Chapter 2
BEGGAR RICE
THE OLD STORY IN 30 YEARS
Chapter 2
BEGGAR RICE
THE OLD STORY IN 30 YEARS
The First Food Critic
Malaysia
Jacky Liew, the first in Malaysia to be known as a “gourmet”- Shi Gongzi
Honored as first food gourmet in Malaysia
Jacky Liew was honored as the first food gourmet in Malaysia
and also the person who proposed
“Three-Level and Five Main Malaysia Cuisines”.
He was also the forthgoer who apply the Big Data
Intelligence to promote Malaysia Food
The Rice Bowl Need to
Compete with Other Needy
BEGGAR RICE
JACKY LIEW
THE FIRST FOOD GOURMET IN MALAYSIA
SINCE 1988- NOW
THIS IS THE TASKS THAT OTHER WRITERS UNABLE TO DO IT.
To maintain the long term cooperation with the publishers and newspapers, he need to purchase position, sell the magazines and newspaper as the as exchange conditions to obtain a column.
It is to promote Malaysia cuisines,
maintain Chinese cultures
newspaper and educations,
and preserves tradition.
Conditions For Column
In order to maintain long-term cooperation with publishers and newspapers, it is necessary for him to purchase the space, sell magazines, and newspapers as the conditions for him to continue his columns.
Since 1996, Jacky Liew was a journalist with the name “Liew Shigongzi”, later was changed to “Liew Shengran”, and he wrote the tourism and food column on the magazines Food World, Apple and The Traveller’s Digest. In 2000, the stock market column that he written in the magazine Feminine with “Liew Shengran” also been changed to the food column with his new pen name “Shi Gongzi”. He became a columnist who continues to specialize in food and beverage topics. He has become the first Malaysian gourmets and the God of Cookery. He is also the first to actively promote food culture in Malaysia.
Without his marketing in magazines, selling newspaper copies, buying space, and even being asked to share the “commissions” from books and newspapers, there would be no author who could last for more than 20 years and survive in such a diversified publication. This has become the unspoken rule of the publishers that request Jacky Liew. If Jacky Liew cooperating with any company is based on this criterion, becoming the only famous writer who can survive without remuneration or manuscript fees.
Before year 2000, many authors like to imitate Jacky Liew’s photo of holding a cup. The the signature dishes of the seafood restaurant have been placed Jacky’s Liew photo on an outdoor billboard and written as “Recommended by Malaysia Food Critic Shi Gongzi (Jacky’s pen name).
In 1996, in the Food World monthly magazine Jacky Liew had traced the origins of the dishes, allusions and rumors about the evolution of “mutton”.
In 1996, the market was not keen on discovering delicacies. There was no clue on the restaurants on the streets and alleys, the well-known dishes, or how to describe the dishes. All magazines’ food themes were mostly made of foreign materials which limited in health care and recipes. In 1996, the movie “God of Cookery” was released by Stephen Chow. Everyone yearned to become a God of Cookery and a gourmet.
His literary work in
90s
1998’s Food World Column
1998’s The Traveller’s Digest
1998’s Apple column
Jacky at first use “Liew-Sheng-Ran 廖圣然” in writing the travel and food articles in Food World, Traveller’s Digest and Apple, he also the earliest to use “apple” in star grading
At that time, Jacky Liew believed that everything must be truthful. Since the column is the world of nutrition, even a dish, as long as it is related to “Long Life”, for the first time since 2000, he has invited doctors, Chinese medicine practitioners, and dietitians to conduct the pharmacological evidence.
The traceability even a small dish must be carefully verified, don’t judge a book by its cover. Mostly, it affects the roots of the race and even the origin of the entire cuisine. It is necessary to study with a meticulous attitude to avoid misleading future generations. What’s more, the law at that time stipulated that lawyers and doctors were not allowed to advertise. This not only helped doctors increase their popularity, but also increased the credibility of the literature, and later expanded to include doctors and lawyers’ consultation columns in major publications.
Hold 3 Responsibilities: Sense of Culture, Mission, Inheritance
THE FIRST PERSON
Turn food critic into career in Malaysia
Create the 3 Wins situation: Readers, Publishers, Advertisers
A gourmet that is different from other “gourmets”. The obligation is to do better food and media in Malaysia.
On April 7, 1998, a new local TV station, NTV7, started broadcasting. In the past, there were a total of ten [1] of the Malaysian TV relay stations. The only free channels were TV1, TV2, TV3, City TV. The paid ones are Mega TV and Astro, but Chinese programs only account for 10-12%, which is very little, not to mention the food shows created locally. Astro’s local Huanxi Channel, which opened on October 13, 2007, is mainly producing Fujianese cultural and affairs program, including food and variety shows. As for the local circle created by Astro, it is mainly based on local society, culture, life, and related information programs. Since 1978, Malaysian TV programs have been deeply influenced by Hong Kong dramas and have fully penetrated into Malaysian Chinese families. By 1980, TV stations were gradually privatized, but there were very few variety shows and Chinese TV dramas at the time, and no food programs were seen. In 1984, TV3’s prime time began to be broadcasted in Chinese. In 1985, local Chinese TV series were also privatized, and there has always been a phenomenon of imitating Hong Kong dramas. In 1998, Singapore launched “Alien Space” for the first time, a numerology program about superstition and supernatural, breaking the 10 points record, and reporting success with a high rating of close to 600,000 people. The then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was extremely worried about the potential society problem caused by the excessive superstition of the people[2]. Looking back at that time, the relevant program really surpassed other programs. HVD was established in 1990 to supply Malay programs to state-run TV stations in the form of contracts. The production of Chinese dramas was launched in the second year. In 2000, HVD started filming “Master Can” which was cooking show host by Hong Kong Malaysian Liao Weixiong, and in 2001, “Good Food and Good Living” hosted by Zhang Shuifa and Hong Zhaorong, interviewed food specials, and other similar programs, including Chinese variety shows in Malaysia is rare.
