Neighbours: a Google Meet with UiTM—Penang

In every classroom, whether you are teacher or a student or an invited guest as I was yesterday, everyone should learn something.  I learned one new skill, how to Google Meet, and two new words, membawang and kay poh chee!

I was invited by Nazima Versay Kudus into her on-line classroom, Integrated Language Skills II, at Universiti Teknologi MARA or UiTM—Penang (Bertam campus) via Google Meet to answer questions about my short story “Neighbours”, from my collection Lovers and Strangers Revisited, which they were studying.  The sixty students were from the Faculty of Health Sciences.

This was my first time on Google Meet or any on-line forum during this Covid-19 MCO (Malaysian movement control order).  In 2012 I did speak to students from Ohio University via Skype for their class on Exploring Malaysia’s Diversity through Film and Fiction, answering questions about two other stories from the same collection, “Only in Malay­sia” and “Home for Hari Raya”.  “Home for Hari Rara” was later filmed by Ohio University students who came all the way to Malaysia. 

Two years earlier, in 2010, I did meet with Christina Chan and a dozen of her students from SMK (P) Sri Aman, Petaling Jeya, who were also teaching “Neighbours”, at the Popular Bookfest.  Later they adapted the story into play.  

Membawang, by the way, is a Malaysian slang for gossiping…like peeling layers of an onion, getting to the core of the truth, perhaps….Kay poh chee is a busybody.  Both words are appropriate for “Neighbours” a story about a bunch of neighbors gossiping about the suicide of Johnny Leong.  Mrs. Koh, who was once featured in a New Straits Times article, “Are You Mrs. Koh?” is your typical kay poh chee—a know-it-all busybody!

The students and I first talked about the neighborhood, how it was not typical of Malaysia for most Malay­sians.  Having lived in a new housing area that had recently opened to all Malaysians, I was given a unique perspective of Malaysia.  Over time, as I found out, new neigh­borhoods start to skew in one direction or another.  As more of one race move in, others start moving out.  Even­tually, it became a “Malay” area long after I moved away to a “Chinese” area closer to where I was teaching at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang.

Had I lived in a predominantly Malay neighborhood or a Chinese one or even an Indian one, my perspective of Malaysia would have been totally different...as it is now that I'm living in Sarawak!  Fortunately, being new to Malaysia, I was not biased against one race or another.  I judged them as I saw them, as we interacted—they were my neighbors!

The question-and-answer session lasted one hour and the first two questions were, “Is the story real?”  “Did it really take place?” I briefly talked about my neighbor committing suicide and my personal involvement and the choices I had to make, as I had written about in an earlier blog and later reprinted in Tropical Affairs: Episodes from an Expat’s Life in Malaysia.

Several questions veered away from the story, about writing in general, how to overcome writing slumps, what books I would recommend, what project am I working on now, and even how to be a good neighbor, but I would steer the conversation back to the story by pointing out aspects of “Neighbours” that they may have overlooked.  I kept several questions handy just in case…like how did they interpret the story or what conclusions could they draw about the neighbors?  (They really didn’t know each other very well.)  How would someone who had never been to Malaysia perceive Malaysia, based on the story?  (It’s multi-racial and the various races appeared to mix freely.)

What is the relevance of each character and what are their main concerns?  Each character was, in fact, selfish in his own ways, concerned about their own ‘loss’ if the family moved away.  The dentist would lose two more clients, the teacher would lose her ‘best’ student…

When I asked about Koh’s main concern, they merely compared him to his wife, so he seemed ok, but as an insurance salesman, he was upset that, if Johnny had bought life insurance, he didn’t buy it from him!  He had asked Johnny several times!

I asked them, what was the significance of that last line by Mrs. Koh, when Tan asked “Who’s going to tell Veronica?” and she replied, “Not me! It’s none of my business!”

This was after she had made it very much her business, making sure that each neighbor, as they joined the group, knew exactly what had happened (according to her), why it had happened (according to her), and what was wrong with each member of that family (according to her)!  She had even insisted that Veronica was out gam­bling or spending all of her money on her daughter!

Later, one student asked, “Did Veronica actually go gambling or shopping?”  In­stead of giving the answer, I asked, “What does the evidence say?”  Initially the student replied there was no evidence, but when I asked, “What were Veronica and her daughter Lily carrying at the end of the story?”  Another student replied, “Shopping bags!”  So, I asked, based on the evidence, did she go gambling or shopping?  I wanted them to think!  To look for clues in the stories that they read and draw their own conclusions.

Another question was, “Why did he kill himself (in the story) and also in real life?”  So, I speculated over the financial implications, the fact that he sold his motorcycle and walked home.  I also talked about how easy it is for someone to slip into depression when their world suddenly falls apart and drew parallels to the on-going Covid-19 virus, of people losing their jobs and finding themselves unable to pay their bills or to provide for their families.  Unable to find a solution, they take the easy way out—easy for them, but painful for their survivors!

