Uncles of Chinatown

A Microcosm of Singapore

The three uncles who stayed with us is a microcosm of Singapore in the fifties. These uncles stayed in the back room on the second floor and paid the occasional rent. In other words, the paid the rent for the utilities bill whenever they could because they were relatives or long time friends or a son of some old friend.

Actually only one was a uncle by blood. He was, I understand, some distant relative of my father through marriage or some ancestral link. He was a bit of a rake and lived a hand to mouth existence working whenever he felt like it in some warehouse of shop. There was no doubt that he could hold a regular job but somehow his temperament was to live a somewhat casual existence and he never stayed long at one job. Later on he became a chicken farmer in Malaya and drowned while swimming across a river to get at some durians. Somehow, I think he would have liked the manner of his death.

Then there was the young uncle, very serious, always reading and making entries in an exercise book. He wore spectacles, had a rash of acne and pimples on his face although he was always neatly dressed. He studied at some school or other. He disappeared all of a sudden. However, I heard my father telling his relative - my uncle - that the young man shoulf not take uppolitics. In those days that can only meant he was anti colonial and left wing. I don't think my uncle was the proper person for my father to rope in to persuade the young man not least because my uncle would have regarded it all as a bit of a lark. One day, the young man packed his things and left after saying his goodbyes, We had no news of where he went or what he did after that. Maybe he followed his dreams and ended up with the communist forces in Malaya. I am sure there must have been others like him.

The one who made the biggest impression on me was "Chwee Pek" or "Water Uncle", a white haired and frail looking man. He was called that because he was a sailor and would go away for periods of time carrying a rattan suit case of his clothes and other things. He carried letters for people as well as information. However, Chwee Pek never conducted his business at our house. I found out his letter carrying business because my uncle would tell him that while walking in Telok Ayer Street he had met so and so who wanted to make contact. Apparently Chwee Pek knew all these people looking for him and his information.

I was fascinated by Chwee Pek because he had a hand wound gramophone as well as quite a collection of rather scratchy records. Whenever he wound up the gramophone he would tell me that there would be singers inside the gramophone. It was an immense source of joy as well as great fascination for me.







One day Chwee Pek left, it was said, for China and from then on we would get only the occasional letter from him. In time, even these letters ended and Chwee Pek passed into history.

Looking back these three I knew in my very young days serve now as a continued reminder of the people who lived in Amoy Street. Were they just actors on the stage of Singapore? Were they citizens? Were they heroic? Were they flotsam and irrelevant? Or were they part of our heritage? Who knows. Maybe history will clarify this.

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The Darker Side

The Darker Side


Singapore at night has well lit and safe streets. It is very much a modern metropolis with a skyline glittering with the lights of skyscrapers and towering office blocks. When night comes the streets are packed with merry makers looking for food, drinks and shopping. Even past midnight you would find workers like money dealers either going home or turning up for work. .It is as the saying goes a 24-7 city.





However, in the fifties it was a very different experience for many parts of Singapore. In the old town, the streets were dimly lit, pools of darkness encroaching on the street lamps struggling vainly to provide light. Occasionally, a door would be open and muggy yellow light spilled out onto the pavement hardly reaching the road. The houses would usually be lit with low wattage bulbs giving off a faint yellow glow.

For a short period of time, usually before 9 in the night there would be hawkers with their pushcarts or baskets strung on bamboo poles. Hissing kerosene lamps accompany their slow journey down the road as they beat out a monotonous "tok. tok" on two bamboo sticks to announce their wares. However, by the time it was past 9 the streets would be empty with only the occasional straggler making his or her way home. It was usually taken for granted that these night birds were engaged in less than salubrious business.

In addition there would be the incense sticks and candles burning along the road. Given the high density of population cramped into the old town, deaths were common. On the seventh day after the funeral, relative or friends would light joss sticks and candles and burn incense papers to the departed who would be returning for a "final" visit. Usually these incense and candles would be lit just before midnight. The whole atmosphere was mysteriously dense as if more than human beings were present. The darker side In those day literally meant that - it was dark, very dark at night.





