Literary Pursuits

At Raffles Institution we were introduced to a myriad of literary writings. In Secondary One for our English Language text, we were introduced to 'All Men Are Brothers'. It is a portrait of Albert Schweitzer and his medical missionary work in Lamberene in French Equatorial Africa. Chen Wen kept the textbook all these years (see picture). In those days the covers of our textbook were non-discreet and dull but the stories inside can be quite fascinating. Imagine we were 'kampong' boys coming from neighbourhood primary schools, now told to study a Nobel Prize Laurette of 1952. It immediately trusted us into a different world that can be explored just by reading books. 

Chen Wen remembered that in Sec 1, the books we studied included A Time of Darkness, The Adventures of Hang Tuah and Outstanding Short Stories. In a Time of darkness there was a spooky character named KL Fong. Chen Wen teased Cheong Moon Foo by calling him KL Cheong. Lee Dan Lin added salt and pepper by calling him Cheong Kim Long. The Adventures of Hang Tuah  introduced us to Melaka's history and legends with the likes of Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi and the Bendahara. In Outstanding Short Stories there was 'The Courtship of Susan Bell'. Mr Sundram, the Form Teacher asked someone to read the text. Luck Thong kept raising his hands to read to which Mr Sundram asked him to but kept him reading until the end of the short story almost as punishment. Nevertheless Luck Thong enjoyed the reading. 

In Secondary Two we studied 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell for literature and we were introduced into the Orwellian world and critique of political realities. Most memorable is the song Beast of England, Beast of Ireland sung to the tune of 'O My Darling Clementine.' For our class in Sec 2A, Animal Farm beget nicknames which we gave to our fellow classmates. Napoleon was the nickname for the late Cheong Moon Foo our class monitor. Squealer was given to Lionel Lee who was a constant companion of Moon Foo, both from the same Primary School and 'kampong' of  Lorong Tai Seng. Boxer is the nickname given to Lim Kin Chew who was our strongman of the class, a stoic and judo exponent. These nickname stuck to us through most of our school years. 

Other books we studied in Sec 2 were Laughter from the past and the Poet's Window. Another book was 'A Time of Darkness.' These are quaint books indeed. Lionel tried to locate them today but to no avail. Fortunately Chen Wen still possess them.

Another obscure literature book we studied in Sec 4 was the 'The Adventure Story' a play on Alexander the Great written by Terence Rattigan. We examined the change to Alexander the Great, from a military adventurist to a world despot, and studied the underlying psychology of world dominance and superpower.

From The Golden Treasury of Longer Poems we were introduced to poets like John Keats, Shelley and William Wordsworth's ''Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey' by William Wordsworth. To this day Lionel claimed he could recite these poems by heart like " I have  learnt to look upon nature, not as in the hours of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity..." The Chrysalids by John Wyndham was very interesting and it introduced us to a post-apocalypse world perhaps after a nuclear holocaust and the children were mutants with telepathic abilities. Raj and Tahale remembered the girl with six toes in the book. 

We studied short stories like 'The Old Man and the Sea' by Earnest Hemingway, 'The Nun's Priest Tale' and the Diamond Necklace. Some of these were introduced to us by the expat teachers from the British VSO (Voluntary Service Organisation) and the USA Peace Corps. These were the likes of  Kathleen Edith, Christine Laird, Elizabeth Philips and Elizabeth Brock. They distributed cyclostyled sheets of these literary pieces.

Lionel Lee fondly remembered the poems taught to us by a American Lady, Robert Frost's 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' and 'The Road Less Travelled'. The British teachers introduced the memorable 'Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey' by William Wordsworth. To this day Lionel claimed he could recite these poems by heart.

While the school literature programme in Raffles Institution was very interesting, the teaching however were not all inspiring especially by the local teachers. In Sec 2A, literature lessons was executed by making us stand up one by one to read passages off the text without much exposition by the the teacher. Those lessons were dull. The School however tried to ensure we do well in O level in Literature by having us study the Shakespearean play 'Julius Caesar' over two years Sec 3 and 4. 

Submitted by Chen Wen and Lionel