I also mentioned that, if they ever get into a difficult situation, that they should always look for a solution, to focus on the good aspects of life not just their current ‘bad’ situation, and that they are stronger than they think, and to never to give up!  At times, we all need encouragement...

One of the last questions was “Did any of them tell Veronica?” and “Why did you stop the story short and not wait for Veronica to arrive?”  I explained that the real story was about the neighbors themselves, their actions and their harsh words that reflected more on them than on Johnny’s suicide.  And based on all of their excuses and their scattering before Veronica arrived, it left only Tan, the conscience of the story, to do the right thing.  In the ‘real’ story, that fell to me, the newest neighbor, the foreigner, the white guy, who had to tell Johnny’s wife and daughter what had happened to Johnny.

When the hour was up, we said our goodbyes.  Hopefully all of them came away with a deep­er appreciation for the story and for the opportunity to pose questions to the author who had written it.  (I would have loved to have that opportunity as a student!)  I know I appreciated the opportunity of my being asked and sharing my insights on writing and on life itself, especially during this historic event that we are still in the midst of, not knowing how it will all turn out or how our families will be affected (including my own in America).

We can only keep our fingers crossed (or whatever Malaysians do for good luck) and hope that our neighbors remain healthy and safe (if not, they may infect us) and that they are not wasting their time gossiping about each other….The last thing we need during Covid-19 is another kay poh chee!  One Mrs. Koh is quite enough!

     —Borneo Expat Writer

Neighbors: A Suicide and Making Choices or How to Turn Your Story into the Right Story

I learned firsthand when my neighbor committed suicide (the neighbor who inspired my short story “Neighbours” that featured the gossip Mrs. Koh (“Are You Mrs. Koh?”):  When someone dies, people will ask how did they die?  When someone commits suicide, people will tell you why… 

While reposting the new link to “Neighbours”, I got to thinking why I wrote the original story, why I chose to focus on that aspect of the story and not the whole story.  I first touched upon this in an old blog (later published in Tropical Affairs) that I posted soon after “Neighbors” (using the American spelling) had been accepted for publication in the American literary journal Thema — twenty years after I first wrote the story for a Malaysian contest. The story, from Lovers and Strangers Revisited, was later taught for six years (2008-2014) in SPM literature and in various private colleges and universities throughout Malaysia, and translated into French along with the rest of the collection.

          

This is the updated version of what I wrote:

Writing, I used to tell my students, is about making choices.  If you choose wisely you might surprise yourself with the story you end up with.  For example in “Neighbors”, I could’ve written a nonfiction narrative or a different story starting with my hearing some groans coming from my neighbor’s house, two doors away.  When I investigated, I found an elderly Chinese man lying helpless on the couch.  His door was locked, yet in between moaning he managed to tell me that the keys were by the sink, which I was able to obtain by reaching through the grille at the kitchen window.  With the help of another Chinese neighbor (whose wife was pregnant and very upset that he was getting involved), we took him to the General Hospital.

I could’ve written about the hospital’s reaction to me, a young white man attending to this elderly Chinese man who was dying, their giving me strange looks as I wrote in my journal, trying to get all the details and my impressions while they were still fresh — the writer part of me at work; and then my anger at the doctors and nurses who seemed indifferent about my neighbor’s plight.  He was dying and no one wanted to help!

Since the doctors didn’t know what poison he had taken, I volunteered to go back to his house. Although I often chatted with this neighbor across the gate or his fence, I had never ventured inside his house.  I could’ve written about the eerie feeling I had wandering inside this empty house where a man had just tried to kill himself.  Upstairs I located two glasses of beer and some green liquid, which I took to the hospital.

Since this was in the mid-80s before CSI, the doctors wanted me to go back to the house once more to find out what the green stuff was.  So back I went and eventually found, hidden behind a partition, a bottle of the weed killer, Paraquat. By then there was nothing the doctors could do, so I stayed with this man for several hours at the hospital, while we tried, without success, to contact his family.  I didn’t want him to die alone like another expat that I wrote about who had died alone in a faraway land.

I could’ve written about my attending the three-day Chinese (Teochew) funeral held outside their house, which was very lively and noisy and attracted a lot of attention from the other Chinese neighbors.  When it was over, I was invited back to the house and given a gift, a token of appreciation for what I had done for this family.

The family, however, refused to live in the house anymore because of this suicide.  Months later, another family had moved in, but they kept hearing mysterious noises — like someone walking around upstairs in the master bedroom — and it was scaring the children.  The family didn’t know about the suicide until after they had decided to leave.  Malaysians, particularly the Chinese, take ghosts and spirits very seriously.

