From: Stephen - 2
Date: 7/12/00
Time: 11:56:08 PM
Congratulatory Address - Mr and Mrs Paul Chang's Golder Wedding Anniversary
Auntie Katherine, Uncle Paul, His Grace Archbishop Sofer Fernandez of the KL diocese, Reverend religious Sisters and Brothers, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great honour and it gives me great pleasure to give the congratulatory address on this happy and auspicious occasion, the celebration of Auntie Katherine's and Uncle Paul's Golden Wedding Anniversary.
When my cousins, the children of Auntie Katherine and Uncle Paul, asked me to make the congratulatory address, they did so out of love and respect for my parents and also to acknowledge the deep bond and love between my parents and Auntie Katherine and Uncle Paul. This is because my late father, Peter, is Uncle Paul's elder and only brother whom Uncle Paul cared for and loved deeply, and my mother is Auntie Katherine's eldest sister. Hence the very deep bond and love between the two families.
Today we are celebrating Auntie Katherine's (whom I call “Sei Yee”, which is Cantonese for “4th Auntie” as she is the 4th daughter on my mother's side of the family) and Uncle Paul's 50th Wedding Anniversary.
I am sure all of you will be interested to know how it all began.
In the 1930s, living in KL was a wealthy merchant and his wife, Mr & Mrs Wong Hock Ting. They had 2 sons and 6 daughters, and Mr Wong, wishing to have the best for his daughters, decided that they should have extra private tuition to improve their English.
My father, who comes from a humble background, took on the additional work of tutoring Mr Wong's daughters in the evenings to supplement his earnings. My mother, who is Mr Wong's eldest daughter, and my father fell in love.
When Uncle Paul heard from his brother that Mr Wong had 5 other daughters, he persuaded my father to pretend to be unwell so that he could take my father's place in tutoring the girls in English, as Uncle Paul, even in his young days, loved the company of ladies.
My late father, being a considerate and loving brother, agreed to let uncle Paul take his place and that is how Sei Yee, a younger sister of my mother, met Uncle Paul.
Sei Yee and Uncle Paul were married in the Church of the Holy Rosary, Brickfield, KL on 8 November 1943. René, their eldest, was born on 8 August 1944, exactly 9 months to the day from their wedding. Uncle Paul has a reputation of being very good and precise in achieving whatever he sets his mind to!
I remember asking Sei Yee some years ago why she fell in love with Uncle Paul. She told me that when she was a young lady she wanted to share her life with a person who, apart from being a good husband and father, is a scholar and intellectual as Sei Yee herself is interested in and fond of art, music, history and literature, especially classical Chinese literature. She chose Uncle Paul because she saw in him a budding scholar. How correct she was.
There are a number of La Salls Brothers present this evening and perhaps they will be heartened to know that Uncle Paul was:-
· The first La Sallian to have won a Raffles College Scholarship to study at Raffles College; and
· The first La Sallian to get a first class Diploma in Arts.
Uncle Paul's other scholarly achievements are:-
· He is the first Malaysian to get a Distinction in his MA degree in Education Planning and Administration from the University of London;
· He is the only citizen of the ASEAN countries to have the honour and recognition to be elected a Fellow of the Commonwealth Council for Education Administration, which is the highest honour conferred on a practising administrator.
In recognition of his contribution to the development of education in Malaysia, Uncle Paul was awarded the JSM by the Yang Di-Petuan Agong, and was awarded the title “Toko Guru” by the Ministry of Education in 1987.
So, Sei Yee wanted a scholar and intellectual as her partner, and she appears to have more than her fair share.
When my parents celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1989, Mei Ch'ing, René's daughter, who was then just 10 years old, asked her father the meaning of the term “Golden Wedding Anniversary”. When told that it means 50 years of marriage, she exclaimed “What! Fifty years of nagging?”
It will be totally untrue to imagine that for any couple 50 years of marriage is always a bed of roses. There are bound to be tensions and frustrations at times, especially in an environment such as ours where until recently feudal values and the domination of the male still held sway. Sei Yee and Uncle Paul, who no doubt have had many memorable times of enjoying and loving each other, were able to overcome many of the trials and tribulations that also came along over the years.
This is in no small measure due to the tremendous strength of character and sense of humour on the part of my dearest Sei Yee. Sei Yee has the generosity of heart and a strong sense of duty, together with a total and fierce devotion to her children and family. In her love for Uncle Paul she was able to disregard the usual human frailities, and loved and valued Uncle Paul for his strengths and goodness. I am sure Uncle Paul will be the first to agree that his wife is the foundation upon which their successful 50 years of married life is built.
Uncle Paul, during his very successful career, was constantly on the move. As a young teacher he taught at schools in different states, he was Headmaster of various schools, Director of the Students Department and Education Adviser to the Malaysian High Commission in the UK, Chief Inspector of Schools, Malaysia, and latterly Professor and Head of the School of Education at University Sains, Malaysia. He lectured and taught at various Universities in Australia, Britain, the USA and China.
As Secretary General of UNESCO in Malaysia, as member of the Education Commission for Brunei, and as Member of an International Commission for Fiji, he travelled extensively.
In spite of his extensive travel and workload, Uncle Paul always found time to take a personal interest in the well-being, in particular the education, not only of his children, but also of his many nieces and nephews.
Sei Yee played the stabilising role to the family in all the upheavals and the moves from one town to another, and from one country to another which Uncle Paul's career entailed. Her boundless energy, dedication and commitment provided the reassurance and certainty to the growing family, and gave Uncle Paul the comfort and confidence that wherever his job required him to go, the family and their children were always in the safe and good hands of their mother.
Their commitment to ensure the well-being of the family, their dedication to their obligations and responsibilities as parents, their love for their children and each other, and their trust in God were the main ingredients that contributed to Sei Yee's and Uncle Paul's 50 years of successful married life.
Sei Yee and Uncle Paul are always very proud of their 7 children.
As most of them live abroad and may not be known to all of you, I would like briefly to introduce them:-
· Starting with the youngest, Michael, who live in London
· Tony, who lives in Banbury in Oxfordshire, England
· Matthias, whom all of you must have heard as he is also known as the “loudest whisper”, is the only one in KL
· Simon from Sydney, Australia
· Elisabeth, who is in Singapore
· Margaret, who lives in London
· and the eldest, René, who also lives in London.
Believe it or not, what you have just seen is the product and result of 50 years of marriage!
In celebrating this auspicious occasion of Sei Yee's and Uncle Paul's Golden Wedding Anniversary, we should also remember the contributions of the previous generation to the success and happiness of the succeeding generation. We should remember the love and generosity of Sei Yee's parents, the late Mr & Mrs Wong Hock Ting. We should remember the love and sacrifices made by Uncle Paul's parents, the late Mr & Mrs Joseph Chang, to give him, his brother and his sister a good education, and a stable and loving family life.
Finally, on behalf of everyone present, I extend to Sei Yee and Uncle Paul our heartiest congratulations, good wishes and prayers for many, many more happy years together.
I now call upon René, their eldest son, to propose a toast to his parents.
Stephen Chang