In 2000, the catering industry was at a point of opportunity where there was an overlap. Before food became popular, the general public was not very keen on the pursuit of food. So no one cares about what a gourmet or a God of Cookery is. In Malaysia, this has never existed a concept in search of food. However, after the local media’s exaggeration of foreign gourmets led to people’s understanding of the term “gourmet”, the desire for “eating” was finally started. The reason why Jacky Liew was interested in working in the food industry before was nothing more than trying to win or lose for his obstacles. He didn’t receive much training in 1980s. From writing travels and eating to the publishing house as a special reporter, he was all courageous. At that time, he wanted to get involved in any carrier and wanted to make achievements but nothing was outstanding, so he didn’t insist on doing freelancing for a few years. While living a muddle headed life, the other side is unwilling to give up. Due to his inherent problems, his manuscripts are first taken to a friend for advice to have any amendment or left for a while and then re-read it. Finally, he got a food column in the magazine Food World and because he had never written about professional food, he was told by the editor that he should read more similar books to enrich the content, but it was really hard to find relevant books for reference at the time. He was even more educated not to “sitting at home” as a writer, and work behind closed doors, so he go out for more on-site interviews. So later he know-how should proceed with food review in the future is based on the experience accumulated through interviews, like a blind man and an elephant and finally, he succeed to become a gourmet. Perhaps it is Jacky Liew’s talent or fate. From his self-awareness set of standards on food, he hopes to describe them in simple and easy-to-understand texts. Those ancient books about food are too complex and difficult to understand. So he decided to keep the original notes and records for food and drink, just to make up for the fact that there has never been a new food trend in Malaysia, and to satisfy the “hungry” readers.
In the past, there were more than 9 Chinese newspapers, large and small, from the 1960s to the 1990s. They all had their own faction . The head offices are all in Kuala Lumpur, and there are branches in various districts and cities to hire salaried reporters, and contract authors will be hired to enrich the content of the publications. Generally similar to local correspondents and special reporters, except that they are not employees of newspaper offices and are mostly paid by manuscript’s remuneration only. The usual special commission fee is about RM 3-5 per thousand words. In the 1990s, it was adjusted to RM10 per thousand words which really sad.[3] At that time, Jacky Liew held a hope that he was not them and he should have something to do.[4] In order to find a powerful publication to enrich his interest and superiority, in 1997, he was invited to write column in magazine Feminine but it was about stock market, so he remain his position in the food column of Food World. In 1999, Mr. Liu Mingzhi, the general manager of Life Publishing Co., Ltd., and Lin Huixia, the editor-in-chief of Feminine, were invited to meet at the New York Hotel in Johor Bahru. Under negotiation, he suggested to open a new column to write about food in the form of “purchase or sell magazines” which open the precedents in buying space and selling books for magazines and newspapers in the past two decades in the magazines Feminine, Oriental Cuisines and others.[5] Then, he becomes the first food writer in Malaysia’s food history to create and extend the promotion of pure free food promoting into the commercial system along 20 years.[6] Undoubtedly, it creates new job opportunities in the field of food and tourism. By combines work with experiences, ones can contribute to the country with own power. Since then, many young people who have started their business on the Internet and charged fees based on this form, creating a win-win situation.
For the implementers and beneficiaries of the restaurant’s inclusion in the food promotion, both the business volume and the exposure rate and the recognition will be gained, and the author also holds the writing rights and the publisher’s profit which create a win-win situation. Since then, it has pioneered the milestone of “Malaysian Food Critic Known in Commercial Area”. This type of sales will continue to be imitated in the national media circles and from the media, creating new market opportunities and new businesses.
To keep the supplements of newspapers that have always been regarded as a money-losing proposition for a long time, as we all know, newspaper supplements and magazine pages contains publishing positions for author articles of various natures to gain a broad readership. Of course, the publishers must pay for the author’s remuneration which increases the burden of newspapers and magazines, so he took the initiative to promote restaurants every month and restaurants pay for their interviews through supporting in purchase the newspapers or magazines. Even he was not part of the advertising department, he will actively solicit advertisements for them.
This does not seem to be the “normal thinking” of ordinary writers, because the literati are self-reliant. He alone feels that as a person in the cultural world, he should fulfill his obligations. As long as he enters the industry, he will gradually develop a sense of responsibility of “a sense of culture, a sense of mission, and a sense of inheritance”. He was in the same boat with them and hoping that this boat will be unharmed, whether it is for the society or the writing, he will cherish after all when there are still people reading books, he will do all his best to do it.
According to the publication rate and population reading ratio of the Malaysian Translation Center in 2009, Malaysia’s is one book for every four thousand people, and Taiwan’s is one book for one thousand people. The domestic publishing rate is calculated based on one book per year in each language, Malay accounts for 60%, English 25%, Chinese 10%, and other languages 5%. The domestic reading rate is not only insufficient but also unsatisfactory. It can be said that the reading atmosphere is extremely low, and it is called “cultural desert”. In this case, how a Chinese writer survive? Not to mention getting fame or be rich by writing. This shows how difficult it is to become a well-known writer in Malaysia.
The Script of Jacky in Today’s Agro College
When there was no computer to input text before, general lecturers and scholars used grid paper to fax manuscripts.
This old report from 2000 shows that the restaurants at that time were indeed spread by word of mouth and were not keen on advertising. This made it extremely difficult to receive recommendations for buying newspapers and advertisements as a companion. Furthermore it is not fair to people and inconsistent with the personality of writer. But after his consideration for benefits of every party, he agreed.
Advertisement yet become trend in 2000
The Poor Remuneration
Malaysia has a lower remuneration. After 2010, some publishers are not willing to pay any remuneration at all. The reason is that the newspapers have given the writer opportunity to published in the newspapers and become famous. The writer should not receive the manuscript fees.
The Best – Selling Books only 200
The best-selling publications in Malaysia only 500
There is not much supply of space in the Malaysian media, and it is the exclusive rights for professionals and big figures. It is unique that Jacky Liew can write several columns in a publication at the same time.
