No Bed of Roses , livre ebook

Marshall Cavendish International - Cecil Rajendra

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122 pages

English

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Rose Chan, "Queen of Striptease" at just 27 years old, enthralled men young and old in the heyday of cabaret in 1950s Malaya. Her accidental shot to fame, thanks to a wardrobe malfunction in which her bra snapped, catapulted her into the limelight.In No Bed of Roses, Cecil Rajendra pens an account of her life - her childhood in Soochow, China, and then in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, her five marriages and personal struggles, how she circumvented the colonial decency laws that forbade nudity, and finally her fight with cancer that took her life in 1987 at the age of 62.

Sujets

Lettres et linguistique

Malasia

Malaysia

Malaisie

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Publié par	Marshall Cavendish International
Date de parution	05 juin 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789814484640
Langue	English

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Copyright 2013 Cecil Rajendra
Design by Bernard Go Kwang Meng / Cover art by Cover Kitchen Co Ltd
This edition published 2013 by Marshall Cavendish Editions An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Request for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196. Tel: (65) 6213 9300. Fax: (65) 6285 4871. E-mail: genrefsales@sg.marshallcavendish.com Website: www.marshallcavendish.com/genref
The publisher makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this book, and specifically disclaims any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Other Marshall Cavendish Offices Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 10591-9001, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd. 253 Asoke, 12th Floor, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Rajendra, Cecil. No bed of roses : the Rose Chan story / Cecil Rajendra. - Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2013.
pages cm
eISBN : 978 981 4484 64 0
1. Chan, Rose, 1925-1987. 2. Stripteasers - Malaysia - Biography. I. Title. II. Title: Rose Chan story
PN1949.S7 792.7028092 -- dc23 OCN837061203
Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd
This book is dedicated to the memory of Lee Khai Hong a.k.a. Lee Ying - my Sifu /Guru in matters esoteric and subterranean - who first introduced me to Rose Chan and later suggested i write her story.
Thanks are also due to Rebecca who worked tirelessly to decipher my longhand taugeh scrawl and knock the handwritten manuscript into shape.
And finally to Christine Chong, without whose prompting and prodding this story might never have seen print.
CONTENTS

PREFACE
CHAPTER ONE Early days in China from Soochow to Singapore to Kuala Lumpur lessons from childhood cooking, schooling and making money!
CHAPTER TWO Wrestling with pythons wardrobe mishap at the Majestic goes topless a striptease star is born!
CHAPTER THREE The other Rose Chan master chef and charity queen fundraising dinner marriage to Nazier Rosminah s bedroom secrets!
ROSE S RISQUE RECIPES
CHAPTER FOUR Bride at 16 Japanese Occupation husband s rejection dance hostess at the Happy World how she stole her name from Taxi-Dancer Chan-Chang to Queen of the Dance Rose Chan
CHAPTER FIVE Strippers and statutes court battles in Australia and Singapore finding legal loopholes post-war permissiveness and post-colonial prohibition revisited
PHOTOGRAPHS
CHAPTER SIX Deathwatch in Butterworth why she chose Penang as her last post SAKURA and a second lease of life Tiger Show at the Tin Miners Club everything revealed!
MILESTONES: 1925-1987
APPENDIX Aphrodisiacs, arcana and accessories more Rose Chan recipes that song
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PREFACE

