森美兰州淡边（Tampin）新村里的一幢天蓝色板屋，门窗边贴着几幅春联，入口处悬挂了醒目的红底金字木雕匾额--国良手工艺。甫进门，厅堂绝大部分的空间被巨型工作台占据，工具散落四周却乱中有序。左侧的房间内放置长达十来尺的板桌，墙边挂满各式备用布料；右侧的小房是缝纫车间，墙边则挂着半成品。邱国良叔叔拿木尺在深色布匹上比划，依照粉笔刻画出旌旗轮廓测量所需裁切的尺寸，再修剪布料边缘。他手工制作挽联、锦旗和令旗，至今逾半世纪。
旌旗，意味着各种旗子，其中囊括挽联、锦旗和令旗，制作工艺大同小异，各自却飘扬着不同的无声昭告。挽联用于布置灵堂和灵柩车，亦用于乡亲、学校等社团向办丧事主家致祭。锦旗用于表扬个人对社团的贡献，采用红底黄字，并镶以流苏花边。令旗用于神诞庆典，信徒为答谢神明庇护而赠旗，彰显其神威，采用的配色则因主神而异。
五十年代末的挽联，是用白纸黑字书写着逝者姓名、挽词、赠送者名字和所代表的社团，逝者出殡后即焚烧。当时淡边小镇公共交通并不发达，邱叔叔从事德士司机，载送客人到其他市镇，所以他经常受街坊邻里委托前往芙蓉、马六甲等城市订制挽联和取货。长年累月的接触引起了邱叔叔对书写挽联兴趣，遂自学成才，凭这项技能偶尔赚些外快。
六、七十年代里，生活条件普遍改善后，才兴起使用布制挽联，换上通用的挽词如“福寿全归”、“音容宛在”，逝者出殡后由社团取回保管，既方便又能重复使用。一次机缘巧合下，邱叔叔为经营寿板店的友人缝制布置灵堂用的挽联和挽幛，名声不胫而走。找上门的订单种类诸多，他也乐意尝试新挑战如锦旗、令旗，并能交出令顾客满意的成果。因此，邱叔叔的客源逐渐从淡边扩展到森美兰、马六甲、雪兰莪及彭亨州，甚至远销国外至新加坡和印尼。
无论是订制任何种类的旌旗，首先必须确定其用途、颜色和尺寸，邱叔叔方能采购所需材料，依旌旗轮廓剪裁。紧接着是确定旌旗上的文字，他在测量相应字体大小后，将每个字临摹于纸上。邱叔叔不得不摒弃在本地民间式微的传统刺绣工艺，而是将字样拓印到布上剪出，粘贴在旗上定位，隔日风干后才进行缝合。基于中文字笔画复杂，缝纫过程颇为繁琐，旌旗难以连夜赶制，完成一张需耗时两至三日功夫。
邱叔叔近年来虽在制作旌旗时采用电脑打印文字，却坚持手作的温度。他密密的缝缀，承载着社团成员、乡亲之间的情谊和信众对神明的崇敬，延续了中华文化的精神。同时，邱叔叔并未荒废书法的手艺，工作之余练习写百福图，在临近节庆期间则挥毫书写春联赠送予来访的亲友。
随着科技的进步，如今只需在电脑上设计好旌旗的图像和尺寸，便可交由印刷厂打印在布上，甚至还能安装LED灯饰。面对时代的洪流，邱叔叔只管遵从兴趣继续制作旌旗，不去纠结未来会否有接班人之类的问题。闲暇时刻，他还联同亲友拍摄诙谐有趣的微视频，跻身粉丝人数破万的TikTok博主。过好当下的生活，坦然面对一切未知。
Nested within a sky-blue wooden house in Tampin New Village in Negeri Sembilan, with festive couplets adorning the doors and windows, and a wooden plaque hanging above the entrance, is Koh Leong Handicraft Workshop. Upon entry, most of the hall is taken up by a massive workbench with various tools scattered around. The room on the left holds a rectangular table over ten feet in length, hanging near the wall are all sorts of colorful cloth; the room on the right acts as a sewing room, semi-completed pieces hang aside. Uncle Khoo Koh Leong measures cloth with a wooden ruler, draws an outline with chalk, and then trims the edges. He single-handedly produced elegiac banners, appreciation pennants, and prayer flags for almost half a century.
Elegiac banners, appreciation pennants, and prayer flags all belong to the same branch of craft, however each serves a different purpose. Elegiac banners are hung in memorial halls and hearse carriages, as well as representing hometown guilds or schools to offer condolences to the bereaved family. Appreciation pennants acknowledge individual contribution towards society, commonly featuring yellow text on a red background fringed with tassel. Prayer flags are used for adornment during deity birthdays, an offering from worshippers as gratitude for blessings bestowed, showcasing divine powers, the colors vary with each deity.
In the 1950’s, elegiac banners were handwritten on white paper, with an elegy dedicated to the deceased person and the name of the sender or association written in black ink, usually burned after the funeral service. Back then, infrastructure in Tampin were not quite developed, Uncle Khoo who was a taxi driver used to help fellow villagers in handling elegiac banner purchases from cities such as Seremban or Melaka. In the long run, Uncle Khoo began to take an interest, therefore he started his side job as a self-taught craft maker.
As living standards improved in the 60’s and 70’s, fabric elegiac banners with common obituary phrases such as “Rest in Eternal Peace” or “In Loving Memory” flourished due to convenience and reusability, as they can be retrieved by the represented association after the funeral service. A casket store owner who was friends with Uncle Khoo once enlisted his help to produce elegiac banners and couplets for memorial hall decoration, thus establishing Uncle Khoo’s reputation as well as opening up opportunities. Uncle Khoo also took on new challenges such as producing appreciation pennants and prayer flags, his highly satisfactory handiwork was sought after by customers near and far, from Tampin to the states of Negri Sembilan, Melaka, Selangor, Pahang, and even overseas from Singapore and Indonesia.
For custom flag orders, the purpose, color, and size must be confirmed as Uncle Khoo needs to source materials and cut according to the approximate outline. Upon agreeing on the appropriate text, he measures their respective sizes and copies the words onto paper. The declining traditional practice of embroidery is not feasible for Uncle Khoo, therefore he imprints the words onto the fabric, cuts and pastes them onto the flag, then waits for the glue to dry before sewing. Due to the complicated structure of Chinese words, the sewing process requires attention to details, hence each flag takes two to three days instead of overnight to complete.
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文 Text/ 潘慧雯 Pua Hui Wen
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