FOOD CRITIC IN
FEMININE
It is common to see our Food Critic Malaysia at the wall of restaurant,
lightbox, menu, brochure with the restaurants owners.
THE ONLY
In Malaysia there is not much publications, it seems is the rights of the professional and famous. Jacky Liew able to have few columns in an publication is quite rare to see.
In the impression for Jacky Liew, for so many years, everyone thought that he was relying upon the only magazine Feminine to settle down. His wife had been laughed and said: “By relying on a female magazine that still consider as well-selling, among the years, it has given people an impression of he was the appointed writer of the magazine and take you as the general against other similar publications. Within the peers, there is a travel expert who had been the top ten singers, a gourmet TV show host, and a writer who supported by major newspapers, and you still have to facing the hostility from a small number of people in the cooking industry. If you do not has a friendship with whom or form a small circle with peers. It is just like a martial-arts superior who with a wooden sword to “seeking defeat”. Besides, publications must be reformed every year, and the allocation of columns just simply not enough to go around. He is aware that he did not want to be eliminated and if he was not good at socialize, he would go to various publishing houses every week to find opportunities and recommend himself. Even if it is a miscellaneous magazine that without the major newspaper distribution network or first-line magazine status, Jacky Liew still agreed to all of the conditions as long as it is an opportunity because Jacky Liew understood that to be prominent in front of others, he has to strive for the upper reaches. If he wants to behave in front of others, he must be outstanding. There is absolutely nothing in the world that can succeeds without effort. That is not called “strength” but “luck”, usually luck does not last long. Paying too little will not be the price of victory. He should “look forward” at all costs to prove his ability. “If the defect was chosen me, it is not my fault, but if it can’t be overcome, it is my fault,” he said. He slowly enter this unknown field related to food. After constantly improving his expertise, he has been respected by everyone and he wants to preserve this hard-won “gourmet” position.
For a writer who didn’t want to be mediocre since he was a child, despite being isolated, the reason for “writing” is to prove to others that although he can’t “write” but he still insisted to do so. Telling others that Jacky Liew can affirm his self-worth through words, seems to be a kind of belief to words, it is a will that he will do what he knows he can’t do, but he wants to do. He often faces his fears and tells himself that “my obstacles and shortcomings will be my strengths.” Therefore, the editors who have worked with Jacky Liew is afraid of him and find it difficult to get along with him. It is because Jacky Liew has self requirement and is strict with others. Some people say that this is called obsessive-compulsive disorder. But Jacky thinks that it is self-discipline. This is the “hard spirit” of Jacky Liew after experienced all of the hardship.
After becoming famous, he got more columns. The difference is that in the past, every publication was an opportunity to create a chance for Jacky Liew. Now it is the interview right given by every piece of paper, which can reserve more treasure for the catering industry.
“The earth will not stop because of your self-esteem. People will only see the results of ten years of sharpening a sword. Before you succeed, don’t overemphasize your dignity.”
A Table of Luxury
Abalone, Sea Cucumber, Shark’s Fin, Fish’s Stomach
Each Column
JACKY LIEW’S
LITERARY WORKS
For a literary works of food critic were able to serialize in many
publications and countries. It is a confirmation for writer.
The Literature of Jacky Liew (Shi Gongzi)
The work of a gourmet can be serialized in different publications and countries at the same time, which is definitely an affirmation of strength of the author
During his writing career, the columns that under same publisher are Feminine, Oriental Cuisine, Long Life, Rod and Line, Agrolife, for the magazines and newspapers under different publishers are Apple, Food World, The Traveller’s Digest, The One Weekly, Beauty Love, Today Agriculture, Famous Cuisine, Housing and Building, Entrepreneur, Corporate Journey, Min Sheng Bao, Powerful News, Singapore’s Xin Flavour, the English monthly magazine Food Digest, China magazine, etc. have basically included every publications that can be seen in the market. Any celebrity has a kind of price tag or “market value”, and for the weighty and appealing Jacky Liew, it will produce the interesting situation of the Jacky Liew “compete” with Jacky Liew. Almost all magazines can see his writings, and every restaurant has his photos.
If for every columns which sometimes over 10 pages, few restaurants in a issue, if each of the restaurants have 8-10 dishes, he would eat more than hundred delicacies in a month, in addition to accumulating rich food review experience and not counted fat, calories, the crisis of chronic diseases such as cholesterol storage. Sometimes “eatability” is not necessarily a blessing, so gourmets must know how to eat, not only to be able to eat, but also to eat well. Perhaps everyone is envious of the foodie business, can taste a lot of the precious delicacies, but they don’t know that this is a decisive battle that puts life and death out of control. Not to mention that gourmets have to pay the price of their lives[7]. However, no matter how he eats, he won’t be too fat. That’s because that he always playing golf every week, and his health is pretty good. He remembered that the worst time was when he was vomiting and diarrhea and he was almost taken to the emergency room after he tried a food. Another time, when appreciating abalone in a cooking competition, the abalone of the contestants was too difficult to swallow, and the spectators and the accompanying video camera were filming, if it wasn’t for the clever wife beside him hurriedly handed over a sip of water, he was afraid that Jacky Liew was the first gourmet who was choked to death by abalone.
With a dozen or more columns per month, covering Malaysia, Singapore, and international manuscripts, it is recognized by the industry as the most persevering and well-known “talent”. In these many specialized knowledge, each identity has a lot of factual support. As for the rumored that the restaurant charged by Jacky Liew is advertised, this is not fair. As long as it is a reading material, which one does not carry advertisements, it is the same with or without charges. What’s more, Jacky Liew thinks that as long as the restaurant can afford to pay the expensive fees, it is enough to prove that the restaurant has customers and makes money. So far, he has not seen a restaurant with good business sued by overwelmed visitor due to unpalatable or “not delicious”. He will not please merchants or readers specifically because of the business. He will just review based on the facts and give readers confidence. Thinks further, those who are written pay, could it be that those who come to eat don’t have to pay? This was originally an equivalent transaction. The important thing is to write new and hierarchical insights through observation, so that people who read the article can try in many ways when they went to the recommended restaurant.