The night belonged to those who walked a different path. This had nothing to do with ghost stories or superstitions. It was accepted that different inhabitants walk the streets at night. Woe betide the person who returning late at night bumped into one of these. The consequence would be a kind of "illness", a loss of self because of the fright. So once, you closed the door it would not be open till daybreak. A visitor at night usually mean bad or unwelcome news.

Triad Montage

Two Views of Triads

The photographs below exemplify two contrasting views of the triads. There is one view that glamourizes and valorizes triads and their activities. That attitude is often fuelled and given crude credence by films, books and accounts of their loyalty, personal sacrifices and heroism. I am sure some of these are true; but it is even more true that the world of the triads is often marked by betrayal, deceit and self aggrandizement - a mirror portrait of the world of politics and business, which they are often mired in.

Valorizing Gangsters





A snapshot from a Hong Kong triad film. In these gangsters are smartly dressed and behaved like respected members of society.

The Truth

The second photographs shows gangsters as they are, tattooed, anarchic and alcoholic loving.






You would not like to meet these guys in a dark alley! Unfortunately, that is where most people are likely to run into them.

"The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" :Some Accounts of Triads in old Singapore

I would like to give soma accounts of triad incidents I have experienced.

My Godfather

My Godfather was a triad "controller". Which is to say, that he controlled an area. In his case, it was Hong Lim Green as well as the then rural Pek San Teng kampong. Don't ask me why it was like that because I have no idea. He married my aunt (father's sister) and somehow or other I became his godson. I am afraid he did not make much of an impact upon me - the godfather that really had a major impact on my life was (and still is) the Monkey God but that is another story altogether.

In any case, my godfather could get things done. That is, certain things. Like when my mother lost her purse while she was on the bus. There was a bit of a ruckus over that but my father went to "talk" to my godfather. In those days when you wanted something like that done, you always went to "talk" to a person, though of course that must be the right person. A few days later the purse came back minus the money. Just like that.

I don't know whether this is good, bad or ugly. But it did happen.

The second incident was when my neighbour who was a "fighter" in the Amoy Street squared off with another gangster, presumably also a fighter. A "fighter" in the triad jargon was not merely a person who fought but a leader, someone who spoke with authority and "settled" the day to day business of the triad. Ah that term "settling" brings back memories. You "settled" debts. insults, grievances and all kinds of things. I was at the back room one night (listening no less to Ong Toh on the rediffusion) when I happened to hear my neighbour challenging an unknown party to a one to one axe fight. I heard them naming a place and a time. My neighbour was never seen again. It was assumed that either he died or had to flee overseas (that usually meant Malaya) after killing someone. Nobody talked or speculated about him from that point on. That incident made a deep impression upon my young mind. You could say that it was bad to ugly.

The third incident was a religious ceremony in the house next door. In those days, Amoy Street was not what it is today - a clean, well maintained and neat street living off nostalgia lined with cafes and restaurants and offices. The street was cramped with all kinds of things spilling onto the pavement (the five foot way) and onto the road in many instances. A row of chicken cages lined the right side of the house I lived in while the house to the immediate left had wooden shelves on the pavement.

That year, a religious ceremony was held on the second floor of the house next door. There was an altar with a long table creaking with the weight of incense, fruits and other offerings. Incense smoke filled the room mixing with the clash of cymbals and gongs to make a heady mixture. Many came to pray and to make donations. However, these donations were not to the deity but to the triad group that controlled Amoy Street. To be honest, it was all beautifully done. The neighbours as well as other "well wishers" came to make donations right under the eyes of the authorities. The scribe religiously noted each household and their donations, "protection" (not from the gods but the triads) money for the year. This was one of the few times such a large ceremony was held and must have marked some significant event although what it was I could not remember. The usual way of paying "protection" money was to give "kopi liu", coffee money to the small time underlings that collected the amount each month for the triad.

We could say this was the ugly side of the triads. However, on the other hand, the chickens my neighbour kept for sale never got stolen. If anything got stolen or a thief dare break in, you complained or "talked" to the neighbourhood gangster. He would normally sort it out for you. That is not to praise these gangsters. It was simply the way things were in those days.

