BUKIT MERTAJAM: Chinese New Year is a time for family gatherings and feasting to usher in the new lunar year, but for Yong Hong Cheng, it is just another day.
The 71-year-old man spends the day alone in at his wooden shack at in Kampung Sungai Lembu here. As usual, he eats plain white rice.
“I never married. After my parents died, my relatives and I grew estranged and now I have lost contact with them. So, I have been spending Chinese New Year alone,” the former rubber tapper told the New Straits Times, while sitting on a wooden stool beside a small table in his earthern - floored shack.
The brown shack has a few old and worn out furniture. The only electrical items were a rice cooker, a tube light and a wall-mounted fan.
These items, which also appeared worn out, were donated to him recently, after Penanti assemblyman Dr Norlela Ariffin managed to arrange for electricity connection for the house.
Yong, who was dressed in a pale green threadbare shorts, said his Chinese New Year’s meal was just a bowl of plain white rice.
“Sometimes, when I have money, I buy some vegetable or meat dishes. Sometimes, , or some of my neighbours give me some of their left over food.
“However, usually mostly it is a meal of plain white rice for me, especially on Chinese New Year’s day, as most of the shops around my house are closed and my neighbours are busy with their families. So, I just eat plain rice that I cook with the rice cooker,” he said.
Yong said living in such absolute poverty was hard, but more than that, it was the loneliness that gets really unbearable at times, especially during festivals or when he is sick.
“Those are the times when the reality of my situation really hits me,” he said, as he prepared some rice to cook.
Nearby, Tan Ah Yeng, 79, and Eng Kim Lian, 72, the parents of two children and grandparents of five, were are also spending the Chinese New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year alone.
“One of our daughters lives in Sarawak and the other lives in Johor.
“They cannot come and visit us since it's too far away, and my wife and I cannot visit them because we cannot walk for long,” Tan said when met at their wooden house.
Eng, who was hunched bent due to back pain, said she would be frying beehoon (noodles) with just spring onions over their old wood fire stove.
“We will eat the beehoon with some steamed chicken and roasted pork that our neighbours gave us” she said.
The couple, who used to work as rubber tappers, said they hoped their children and grandchildren would visit them soon.