Planting seeds
Mingxin Library was originally Huang Yahua's private residence, but as her collection of books and materials related to Sim grew, she rented a second building to store them in, which is now the memorial museum's Jianxing Library.
Stepping into Jianxing Library, the eyes are greeted by a round stone table, at which Huang sits for a time every day. It is here that Huang heads every morning to organize her collection, cutting, photocopying, and stapling papers.
Sim, a lifelong scholar and personality, accumulated a private book collection that would rival any library and which offers an insight into Sim's broad range of interests. In addition to innumerable magazines and newsletters, the collection includes six tall bookshelves, with titles ranging from The Book of Han and Sima Qian's The Records of the Grand Historian to A Collection of the New Literature of China, from the collected works of Shakespeare to a dictionary of names in Japanese. There is even a copy of A Complete Collection of Practical Couplets.
Before beginning her collection, Huang was an ordinary housewife who knew nothing of the travails of the Chinese education movement and only had a vague idea that Sim was an important figure in that movement. Since getting to know Sim through the clippings, though, she has come to understand the difficult fight Chinese educators had. Getting to know Principal Sim, says Huang, instilled in her a commitment to Chinese education, and she decided to do as much as possible to contribute to the Chinese community.
Huang describes Sim as a man of reason and eloquence. His every move commanded the attention of others, and when he arrived at a destination, people couldn't help but be excited and happy. He had a magnetic personality, and quickly became the center of attention in pretty much any setting, filling those around him with hope and warmth.
Huang believes that among all the major Chinese historical figures in Malaysia, Sim made the greatest and the longest-lasting contributions to the Malaysian Chinese community, and he went through a lot. The Malaysian government has refused to award Sim the title of "National Cultural Figure" as they make a policy of not giving such awards posthumously. Nonetheless over 10,000 people paid their respects at Sim's February 10th funeral, with people lining the streets as his coffin was transported to the cemetery. Sim believed that a person should "lead a life of service and struggle," and he put his belief into practice. Not only has his spirit inspired Huang Yahua, it has also ignited a flame in the Malaysian Chinese community that will be passed down for generations, hopefully setting an example for more to follow in the future.(For more information on Sim's life and achievements, please see the article in our June 2005 Taiwan issue.)