Although my godfather was a triad chieftain it was understood that he had no choice but to make a living then by joining the "pang" or triad. When my godbrother took over the Pek San Teng Three Flags Gang, a notorious triad grouping my father told him that he was misguided and should make an honest living. Of course nobody listened to my father.

Nothing is ever as clear as present day commentators would like to have it.

Triads in Singapore

The Dark Side of Amoy Street

Let me show you the other side of Amoy Street and its religious festivals as well. It was not all about tradition and heritage. From the earliest days the triads (later to be called SS or Secret Society, by the authorities) had always mixed religion with their activities. Initiation rites were held in front of deities particularly of Guan Kong, who signified for them loyalty and bravery. Interestingly in a mirroring of this ceremony many police stations in Hong Kong as well as many policemen Singapore and Malaya prayed to Guan Kong as well.

However, rioting and other criminal activities were not exclusive to the triads or for the Chinese. In 1857 a riot by the Indian indentured labour laid siege to the Telok Ayer Police Station.

By the 1950s the triads as a group had a comprehensive grip on activities in Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street. However, by then the triads were also losing the tight organization structure that had stood them well over the years building them into a force to be reckoned with. A number of disputes broke out over territory as the triads fought for dominance. Often these involved fighters provided by the coolies, the labourers that were at that time the backbone for the movement of goods.

There wasa term particular to these triad feuds; they were called in Hokien "piah coolie geng" which translates as "overturning (or properly speaking, thrashing) the coolie house". When that happened, a group of coolies would attempt to burst into a rival gang of coolies' headquarters. If the rivals were caught napping their headquarters would be thrashed and many would be chased away or beaten up. However, because these raids were often the culmination of outstanding feuds, the rival gang would often be waiting.

Fights were nasty. A posting on the net says that weapons used were meat cleavers or machetes. These were certainly used but actually, the weapons were more nasty. They included (from fights that I used to watch):

1. Coolie hooks which were long or short hooks set into wooden handles that were used to drag and hold on to sacks. If you were slashed in the stomach by one of these it is very likely that your intestines would spill out. That is why "fighters" who led the charge often wound pieces of cloth tightly round their stomach and abdomen to prevent their guts being torn out in case they were hooked. Of course, if your were hooked on the head it is very likely your eyes would be gorged out.

2. Axes. These were much favoured weapons of the Amoy Street coolie gangs and their fighters. One blow from an axe could split a skull or, at the very least, break a shoulder blade or hand.

3. Long Poles. Many coolies carry poles as one of their trading tools and these were often used in fights. Some of these poles had weights or hooks attacked to one end. Again, it would be curtains for sure if one got struck by such a pole.

4. Bottles. Many of the houses and coffee shops had crates of empty bottles stacked outside. The bottles provided handy and plentiful ammunition whenever a fight broke out.

To be fair though these coolie gangs did not bully or attack the residents or passer bys. Their fights had specific - usually, economic - motives.

However, the presence of the triads were deep and permeated many aspects of life. In the next post I will write about some of these.

However just a slight detour. Are there no triads in present day Singapore. I came across this report from AFP:


AFP, SINGAPORE
Monday, Jan 22, 2007, Page 5

"In quiet, safe Singapore, people are not supposed to die like Lim Hock Soon.

The nightclub owner was gunned down at his apartment in a case that seemed to belong somewhere else -- perhaps in edgy Hong Kong and its world of triad gangsters -- not in one of Asia's cleanest and most crime-free cities, where the sound of a police siren is rarely heard.

Killing

Police say there had not been a killing like it for about six years in this city-state of more than four million people.

Today, a man nicknamed "One Eyed Dragon" goes on trial for the death of Lim, 41, on Feb. 15, last year.

Tan Chor Jin, 39, is charged under the Arms Offences Act with firing six rounds and "causing injury" to Lim, according to court records. Tan faces death by hanging if convicted at the High Court trial, which is scheduled to last 10 days.

