Mr. Shiu-Yong Mann - Down the Memory Lane – Lasallians Remembered

The following is contributed by Clarence Ng (1969) in April 2010.

Mr. Mann taught F.1 and F.2 Chinese at La Salle College in the early 1960s. He was one of the oldest teachers for the youngest boys at our school. Mr. Mann was born in the Qing dynasty and grown up genuinely in classical Chinese literature and Confucian education. His experience was teaching a variety of schools in China, including rural village schools, schools for the blind, and etc. The subjects he taught was mainly reading and writing Chinese.

He was the most talkative teacher in the classroom, but it did not mean he was always teaching. Most of the time, he was simply complaining that students did not respect elderly people (teachers), the same way as he did, when he was a kid. When he stood on the podium to lecture, he used artistic hand movements, very similar to crane style kung fu and/or a puppet show artist. Those made most students laugh. It must be the experience he acquired when he was teaching at rural village schools in China. He played seek and hide with students, and tried to tell jokes during the class section like a comedian. But his jokes were average and he upset some people to create those jokes.

Those old boys who had Mr. Mann as his Chinese teacher would likely remember him as an old style freelance comedian with his amazing artistic hand gestures, who likes to perform an entertaining show for young children.