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Frog under A Coconut Shell

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The Frog under a Coconut Shell

This is a celebration of the love between Soon Neo, a newly-poor village woman and her first surviving daughter. Soon Neo wants all her children and especially this daughter, Phine, to be educated. She does not want them to be like frogs under coconut shells, with no understanding of the world outside their own narrow environment. The early struggles of this gracious, gifted woman are made more moving by her final unwilling retreat under the `coconut shell' of Alzheimer's disease.

This book describes an extended family coping over vast distances with the traditional problems of aging parents and hostility between step-relatives. It also gives an interesting insight into the culture of the Straits Chinese or Peranankan people: A Chinese group who incorporate many Malay customs into their culture.

The book is dedicated to those whose loved ones have Alzheimer's. It is also a good companion for those remembering the humiliations of childhood poverty and definitely a fascinating read for those wanting to know about life in South-East Asia in the 1950s and 60s.

Josephine Chia's book `Frog under a coconut shell' is a wonderful book. This book is indeed a tribute to her mother's courage, vision, and perseverance under daunting circumstances. She writes that she is her mother's hope and dreams and the readers of this book will agree that she has fulfilled her mother's dreams.

I have been living here, in Singapore, for the past 27 years and yet it is fascinating to read about Josephine's account of her life and experiences in Singapore during the 1950s and 1960s. There's no doubt Josephine is a master storyteller. She glides smoothly from one decade to another with amazing ease. Her superb skill in describing places and events is evident throughout the book. She tells the story in a captivating manner in her unique voice. It is a very interesting, informative, and touching book. Every good book is supposed to leave a lasting impression on reader's mind and this book does it beautifully.

The book is a tribute to a mother, who had the foresight, despite her own limited circumstances, to see that only eduction could offer her daughter the chance to escape from the confinement of village life in Singapore in the60s. Her conviction is so strong that she defies her husband, who believes that educating women is a waste if rice money.
The book therefore is a journey. For the daughter and her siblings it is a journey from poverty to being well off. For the mother it is a journey from fighting for her children to the sadness of Alzheimer.
It is obvious that it is a book written from the heart and the special relationship that exists between the eldest surviving daughter and her mother is wonderful to read. Although Ms Chia writes very honestly about the ravages of Alzheimer, the book is never depressing. Instead the reader encounters love, hope and the determination to overcome all difficulties, whatever the hardships on the way.
At the same time Ms Chia paints a picture of a Singapore that few Europeans will have encountered, even if they happened to be there at that time. It is a lifestyle lost forever but all the more worth recording.

This book is about an enduring love between the author, who was born in Singapore but who now lives much of the time in England, and her mother. The author cleverly combines a social history of Singapore in the 1950's and 1960's with a story about her own childhood community and its impoverished conditions. She emphasizes the forward thinking by her mother who, despite her own lack of education, poverty and family pressures, fought for her children to have a good education. Many years later, her mother becomes incapacitated by Alzheimer's disease and this decline is well documented by the author. I found this book to be very interesting and despite a few irrelevancies it was well written and informative both about Singaporean life and the problems of the disease.

Josephine Chia's book is a joy to read. It brings back to me, a septuagenarian born and bred in Singapore, fond memories of days gone by. Chia accurately depicts life in Singapore in the 50s and 60s. Nuggets of Peranakan patois, strewn in the pages, remind me of my Peranakan background. In the book, Chia pays tribute to her mother, whose love and courage changed the life of her daughter forever. For Asians and non-Asians alike, who are interested to know more about the way of life of the Peranakans in Singapore in those halcyon days, this is indeed a must-read book.

Ms. Chia's book is not only a tribute to her mother but also a tribute to the human spirit. This true story is of an apparently ordinary woman who lived through the transision period from a totaly male dominated society to the present day. From the time when women were not regarded as worthy of education and were expected to obey their husbands in all things. From the time when it was a woman's lot to be almost continually pregnant and when physical abuse was not abnormal.

The story is told against the background of the Japanese occupation of Singapore and a life of extreme poverty.

Her mother's realisation that the only hope for her children, particularly the girls, lay in their receiving an education shows a degree of perception that must have been unusual in a simple woman living on a kampong when daily survival was a challenge in itself. That this lady not only had the vision but also the determination and tenacity to achieve her ambitions for her children makes one wonder what she might have achieved had she been born in a more priviliged society.

In her old age we see an old lady in a frail body and suffering from Altzheimers disease but we still see her as a dignified and determined woman with spirit.

Ms. Chia's masterly use of language enables her to captivate the reader without resorting to over dramatisation of the events.

A book that will change your life.

If you think Singapore is a high-tech, soul-less city then just read this book. It's a wonderful tapestry of Singapore past and present, poor and rich. It explains so much about the growth of this small country from the personal and poignant perspective of a woman born into poverty and fighting her way out from 'under the coconut shell' to discover a wide world which she shares with her mother through her stories. The sad part is that now her mother has alzheimer's disease the author can no longer share her life, hence this book. In it she has to find her mother in the past for now her mother is seeing the world from 'under a coconut shell'.

I learned a great deal about Singapore Peranakan culture almost in passing while she opened up the inner workings of a Chinese family. This I appreciate as I am married to a Chinese and a few of my queries were explained at long last. At times the author is so brutally honest I wondered if some of her relatives would ever speak to her again. I think this shows the influence of her English husband and almost 20 years living in the UK. I enjoyed this blend of East and West very much.

Her mother's deterioration is described as a 'long funeral' and I found myself deeply moved by this aspect of the book. I think the author does a good job painting a picture of her young, vibrant mother and then overlaying that with the current reality of a mother whose mind has been lost to alzheimer's and who no longer recongises her own children. I loved the way Josephine Chia weaved her way through her mother's early life, her own early life and the present day so that in one chapter you'd go from 1930s to 1950s to 2001. If there is a negative side I would have to say that occasionally this technique created some confusion, but overall I think it worked well.

This is a very readable book. It's one of those books that is so easy to read you almost don't realise how much you're learning and how much soul went into the writing. Definitely a must-read if you want to know the Singaporean heart.