Local press reports at the time said the killing happened about 7am that Wednesday after the gunman, dressed in black, walked in to Lim's second-floor apartment.

He tied up Lim and his Malaysian wife, Kok Pooi Leng, along with their 13-year-old daughter and a maid. Then he shot Lim dead with a pistol in the study, and ran off, newspapers reported. Lim had wounds to the head and limbs, they said.

Tan was arrested about 10 days later at a five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Along with Tan, two other men and three women were arrested by police who seized six guns, 203 bullets, and 4kg of the drug ketamine, newspapers reported.

Tan is dubbed "One Eyed Dragon" because he was blinded in the right eye during a traffic accident, one report said.

Singapore's the New Paper said Tan was "believed to be a member of the Ang Soon Tong triad," but Singapore police say traditional Hong Kong-style triad groups no longer exist in the city-state."

So there you have it.

Singapore in The Fifties

Meaning in the 50s.

There was a different kind of meaning and a different set of concerns as well in the 50s. However, I am not saying that the 50s were superior or better in any way; it was just different.

First as to the meaning. This was, to my mind, born of an affinity with the rhythms of a spiritual life at the same time recognizing that this spirituality lay close to the routine living of the everyday. The line between the spiritual and the human worlds were, of course, separate but at the same time not indivisible. At any moment and given the right conditions one could cross over from one side to the next.

Chinese opera acknowledges this liminality: when on stage a thin red line, symbolizes for the performers. the boundary between the human and the spiritual world. At any moment the spiritual world was present, very much a part of the stage.

In the same way, the annual cycle of festivals at the various temples and the street performances that accompanied these knitted the community and the spiritual world together. The "tang ki" or seance master who invited and serve as a platform for the chosen deity to ascend into him was at that period a common presence at these festivals and illustrated this liminality as well.

The "tang ki" would dance, sway to the power of the deity who assumed his body, that is "borrowed" his body to articulate his presence. During the trance, he might walk or sit in his sedan chair as the sacred procession made its way from one temple, the starting point, to the designated temple where he would be enthroned. Throughout, gongs and cymbals beat out the steady rhythm that announced the deity's presence.

To emphasize the power of the deity the "tang ki" would subject his body to various mutilations. He might pierce his cheeks with a long metal skewer or in more extreme cases hack at his shoulder with a machete until a "v" shaped wound could be seen. Or he could cut into his tongue with a knife or skewer. The blood from these were used to cast amulets for the lucky devotee.

I have also seen firewalking "tang kis" as well as one who climbed up a ladder of knives impervious to the pain. Were they drugged or in a trance? Whatever the case normal human beings would be severely injured by their actions though I have never heard of a "tang ki" being immobilized through injuries suffered from their trances.

Telok Ayer Street and Amoy Street were rich with the cultural traditions of all the various temple worships and festivities.





Today we still see some of this in celebrations such as the Nine Emperors' Festival where Chinese live from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

It was common in those days to visit temples on the 1st and 15th day of the lunar month. On special days such as the birthdays of the deities or other auspicious dates the temples would be filled with devotees. Special altars would be erected, the air would be filled with the smoke of burning incense and prayer papers while it would be common to have a temporary stage erected facing the temple's main door where opera performances would be carried out every night.

There would be wooden stools in front of the stage although it would be just as common to bring your own stool or straw mat. One advantage of bringing your own stool was that we, the younger ones, could always stand on it to get a better view if the crowd was very large.

Along the sides of these seats hawker stalls selling snacks, food and drinks. One particularly famous drink was the "Bird's Nest Soup", an expensive and precious delicacy even in those days although this sould for pennies a glass. Of course, this was just a mixture of sugar water, dye and jelly masquerading as the real thing!

The performance came to life soon after evening and a "programme" would normally last till 10 in the night. On more elaborate occasions there would be afternoon performances. Then the noise of the cymbals, suonas and gongs would add to the bustle of the temple devotees as well as the temple orchestra that play the music of the deities.






Until firecrackers were banned in Singapore these also added to the noise although to my recollection the actual firing of firecrackers was always very restrained on religious festivals.

