Miriam
Yeung Caned By Father
An Interview With
Miriam Yeung, 31,08,2002 - www.miriamyeung-sg.com
Miriam
was mischievous during her childhood and often received canes
from her father. The most naughty incident was she swooped her
father's Mahjong tiles, nearly caused him to be mistaken for
cheating. Now that she has grown up, she finally understood the
reasons for her parents' strict punishment that time.
I come from a
typical small family. Life was a bit hard during childhood.
Parents had to work outside. Father is a teacher, have been
teaching in a school for 35 years. Mother is working in the
banking industry, also worked in a bank for 30 years. Therefore,
when me and my siblings were young, we were very well-behaved.
Learn dancing to become a fair lady
Last time my family was living in a rented place. I already
understood since young that one must make every effort to succeed
and not choose the wrong path or do wrong things. Especially it
was costly to go schooling last time, so I must buck up in order
to pass the examinations. However my parents still wanted me to
go learn ballet and oil painting as they felt this will make me a
fair lady. Actually I didn't like it inside my heart. It's very
painful to do the pulling veins exercises everyday for ballet.
My dad didn't allow me to watch television when I was young.
He'll off the main power switch whenever he left the house. I'll
be squatting behind the house's door gates. My dad thought I was
good, took the initiative to watch the door for the house. Later
then he found out that I was peeping the neighbour's television.
In the end I was punished by standing at the back staircase for
half an hour, plus 2 strokes of cane.
Gratitude for Parent's teachings
Father had two sets of Mahjong tiles. One set purple and one set
green. One day my sister and me were piling up with the two sets
of tiles, after playing we packed them back in a hurry. When my
dad came home, he opened table to play Mahjong with his friends.
He was playing with the green set. But when he was winning, he
discovered a purple tile among the set. My sister and I had mixed
up the tiles. My dad was very angry and said, "naughty girl!
My friends thought I played cheat, made me lose face!" And
of course, I couldn't escape the pain of caning.
I'm born with the characters of a boy, mischievous but not bad.
Thinking back now, my parents teachings and training were all for
my own good, therefore I'm really grateful to them.