To summarize up the words written by Jacky in 20 years, if an article in maximum of 2000 words, 13 columns in a month, not including other of his literary works, should be total of 6.24 million of words and it is sufficient to reach the gate of writers.
2 meals per day, 10 dishes per table, 13 columns per month, a total of 130 dishes and total of 1560 per year. This is the bliss of ordinary people hard to have. So that Food Critic is the best career.
The tourism sites, countries’ cuisines, multi-race of food cultures and
the newspapers and publications that had been service.
Malaysia Food Review
In Malaysia, a food culture recreated by the integration of multicultural races, it is possible to eat French cuisine from foreigners who have settled in Malaysia at the same time. After this international cuisine, one of the four major cuisines in the world, has immigrated to Malaysia, it will soon become a reinvented French cuisine. Just like the Malay cuisine appeared in the history of immigration in the ancient time, the Chinese and Indian cuisines combined with each other, the Chinese vegetarian and temple cuisine, the Malacca’s rural street food that Chinese immigration run, mountain aboriginal dishes and fishery dishes cooked by the sea natives living on the coast, Indian dishes, “special race food” created by the marriage of Chinese men and Malay women, Japanese cuisine cooked by Chinese chefs, “Chinese recreating cuisine” of various origins, Portuguese-Eurasian “indigenous” cuisine created by Portugal after the colonization of Malacca, including the hybridization of Mamak and Chitty Delicacy. These diverse foods are not specially designed for tourist destinations, but are truly rooted in Malaysia’s unique “Nanyang Malay Archipelago cuisine”, which belongs to the five major sources of Malaysian cuisine and the local cuisine derived from its small tributaries culture.
Baba Charlie most welcomed to the Food Critic Malaysia
THE NYONYA SCHOLAR
The Four Children of Food Critic has followed their father since young to participate into Culture researches,
IT is a good education to learn while experiencing.
The Nyonya Historical and Cultures Scholar
Collection in National Libraries and Universities
United States
Malaysia
Singapore
UTeM
Ngee Ann
The First Literary Works
of Jacky Liew
“TRULY NYONYA MALACCA”
The first book Truly Nyonya Malacca
This is a great book in the history of food and beverage in Malaysia, in addition to retaining the practices and historical records of Malacca’s Nyonya cuisine, it has been collected by the national libraries, national universities, and foreign colleges in the United States, Malaysia, and Singapore.
If want to write a column, first of all you must attract the attention of the editor, and the so-called editor is the gatekeeper in charge of the publication. Once the deadline is reached, no matter what the excuse is, the manuscript must be delivered on time. The editor-in-chief has the control of “who is used”. Some too many people hope to get in this position to flatter her. As long as they are pleased, the next time they take the lead will belong to that person. And the editor-in-chief does not have much time and interest and cut a gap in the crowd to appreciate the talented author. In contrast, once a candidate signs a contract, he has to be at his mercy and obey the compulsory writing line. There is no choice for the author for topics, columns, or even have the power to amend author’s article and only remain writer’s name. If you want to find another way out and write books, newspapers, periodicals, series of books and publishing also have their own set of rules, the first things to talk about is taxation and publication fees. If you don’t want to be buried, you have to admit the fact that “culture is priceless.”
For more than 30 years, Jacky Liew has written many commercial manuscripts. In addition to complying with the wishes of the catering industry, the editor has more permission to change the title and text. There is little opportunity to write the desired content or related academic articles according to his wishes. It is very difficult to balance in. And those who work on the page know that there are too many authors in a book and magazine, and no one knows which one will be favoured by large readers. Only by publishing one’s books and proving their strength with the best-selling, and only if the books continue to be bought by others, can they continue their writing career until the publication next time of reformation or their books no longer favoured by readers.
Writing in newspapers and books, he originally wanted to just play for fun, but he didn’t expect to be a columnist. The purpose he published books, just think it’s time to become a real writer. As early as 2000, there was a willingness to publish books, but some things does not go smooth, such as the wrong timing, unfamiliar with the channels, and publishers lack of confidence in the authors. In 2014, the idea of self-financed books reappeared. With 30,000 ringgits and ten food advertisements, he went to the bookseller who published for a poet to negotiate, but he didn’t get in. Only a normal staff was sent to mediate and gave a CD of “Dong Di Yin” about poems and recitations. The meaning was roughly understood. From then on, the plan to publish books was put on hold again. What he was looking for is that he likes the similar design arrangement of the publisher. Secondly, he knows that publishing a book is trivial, and he hopes someone can do it for him. After that, he went to another publishing house and only received a simple reply, “It is similar to Malaysian food history or academic research books, I am afraid no one is interested in reading it”, suggesting that it is better to publish a recipe. Disclosing these two secrets is for authors who intend to devote themselves to creation, don’t give up halfway because of a temporary setback. That would be a waste of previous efforts as if they never started. In October 2020, he saw a headline report about the poet’s publisher “it’s hard to hold on anymore”. They never thought that Jacky Liew’s works would be collected by the National Library of Washington, Malaysia, Singapore and other national libraries, national universities, and foreign colleges. Because of their negligence, they were not able to share the honour, and regretted that they were named in the academic history.
This is the first book Truly Nyonya Malacca by Jacky Liew. It was very early, about in the 1980s, that information about Baba was sorted out, and 20 years later, in 2008, he met Miss Wang Hong from the Seashore publisher and finally his book was published by Popular Bookstore which the book had recorded the humanities and history in detail, were released in Chinese and English. The purpose is to open an international route to promote the Nyonya food of the world-renowned Malacca World Heritage. In addition, an unmistakable literary and historical work requires much more energy and time than the normal writing. In addition, the difficulty in translating the Chinese-English editions is due to the fact that there are many sloppy and gorgeous vocabularies that are difficult to interpret in English. It had to be handed over to the publisher to ask someone to be responsible. If afterwards, Jacky Liew would review and edit all the relevant manuscripts in both Chinese and English editions by his daughter who studied for law. In order to exert and increase the influence in this land of writing, and to entertain the masses, he can’t just publish in Chinese.