All these was not just entertainment but an essential part of the rhythm that made up the community's year. The year comes round, the birthday of the deity is observed, old pledges are redeemed, thanks give for help received in the course of the year and prayers offered for continued protection and help. Thus it went on, day to day, month to month and year to

The Rhythm of Spirit

Times Past

In the 40s and 50s Singapore spirits, gods, demons, ghosts and human beings jostle for space among the crowded quarters of old Singapore town. The supranatural and other worldly were not some dimension to be evoked through magical rituals but were just another aspect of life. To put it another way, the two existed side by side.

Daily existence followed the rhythm of this other worldly (if it is indeed right to call it that) dimension. When you get up in the morning you would change the tea or water on the altar table where the house gods (Guan Yin, Monkey God or some other deity that had been ritualistically and properly invited) and the ancestral tablets would be displayed. Then you lit the incense sticks to start the day.

That inaugurated and began the day setting the stage for the activities to follow whether it be work or study or simply cleaning the house. It also acknowledged the protection of the deities that had guarded the house and inhabitants through the long, often dark night because in those days night time often meant darkness as it was too expensive to switch on lights and the street lamps would often not be working
or there would be simply no street lamps.





The act of lighting and offering the incense sticks to the deities affirm an important link between the devotee and the spiritual world. You lit three incense sticks representing Heaven, Earth and Man. However three incense sticks were also lit because the number three signifies change, the opening of the mind that allows the movement that links the devotee through his act to the spiritual world.

In the evening at 5.00 pm just before dinner and when the household members had returned from the day's work or activity another three incense sticks would be lit for the altar. This acknowledged the deities' role as well as the ancestors in a safe (and productive) day and anticipated the closing of the door after dinner. As in the morning the incense sticks also prepared for the night when ill-meaning spirits or passing demons might prowl round the house.

The last set of incense sticks to the Heaven God (Tien Gong) would be lit after dinner and just before bed time usually about 9.00 pm. The incense would not be placed on the altar but in a separate container with a tablet to the Heaven God. This last prayer before the day was "officially" over paid respect to the pantheon of heavenly spirits acknowledged the larger forces of Nature and the Universe.

All the households in old Singapore town carried out this ritual, some more religiously others when they had the opportunity. However, all accepted and participated in the customary traditions that this enacted.

On a larger platform, the tradition sustained a set of beliefs as well as actions that mark the life of old Singapore town from Chinese New Year to Ching Ming Festival and to the Moon Cake Festival. So each festival was not just "theatre" (easy enough to describe it as such nowadays making it even easier therefore to put culture on for display for tourists) but acts of faith and conviction that came from and affirmed cultural sensibilities and religious outlooks.

This was the rhythm of a daily and then yearly life following the dates and events spelled out by culture and the past.

The Spirit of Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street

Three Houses of Worship

The area that is bounded by Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street boast three major houses of worship. The earliest is the Nagore Durgha Shrine. The land on which the shrine stands was granted to Kaderpillai in 1827. Between 1828 to 1830, Southern Indian Muslims and the Chulias from the Coromandel Coast built a shrine known originally as Shahul Hamid Durgha, in memory of a holy man from Nagore, South India. The shrine was also known as Masjid Moulana Mohammad Ally and was one of the earliest houses of worship in Singapore.





In 1839 the Hokiens under the leadership of Mr Tan Tock Seng and Mr Si Hoo Keh began work on the Thian Hock Keng. The Temple was completed in 1840 and the community which had hitherto worshipped mainly at the Heng Shan Teng Temple in Silat Road move its religious focus to Telok Ayer Street. The main hall of the Temple is dedicated to Ma Zu, protector of sea men and sea farers (that is, those who cross the sea to settle in Nanyang or Southeast Asia). A second hall is dedicatewd to the worship of Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Mercy.





A third temple that is of equal importance is the Siong Cho Keong (Xian Zu Gong) which was completed in 1869. The hall is dedicated to the worship of Shakyamuni Buddha, Guan Yu and various hsiens or tutelary spirits flanked by Ma Zu and Toh Peh Kuan. The worship of Toh Peh Kuan is particularly important since he is the guardian spirit of Singapore.





