An unforgettable first job

Riding high: Cheah during his days as a reporter on his motorcycle outside The Star office in Weld Quay, Penang in 1972.

MY first full-time job, when I was 17, was in The Star. I didn’t join as a journalist; rather, I was one of a crew of about 30 people, mostly women, employed as casual labour to fold the newspaper overnight.

This was in December 1971 in Penang; The Star had launched that September, and was printed on an old Heidelberg printing press purchased from Germany, producing broadsheets which required folding by hand.