1969 - Batu Lintang Teacher Training College Campus. Photographer : Uncle Yu Fook of Papar Town, Sabah who came t visit us in Kuching
Among the many photographs preserved in our family collection, this picture holds a very special place. It was taken in 1969 at Batu Lintang Teacher Training College in Kuching, Sarawak, when our family was still young and growing together. Three years after this photo I left home and became independent living and working outside.
At that time, our family lived only about ten minutes' walk from the college campus. The college grounds were beautiful, with wide open spaces, large trees, and impressive buildings. One day in 1969, our parents decided that the family should have a group photograph taken there. None of us realized that this simple family outing would create one of the most treasured records of our early years. Not to forget the photographer Uncle Yu Fook of Papar Town. He came to visit us in Kuching and he has a camera that recorded several memory of us in 1969.
Looking at the photograph today, father and mother standing proudly behind their children. The children are lined up in front of them, each at a different age and stage of childhood. The youngest child stands near the front, still too young to understand the importance of the occasion. The older children already show hints of the adults they would one day become.
The photograph captures more than faces. It captures a moment in time when the family was complete under one roof. Life was simple. The children attended school, played together, shared meals, and grew up side by side. Our parents worked hard to provide for the family and guide their children toward a better future.
As the years passed, the children grew older. Education, employment, marriage, and responsibilities gradually led each person onto a different path. Like many families, opportunities to gather everyone together became increasingly difficult. Time moved quickly, and before we knew it, childhood had become a memory.
What makes this photograph especially meaningful is that after it was taken in 1969, the family did not have another complete family group photograph until 1985. Sixteen years passed between these two portraits. During those years, the young children in this picture became adults. They completed their studies, found jobs, migrated and began building lives of their own. By 1985, the family members who once stood together as children were no longer children at all.
To our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, this photograph is more than an old picture. These are the people whose lives and sacrifices helped shape the family you belong to today. The parents in this photograph worked hard so their children could have opportunities they themselves may never have enjoyed. The children in the photograph would grow up, raise families of their own, and continue the family story into future generations.
This family portrait at Batu Lintang Teacher Training College in 1969 is not simply a photograph. It is a window into our family's history, a reminder of our roots, and a gift from one generation to the next. May it continue to tell our story long into the future.
Seven Siblings at Batu Lintang Library, Kuching (1969)
This photograph was taken in 1969 in front of the Library of Batu Lintang Teacher Training College in Kuching, Sarawak. Standing together are the seven siblings during our childhood years. It is one of the few surviving photographs showing all seven brothers and sisters together at that time.
The photograph was taken by our Uncle Yu Fook from Papar Town, Sabah. He was returning home after completing a work contract in Singapore and stopped in Kuching to visit our family. In those days, Singapore offered better employment opportunities and salaries than were available in many parts of Malaysia. Because Uncle Yu Fook had earned a good income, he was able to own a camera, which was considered a valuable and uncommon possession in the 1960s.
At that time, our family did not own a camera. In fact, cameras were relatively rare and expensive, and only better-off families could afford them. Every photograph required film, careful preparation, and the cost of developing prints. Unlike today, when people can take thousands of photographs with a mobile phone, each photograph in those years was special and taken only on important occasions.
This picture therefore records much more than the faces of seven of us as children. It preserves a moment in family history, a visit from a respected uncle, and a reminder of how different life was in Malaysia during the 1960s. The Batu Lintang Library building in the background also serves as a historical landmark of Kuching during that era.