LAST MAN STANDING
Tay: “My father didn’t have workers so I was roped in to help. After Form Five, I became a near-permanent fixture in the shop. It wasn’t long after that I too started making items.” Asked what drives him to do what he does, day in and day out, he replies: “It’s the satisfaction of seeing a finished product.”
His fingers deft as he weaves a piece of rattan, Tay shares that the skills he learnt had been through observations. “My father just taught me how to do the basket base. After that, he’d leave me alone and I just do only lo,” says Tay, with a shrug of his shoulders. Typically, a medium-sized basket will take him about a day to finish. And its price? Pretty steep. But considering how much work goes into making one, it’s certainly justifiable.
Transfixed by the way he works the rattan, I couldn’t help asking Tay about the kind of skills required to do what he does. He pauses before replying shyly: “No need skills la. Just need a lot of patience because it’s a time-consuming undertaking.”
A typical day begins at 7.30 in the morning for Tay. Once the doors are opened, he’ll head to his favourite perch — a stool — located at the back of the shop and start bending as well as hammering an array of rattans needed for whatever item he has been commissioned to complete.
At the time of our visit, he’s in the midst of completing a Da Tou Wawa (literally
My father didn’t have workers so I was roped in to help. After Form Five, I became a near-permanent fixture in the shop. It wasn’t long after that I too started making items. Tay Yak Seng
translated as Big Head Doll) for a Chinese association in town. “It’s not hard to make this but it can hurt your hands la.” admits Tay as he demonstrates how he bends a thin strip of rattan to fix onto the basket. For the thicker rattans, bare hands alone are not enough. He needs to use pliers and brute strength to manipulate the material to the desired form.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
The best type of rattan to work with, says Tay, is rotan manau. It produces beautiful furniture that can last for a century or more if taken care of properly. All it needs is a good wipe down using a damp cloth and just ensure that it’s not exposed to harsh weather. But, adds Tay, it’s getting more difficult for him to lay his hands on this species nowadays.
“It’s easier to get the rotan air or rotan
merah,” adds Tay. He uses them mainly to weave his baskets, simple stools and many of the items in his shop, which also include miniature crafts lined on a shelf above where he’s seated. “These rattans are easily found in Pahang’s jungle,” discloses Tay, before telling us that he sources them from various suppliers around town.
Is there still a demand for such traditional items, I muse aloud. “Got,” replies Tay, before continuing: “There are people who still like these things. I have customers from as far as Singapore who converge on my shop. Rattan chairs are the best because they’re cooling. You can sit for hours and not feel hot. Unlike modern sofas. Many older people like them.”
As he speaks, a lively group comprising the elderly enter the shop, stopping at various items and cooing their pleasure at the display. The rocking chair seems to be their favourite. And guess what? They are from Singapore!
WHAT NEXT
The affable Tay chuckles when I ask him whether his favourite subject at school was woodwork, an assumption made based on his chosen trade. “No! I liked maths!” he exclaims, correcting me good-naturedly.
My astonishment continues when he confides shyly that his other passion is collecting stamps. “I’ve been collecting for 50 years now,” says Tay of his hobby which began when he was in primary school. His favourite stamps in his vast collection are the classic British stamps that were used during British rule in Malaya.
The minutes tick and soon it’s time to bid Tay farewell. Shaking his hand, I can feel his heaviness. His voice low, he confides: “It’s sad to let this (trade) go. But what else can I do? There’ve been people who’ve approached me before this saying they wanted to learn, but none of them have been genuine or serious enough to really do it properly. So I’m not sure what’s going to happen when I’m no longer doing this.”