Before it went on the shelves, he was really a little uneasy, he was worried about the sales results. This is the first new book by Jacky Liew. Surprisingly, as soon as it appeared on the market, it already occupied the top best-selling list in Malaysia and Singapore, and soon sold out under rave reviews. Until 2020, even after 10 years of books, Truly Nyonya Malacca is still frequently searched and requested by readers. The works published in the book have been reprinted in China media. Since then, they have been solicited by publishers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, and have been carefully recommended by Luo Youzhong, Representative of Taiwan’s Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia, and invited to publish by the Special Secretary of the Malacca Chief Representative. As a related book to promote tourism in the ancient city. In 2014, Jacky Liew was included in the ranks of celebrity chefs in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan by the popular bookstore food series.
In 2010, with the Fifth Overseas Chinese Book Market, once again, Jacky Liew was sincerely invited by Popular Bookstore to write a collection of gold outfits with the theme of Malaysian cuisine, which is the second masterpiece Truly Nyonya Penang that was previously negotiated. But it was conflict with the progress of “Malaysia’s Five Major Cuisine” and “Malaysia’s Centennial Food History”, but unfortunately it is not supported by the publisher. In addition, after the launch of the new book, he has experienced intangible controls such as arranging itineraries, signing books, cooking demonstrations, and accepting interviews. He always felt that if a book really had its value, there was no need to undertake these activities. Besides, he didn’t know that publishing a book was so tiring at that time. There are too many detailed items that need to be considered, such as finding sponsors, taxation, publishing, funding, expenditures before and after publication, book consignment, book counting, book sales, book delivery, etc. The bookstore commission is as high as 40-50%. After thinking about it, after all, he declined the goodwill of the popular bookstore. It is a “miracle” that the author of a single book Truly Nyonya Malacca is still admired by the people.
Promote the World Heritage
Historical City – Malacca
In all walks of life, the food industry is particularly lucky, and is often given additional blessings, including tourism bureaus, books and newspapers, government funding, and free publicity of its unique scenery from the media. The food industry should continue to strive for self-improvement before it can live up to the expectations of the country.
Holland Fans
A Dutch Chinese Chai Leng cooks the sambal port according to the Nyonya recipe of Jacky Liew. The meaning of the book is when the reader thinks of Nyonya dishes, will think of Malaysia and the recipe written by a Malaysian gourmet.
I am Your Korean Fans 한국 팬
The Letter from Korean Fans 한국 팬들의 편지
Jacky Liew’s column has attracted countless readers to write to Jacky Liew for advice. Among the many readers, the above is the Korean female readers who came to Malaysia to study Chinese were sharing authentic Korean dishes. At that time, all the readers’ letters and phone calls were handled by Mrs. Liew. As there is no secret between them.
Nanyang
Food Historical Research
Cuisines
Jacky Liew was the firstly proposed
The Concept In
2010
All of the Malaysia Cuisines was relevant to the concept.
“Nanyang Cuisine” – was firstly proposed by Jacky Liew in 2010 for the Malaysia Cuisines origin from Malay Archipelago
The main five categories of Malaysia Cuisines under Malay Archipelago Delicacies of Nanyang Cuisine – The Specific Race Nyonya Cuisines
A MASTERPIECE
Handed On
Age to Age
THE LITERARY WORKS OF JACKY LIEW
NATIONAL LIBRARIES & UNIVERSITIES
COLLEGE COLLECTION
For the book collection in Universities requires the review of scholars in various areas, profession and it should have higher academic values. This is a recognition to the content, reliability and academic to the author.
Collection in Singapore National Libraries including Jurong, Orchard, Pasir Ris and Woodlands.
Collection in National Universities UTeM Libraries
Collection in Malaysia National Libraries
The literary work of Jacky Liew become part of the collection of the
national libraries, universities, colleges means that the restaurants in the books
also become references and histories for the future scholars and leaving the researches values.
Jacky Liew “Truly Nyonya Malacca” collected into Wikipedia
Jacky Liew presented his North Penang Nyonya Cuisines at KOMTAR
Malay Google First Page – Knowledge Panel
PRESERVES
THE
TRADITION
Jacky has preserved
the seeds of Malaysian food culture
for more than 20 years
for anthropology and sociology
Even though Feminine does not belongs to Jacky Liew, but he have long recognized himself as a member of Feminine, sharing the joys and sorrows. On the anniversary of Feminine, a banquet was managed by him to celebrate the Feminine be life long.
In order to let Feminine become the top food magazine, Jacky Liew had persuaded restaurateur to make the dishes that published in the magazine put on the neon sign as display for “signature dishes”. It not only convenient for customers to order for food and also giving the impression for customers that they are eating food suggested by food critic, but also established the authoritative of Feminine and it is the honor for restaurateur to be interviewed by the magazine.
Anyone from three to eighty years old can recognize Shi Gongzi “our gourmet”
When talking about Malaysian gourmets, many young people will wonder: “Is this Shi Gongzi, Jacky Liew is the one who has known and read his works since childhood?” It’s all because he is the first to publish in the weekly newspapers and more than ten publications a month and has been writing essays for 30 years in Malaysia. He has a long writing experience. Indeed, many people reading his articles when they were very young. On the path of writing food reviews, he spends most of his time writing articles in the publications of Life Publishing House. Among them, Feminine and Oriental Cuisine are his longest permanent columns compared with all the authors.[8] After he wrote down the precious recipes in each issue in various media and left a record of ten dishes for each family that behind the restaurant which inherited from their ancestors. It is also a very good contribution to scholars and diners who seek knowledge and search for evidence in the literature. It is different from what people commonly see that bridge repairs, road paving and other good deeds will be considered as contributions. He took it as an obligation to continue the wisdom of his predecessors and the restaurants that were recommended by him have all become famous.[ 9]
Suppose a person, with only 10 yuan, can donate 9 yuan. Although it is little, it is almost all of him. If another person has 100 yuan, even if he contributes 9 yuan, that is only one-tenth of him. As far as Jacky Liew is concerned, all of his golden age of youth and middle age and even in his old age has paid, it is his whole life. He had the clear conscience and no regret to it.
