Looking back on an eventful 2025

 

January 2025 kicked off with an art appreciation event at the newly opened Wanawani Art Center that showcased an eclectic collection of art and where artists inspired budding artists by their creations and through live demonstrations.

 

An original piece by my 11-year old
grand-niece, Vivienne Loh, who
lives in Perth, Australia

It was good that my year opened with an experience of art and culture, a place where I met with familiar local talents and discovered new and emerging artists. They have a social media page for a calendar of events that feature various artists and their body of work at this venue.

 

From being surrounded by art and culture, I went on to share culture and heritage in a Heritage Walk that included a Food Trail with friends from Anantara Desaru Coast Resort & Villas, one of the international brand resorts in Desaru Coast.

 

On Heritage Walk with friends from
Anantara Desaru Coast Resort & 
Villas, at Jalan Tan Hiok Nee

All too soon, it was February and the Chinese New Year season was upon us. I had the pleasure to reconnect with a former school friend who was visiting Johor Bahru from Australia and wanted to have her own collection of the trilogy of My Johor Stories books.

 

It was interesting that she and my cousin, Malcolm, were former colleagues at OCBC in Sydney and they introduced My Johor Stories to their former boss, Tan Ngiap Joo (TNJ), now retired and lives in Singapore.

 

When TNJ received my books, we started to chat via WhatsApp and in the course of our chit-chat, mentioned that he was a great-grandson of Mejar Cina Tan Hiok Nee.

 

During Chinese New Year, I received a message from Chris Pocock who was visiting Johor Bahru again from the UK – an annual tradition with his Johorean wife – and who in February 2023, joined my Heritage Walk that featured heritage traders.

 

With Datin Patricia Lim at the Chinese New
Year lunch celebration hosted for JARO

An avid photographer who is keen on culture and heritage, Chris told me that this time, he was not enjoying the annual Johor Chingay on the ground but have booked a hotel stay to experience the street parade with a bird’s eye view.

 

As always, there were invitations to food reviews and celebration gatherings for Chinese New Year, Ramadan and Hari Raya, but I was not able to attend all and had to politely decline some.

 

However, I always tried to be part of the annual celebrations with friends at JARO, the shortform for Johor Area Rehabilitation Organisation, the oldest NGO in Johor Bahru. Their Chinese New Year lunch gathering was where I renewed my acquaintance with the staff, committee members and other partners and supporters of JARO.

 

With some participants from Friends of the
Museum, Singapore, on the Sun Yat Sen Trail

My family and I have a long relationship with JARO and I was pleased to document the JARO story in, My Johor Stories 3: Proudly Johor, Then and Now, among the brands established in Johor and have also been exported abroad.

 

In 2025, the month of March marks the date when my blog, My Johor Stories, was launched some 14 years ago. Mine is a personal blog that started as a space to store my published pieces from the print media and for exclusive stories that readers may enjoy reading at leisure.

 

I am ever grateful for the opportunities that led My Johor Stories to being published in books by MPH – three books – from my 2017 MPH Non-Fiction Bestseller to its sequel in 2018 and the third and final instalment in 2022, after the global pandemic.

 

With the love and support from readers, My Johor Stories popped up again in the MPH Non-Fiction Bestsellers list in August 2022. This really means a lot to me.

 

I first met with a group from Friends of the Museum, Singapore, on their visit to Johor Bahru in March 2024. And when they enquired about the followers of Sun Yat Sen here, I arranged for them to join me on a Heritage Walk to discover the Sun Yat Sen Trail in April 2025.

 

These ladies also wanted to savour some Johor specialties so I tailored our Walk to end with a sumptuous lunch hosted at Sedap Corner, which has a section in their menu dedicated to Johor food.

 

It was also in April when I followed up on a discussion about the celebration and fund-raising plans for the 100-Year Anniversary of our alma mater, the Johor Bahru Convent school.

 

Among the plans for the fund-raising was the publication of a souvenir book to commemorate the event, which would be sold to raise funds that go toward the maintenance projects in the old buildings of the 100-year-old school.

 

Meanwhile it was the last day of March in 2024 when the seed was planted to consider compiling materials for a book to document the history of our church that started in Johor Bahru more than 50 years ago.

 

Fifty years is a long time to cover so work on this book project started furiously as my team and I dug out reference books and old photographs.

 

As I thought about its contents that will make this an interesting and readable book, a decision was made to invite members – past and present – to contribute their own experiences in the assembly that should tell a more personal story of their growth in faith and fellowship.

 

Johor Bahru, as we know, has long been known as border town where people passed through on the way into the neighbouring country. Local people furthered their studies and developed their careers there, while many even chose to settle down across the causeway.

