"The Unique Cina Kampung" - quoted from The Star online /
http://kuali.com/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=ethnicfood/2006/9/69theu&secTuesday, September 19, 2006
By SHARON TAN Pictures by YAP CHEE HONG
Gan Awang looks like a typical elderly Chinese gentleman, albeit with a slight tan. His greets his guests, however, in perfect Kelantanese Malay -- so perfect that with your eyes closed, you would think that it was a local Malay speaking. In fact, Cikgu Lah, as he is commonly known, is a well-known Mathematic teacher.
Cikgu Lah and Chia plucking the various types of leaves found in their house compound to make khau jam.
Cikgu Lah and his family are part of the Cina Kampung community unique to Kelantan. Their language (Malay sometimes interspersed with Thai and Hokkien words), looks and culture set them apart from other Chinese communities.
Cikgu Lah’s son, Gan Tong Hock, also a renowned Bahasa Malaysia teacher, is more comfortable speaking in Malay than in English. “During my university years in Kuala Lumpur, I was often mistaken for a Malay -- so getting lunch during the fasting month could be difficult! The fact that I spoke no Mandarin or any other Chinese dialect didn’t help matters,” said Gan with a laugh.
The Hokkien used by the Cina Kampung is similar to that spoken in Penang and Kedah. Although Cikgu Lah and his children do not converse in Mandarin, his grandchildren do, as they are educated in Chinese vernacular schools. Nonetheless, the language used at home remains Malay.
The forefathers of today’s Cina Kampung arrived on Kelantanese shores from the Fujian province in China some eight generations ago.
“They came as pencuci kapal (ship cleaners) and settled along the riverbanks of the Kelantan River, all the way from Sabak at the mouth of the river to Kuala Krai upriver,” explained Gan.
“When our ancestors arrived, they settled on uninhabited land known as tanah dong, which means ‘land without owners’. Those who teroka (worked) the land ended up being the legal owners,” he said.
Budu is made by packing fish and salt in clay urns which are left to ferment in the sun for at least six months.
Today there are about 47 Cina Kampung settlements in Kelantan; most are within, or surrounded by, Malay villages and their houses follow traditional kampung house architecture. Cikgu Lah’s house in Kampung Chepa sits in the middle of a large, lush compound. Most of the part-wood, part-concrete house perches on concrete stilts; the kitchen, situated around the back, is built on flat ground. The house is large, but the surrounding compound is larger still. Rambutan, mango and mangosteen trees provide shade, and pots full of flowers add splashes of colour. Kampung chickens run helter-skelter when cars enter the compound.
Because this community lives exclusively in the villages, they are known as Cina Kampung, as opposed to the town Chinese or Cina Bandar.
The community embraces Malay attire as much as it does the language. Cikgu Lah’s wife, Chia Fung Kew, wears the sarung both at home and when she goes out, like most women of her generation. The men on the other hand sport the kain pelikat (chequered sarung for men) at home, just like their Malay counterparts.
According to Gan Tong Hock, the community’s lifestyle mirrors that of the Malays because “We campur with them, and we have lived among them for so many generations”. In spite of the adoption of other cultural aspects however, the community remains devoutly Buddhist, with very few having embraced other religions.
Sporting a Malay name (or nickname) is also a norm. Gan is known until today as “Sohok”, a name coined by his Malay playmates. “My father was given the name Gan Awang at birth, but when he went to a Malay school, his teacher called him Dollah and it stuck. My grandfather then registered his name as Abdullah bin Balisen, Balisen being his own name,” said Gan.
“Till now, no one in the kampung knows Gan Awang -- they all know Cikgu Lah!”
The Cina Kampung usually marry within their own community. Initially, marriage between the Cina Kampung and the Chinese from town was rare, fraught with communication problems and differences in their ways of life. After all, men who spoke no Mandarin found it difficult to court the Chinese girls from town, and it took a bit of adjustment for a town Chinese to marry a Cina Kampung.
