Her Nice Neighbor Was a Niece

Madam Zhang Qunyou, 68, was given up for adoption three days after her birth in Malaysia. She tried for twenty years to find her birth family, without success. She moved to Singapore last year to live with her daughter, and in June met a neighbor who lived one floor below—Madam Hon Sek Yin.

She began relating her life story to Madam Hon, 48.

As Madam Hon listened, she felt a keen sense of deja vu.

The vegetable wholesaler said: 'I had heard that story before - but it was from my maternal grandmother.'

Madam Zhang also reminded Madam Hon strongly of her grandmother and her mother.

Said Madam Hon, who has a pair of 26-year-old twin daughters: 'I could not help wondering if Madam Zhang was my mother's long-lost sister.' [Link]

Madam Zhang was indeed the woman's aunt. A few days later, she was introduced to her 90-year-old birth mother.

She Didn't Look a Day Over 1.5 Million

According to her death certificate, a woman in Malaysia was 1,996,964 years old when she died in 1998.

An entry for the Guinness Book? Not quite.

The Ipoh woman was actually 39 at the time of her death, but a 'technical error' resulted in the entry on her certificate, reported Malaysian daily China Press. [Link]

He's Been Waiting to Use the Toilet Since Birth

The National Registration Department in Kuala Lumpur has compiled "a list of unusual names to prevent embarrassing situations." It's too late for some, like Datuk See Ah Kow, whose name can mean "dog" in Cantonese.

Then, there is Selangor executive councillor Datuk Tang See Hang, whose name may sound like "waiting to use the toilet" in Cantonese.

The affable 54-year-old is quick to brush the unpleasant translation aside, saying "see" or "sze" in Mandarin meant a poet.

He said "hang" meant hero.

"So you see, my name is actually very meaningful and I have not encountered difficulties with it," he said. [Link]

A Sultan in His Own Mind?

From The (Malaysia) Star of Nov. 16, 2005:

Man claims Malacca ‘throne’

BY SYED AZHAR

KUALA LUMPUR: A 48-year-old man who proclaimed himself the Sultan of Malacca at a so-called investiture ceremony here on Monday night is willing to take the matter to court to stake his claim to the state’s “throne”.

Raja Noor Jan Shah Raja Tuah has evidence, and the regal artefacts, to prove the claim, said Azri Safian, who identified himself as the alleged ruler’s organising secretary.

[snip]

Azri said Raja Noor Jan had claimed he was a descendant of the last known Sultan of Malacca, Sultan Mahmud Shah (1488-1511).

[snip]

“The sultan received some signs from his ancestors on the whereabouts of the regalia and, with the help of a pawang (traditional soothsayer) the artefacts were dug up from a place in Malacca,” he said.

[Read the whole story]