These three houses of worship shape and govern the yearly and daily ritual of spirit and living in Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street.

Amoy Street As It Was

The Source

Nowadays we hear a lot about "heartlands" in official communiques. These usually refer to the large public housing estates where the majority of citizens live. As if the financial districts like Shenton Way or the new Marina Bay Financial Hub do not belong to the "heart" of Singapore. Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street were never - thankfully - called the heartland although all the old citizens of Singapore knew that was where the source of the Chinese Hokien presence in Singapore was.

That was why the Chinese Middle School students marched to the Hokien Huay Kuan to protest their grievances. That was also why, I suspect, the British security forces shot the young man. He was supposed to be waving a red flag - actually to the best of my memory it was a white handkerchief (which could mean that he was surrendering?)The British wanted to show their teeth and what better way to demonstrate their power than by shooting from a distance.

But to return to Amoy Street. You cannot separate Amoy Street from Telok Ayer street and the short Boon Tat Street that linked these two over at the Upper Cross side. The people who lived in these three streets form a tight community.






As the photograph shows you walk from Telok Ayer Street by way of Boon Tat street into Amoy Street. McCallum Street that joined the other end of Amoy Street was never part of the community. In fact, Ang Siang Hill which led up from that side of Amoy Street to Eu Tong Seng Street was more frequented and used as a thoroughfare by the inhabitants.

These walkways were where the community circulated. At the back of Amoy Street for instance there was an alley which led out to Club Street and Cross Street while the other end led out to Ang Siang Hill. It was very difficult for any stranger to enter the area without being "spotted" and watched. Nowadays we call this the "kampong" spirit but it was also self policing. The community minded and looked after its own business and itself. Even plain clothes policemen who walked into the area were "approved" ones, recognized and accepted by the triads that ran the area.

The next photograph shows the back alley of Amoy Street - to all intents and purposes the size of a small lane.





It was in this narrow, crowded, dirty maze of streets that many stories were played out that resonated with the many larger events then taking place in Singapore. To understand more of this place the reader must understand the temples and spirit they represented.

Singapore At Night

My strongest memory of old Singapore town is not of the morning or the afternoon but of the evening and the night. I think I am not alone in this view having asked a number of people. The night seems to bring with it a particular quality for those of us who lived in that period.

Nowadays dinner is, if you are lucky at 7.30 pm or it could even be at 8.00 pm or latest because work is so demanding. In the fifties dinner was often at 5.30 pm or at the latest 6.00 pm. Work was often over by 4.30 and unless you stay far out of town you could be back at home by 5.30 and there usually would be someone at home who would prepare and cook the meal because of the extended family.

After dinner many would sit outside their houses or rooms getting the cool air as the saying goes. By 6.60 pm the streets would begin to darken - the street lights were few and far between, if you are lucky to have street lamps. Then the front part of the houses would be plunged into darkness because those who continued to be outside did so without switching on lights while those who were inside often made do with a dim overhead bulb often yellow or warm glow, as it is described nowadays. By 7.00 pm there would be few pedestrians except for the occasional pushcart vendor hawking his food.

The centre of activity was the rediffusion set. It worked by cables that workers ran in from the street if you subscribed to the service. I think it was $5.00 per set. If you didn't have the requisite cables and there were no junction box within easy reach then tough luck, there would be no rediffusion.


There were two broadcasted channels, silver and gold. Silver was the dialect and mandarin channel while gold was the English channel. Most homes that I knew as well as the coffee shops that carried the rediffusion sets tuned to the Chinese channels. For many story telling was the chief draw. At 5.30 the famous Lei Dai Sor would narrate historical and martial arts novels in Cantonese. I was brought up on a diet of these Cantonese stories as well as the Cantonese operas that were broadcasted every Saturday afternoon. At 8.45 pm the equally famous Ong Toh would narrate similar stories in Hokkien. And, to top of a night of exciting listening there were ghost stories at 10.00 pm.

There were many avid followers of these master story tellers and it is a pity that their voices as well as narrative skills are no little recognized.

