Found this interesting article in littlespeck.com:
Believe It Or Not
For seven years, girl under guise studied in all-boys' school
without any one knowing. Story resurfaced with courtesy of blogger
Socaps.
Mar 13, 2006
In 1949 a little girl disguised as a boy and went to enrol in an
all-boys mission school at Primary II class.
The masquerade went undetected for eight years. It was not until
the end of 1956 when her secret was divulged through an English
newspaper on a Sunday, after her completion of the final term exam
at Form III (present day Sec. II).
The school authority and her schoolmates were shocked. Many of her
close classmates felt embarrassed because they shared personal
secrets with one another.
Eventually ,the school principal helped her to get transferred to a
sister mission school to complete her secondary education.
I shall call this "boy" Johnny. He came from a poor family; and he
shared a cubicle (a small rented room) with his mother at Smith
Street where the poor people lived at the time.
He was one of the good pupils in the class. He always moved around
with a group of boisterous classmates from whom he acquired a lot
of experience growing up with them.
Johnny played his card very well to guard his identity. He did not
get himself wet whenever he went to Changi Point seaside for a swim
with his budddies. He merely strolled along the beach.
During PE sessions he would opt for table-tennis while others
played basketball. Occasionally, he would join them in passing
remarks on a girl's figure if it was not up to expectation.
On one ocassion he even teased a classmate in the toilet while the
latter was easing himself.
I shall share with readers a few anecdotes that took place during
these eight years:
1) Classmate Casey one day stroked his buttocks and said to him,
"Johnny, your buttocks are soft and tender, very siok. If you were
a girl, I am sure to marry you".
2) Classmate Chua was horrible. He exposed his private part to
Johnny and asked him for comments.
3) During the Rock and Roll Craze in 1956, Johnny enjoyed doing the
R&R hand-shake with one classmate Argo. It required body turn
of both partners. He would call out, "Argo, let's rock" stretching
his hand whenever they met before the school session commenced for
the day.
During the final week before his secret was divulged, Johnny did
drop hints to the group.
He told them that he was thinking of going to Ipoh to continue with
his studies, but he was discouraged from doing so.
On another day, he mentioned that he was going to join a sister
school the following year, and Argo jokingly told him to chop off
his little 'johnny' before he put on the new uniform of the sister
school.
Out came Johnny's secret through that Sunday morning newspaper. At
around noon time, Casey and Argo went to his home at Smith Street
to look for him.
They were told that he had gone to Ipoh with his mother the
previous day. His buddies were was made to look like fools. He was
transferred to the sister school of his choice.
Finally he became JUDY. Sometime in the second half of year 2004,
Judy's eyes and Argo's eyes caught each other's sight for the first
time in 48 years at Raffles Place.
Judy was coming out from the main entrance of the then OUB Centre
and Argo was at the other end at the junction of Malacca Street.
Both stood dumbfounded and stared at each other for a while without
acknowledging each other.
Finally, they went their separate ways, perhaps for the last time
they ever see each other again.
The entire episode reminds me of the tragic Chinese love story of
Liang San Po and Zhu Ying Tai.
The two stories shared some similarities. Judy had to disguise as a
boy in order to get into an English school because there were
limited places in English schools at that time.
San Po was also a girl who disguised as a boy in order to attend
school for three years as girls were not supposed to go to schools
during that time.
I was not convinced with this tragic story until I encountered the
secret of JOHNNY who subsequently became JUDY.
What an unbelievable but a real life story! BELIEVE IT OR
NOT!
This was posted by Socaps on Jan 24, 2006. Read it on
http://shemowito.blogspot.com/
(Add-on by Seah Chiang Nee: Dear Socaps, Your story confirmed. It
took place at the now defunct Oldham Methodist School, where I
studied. For seven years, as you blogged, Johnny So Har kept her
secret from even her closest classmates, even cracking naughty
jokes with them.
(She was a year or so my junior. But like others I was shocked when
her secret was revealed. I had seen her many times but
unfortunately never got to know her.
(Apparently she never visited the toilet during recess, but did so
only in middle of class when no one else would be there. If my
memory serves me well, it was Singapore's best news-hound, Sit Yin
Fong, who found her out. They were evidently related in some
way.
(She was transferred to Fairfield Methodist School and had no
contact with her old classmates. Wonder what happened to her.
Probably a distinguished grandma by now.)