Late one Monday afternoon, in the middle of preparing an affidavit, there was a knock on my office door...
Peeved at being interrupted, Enter! i barked.
The door opened slightly and in popped Lee Ying s head.
Busy? he inquired, tentative.
Of course i m busy. You can t see, ah?
Sorry, sorry... sheepishly he apologised and was about to withdraw...
Never mind, i said. What s up?
You want to meet Rose Chan, ah?
It was so out of the blue i was taken completely aback...
Meet who?
Rose Chan lah, the dancer... you doan know, ah?
You mean the real Rose Chan... don t joke!
No joking, real Rose, one hunnert per cent... swear! You wan to meet or not?
Now Lee Ying was known as a bit of a joker... in Chinese business circles. He was also something of a legend among Chinese newsmen for being a fearless journalist during the British administration of Malaya. Rumour had it that he was forced to flee to China in the 50 s because of his fierce anti-colonial stance!
Now in the 80 s he had re-invented himself as a sharp, bush-jacketed housing developer. Our office was handling the legal paperwork of his building projects and he was first introduced to me as a good, honest client .
Later, as i got to know him better, i realised that he was not just a good client but a unique personality - well-read, politically savvy, generous to a fault and gifted with a wicked sense of humour. i never could tell when he was sharing a morsel of confidential information or having me on.
Where? When? i stammered, still in a state of shock.
Lee consulted his watch. Now lah, in ten minutes... Rose arrive from KL this morning... stay in small hotel in Chulia Street... ask me to meet her. You can come or not? he clipped.
i hastily packed my brief, informed my burly turbaned chief clerk that i had some urgent business to attend to with Mr Lee, and rushed out of the office. In ten minutes we were knocking on the door of Rose s hotel room; the hotel was no more than a three-minute drive from our law offices in Penang Street. Waiting for Rose to answer her door, i did not know what to expect...
Rose Chan had been part of my schoolboy fantasies for decades, but i had never got to see any of her shows . In the 50 s, a group of us tried to sneak in while she was performing at the New World Amusement Park but were caught and thrown out by the jaga (security guard).
Shortly afterwards, i left to further my studies in Singapore and thence to London.
After my long sojourn abroad, i returned to find that Rose had long retired from the stage. Thus, the chance of ever seeing her perform live had been lost.
Now standing with Lee Ying before her door, my subconscious was half-expecting an approximation of the delicious Rose Chan of amusement park billboards, newspaper photographs and teenage fantasies.
Imagine then my horror when the door opened to disgorge this podgy, puce-faced, haggard, middle-aged woman. Rose Chan?! Definitely, Lee Ying was kidding... one hundred per cent!
Lee and Rose embraced like two long-lost friends, then started nattering away at the breakneck speed of two steam engines.
i was totally ignored.
After ten minutes of loud animated talk that sounded more like an argument, Rose bellowed something that sounded like You doan believe me! You doan believe me... Nah! and opened her blouse to reveal that her left breast had been removed leaving an ugly network of scar tissue.
We were still standing in the hotel corridor, stupefied. Cooly re-buttoning her blouse, Rose noticed my presence for the first time. Who s he? Rose asked Lee. Lee reverted to English, You say you wan see loyah, i bring for sister good loyah.
Rose muttered something about me being too young and then the two were back on track chugging and chattering away.
On our way back, we stopped at Lee s printing press in China Street where he brought me up to scratch over a glass of Guinness.
He says Rose tells him she is dying. She has second stage cancer and has been given six to eighteen months to live by her doctor.
She has come to Penang to set her affairs in order. She has a bit of property and jewellery she wants to distribute to her children before she dies. She does not want to leave a will in case they start quarrelling after her death. That s why she is looking for a lawyer. Lee asks me if i can help; he will pay for all necessary expenses.
The job is a doddle and i agree. No need for legal fees, i add, he can reimburse me in Guinness. Lee laughs and says that it may prove to be more costly than a regular bill, but we shake on it.
Within two weeks all the papers are signed, sealed and delivered to everyone s satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Lee has been working on Rose s flagging spirits. He informs me that he has guaranteed her that she won t die so fast and convinced her to go into business with him like in the old days. Lee whispers that for a while in the 50 s he was Rose s stage manager.
They had some great times and some great shows, and though it was the 80 s now Lee was cocksure the Rose Chan cachet still had great pulling power.
Rose, Lee said, with the backing of himself and his Chinese Town Hall associates, would open a one-stop recreation centre comprising a pub, a hairdressing saloon and a health club i.e. massage parlour.
Lee inquired if our office could assist in their applications for business and liquor licences.
But even before our office could submit the applications, SAKURA the recreation centre was declared open for business. The official opening was abuzz with journalists, merchants, developers, businessmen, triad members and high-ranking police officers.
People from such diverse walks in life who had little in common other than being in the thrall of Rose Chan s charisma.
Meanwhile the Queen had transformed herself from the downcast, bloated, middle-aged woman we first met at that Chulia Street hotel to a glamorous bubbly hostess complete with an expensive wig and a glittering sequined cheongsam.
She moved around the room, besieged by a phalanx of photographers and journalists, greeting and toasting each of her guests.
There was a lot of talk about a film, so i asked Lee what the fuss was all about.
He said that Rose was negotiating to sell the film rights of her life story; she was also talking to some local and American publishers about her biography. The next time Rose pa