None of this mattered to the story that I wanted to write.  For me the story began when I returned from the hospital to the man’s house and found several neighbors gossiping.

I was fascinated by all of the comments the neighbors made, the wild speculations about the family and why the man had taken his life.  Some of the things they had said were mean and spiteful.  Later, when the man’s wife and daughter returned home, the neighbors quickly dispersed; they refused to inform them about the man’s death.  Even though I was the newest neighbor and an expat, I had to bear the bad tidings alone.

This was the story that fascinated me.  The story I wanted to tell was not a first person narrative of my finding this man and all that took place that day (although I could still write about it since it’s in my journal as either non-fiction or incorporate it into another story or as part of a novel — it’s all there to be used, grist for the mill as writers often say). 

Instead, I chose to write about the neighbors them­selves and what they said about this family in the aftermath of the suicide.  In fact ‘Aftermath’ was the original title when it was first published in Singapore and Australia and in Lovers and Strangers (Heinemann Asia, 1993).  Again thanks to my journal, all the details were there, still fresh, including those that had completely slipped my memory after several years had already passed, one of the reasons I urged my writing students to keep a diary/journal.

Another choice I made was to leave me, as a character, out of the story.  I felt it would be better without a Westerner or a mat salleh in it.  I wanted the dialogue to be natural, spontaneous, and an expat present would alter the dynamics of the group, including the dialogue.  Also I wanted to shift the sympathy to this man and his family — even after hearing many bad things about them.  

I purposely wrote the story in a neutral tone with the viewpoint of an observer, to avoid racial bias, so no one race in this multi-racial society is talking down to another. Yet, at the same time, all Malaysians should be able to identify with these characters.  They could be your very own neighbor or a relative, hopefully distant....I wanted to make the story universal, so readers around the world could relate to the characters and also learn about Malaysia, where different races freely mix and socialize, and yes, gossip.

When writing your story, whether it is based on a true dramatic incident or nor, or whether it is fiction or nonfiction, ask yourself, do you want to write the whole story or just one aspect of that story?  Consider your choices carefully.  I did and thirty years later the story keeps paying off in unforeseen ways.

Then again, it is always hard to keep a good story down, especially when it involves a suicide and neighbors gossiping.  At times, we all love a good gossip.  Just ask Mrs. Koh.

                                                            #  #  #

Later I had blogged about the significant changes that I made in *“Neighbours” that led to its initial publication, and the subsequent revisions for publications overseas and in various book forms (three publishers and a French translation), which I noted in the series The Story Behind the Story, used by teachers as an aide for their students.  MELTA (Malaysia English Language Teaching Association) had even created an on-line discus­sion for “Neighbours” for students and teachers on their literature forum, which had over 20,500 hits and 30 pages of comments about the story and Mrs. Koh before it was archived and later take down.

*The link to the short story “Neighbours”  is the revised version, written in the present tense, after the French translation of Lovers and Strangers Revisited came out.

**Here is link to a recent Google Meet with students at UiTM-Penang during a Q-and-A session about "Neighbours" and the motivation of the various characters and why I ended the story where I did. 

         —Borneo Expat Writer

“Neighbours” Gets Extension for SPM Literature in English through 2014!

“Neighbours” my short story from Lovers and Strangers Revisited and part of the 6^th cycle for SPM Literature in English since 2008, gets another extension and will now be taught through 2014!  If you go to Bastian’s Way, Literature in English – 2008-2014 she has posted the 6th cycle, links to four of the stories, to readings of several of the poems, some plots summaries, and a lot of helpful articles on how to write literature essays.

MELTA used to have a thread on my story “Neighbours” on their SPM Literature in English forum that had over 20,500 hits and 30 pages of comments (around 290) before they archived it.  But now it has disappeared altogether, which is a shame for teachers and students since there were a lot of  insightful views posted there.  I had posted several comments of my own, the author’s perspective, plus some background into writing the story such as The Story Behind the Story and an early version of “Neighbours, A Suicide, and Making Choices” from Tropical Affairs 

In December 2011, I did come across an extensive “Neighbours” character analysis posted by Speech Bubble.  Then there is Denis Harry’s New Strait Times 2010 amusing and insightful comment “Are You Mrs. Koh?” 

In other “Neighbours” news, in January 2012, “Neighbours” appeared as one of 18 “pearls”in the pearl tree of American writers compiled by team Short Story Collection   This was the first I had heard about the content curators Pearltrees, which is worth checking out. Here is their 40 second video. If you click on the “Neighbours by Robert Raymer” pearl it’ll take you directly to the short story.  Plus you can read some of the other short stories posted too, like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” which I used to teach in my creative writing courses.  Unlike in my short story "The Future Barrister" from the same collection, this is a lottery that you don’t want to win!

*Update, the 20th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I