For these twenty years, the restaurants that he recommended and interviewed are famous and they had the signature dishes and some of them have become one of the best restaurants in the country with the same dish. These are extremely precious recipe treasures, the ancestors’ life-long painstaking effort, perhaps at this moment. The restaurateur doesn’t care about their family background and cooking skills, but how can the later generations refer to their cookings and continue this value? If it is without caring, how can we expect future people to cherish it? A few years later, when someone wants to maintain their accustomed skills but is affected by changes in the times and external shocks, will be too late to retrieve the ancient recipes.
“If don’t know the past, how can we know the future.” The effort he paid on the catering industry so much, it is to let the next generation of restaurants experience the hardships of their ancestors to start a business and as souvenirs to children and grandchildren, so as not to be unfounded and unknown for a lifetime. In essence, the honour of a restaurant is closely related to an authoritative gourmet. Others may deliberately forget the story of the sages’ struggles in this land, but the restaurateur has given up instead. This is a glorious matter that directly connect the family for several generations. Don’t think that the visit of gourmets is purely a superficial view of personal interests, and you don’t know how valuable the craftsmanship left by the nation is. The future social research and humanities workers will be able to follow these efforts to regain the food clues of the past 20 years and analyze the society’s dietary views and humanistic process at the time, so it will not lose its basis.
Since year 2000, when he had a column in Feminine, he will autographs of the books and given to readers from time to time, and then in the new column of “Dine with VIP”, the Feminine will also be promoted to members of Parliament. The picture above shows Jacky Liew gifted to state legislator Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng
A
friendly and affection
Food Critic
The affection of Jacky Liew to the
Three Generation of Hainanese Satay
The three generations of Melaka Hainanese Satay
from the grandfather to his late father and his grandson,
Jacky Liew giving care to the tradition in order to
preserve and hoping the core value will be able
to transmit and achieve the purpose of maintain the Malaysian Chinese Food
Gourmet
In the minds of
Students
The cause and effect of Jacky Liew had his column in Feminine
It all happened on July 20, either it is the God’s will or a coincidence? Everything seems to be the predestined
In 1999, before Jacky Liew finalized the food theme of his new column, Ms Lin Huixia brought back a snack book from Taiwan. Although the book had a wealth of information on street snacks, the writing style was not polished. She meant to rely on this type of model which walks around the streets and alleys as a new chapter in the promotion of Malaysian cuisine. Jacky Liew flashed his inspiration, trying to persuade her to join the competition element, compare similar food from restaurants in Malaysia, and choose the best one to recommend. “Because Jacky Liew believes that all good and bad are derived from comparison”, then the star rating of IN FOOD column was created, but because of the ranking, his friends in the catering industry complained about it as it would cause bad business and affects reputation. As no one wants to be left behind. Furthermore, each place has local tastes, and people have their preferences. Through this experience, it is understood that evaluation is just a trick to self-hype. There are no rights or qualifications for any journalist and writer to criticize the restaurants. Unless a fairway can be found, even so, only the first will be written, and there will be no comparison of the second, which is more kind. At that time, the whole industry believed that the main dishes and celebrity chefs gathered in Klang Valley, Malaysia, while the snacks were north of Ipoh and Penang, which was only two to three hours away from the capital. On the contrary, Johor Bahru is relatively remote, so no one wants to talk about South Malaysia. As for the head offices of major newspapers and magazines, they are also in the capital. To save cost, the interview line focus on the central region. Because of this, Jacky Liew who is a native of Southern Malaysia, he has been self recommed to start the food review at southern region. He considered Feminine is a 21-day magazine. As it was the idea of Jacky Liew, Ms Hui Xia’s original intention was to let him take charge of the whole of Malaysia. After thinking about it, he felt that he could not bear the burden and had no such experience, so she borrowed the special author of New Life post , a singer to cooperate with him. Since then, they have delineated interviews with boundaries between the south, north, and central, and set the rules not to exceed the boundaries. Fortunately, it was only Feminine. Other publications did not have this restriction. Until the two co-authors of food and beverages left, there was no such case.
The magazine Oriental Cuisine was published in January 2000. It was the first time that Jacky Liew hosted the 16-page South of Malaysia’s restaurants recommendation LOCAL FOOD column. Originally, the Oriental Cuisine was based on recipes and was published once a year, it later turn into monthly publication since the fourth issue. In the fifth issue of 2003, Jacky Liew took the new column “Top Ten Famous Cuisines in China” as the title. At that time, the food in Malaysia was mainly Cantonese and Fujian cuisine, so he appointed chefs and asked them to learn as soon as possible the eight major Chinese cuisines to cooperate with Jacky Liew and later derive to famous banquet series, after that he keep recipes in each issue in column “famous recipes” .
In 1997, as the feature writer of Feminine until July 2000, he officially wrote food in the name of Shi Gong Zi (Chinese:食公子), and his last issue on July 20, 2014, which officially ended 16 years of the relationship. Coincidentally, the “Beginning and Ending” took place on July 20th. Since then, Jacky Liew had resolutely stepped into the front line of intelligent technology research and development. In 2018, the editor-in-chief Lin Huixia, who had the kindness to the Jacky Liew, left his position in Feminine, and opened True Media on Facebook in November 2019 to continue her media life. Counting down to his career life for more than 30 years in the industry, it is like transient and ephemeral as a fleeting cloud. Seeing the decline of the newspapers and magazines that have worked together, he can’t help feeling a lot. In the past 30 years, these children have grown up and started a family, and they firmly believe that “Malaysian gourmets” are justified to be Jacky Liew.
After leaving, he asked more than once, is it worth it to worry about the Malaysian Food? Later, he finally figured out that the so-called value is when your life is about to be closed, is there still any regret?
