Papa and His Gan Chau

Since so many people have asked me about my pen name, Gan Chau, I will write about how I obtained my pen name.

My beloved papa himself was a good writer. He had some articles and short stories published in Chinese, as papa also taught Chinese in school. He was the one who encouraged me to read and write. Even though he could not read or speak much English, he would go through my essay books, and asked me to read aloud what I had written. Papa could understand English better than he could read.

Every morning, we would go for our morning walks to the Bukit Dumbar Reservoir in Penang. I disliked having to wake him up so early in the morning, for papa would go to bed at about two o'clock every morning for he worked as a bandmaster in a leading nighclub. To provide for his family, papa held two jobs. Though tired, he was often optimistic and cheerful. Despite his busy work schedules, he still found time to give free music lessons to the poor boys in our village. Papa believed that music has power to transform a street urchin! Some of our village boys are full time musicians now.

Papa was also very concerned about good complexion, and he showed me how we could gather some morning dew in our palms and wash our face with the cool, refreshing liquid from nature! Papa believed dew helped to promote good facial complexion. Sometimes when people complimented me on my excellent complexion, I would tell them of papa's remedy which is natural and free!

Once papa asked me to check his speech which he had prepapred for that evening. "Ladies and Gentlemen", papa began. Very often he met his friends who were also walking in the morning. Sometimes they would be so engrossed in their conversation that they forgot to exercise. Papa's delightful sense of humour and mimicries often left his friends roaring with laughter. Some friends have told my siblings and I that the comedien, Moses Lim, reminds them very much of our beloved papa.

Once, papa bought me a book from Readers' Digest even though it tore a big hole in his pocket. It was just like him, to be generous to others but extremely frugal on himself. It was the book of world travel. I marvelled at the beautiful pictures of Hawaii, Europe, Australia, Japan, Nepal, etc. As I was admiring the colorful and beautiful scenery, papa said, "My precious daughter... when you grow up, you will be a teacher like me. You will also travel round the world. When you do start writing seriously, take the pen name of Gan Chau. In Chinese, 'Gan' is written with our surname of Kam and 'Chau or Cao' is written with the word of grass. Gan Chau means sweet grass - also a kind of herb, and your writing will be filled with a sweet taste and healing touch for your readers.

Gan Chau