simple manner and I was not particular at all. Now when I am staying at the ward, I don’t cook for myself anymore. My ward mate, Tan Cheng Guan, whose bed is opposite to mine, she loves to cook. She always cooks some meals for me.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong
Title : Like A Chicken Talking To A Duck
Title (Original Language): 鸡同鸭讲
Words in the Drawing: “There is a dark cloud in the sky. The chicken tells the duck that it is going to rain very soon. But the duck doesn’t understand what the chicken says. This is because duck is not afraid of water at all and it doesn’t mind whether it rains or not. On the other hand, the chicken is so scared of water. So the chicken is getting angry. This is what the Chinese idiom ‘like a chicken talking to a duck’ means. It means two persons are talking to each other but they don’t understand each other. It is like the duck which doesn’t understand the message the chicken is trying to convey.”
Size: 17.5cm X 15.2 cm
Location: The Valley of Hope Story Gallery
Owner: Goh Sooi Seong
Copyright: Goh Sooi Seong