Ah Kwai, the Ghost.

In 1980's, the man liked to stand at the windows of the wards in this old hospital with colonial buildings. He would peep inside and ran away abruptly. They called him Ah Kwai or The Ghost in Hokkein dialect.

As a young medical officer, I was not particularly bothered by him except if he peeped into the gynaecology ward. Most of the times, he only hanged around the medical or surgical wards.

One busy morning in the canteen, he sat in front of me. I noticed he was a middle aged Chinese man with dark complexion, five feet 4 inches tall and was rather untidy. He ate quietly. The moment he sensed I was observing him, he went off with his food.

The medical officer sat beside me said: "This man is a tug for the coffin shop. Whenever there is someone dying, he will inform the coffin shop and be rewarded."

One day, an old man was dying of a terminal lung cancer. As he was gasping for air, Ah Kwai was again observing at the window. As he thought the moment was right, he turned and rushed to a nearby public phone booth to inform the coffin shop operator.

At the moment, Ah Kwai ran into someone. He paused and noticed the dying man was standing in front of him. He was so shocked and shouted out: "Kwai! Kwai!".

He sped away leaving the old man looked puzzled at the ground. He came to visit the dying old man in the ward, his identical twin brother.

Missing Attendant.

In 1988, the old district hospital was cluttered with some old colonial buildings and some zinc roofed stores. The canteen and mortuary were such buildings.

In the canteen, Attendant A asked: Was the big guy who sat here and chatted with you?
Attendant B replied: A cocky chap who was transferred from JB General Hospital.
A asked: Why is he cocky?
B answered: He said he worked in the mortuary for many years there and was the bravest guy there.

That night around 10 pm, the new brave Attendant was informed he had to check the mortuary as a routine. He was asked whether he needed a helping hand. He proudly rejected the idea.

When he reached the single building of mortuary at the far end of the old hospital, it was dark and quiet. With his torch light, he found a square hole near the door. He followed instruction to put in the hand to search for the door keys. The moment he found the keys, in the darkness, there was someone touched his hand. He was pretty sure it was a cold human hand. He screamed, dropped the keys and ran away.

The light was switched on. The two Attendants A and B were laughing out their guts. They held an amputated hand soaked in the formalin solution to scare off the new attendant.

The next day, in the canteen, they met the new attendant and broke into laughters again. New Attendant said: You three are very naughty. How can you scare me like that?

The two attendants stopped laughing abruptly. Three of us? Did you say three of us?

The new attendant said: Yes. Three of you. Where is the third person with only one hand?

Haunted Ward

"Tick..tick..tick.." The old clock hanged onto the dirty bared wall was ticking away. It was 11:59pm.
"Ten, nine, eight,..." The senior nurse was counting with her colleague inthe same night shift. The patients were fast asleep in this medical ward which had been turned into an old folk home by the local residents.
" Now." The nurse completed her count.
" Screaammm.....!!" A young lady rushed out of the Second Class Ward and screaming at the top of her voice.
People came to aid and the whole repertoire of comforting a new medical officer on her first call night in this haunted ward. To the nurses, they have been seeing the same scenario over last decade.

The next day, the hospital adminstrator met the the new doctor.
" Are you alright? It was probably your new environment and work stress."
" Madam, can I change on call room?"
" That is a bit tricky. The casualty officer sleeps in the library, the surgical sleeps in the ECG room. You must understand, we are a smal district hospital and we do not much resources."
" What about the Obstetric doctor?" The young doctor still had not give up.
" Oh, he is busy through the night and does not have the luxury of sleeping. In reality, you get the best accommodation in the whole hospital. This is the best building in the hospital for it houses first and second class patients whom seldom get admitted here but private hosiptals."

A few weeks later, the administrator met the doctor.
" Hi. Good to see you have settled in. Got used to the on call room?"

With clear and firm gaze, the doctor replied: " Sure. No problem."

The administrator was curious " Really? Tell me about the change."

The doctor spoke with calm voice " In the morning, I am the earlier doctor to arrive but the attendant will ask me to vacate the car porch for the senior doctors and ask me to park in the public area outside.

 When the paramedics see me, they do not respect me. I am paid  RM 3 per hour and they are paid RM8 per hour. In the ward, the nurses think I cannot make decision and take me like dirt.

When the senior doctors come, they take me like punch and shift blames onto me. I have to do their share of work while they have long coffee and lunch breaks.
Just I am about going for meals the consultant comes for round after his golf session or his meals with his girl friend.

Now when I am in the haunted on call room, the ghost gives me some harmless prank jokes. Armed with the ability to live in the on call room, I enjoy the status of fearless doctor and rapidly I see everyone begins to treat me differently.

And XXX often reminds me not to repeat her silly mistake."

The sdminstrator cried out rudely:" XXX?"

The young doctor replied:" Oh, yes. the late Dr XXX. Ten years ago, she committed suicide as she could not cope with her living in a haunted on call room.
She sends her best regards to you though in your 20 years long career here, she hardly saw you."

"Did your Grandma speak English?"
"Yes. She was also the top scorer in mathematics."

The years my grandma grew up in China were those of big era, turbulent world with warlords fighting for own interests while the nearly 400 years of Draconian rule of Qing Dynasty was coming to the final days. Amoy was a modern city with lots of Western influence and protection. That allowed my grandma to live on safely healthily.

When she was 11 in 1911, a short Cantonese trained doctor with controversies of getting the foreign support and oversea Chinese financial support and marrying younger second and third wives while on exile managed to influence and motivated others to repeat 11 times to revolutionize the old nation with 5 thousand years of civilization and nationwide epidermic addiction of opium smoking. That year my grandma was a shining example of modern girl with no feet bindng and chest tying. However her father's long plait was cut off from his modern thinking head.

Watching from nearby shop was my grandpa. He was born in Quan Zhou in a house near the famous lake with twin towers from which, according to a lady Japanese researcher in history, is the source of inspiration for the Tales of Monkey God in the famous novel of The Journey to the West. While his elder brother followed the sea silk route to sail, he moved to Amoy in teenage to learn trading. There he was employed as an apprentice in a trading company that traded spices including opium (as a legal business). He was hard working and soon began his own trading. 

At 20's, he noted my grandma was a special lady helping her father in food or dinner catering business. He was pleasantly surprised that my grandma at the age of 19 years was not engaged presumable because of her high educaltional qualification. Around the era, girls got engaged at very young ages from 9 to 15. His request was granted by my grandma's father who had heard of this industrious young entrepreneur and the chaos in the choatic and inefficient Kuomintang rule.

On her wedding day, my grandma had a war with her hairs that she had to covered her bald head with a red cloth......

"Why do you stop writing?"
"Because I am freer. I write if I am busy."
"Can you write one article for this Chinese New Year?"
"Of course. I shall write one to my grandmother's story."
"Grandmother?"
"Yes. My grandmother's story."

....................
Here it goes.

At the turn of 20th century, a little girl was born in 1900 to a family who possessed a food catering business in a city called Quan Zhou which existed for two thousand years. It was the beiginning point of land and sea silk routes. Nabi Muhamed's third disciple came to preach here and passed away here leaving children who borne special surname called Teng or 丁 which resembles the first alphabet of the third disciple's name of Joseph.

She brought luck and her father's business was booming. As he became more ambitious, he moved his business to a prosperous city called Amoy. Here she became here childhood in a Christian Missionary school to receive the Western education. Her father had a liberal attitude and did not allow her to go for feet binding or chest tying during her puberty. She grew up as an open minded modern Chinese lady and had far vision on many life issues.