“However, that is beginning to change now, especially among those from the younger generation who speak Mandarin,” explained Gan. He married a fellow Cina Kampung, who is also a distant cousin.
“Most of us are related, one way or another,” he said.
Bottled Budu.
Members of the Cina Kampung community do not use the term “peranakan” for themselves, unlike the Babas and Nonyas from Malacca and Penang who are of Chinese-Malay descent. The term is only used by academicians or for official purposes, such as when the community established the Kelantan Peranakan Chinese Association in 1987. In order to join the association, potential members must be able to trace their Kelantanese ancestry for three generations.
According to Gan, one of the objectives of the association being established was to secure bumiputera status for its members from the government. However, like the Babas and Nonyas, the Cina Kampung did not receive bumiputera status.
Not many Malaysians know of the unique lifestyle of the Cina Kampung community. They essentially remain one of the few communities in the country that have adopted much of the local culture and way of life without compromising their roots.
Cina Kampung Cuisine: Melting pot of Chinese, Malay and Thai
Cina Kampung cuisine is characterised by the use of ingredients such as lemongrass, galangal, budu (fermented anchovies mixed in salt), palm sugar and local herbs, which are also widely used by the Thais and Malays. You’ll find budu in particular used abundantly as both a cooking ingredient and a dip at the dining table.
The availability of different leaves in the kampung surroundings and a strong Malay influence to the cuisine have resulted in kerabu and ulam becoming fixtures in the Cina Kampung diet. The ulam is eaten with budu, and some types of kerabu have a dash of coconut milk added for a richer texture.
One of the signature dishes is the khau jam (“mixed rice” in Thai), which is also called nasi kerabu. This is served during special occasions such as Chinese New Year and other Chinese festivals. The rice is eaten with finely-sliced ulam such as polygonum, lemongrass and torch ginger, pounded grilled fish, sambal, kerisik and the ubiquitous budu.
The rice is cooked in a mixture of juices blended from about 30 different leaves such as cekur, ketuk, mata ayer and na dam, which means “black face” in Thai.
“The leaves that we use can be found around the house compound -- in fact, any leaves that the goats eat, we can also eat,” chuckled Cikgu Lah’s wife, Chia Fung Kew. The 65-year-old grandmother is much sought after as a cook for local wedding banquets.
According to her, the leaves used -- and the local or Thai names they are known by -- vary according to locale. Some have healing properties.
“The juice of these leaves lends a dark green hue to the rice. Don’t use too many leaves -- some are “heaty”. Just one leaf or sprig of each type will do,” explained Chia, as she walked through her garden collecting the leaves.
Cikgu Lah records the names of the leaves for reference, but his relatives still rely on him and his wife to pick the necessary leaves for them when they want to make khau jam.
Thai influence is apparent in the Cina Kampung cooking technique for curry. Instead of first frying the pounded ingredients in hot oil and then adding coconut milk, they cook according to the southern Thai style. Coconut milk is the first ingredient into the pot followed by the pounded ingredients. The mixture is allowed to simmer before the meats are added. The end result is comparatively less robust and oily, and more subtle.
As most of the Cina Kampung settlements are along the riverbanks, fish features prominently in their daily diet.
“Whether it is grilled, marinated in turmeric and fried, or cooked singgang-style in a soup made with dried chillies, tamarind peel and onions, there is usually a fish dish on the table,” said Chia.
Crab tanghoon (glass noodles) curry is another popular dish, often served at weddings. A less glamorous version has the crab and glass noodles substituted with hard-boiled eggs, but the result is just as appetising!
Pork is reserved for special occasions, and during these festivities dishes like hong bak (braised belly pork) are must-haves.
The cuisine of the Cina Kampung retains a home-cooked feel, and in fact remains largely to be found in homes. However, there is a restaurant in Wakaf Bahru (one of the more heavily-populated settlements) where one can have a taste of their food. The family-run Kg. Kulim Restaurant is very popular with the locals, and retains the same rustic, home-cooked feel.
