For Willie Mar, returning to Yat Sen School’s 90/40 Anniversary celebrations is a chance to reconnect with an institution that shaped his life.
Mr Mar attended the then Fiji Chinese School (now Yat Sen Primary School) from 1944 to 1951, when the school was located on a quaint building along Gordon Street in Suva.
Now as old as the school is, his connection to the school runs much deeper than that of a former student.
His sister, Annie Mar, was among the school’s 17 pioneer students, while his father was a founding member who helped establish the school to preserve Chinese language and culture for Fiji’s growing Chinese community.
Now living in Brisbane, Australia with his family, Mr Mar can still vividly recall his daily walk to school from his family’s store on Cumming St.
“I was born in Cumming Street and lived there as well. We had a shop downstairs, and our house was upstairs, my father operated a general store that sold almost anything.
“We walked barefoot to school,” he said with a smile, reflecting on a very different Suva from the one that exists today.
The classrooms and school location may have changed over the decades, but many of the lessons remain clear in his memory.
He remembers studying both English and Chinese, an education that helped lay the foundation for his future learning.
“I used to come first in my class, class 3 and class 4, not because I was smart, but because I was a bit older than most students,” Mr Mar giggled.
He also recalled one of his favourite teachers, Mrs Jennings, an Anglican missionary teacher and the many Chinese teachers, sent from mainland China, who left a lasting impression on him
Among the keepsakes he has held onto over the years is his School Leaving Certificate, which misspelled his name as “Wailie” instead of Willie.
The error, made by a teacher more than seven decades ago, remains preserved on a scanned copy that he still carries today.
After leaving Fiji Chinese School, Mr Mar attended Marist Brothers High School, where he met some life-long friends including Sir James Ah Koy.
He had hoped to further study dentistry at the Fiji School of Medicine, but family circumstances altered those plans.
His father was getting older and needed help running the family’s business, prompting the young Mr Mar to set aside his ambitions and return home as the eldest son.
His father later returned to China, where he passed away.
Family remains central to Mr Mar’s story. His daughter, Jeannette Mar, is also a Yat Sen alumna and has joined him for the anniversary celebrations. The gathering has provided an opportunity for generations of former students to reflect on the school’s contribution to their lives and to Fiji’s Chinese community.
Soft-spoken but full of character and anecdotes, Mr Mar carries with him memories of a school and community that helped shape both his life and that of many other alumni.
More than seven decades after he first walked barefoot through the gates of the then Fiji Chinese School, he has returned not only to celebrate an anniversary, but to reconnect with the people, places and stories that have remained with him ever since.
Willie Mar with daughter Jeanette during the Yat Sen Secondary School 90/40th anniversary celebrations at the school hall in Flagstaff, Suva on Thursday,
September 17, 2026.
