http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2011/9/28/lifefocus/9460776&sec=lifefocus Mind Our EnglishWednesday September 28, 2011 A man of his timeBy ROUWEN LIN [email protected]Having lived through wars and peace, a nanogenarian believes every one can be useful. One just has to grab the chance to do so. WHEN Japanese enemy planes circled the sky and dropped bombs on China‟s wartime capital of Chungking in the summer of 1940, Samuel Kam, at that time a government official, sought refuge in an air raid shelter with 60 colleagues. When incendiary bombs destroyed the shelter, Kam, then 25, found himself assigned to yet another shelter, the same one as some of the top-ranking officials in the Chinese army. And if you think it is just in period war films that grim and gaunt war generals recite Tang dynasty poetry while waiting out the bombardments, think again. Engineer in charge: ‘I never imagined that I would be an author,’ says Samuel Kam, 96, who wrote Through Wars And Peace.I recently had a long chat with Kam, now 96, at his home in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. He tells me that his eyesight is not as good as it used to be and he walks with small, careful steps with the aid of a walking stick. But when he talks, he maintains a consistent pace, breaks into laughter easily, and expresses his thoughts with an eloquence that men half his age would envy. “I am very busy every day. I have a secretary come in to help me do some necessary things. There could be numerous phone calls to and from friends and families here and abroad, as well as friends dropping by for a visit. Of course, in old age, you don‟t have the speed that you want to
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“It is a healthier alternative to coconut oil. Once the country began to know the value of palm oil,
the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia (Porim) was set up to carry out research in this
industry. I was one of the advisors for the research programme. Malaysia took a wise step in
getting all kinds of oil experts from America, England, Holland. Palm oil is now one of the biggest
pillars of the Malaysian economy.”
He retired from Lam Soon in 1982, at the age of 67, but stayed on as one of its directors until up
to about five years ago.
East and West
The eldest son and second oldest of six children, Kam grew up in what he describes as a close-
knit “typical Confucian family”.
“My mother was a very gentle woman and treated everyone very well. My father was a Confucian
scholar and magistrate of two counties. At that time, to get ahead in life, you had to pass your
examinations. He got the best private tutors for me and at a young age, I had to memorise and
recite Confucian analects and the writings of Mencius for six to eight hours every day.
“At that time I didn‟t even know what they meant, but because I was young, the memories are
vivid and even today I am still able to recite what I learned as a boy.”
After an education in Chinese classics, he went on to a Chinese primary school where he was
given a firm grounding in Chinese historical readings. Then his father, convinced of the
importance of English in westernised Hong Kong, enrolled him first in the English-medium Wah
Yan College, followed by King‟s College.
“My father decided that I should be well-versed in the English language so I went to these two
secondary schools, the best in Hong Kong at that time. The teachers at the senior classes at
King‟s College were all from Britain and graduates from Oxford, Cambridge, London University.
So basically I got a very good English education also.”
Kam was then awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious University of Hong Kong, but his
father continued to arrange for private tutoring in Chinese literature, foreseeing the possibility of
his eventually taking up a job on the Mainland.
“The university is ranked among the best in the world and even back then was very expensive. If
I didn‟t to get that scholarship, I don‟t think my father could have afforded to send me there,” says
Kam, adding that Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics were his favourite subjects in secondary
school.
He reminisces that his life would probably have turned out very different if he hadn‟t gone to the
University of Hong Kong because he would have likely pursued his education in mainland China.
The combination of a Chinese and English education has served him very well in his life and
Kam says that he owes eternal gratitude to his father for having the foresight to provide him withan education that straddled the best of east and west.