1958 name list

Baram Nalo, Ding Seling, Jacob Dungan,Johny Ragi, Grawat Ulu, Jok Ajeng, Jok Anyi, Karim bin Budin, Laing Jau, Lamban Sakalai, Ludan Kuleh, Mahmud bin Hamid, Masi Nael, Mahammad bin Hj Sabil, Musa,Cheng Yun Tong, Chen Yun Chian, Chiew Kie Hung, Chiew Kie Ing, Chong Hi Hua,Chong Song Laip, Chung Han Shan, Chung Siew Hyung, Deng Wang Kiew, Hii King leong,Hii Yii Eng, King Chiew Kiat, Ku Jong Ying, Huang Hing Tuong, Leong Man Wan, Leong Yit Lain, Lim Chong Hoi, Ling Ho Hui , Ling Liong Wei, Ling Kwong Yu, Ling Mee Yong.

These were the names in the register and I hope some of you readers would recognise them as your relatives and let them know.

Basically the Chinese boys played a lot of basketball in their little world, shielded by a common language. They were all in a bubble of their own, skirting around other lives and suspicious of alien intrusion. I suppose at that time, it was their way of surviving in a world removed from the grand nation of China. They were the spirited immigrant people who were looking for " a life" outside their homeland.

My children used to ask their mother how would an Iban teenager look upon visitors in the 1950's . She told them that probably at that time, which was pre-tourism days,the little innocent Iban teenagers would feel that they were "hosts" and they had to had to welcome the immigrant children and if these Chinese were to visit their longhouses they would have to be provided with kind and gracious hospitality. She was not wrong to say so as I remember it was typical of Iban perspective at that time. Did I feel very much of a "host" towards the Chinese students who came to Tanjong Lobang in the late 1950's?

Many years later I learnt about host as a biological term....and then that's another funny story.

Those were the days when we were young and gay, friends and not knowing at all what the future would bring. But thirty or forty years later, in the 21st century, we have moved on to the era of mobile phones,global migration,video conferencing and blogging.

Next year this batch of 1958 would be thinking of 50th anniversary of meeting at Tanjong Lobang...or would they wait until 2013 to mark 50 years after they have passed Form Five?
How would they put an anniversary date, based on what event? what time?