Compiled by C. ARUNO, BENJAMIN LEE and R. ARAVINTHA
THE former chairman of the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), Yap Sin Tian, 87, passed away at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre on Tuesday morning, Sin Chew Daily reported.
His death was confirmed by Chow Siew Hon, a former deputy chairman of Dong Zong.
Born in 1939, Yap taught Bahasa Melayu at Chong Hwa Independent High School and Tsun Jin High School in Kuala Lumpur.
He was also known for his writing and his translations from Chinese into Bahasa Melayu.
In the 1970s, Yap was detained under the Internal Security Act for over four years for his involvement in an anti-eviction campaign in a Kepong squatter settlement.
Upon his release, he worked in journalism and publishing before joining the Chinese education movement.
He started being actively involved in Dong Zong in 1990 and was elected chairman in 2005, a position he held for 10 years.
As a result of Dong Zong’s leadership crisis between 2014 and 2015, Yap was brought down following an extraordinary general assembly in August 2015.
He was warded during the crisis and later revealed he had a heart condition and high blood sugar. Despite his condition, Yap continued to devote his life to Chinese education, serving on the boards of multiple organisations in the sector until his passing on Tuesday.
> Hong Kong actor Tony Leung remained calm and comforted an audience who admitted to falling asleep during the screening of his latest film Silent Friend. The incident took place in Dunhuang city in China’s northwestern province of Gansu, China Press reported.
During the post-screening question-and-answer session, an audience member said he felt guilty for falling asleep during the screening.
Leung immediately reassured him that it was okay, adding that he too would fall asleep at times while watching a film.
Prior to the screening, Leung reminded his audience that Silent Friend had a runtime of two hours and 27 minutes, and joked that concentrating throughout its entirety could be a challenge.
Silent Friend is a 2025 historical drama in German, English and Cantonese. It follows a ginkgo tree through three loosely connected stories in different eras.
Leung is one of the most successful actors in Asia and is known for his roles in Hero (2002), Lust, Caution (2007), Red Cliff (2008), and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