The Earliest “Star Grading” Recommendation
Around year 2020, Jacky compared similar foods in Malaysia which influenced the old domestic media and TV to follow suit in the future. And because of this, the appraised system has been compained by restaurants. From a business perspective, whoever wants to subdue to others, not to mention the fact that the literature can handed to the world, it is not fair to those restaurant that have made progress
Elementary school students from out of state, led by a teacher, can recognize Jacky Liew, and the teacher asked for a group photo with Jacky Liew’s consent. When these students grow up, they are bound to believe that Jacky Liew is a gourmet who represents Malaysia. And after they set up a family and start a business, they will tell their children that Malaysian gourmet is Jacky Liew.
In other states, Mrs. Liew was explaining to a group of teenagers outside the restaurant that Mr. Liew will come to the opening later. When these teenagers become adults, they and their families have become the most loyal fan group of Jacky Liew. At this point, it can be said that most of the households in the country who have known the Jacky Liew (Shi Gongzi) from the age of seven to eighty. Whenever you mention “Malaysian Food”, you will naturally think of “Jacky Liew”.
Devote
Gave
HIS ALL
Till his heart ceased
TO BEAT
The Nanyang Siang Pau National Coordinator
Jacky Liew loves Chinese cultures,
Chinese and Chinese Newspapers
“If you want to kill someone, just persuade him to run a newspaper.” This is the old said from the newspaper industry. Because of the suffering of the publishing industry, although newspapers have the fourth estate of authority in supervision after all, newspapers and magazines are business, not for charity. If they suffer losses over the years, and they will lose money in the long run, which shows that newspaper operators have a high level of hard work. But in Jacky Liew’s opinion, others’ difficulties may just be the difficulty of writing an article, and the public only needs to spend money to obtain the publication for readers and help the newspaper industry survive. This is why Jacky Liew was willing to take over Nanyang Business Daily’s national business commissioner and bear the burden of promoting.
On November 15, 2006, Mr Zhuang Zongnan, the newly appointed CEO of Nanyang Business Daily, was appointed Jacky Liew as the National Business Coordinator to assist in the development of advertising business and promoting food, and request the restaurants to cooperate with purchase of newspapers or converting advertisers as a duty to support Malaysian newspaper. It results in an increased response, and the performance of the purchase reaches 90% of the sales target. The original intention of Jacky Liew’s proposal to Mr Zhuang was that he wanted to pass on the fees to restaurants， which they will unilaterally contribute funds to purchase newspaper, and the newspaper will be distributed to nearby people as leaflet to achieve the effect of increasing business. If there are 2,000 to 3,000 newspapers per week and the cooperation of the restaurants is obtained, he believes it is not impossible to reach 20,000 to 30,000, in the long-term accumulation is undoubtedly a number. It plays a role in the public regaining confidence to the newspaper. It will not harm the cost but also increase the official record of circulation (Malaysia Printing Media Sales Notarization Bureau), well cultivate a group of readers who are accustomed to reading certain newspapers and magazines and revitalize the reading atmosphere. Besides, it would encourage everyone who loves to write to share their articles. What’s more, as all the publications are under a single group, they will not cause harm to each other. Assuming that every local manager can follow the way, it has no worry to the Chinese newspapers operations? Imagine that with the strategy of giving away a large number of books every week, other publications will inevitably not be smooth. The reason is that readers’ budget for buying newspapers, buying magazines, and reading time is limited to one day or one month. If someone has a free newspaper or magazine, he will not buy other publications, which will interfere with the sales of publications.
So he offends many connoisseurs as he publishes his works continuously for more than ten years, in the eyes of his peers, the high exposure rate and the imaginative income of Jacky Liew may have surpassed many senior journalists, and aroused a lot of criticism. Even senior editors, reporters, and resident writers do not necessarily receive this treatment, so they were naturally unhappy. Regarding operations, he believes that the industry will also face personnel struggles, factions and site divisions that are full of interest considerations.[10] For Jacky Liew who wanted to serve the Chinese society, Chinese groups, Chinese education, Chinese newspapers, and Chinese political parties, his heart filled with joy and enthusiasm, as a peripheral author and acting on behalf of the “national business commissioner”. He not only donated all the manuscript fees to the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM) all the year-round, to maintain the Chinese education, in the hope that it will attract others and promote this good atmosphere.
For all restaurant interviews, Jacky Liew will prepare a contract prepared by the lawyer’s office and a consent agreement for portrait rights to clarify the restaurant’s duties and performance obligations. Once signed, it will take effect immediately, and Jacky Liew will keep everything Pursue rights to avoid the “Rashomon” incident.
Every issue of the book and newspaper space is contracted by Jacky Liew to promote Malaysian cuisine more smoothly and to obtain interview rights to reserve recipes for restaurants
但凡厨业、食肆所求，食公子都无不应允，不仅一次捐款於各造。毕竟项目、活动需要经费。上图征信录为廖城兰解囊於芙蓉厨业。
Jacky Liew attended the Pan Ma Gusu Restaurant Federation and was given a pennant as a thank you.
Nanyang Press Holdings’ Feminine and Oriental Cuisines book purchase receipts, the upper right corner is the agent number, and the publication date is 2014
When Jacky liew was in the Nanyang Business Daily, there was a record of subscription purchases in all periods. If the newspaper industry can unite, why not worry about running a Chinese newspaper.
The bitterness of working as a salesperson in newspapers and magazines is that once a person who is unable to repay the debt, they will hound by the media debt team. Generally, Jacky Liew will take the initiative to advance the receipt for the payment.
Jacky Liew support the kitchen industry, maintain Chinese education and Chinese newspapers
Jacky Liew believes that as a Chinese, he should support Chinese education
Jacky Liew wanted to study but couldn’t study. He was depressed and often wanted to express himself but was unable to do what others wish him to do. So when he was able, he will do his best to help those who want to study.
