Rose Chan - Career Years

Career Years

With her allowances cut, and her finances in dire straits, Chan sold her last gold bracelet for over RM$300, and took a train to Singapore the following year to meet her husband. Unfortunately, he refused to accept her. She stayed behind to become a cabaret dancer at the Happy World, her husband’s favorite haunt, in order to spite him. In the cabaret, she proved herself an accomplished dancer, and was runner-up in two national championships:

• All-Women’s Ballroom Dancing Championships in Singapore in 1949;
• Miss Singapore beauty contest in 1950 .

As a result of her success, she was in great demand, and started dancing at as many as five cabarets at a time .

In 1951, her entrepreneurial spirit began to surface again, and Chan opened her own show, touring the whole of then-Malaya. The turning point of her career came unexpectedly the following year, and transformed her from a cabaret girl to the "Queen of Striptease" at the age of 27. While performing at the Majestic Theatre in Ipoh, her brassiere snapped. The enthusiastic applause from the audience caught her by surprise, and set her thinking: "Here I dance all night and sweat so much, and nobody claps. My bra breaks and they clap".

Spotting a market for snapping-underwear, Chan shot to fame overnight with an act like no other in Malaya. The "Striptease Queen" was born. She was just as quick to earn the "Charity Queen" moniker. Even before her unexpected fame, she had started to do charitable work by dancing in aid of the Nanyang University Fund. Chan brought her striptease act to Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Alor Star, always donating part of her proceeds to charity, benefiting children and old folks' homes, institutions for the blind, and tuberculosis patients.

In 1954, Chan upped the ante for revues by introducing circus stunts that included:

• her famous python-wrestling act;
• bending iron rods, stuck to the base of her throat;
• carrying a man on her shoulders;
• placing planks across her body, and having motorcycles ride over her.

Her daring stunts made her famous, and she took her act around the world, including Germany, France, Britain, Australia, and Indonesia.

In July 1957, Chan embraced Islam when she married Indonesian Mohamed Nazier Kahar, and in accordance with Muslim rites in Singapore, changed her name to Rosminah binti Abdullah. Her marriage lasted three years, and bore no offspring. She subsequently married Chong Yew Meng, and had a son, but the marriage again failed. Her fourth marriage again yielded with a son and a parting of ways.

While her husbands may have come and gone, one man had remained a constant influence. Lee Kai Hong, a Chinese-newspaper journalist-cum-property developer, was her long-time friend, and later, her manager. It was with Lee that Chan hatched up one of the most ingenious ideas to circumvent the colonial British decency laws. In those days, there was a law that allowed for models to pose nude for artists, so long as they kept absolutely still. As revolving stages were not invented yet, Chan and Lee improvised a little table on coasters, with ropes attached to each corner. The moment she was completed naked, Chan would jump on the table, and four guys would pull each rope, spinning her around so that everyone had a good view. Even though the letter of the law had been adhered to, the spirit of the law was obviously contravened.

By now Chan was well-known throughout Malaysia, including the conservative east coast. She would perform for two weeks in one town, and then move on to another. Chan also performed private shows where people who had the money could hire her to perform at their own place. The cultural climate that allowed her to thrive was one still steeped in colonial influences. British authorities and Australian forces remained a constant presence in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Shows at BB Park in Kuala Lumpur were held on a stage normally used for Chinese wayang (Malay: opera stage show). The audience sat on rows of wooden old cinema-style chairs. Tickets were priced at about RM10 to RM15, with those nearer the stage paying a premium. Publicity for these shows was made through advertisements in the Chinese newspapers. On Saturdays when the public worked half days, Chan and her troupe would perform three shows: 2.00 pm, 7.30 pm, and 9.30 pm. For the afternoon shows, she would often perform extreme acts, starting 45 minutes earlier than the stipulated time to avoid being nabbed for contravening the indecency laws. After 2.00 pm, however, her show would mellow to comply with the regulations.

In 1967, Chan was banned from performing in Kuala Lumpur, following a police raid at BB Park. When she took her act to Perth in September 1970, she was arrested for performing indecently in public. She was, however, acquitted. The following month, Chan was charged again in Perth, this time for prostituting herself at a massage parlor. She was convicted, and fined A$60.

By the 1970s, public sentiments had changed with the increasing pace of Islamization. Chan's shows received many complaints and in 1973, the government revoked her performing licence. Notwithstanding, she kept dancing until she retired for good in 1976, her last striptease show taking place in Kuala Lumpur. After her retirement, Chan kept herself busy with numerous ventures, all of which were failures. In Seremban, she managed a music band, opened a restaurant, and gave curative massage. An American publishing firm offered her RM3 million for her autobiography, but the deal fell through when she insisted on US$3 million for it.

Around 1980, Chan was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she chose to spend her final days in Penang, after being told by her doctors that she had only 18 months to live. That was when she hooked up again with her one-time manager, Lee Kai Hong, and together, they opened Galant, a one-stop entertainment shop at Transfer Road. By late 1986, her health had deteriorated further, and it was then that she began to believe that her breast cancer was caused by her taxing act of balancing heavy objects on her chest during her performances. She also attributed the blood clots around her body to the python-coiling acts.

In the six years since she fell sick, her medical treatment had taken its toll on her finances, and she was apparently in dire straits. The Golden Maid lounge at Burmah Road held a 5-night charity show to raise funds for her treatment. The effort, however, proved too late.

Chan died at her home in Butterworth, Penang on May 26, 1987, leaving behind her husband, a son and three daughters — her eldest son, from her first marriage, and an adopted daughter, having earlier disowned her. Her husband Low Kim Seng, son Chong Weng Thye, and daughter Irene were at her deathbed.

She was interred at the Beow Hong Lim Columbarium in Air Itam, Penang.