We sat at long tables and ate rancid cream cakes, curry puffs and limp sandwiches. We drank Green Spot and the whites drank stengahs. The head of the detective unit, a Chinese with a fine head of silver hair, made a speech. One or two others cracked jokes. Then a few of the S.E.P.s got up and toasted the Police in orange juice, and the Chief replied and toasted the S.E.P.s and the ‘happy couple’ in a stengah. Round about the wedding party ambled three waiters, smiling.

And now it was time for Ah Mei and her husband to leave for their honeymoon, which they would spend in Singapore. We rose and followed them, escorting them down the stairs to the street.
In front of the restaurant stood a large and well-polished car. It was the Chief’s. Mr Stallart had generously lent his car to them for two days. Others among the British police officers had also lent their cars to the S.E.P.s in the party, but for the afternoon only.

We stood on the five-foot way and waved as Ah Mei and Tong drove away, and we waved again and again and shouted goodbye as car after car left, roaring down the street, waved and shouted goodbye and good luck to the procession of ex-terrorists going away in our cars.

Malaya, 1952–53

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About the Author

Han Suyin was born in 1917 in Henan, China. Her mother was a Flemish Belgian and her father was Chinese. After studying at universities in Beijing and Brussels, she returned to China in 1938 and remained there until 1944 when she left for London to study medicine. Han Suyin practiced medicine in Hong Kong in the late 1940s and in Malaya and Singapore in the 1950s, and she passed away in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2012.

Han Suyin is the author of over twenty books, including A Many-Splendoured Thing, which was made into a Hollywood film (winning six Academy Awards) and which inspired a popular song. First published in 1956, And The Rain My Drink commands an important place in the canons of both Singaporean and Malaysian literature.

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Also by Han Suyin

Novels

Destination Chungking

A Many-Splendoured Thing

The Mountain Is Young

Winter Love

Cast But One Shadow

Four Faces

Till Morning Comes

The Enchantress

Autobiographical Works

The Crippled Tree

A Mortal Flower

Birdless Summer

My House Has Two Doors

Phoenix Harvest

Wind In My Sleeve

A Share of Loving

Historical Studies

China in the Year 2001

Asia Today: Two Outlooks

The Morning Deluge: Mao Tsetong and the
Chinese Revolution 1893-1954

Lhasa, the Open City

Wind in the Tower: Mao Tsetong and the
Chinese Revolution, 1949-1965

China 1890-1938: From the Warlords to World War

Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China