KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Tan Ean Nee wears many hats: independent documentary producer, writer, chronicler, storyteller, oral history collector.

But close to the 40-year-old Penangite’s heart is her work with the leprosy survivors of the Sungai Buloh leprosy settlement which was the world’s second largest leprosarium at one time.

Although she has no blood ties to any of the survivors, Tan remains as passionate as ever since volunteering 10 years ago to document their lives and dig up their history.

For her, it was fate and destiny that led to her discovery of the existence of the colonial-era settlement in 2006 when she was doing investigative reporting for a broadcast station.

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One thing led to another and now she has an online museum, four documentaries and five books on the Sungai Buloh settlement under her belt, some of them co-produced in collaboration with others and even the long-lost descendants separated at birth from the residents of the settlement.

She also has the distinction of being the first outsider to be appointed to the Sungai Buloh Settlement Council, a leprosy survivor-only organisation formed in 1946 and which changed its rules two years ago to allow her to join it.

Dishing out trivia and facts on leprosy in Malaysia with the charm of a storyteller, Tan confessed to being touched by the survivors’ stories and wants to share them with the public in a “story museum” to be launched next August.

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Her journey so far in her own words:

When I was young, I dreaded history the most, because last time when we study history, it’s different; I like people’s stories. I like to listen to stories, and I am very curious about other people’s lives, previously when I was working at the broadcast station, the one that I remembered the most — I interviewed many prominent personalities, I have forgotten (them) — but I really liked ordinary folks and their life histories, for instance, a day in a garbage collector’s life, I feel that these ordinary folks allowed me to experience what life is in a very condensed manner....

So I would frequently think why would I “click” better with ordinary folks, it’s because I originate from such a place, my birthplace is a place where there’s a lot of ‘samseng’ and gangsters — Perak Road — and I grew up in a hawker centre. My parents sold oyster omelette, char kuay teow, all types of Penang delicacies, my mum kept changing her wares — my mum has sold many things, laksa, curry noodle, tau kua chien (fried bean curd), or chien (oyster omelette).

So from a young age I had to follow my parents to open their hawker stall and I felt life was very harsh, I had a lot of thoughts, but I feel that instead my childhood experiences and my background have greatly nurtured me and makes it easier for me to “click” with people from the lower strata of society. I can “click” in just a short while with old folks, but with high-profile people, I may not “click” so fast, because I don’t really understand that kind of life.

So the biggest influence on me is my birthplace, maybe my background... so instead I am very proud to tell people why I want to write my mother’s story, how my mother saw gangsters fighting, and how my mother who was a hawker slowly became a tour guide, I feel these people are living life in a very down to earth manner, so I wrote my mother’s life history — “The Little Girl from Perak Road” — it’s in Mandarin, so this is the one that deeply influenced me.

My mother’s personality is she likes to be kepohchi (busybody), she really likes to tell stories, and now her work — she is 73 years old already — she is working as a tour guide, bringing people around and telling stories, so I may have inherited a bit of my mother’s busybody nature.

I don’t think I am a hero, I hope people remember that they (the leprosy survivors) are heroes, because I learnt the most from their lives, so I have always considered them to be heroes. I hope if this (story museum) project is successful, perhaps it can help to somewhat compensate them for the pain that they have experienced in the past.

It (Sungai Buloh leprosy settlement) is a forgotten paradise, at a time when they were very much in despair, they were thrown here, but how did they build such a beautiful settlement and such fascinating lives? So I feel that it gave me a very big energy, letting me see that no matter what, there’s no end in this world; in your most hopeless moments, you can still continue to create something new and there is still hope, and love is very important. So in the past 10 years in our work, we have been searching for the meaning of love.

This work (in the settlement) allowed me to learn about building relationships and trust, how much trust do you need to tell someone about the most vulnerable part of your life? I feel that because we have been companions for a long time, then only you will have the foundation to touch the most vulnerable part of someone’s life.

I feel that my deepest impression is reunions, when after separation, the children come back to search for their roots, they meet each other again — that moment — because it touches the old folks directly: ‘Ah I have waited, finally my child has grown up.’ Even though they may have become different races, but they no longer have regrets. I think less than 10, around seven to eight could truly reunite, if they have found their kin we already consider it a success, it’s just that they (the kin) did not come back, they can choose not to come back, fearing social stigma… Reunion — it’s not an end, it’s just the beginning, because for someone who you have been separated from for 50 years, there are many, many obstacles when you suddenly want to meet them, want to rebuild your relationship — such as language barrier, there are even more obstacles if they are different races, so I hope I can be a bridge.

I am just a chronicler. I think it’s nothing much because I am doing something that I like, I don’t feel like it’s work, I feel it’s life. I am happier and feel more free than previously and I can still use my capabilities. I felt that I have never left my identity as a journalist, I only left a company, but my skill and capabilities are just being used in a different field, so I feel that I have always been a journalist.