Personal and family – Page 7

Category: Personal and family

Scientific Proof of My Maternal Lineage

2 August 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

When I first heard of it I was intrigued and excited. Scientific proof. My eldest brother said his genome profile is 86.3% Chinese DNA and 13.7% Malay DNA. Most of the time, our knowledge of our lineage is based on records in Mandarin script, or on hearsay and anecdotes of parents and relatives, and old photographs or inherited family heirloom. When my eldest brother announced casually to the siblings about scientific proof, it came with the force of irrefutable fact. All along my mum had told us we have Peranakan lineage. We believed it. I mean our mum couldn’t be wrong on this. I never got to see my grandparents or great grandparents at all – they passed away before I was born. I took it for granted that I was Chinese from my dad’s side and Peranakan from my mum’s side. Now its fact.

HOW IT HAPPENED

My eldest brother, Colin Chee, is the current President of The Singapore Peranakan Association(TPAS). The Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) collaborated with the Peranakan Association in a genome study project. They collected blood samples from 177 volunteer members (of which my brother is one) of the association and other community members in 2018, studied them, and got their research accepted for publication in the Molecular Biology and Evolution academic journal published by Oxford University Press. The analysis concluded that 90% of volunteers had an average of 90% Chinese DNA and 10 % Malay DNA. The rest showed 100% Chinese DNA.

Colin wrote in the association news: “The study is a revelation. To TPAS, the project’s findings have, for the very first time, given scientific credence to our community’s family oral histories and the smattering of early travellers’ eye-witness reports that the Peranakans are descended from the mixed unions of early traders from China, India and even Europe with local Malay women in Southeast Asia. This does not mean those with 100% Chinese DNA are any less Peranakan than those with mixed Chinese-Malay DNAs”. (Read the full writeup HERE).

Our two living aunties, Lily and Florence (aged 95 and 87), both insisted that our ancestry is Dayak blood. Our maternal grandparents all lived in Kuching, Sarawak. Well, Dayak is a general term for those indigenous tribal peoples from the interior of Borneo who then moved to the coastal areas and some have mingled with or have been absorbed into the Malay population. I do not know what to make of this but having grown up to trust scientific research, I will have to accept what science concluded. I do not know if genome grids have a separate category for Dayaks or if they are all subsumed under Malay. This is one for the scientists to give the final answer. Our paternal grandparents both emigrated from Fuzhou in 1893, the provincial capital of Fujian Province in China. You can read more about this in an earlier piece I wrote HERE.

SO WHAT?

What were the implications of this knowledge for me? For one thing, I have begun to make all kinds of illogical connections between my 13% Malay DNA and my affinity with Malay food, Malay language and culture. “Maybe that is why I like lontong, rendang, mee rebus, nasi lemak and nasi padang (but so do many other Singaporean Chinese with 100% Chinese DNA)”. “Maybe that was why I bought Indonesian language learning tools and Bible, and tried to opt my children into Malay instead of Mandarin classes in school but was not permitted by the Ministry of Education policy (but this could merely be because I wanted to spare my children the trauma I experienced trying to learn Mandarin)”. Well you get the point. I was trying to connect all kinds of dots.

On the positive side, I am now interested in knowing more about this unexplored side of my ancestry. I have mostly seen myself as a Hokkien Chinese. Now I need to learn more about my Peranakan roots.

I Received the Pfizer Vaccine as a Gift from God

22 April 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

On Tuesday, I received the second dose of Pfizer vaccination in the Yuhua Community Center. As usual, the process was very safe and efficient – something I do not take granted for and am always thankful for. I was generously given a box of face masks and a bottle of hand sanitizer. I had a sore upper arm and some flu-like aches on the day after, but today I am rather fine and continue to monitor my body.

AN ALLERGIC REACTION

Months back I had thought I did not qualify because of an allergy. My late mother told me I had allergic reactions to penicillin when I was a primary school boy. What kind of reactions, I cannot remember, and even if mum was alive, I doubt she would remember. I assumed that the jab was not for me and it was not at all a consideration. However, as the vaccination was implemented starting with the elderly, and as people started to think about it, I too started to seriously consider it.

There were many anti-vaccination material and horror stories circulating on the internet and through WhatsApp messages. A neighbour said receiving the vaccination is receiving the mark of the Beast. A cousin shared a story of a friend he knew who died from heart failure after the second jab. Perhaps instead of a direct cause and effect, it could have been sudden death from hidden heart condition. However, there were also informative articles and videos that propounded that it was good and safe and a social responsibility to receive vaccination. One that I found personally helpful was circulated by a Methodist TRAC seniors ministry recording of a Zoom seminar that debunked many misconceptions about the vaccination (which I cannot seem to find now, or else I will surely link it here). Many factors had to be considered and it became too murky for a quick decision.

PRAYER LED TO PEACE

However, I began praying about whether I should receive the vaccine since I could not remember what my allergic reactions were. If it had been very serious, I would have landed in hospital and my mum would have underlined that fact, “You know you ended up in the hospital for three days! You could have died!” or something along that line. But I could not remember any of such. What should I do with such inadequate information about my allergy?

During a routine medical check at the polyclinic I shared with the doctor about the quandary I was in. The doctor’s reply injected peace. She said the reaction need to be somewhat serious, with for example swelling as well as breathlessness. That got me praying more until I felt God’s peace about receiving the vaccination. This was a kind of peace that could withstand news of negative effects of vaccination and the opinions of others who plan to wait it out and let the early adopters be the guinea pigs.

I have become one of those informed and forewarned guinea pigs albeit one with peace in his heart. I received the vaccination as a gift from God.

Into your hands I commit my spirit and body, Lord Jesus Christ, giver and keeper of body and soul. Amen.

When Seniors Paint the House

11 March 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

When I was in my 30s and 40s, even in my 50s it would take me one day to paint the whole living and dining areas. Last week it took me two days to do a small bedroom that serves as my study/prayer room.

It took three hours to prepare the room. My wife and I had to move all the books systematically onto the bed, and shift the empty bookshelf to the corridor. Then the desks, cabinets, camera cabinet, and chairs into the living room.

Besides that the walls and ceiling had to be wet wiped of dust and dirt. The edges had to be taped up and cardboard and paper arranged on the floor and the paint stirred with brushes and tray all readied for the painting.

The original paint on the walls were lime green and yellow. My grandchildren had stayed in this room for some time. This meant I had to splash on generously and laboriously two coats of white because I wanted a lighter colour, a prayer retreat colour.

After painting two coats, which took about five hours, there was the cleaning up – anther forty minutes of washing, throwing the paint-spotted old newspapers and cardboard, removing the tape, and setting up the bookshelf and cabinets again.

I was tired three quarters of the way, and my wife had to help out. Without her, the project would not have gotten done.

The next day, with some aches from stretching and stooping, using muscles seldom used, this ageing couple had to prepare the other half of the room, removing everything from the bed: the things stored below, and the mattress and other stuff on the bed, and beside it. Then it was the same process all over again. The wet wipes, the stirring of the paint, up and down the ladder, the tapes, the two coats. This time it was more difficult but with God’s strength, when everything was finally done, I had such a good feeling of accomplishment.

There are two more bedrooms and many more ceilings to paint. They will be done at a leisurely pace – at a senior citizens’ pace. There is no hurry. No deadlines. I wonder how long it will take before I embark on the next round of painting and which part of the house will get a new coat.