A Rose of her Time

Rose Chan, former Miss Singapore, dance champion and

Sex Icon of the Malayas in the 1950-70s.

The Queen of Stiptease.

During a time where modesty was everything, this lady was the

Marilyn Monroe of Malaya.

She was a strong and confident woman who was raging for status, success and independence.

She's flaunted her sultry looks and killer curves and more, yes, but unlike the poseurs we have today, this was a lady in her element and being herself, not some girl wanting to sex it up because 'all the stars are doing it.'

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

The Rose Chan Experience:
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Once the music starts, the troupe emerges from behind the curtains, and parade on stage, clad only in panties, and a star covering each nipple. Dancing slowly to the tune of Chinese music, typically cha-cha and mambo rock, they strip naked the moment a voice booms "Hoi!" (Cantonese: open) over the microphone.

The opening striptease is followed by various sideshows — standup comedians, clowns, and jugglers — which served to prolong the mounting anticipation for the star attraction.

When Chan comes on stage, she moves subtly, gently swaying in a slow dance, all by herself. As she removes one piece of clothing after another, the tempo gradually picks up. When she reaches the point of removing her brassiere, she holds back. That is when her stagehands bring in the pythons, and she dances with the snakes wrapped all around her. Next, she removes her brassiere, and dances bare-breasted. After a while, the snakes are removed. She then approaches the people sitting nearest to the stage, who are normally the elderly big towkays (Hokkien: business owner). She takes an old man's spectacles, rubs it against her private parts, and then gives it back to him. Some of her acts are very crude. With her legs spread wide open, she peruses her most intimate parts to:

-stuff a banana inside;
-open the cap of a Coca Cola bottle;
-pull out a string of razor blades that was inserted in one by one;
-shoot a dart at a balloon high up.

She then tells some jokes. Sometimes, she will ask a Caucasian (because she knows they are more sporting than the shy, local guys) to go up on stage, and gets him to strip her or any of her performers. She slowly rolls down her panties, bit by bit, until the audience can have a peek at her pubic hair. The crowd goes hysterical, and eventually, she removes her panties, and dances and sways to the beat. The music then slows down, and she walks around, and then off she goes backstage.
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A legend who fought all her life in a world of condescending men treated women as objects.

She didn't object. But she didn't succumb either. She played the game.

A string of social discriminations, failed marriages, career turmoils and business hiccups, later, Chan died of breast cancer at her home in Butterworth, Penang, on May 26, 1987, leaving behind her husband, a son and three daughters.

Indeed. A Rose of her Time.

Q