Those Good Old Chan Po Chu Days by Mimi Holam When Chan Po Chu was appearing in person either before or after a show, we would head straight for the theatre just to catch a glimpse of her arriving or departing from the back door. One of my classmates was so happy and on cloud nine after shaking hands with Chan Po Chu that one of her legs plunged into a hole of muddy water as she was in such a daze. This same classmate was also chased round the family dining table with a cane when her mother found out that she went Chan Po Chu gazing instead of staying at school for remedial classes as she had claimed. As for me, I couldn’t sit down for days after I had such a terrible caning from my brother who also found out. Even now whenever I meet up with my former classmates, we still reminisce about those good old Chan Po Chu days. I normally don’t like to watch the same movie more than once at close intervals, yet I watched Mok Fu Ching Choon [Waste Not Our Youth] three times one week after school. I watched every one of her movies, and I especially loved her opera and mohup movies the most. My sister scrimped and saved and bought so many of her photos. Most of the time, we watched her movies without permission from my mother or my brother (who was the head of the family since I lost my father at a young age). If we got caught, they would whack the daylights out of us, and yet we still took the risk. This shows how much we adored Chan Po Chu. When Chan Po Chu came to Singapore to shoot some of her movies in 1968, her fans camped out at all the tourist spots hoping that she and Lui Kay would come there to shoot the movie. My sister was lucky enough to find out from a neighbour that Chan Po Chu was at a nearby Buddhist temple shooting a movie, and she made her way there. When the news leaked further and too many fans showed up, the temple doors were shut with my sister still inside. Poor me! Some of my schoomates and I, along with many other fans, were at a hilltop thinking that we could catch Chan Po Chu there. One male fan even brought along a cassette player and was playing Chan Po Chu songs for all of us to listen to. That was how crazy we were then about Chan Po Chu. When she was invited to Singapore to help promote the sale of a local Chinese daily newspaper, all of her fans bought a copy of the daily in order to cut out a coupon to exchange for a ticket to her performance. There was such a long queue! After I got a ticket, my brother didn’t allow me to attend the performance, as it was near my year-end exams. While my sister got to go, I was stuck at home but couldn’t concentrate on my studies at all. At the theatre there was a stampede, as it was free seating. One of my neighbours who went was badly bruised. Those were the days! I used to go to Chinatown after work on Fridays and buy Cantonese opera records, like the album above with Chan Po Chu and Lee Poh Ying. The Colourful Youth album was given to me by my classmate—the one who was chased round the dining table by her mum. (Images courtesy of Mimi Holam.)