Missy Big Bungalow
From Colonial concubine to modern matriarch
28th April, 2025
Chalerm, a shy innocent beauty of fifteen, escapes her poor background in Bangkok to live a fairy-tale life with a Danish man for ten years. But survival in the early 1900s teaches her hard lessons, a Danish fiance emerges leading Chalerm to move to Malaya to create a new life, despite having no contacts there. She creates a new life with a Scottish rubber planter who loves her dearly and treats her well. Another fiance emerges, leaving Chalerm feeling bitter and betrayed. Her life becomes brutal with WWII and occupation by the Japanese; with three Eurasian children she feels forced to use her beauty to save her family. This comes at a high price. Prior to these terrible times she has been introduced to Western music, dancing and films which she and her new family love. She combines this lifestyle with her Buddhist beliefs and Siamese culture. Gradually Chalerm evolves from an innocent, colonial concubine to a brave, resourceful but flawed matriarch of three Eurasian families who enjoys good times but also betrayal, hardship and heartache but thankfully peace of mind in her later years.
About the book
The early 1900s introduced many European men to life in Siam and Malaya - what implications arose for local women? On reading Elephants, Tigers and Tappers, set in colonial Malaya, I was struck by Michael Thorp’s words on the local, female partners many British men had: ‘It would be an incredibly interesting task to try to document the lives that some of these women had.’ (2008: 108). I immediately thought ‘I can do that. That’s the story of my grandmother!’
Missy Big Bungalow, based on the nickname my grandmother Chalerm received, is an eye-opening saga of four generations of a family of mixed European and Asian heritages spanning nearly a hundred years. ‘Exotic beauty ‘in Chalerm’s Chinese-Burmese family proved to be an important asset, allowing Chalerm and her relatives to collide happily with French, Danish, Polish and British cultures. Fascinating turns in her life provided both highs and lows, although survival in colonial times for local women also taught her hard lessons, made more brutal by Japanese occupation. Chalerm was able to use her beauty to save her family but at a high cost. This astonishing panorama focuses on mixed-heritage families striving to establish their own identities and flourish in times of war and a fading Empire.