 

And so it was for our assembly where members lived in Johor Bahru and commuted to study or work in the neighbouring country. With industrial and port developments in Johor Bahru, job opportunities and transfers brought families here. When their contracts or terms expired, members leave in a constant movement of members.

 

The task then was to contact these members – some abroad – from near and far to encourage them to contribute their own experiences that when read together, will tell the history of the church. Then for use to follow-up, receive and edit each piece before compiling them into the contents of this book.

 

As the collection of stories and old photos trickled in, the book cover was designed and the manuscript reviewed. Yes, there were many delays but finally, the manuscript was ready to go to print and finally, the book was ready in June 2025.

 

So there I was, in the thick of working on the church’s book project when the book project for our school was given to me – to take the lead – while a Book Team was being formed to work on the project, quite urgently.

 

The target date for completion was by the middle of August, just ahead of the school’s 100-Year Anniversary grand dinner celebration scheduled on August 30, so work on this book project must start without further delay.

 

My own school experience documented in My
Johor Stories 3: Proudly Johor, Then and Now

Time was not on our side so I bit the proverbial bullet and agreed to start by going on a visit to our school to see the premises and seek some resource materials from the Secondary School office.

 

As soon as I had submitted the manuscript for the book on our church to the printer, I threw myself into the book project for our school. With the support from the Book Team, we managed to accomplish a fair bit in a short space of time.

 

From working on the book on our church with her 50+ years of history, I applied this valuable experience and expanded on it as we worked on the contents for the school’s souvenir book that spanned some 100 years.

 

With Tan Chai Puan, co-founder of the
Art of the 24 Festive Drums. Sept 2025

I kept my nose to the grindstone for weeks and months, working on one book project after another and it was only in May that I came up for some air… a staycation with my sister who was visiting from the UK.

 

This was a brief three-day-two-night break to nearby locations: Her choice was Pulai Springs Resort while mine was the Hyatt Place, where we enjoyed browsing in the shops in Paradigm Mall Johor Bahru.

After this very refreshing break, I was back at my desk to complete the school book project with the support of the Book Team. Then in June, I received a message from a member of the family of Mejar Cina Tan Hiok Nee, who shared with me about the plans for the Bicentennial celebration for Tan Hiok Nee, planned for 2027.

 

Souvenir book for 100-Year
Anniversary celebration of the
Johor Bahru Convent school

This was followed by another message I received from another member of the Tan family, enquiring about a musical drama that was performed during the Johor Arts Festival. Later when I told TNJ about this, he replied, “I know. They are my cousins!”

 

While all this was going on, I kept my focus on completing the book project for the school. Finally, we went through the manuscript with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that all our t’s were crossed and all our i’s were dotted.

 

Working closely with the printer, we managed to get the souvenir books ready for sale for the school’s fund-raising Fun Run ahead of the grand dinner celebration.

 

Inadvertently, the Book Team took on the responsibility to manage the stock of books, the pre-orders, sale and delivery of orders, both locally and abroad.

 

The Art of the 24 Festive Drums is a Johor
brand documented in My Johor Stories 3:
Proudly Johor, Then and Now

Titled, My Johor Stories 3: Proudly Johor, Then and Now, this final instalment of My Johor Stories has a collection of stories that included the JARO story, the Art of the 24 Festive Drums as well as my experience in our alma mater, the Johor Bahru Convent school, among other interesting Johor stories.

 

As all the MPH bookstores in Johor Bahru have closed after the lockdown years, I have permission from MPH to keep a small stock of my books to sell here because many readers prefer to touch and see the physical book instead of buying online.

 

I was pleased that the organisers of the school’s grand dinner celebration in August let me have a pop-up store for My Johor Stories at this event.

 

I am also grateful for the partnership with Drum Up JB! when they presented their season of shows in September at the Permaisuri Zarith Sofiah Opera House, where I had a pop-up store for My Johor Stories.

 

With Datin Patricia Lim [Centre] and Derrick Tan,
great-grandson of Mejar Cina Tan Hiok Nee

Then when the organisers of the Johor Youth Forum 2025 reached me in November to invite me to join them as a speaker, I gave this a great deal of thought before agreeing to participate in their event planned for December.

 

In December, I also had the pleasure to meet with family members of Mejar Cina Tan Hiok Nee when they came to Johor Bahru to meet the Johor Bahru Chinese Association people and Datin Patricia Lim, the great-grand-daughter of Wong Ah Fook and who is a historian by profession.

 

The excitement throughout an eventful year came to a fitting close when I presented my PowerTalk on, Johor in a Bygone Era, at the Johor Youth Forum 2025. It was not only a fun and refreshing experience to inspire young people but their encouraging feedback and response to My Johor Stories reminded me, once again, about why I keep doing what I am doing. Thank you 2025, for a memorable and momentous year.