Sauce of Life

About the Book

Lai Pek is a self-made man and proud of it. He has reached middle age a successful businessman and patriarch of a thriving family. His outlook on life is smug, self-satisfi ed and complacent. But no one goes through life unscathed and, like a tiger silently creeping through the jungle, adversity stalks Lai Pek, striking swiftly. Faced with a formidable business rival, a horrifying tragedy at his rubber plantation and a shocking crime that threatens the lives of those dear to him, Lai Pek must reassess his values and draw on an inner strength that he may not possess if he is to survive the crises that life has thrown at him. Set in a small town in peninsular Malaya in the 1930’s, the story takes place against the colourful backdrop of the lives and customs of the Chinese denizens and the inexorable encroachment of modern ideas and infl uences on their long-held values and ways of life.

About the Author

Born around the time of the foundation of the Republic of China, in the former English colony of British Malaya, Tan Kheng Yeang was educated in an English school. His father was from China but had emigrated to Malaya and had become a successful businessman, involved in various activities, including as a rubber merchant. From his early days the author was interested in literature and philosophy and as his interest evolved to science, he decided to study civil engineering at the University of Hong Kong, as he felt he needed a practical career. After the Japanese occupied Hong Kong, he went into free China where he found work in an office constructing roads and later an airfield in Guangxi Province. After the war ended in 1945, he returned to Malaya, became an engineer in the City Council of Georgetown, Penang. After his retirement, he worked as an engineering consultant. He is the author of twelve books that reflect the broad range of his interests and talents.