During this period of personal experience, Jacky Liew was more loyal to the professionalism of a journalist. He believed that good newspapers should stop anyone from using reports to retaliate against others.[11] It should be corrected and dealt with in accordance with the law. It should not violate the interests of the masses due to the restriction of power to protect the public tools of society. As a newspaperman must never do anything harmful to the newspaper. In front of so many old newspaper seniors, even though they are not college graduates, they are very professional. On the other hand, today’s high-ranking practitioners have received higher education and even master’s degree, but their professional ethics are unsatisfactory. Their writing skills are still poor. They may even use other pseudonyms, boasting into a column to confuse readers or letters from the editor, and the editor-in-chief replies. This was commonplace in the media industry. For those media awards that seem to be strictly reviewed but how many of them are qualified? The reason is that the monopoly of newspapers makes these people feel confident.
They did not understand that only the marketers, merchants and publications complement each other could make the newspapers run well. A popular publication cannot harm the benefit of distribution and advertising. With this concept, it is the responsibility to assist the newspaper to build a broad readership. With what Jacky Liew is good at in food, he enlightens the catering industry, promotes tourism in Malaysia, increases national income, preserves the inheritance of Chinese food culture, acts as a bridge between the food industry and the government for welfare, expose unscrupulous food traders to make huge profits, praise potential cooks and catering advocates, leading the landing of soft power in catering and tourism, educate the masses, and look forward to working with colleagues in the Chinese newspaper industry to do their best to serve the Chinese community and defend their rights and interests. It’s a pity that things went counterproductive, and let Jacky Liew deeply understand the decline of political parties, Chinese education, Chinese newspapers, and Chinese groups. In addition to the trend of the times and the harm of party disputes, he unable to turn the tide but retreat quietly.
The
Trouble
Of
Free of
Charge
Charge
News & Maga.
Writer
Reader
Free for Read
Free OF Charge
Catering Industry
WIN
WIN
WIN
WIN
Take one’s undeserved gain for granted
In Jacky’s opinion, it is no matter on the “formation”, but it is important to reach the effects of benefit to every parties. For example, Jacky always be nice to the catering industry, for the chefs and those who had potential, he will bear the demands of newspapers or magazines sales alone and free of charge to them. It is equally to there is no income to the column. For the magazines and newspapers, they will lost the sales, it is “double lost”. Only catering industry will be benefited, If there is purchase of newspaper and promotion to the food industry, for newspaper and magazine, they will have more sales and the reader also will get free books, it is a “three wins situation”. It is also differently to only pay to the writer, will not get anything return.
If there is a “nice person” who give out all he had in
most 20 years, please introduce to Jacky.
A Needle Hidden in
Silk
If a person works hard but did not encourage, there will naturally be no outstanding talents, nor is there no “famous” character, but people like to hold the concept of “either him or me”, they don’t know that there is the competition to make progress. If you want to be a famous person, you must be able to say what others can’t say, and see what others can’t see. If you want to be the “first-person”, you have to break through established secular concepts, and you have to be more forward-looking than others, dare to revolutionize, and able withstand all kinds of tempers that are not common people can endure. Life is like a battle. You should learn from the war. If someone use despicable means to harm competitors, their personality cannot turn defeat into victory.
If one is a talent, he will like a needle hidden in cotton. The more one press on him, the needle will pierce the one. People who do great things will become victors because they are angry and refuse to admit defeat.
In addition, the title of gourmet also brought a lot of obstacles to Jacky Liew. There had been such a supplement’s editor who challenged Jacky Liew “If I hold on to the title of a Malaysian food critic, then you are not any more”. The pressure of Jacky Liew was indeed self-evident. After all, the title of Malaysia food critic was has never appeared or used by anyone in any newspaper or magazine before. Everyone in the world hopes to be treated fairly and squarely in society, to be recognized and respected, and not to be discriminated against. Although he was also the columnist of the magazine and he was the one who help the business, but he would also suffer injustice from the deputy editor. If this happened before 2000, no one would pay attention to an unnamed gourmet, because at that time, there was no idea about what “gourmet” was. Furthermore, due to the popularity of the media, the hospitality received from interviews of food and the celebrity interviews were regarded as the two major advantages of the media, and it represented identity and status. It may be because of being too aggressive and often being boycotted. He was in the circle and know the behaviour of people in the newspaper industry. They sometimes like to quote out of context and ignore or mislead in reporting[12], so he would be beware of it. This was because they would never worry about the future of Chinese newspapers. They were all focused on achieving dominant bullying, hoping to control public opinion, and are arrogant towards profitable purposes. They did not know that newspapers and publications rely on teamwork and support from readers to achieve the survival of publications. The current readers are no longer fooled by the public media, they know how to differentiate right or wrong. Once the newspapers are challenged, the survival of the publications will be unpredictable. Therefore, reporters must stick to their duties and run the newspaper responsiblity instead of excluding dissidents. Jacky Liew was conscious that he had to work step by step if he wanted to survive. After all, he needs to be cautious like walking a tightrope, because he would never know who has bad intentions. As long as he thinks it’s right, he will just do it. So, he was low-key to self-preserving. This is why people did not know anything about him for the past 20 years, but only recognize him from photos and articles.
The Symbolic of Interview with VIP
Regardless of any job, it takes self-respect to be respected. As a reporter who hold the fourth power should not practice jobbery, harming others, and betraying the Chinese newspapers. In the column of Jacky Liew “Dine with VIP”, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Dato Lin Shiqing said, one should be proud of his duties, and do his best to supervise “illegal”, reflect the voice of the people and solve problems for the people.
The Legacy Media
DOES NOT
TRUSTED by Public
For right and wrong, merits and demerits, people have their own conclusions, if it involves the evaluation to any scholar or writer, one has to resort to moral justice, “Rather die than live in silence” so as not to help evil and suppress good. The greatest original intention is to serve as a “mirror” for future generations to warn the world.
-From “Sin Chew Daily” June 1, 2021
THE TRUTHS
On The Spot
INVESTIGATION
For public to speak out that they support
someone is a hard thing,
Under the circumstances of non-commercial
benefit and they do not know each other
They certainly are speaking truths.
Newspaper sales
A record of passers-by’s evaluation of the Jacky Liew
Jacky Liew’s photos are the guaranteed for quality of restaurants
Published by: 20/11/2020