(For help on this post I would like to thank Uncle Victor and Uncle Richard).

Where oh where is Old Singapore?

Recently I asked a childhood friend who had immigrated to Australia for many years whether he would consider coming back to Singapore to live. His answer is of relevance to the topic I a writing on. He was full of praise for Singapore, its shopping centres, its mrts and new flats. He also praised the economy and the global outlook of the country. But, no, he would not consider living in Singapore again. "Why?" I asked him.

Not because I am now an Australian citizen he told me but because in his words, "There is no sense of stability, of continuity in Singapore." Not that everything is changing because this is inevitable with progress in a small island but there are no links, no connections with some meaning in my past which would make me feel belonging. All that is gone, swept away bu the steely determination of the country to modernize.

Take a look at Chinatown, that is the so-called Chinatown that are mentioned in the same breath as visitors, shopping and tourists. Sir Stamford Raffles may have intended to mark out a "Chinese Campung" area where the Chinese would be allowed to settle but from that it is a mockery to call the area that has evolved "Chinatown" which is what the National Library does in its information note,

"Chinatown is Singapore's largest Historic District, and the four sub-districts of Bukit Pasoh, Kreta Ayer, Telok Ayer and Tanjong Pagar were given conservation status in the late 1980s. Much of the town has changed, but fortunately, some remnants of its colourful past still stand and old traditions still endure. During festivals like the Lunar New Year, there's celebration and special shopping. And as to be expected Chinatown is always dressed for the occasion, colourful, lit up and buzzing with activity, attracting not just Chinese but other locals, and tourists as well."

Nobody who ever lived in Chinatown called it Chinatown. The term was borrowed from "Chinatowns" of San Fransisco, London, Amsterdam and Sydney and apply to Singapore so that tourists would feel comfortable.

In one stroke Singapore old town as I prefer to call it was appropriated and given over to the tourists. Those who lived in it became curiosities to be gawked and pawed over much like the cheap trinkets sold from pushcarts for visitors.

It is important that we respect the life and experiences of our forefathers as they actually were and not turned them into some kind of oriental exotica like what we see in the photograph for the voyeuristic pleasure of tourists.

My aim is to put across in my own limited way a sense of what life meant then for us old Singapore town dwellers.

A gentler, more relaxed and forgiving Singapore.



In any case, in the past people always refer to the place where you live - Geylang, Hylam street, Bukit Pasoh End, Si Beh Lor or wherever you happen to be.

In any case, in the past people always refer to the place where you live - Geylang, Hylam street, Bukit Pasoh End, Si Beh Lor or wherever you happen to be.

So Telok Ayer Street was often simply referred to as Ma Cho Keng Tau Cheng (in front of the Ma Cho Temple) or if you live further down as Guan Soon Kuay (Guan Soon Street).

Similarly Amoy Street was referred to as Ma Cho Keng Hau Piak (back of Ma Cho Temple). Because Amoy Street was near the Cantonese areas in Smith Street and New Bridge Road it was also known as Ha Mun Kai by the Cantonese,

These names have a simple elegance reflecting the community context.

Is the Past All Bad?

Romanticizing The Past?

"Are we" my friend asked, "in danger of romanticizing the past?"

As usual when we talk of events happening around us today we look back on quieter, less hectic and perhaps gentler days. But, are we not looking at the past through rose-coloured tinted spectacles? Was our past not one of unremitting hardship, starvation and privation. Were there not triad members waiting to bully and extort from us at every turn, did not disease killed many and did we not face insufficiency during most meal?

Certainly the past as a glorious, simple age is a myth. Life was hard, food was not of the best, living conditions were cramped and you make do with very little.

BUT it is equally a myth that life is so much better today.

Apologists and myth makers of various persuasions like to describe the present as a departure from the past. Improvements that have taken place are defined by their difference from the past that is then conceived of as limited, shabby and poverty ridden. This itself is a myth. It is also a rhetorical abuse of argument meant to convince us that whatever is wrong with the present is tolerable because of their appreciable difference from what had been the past.



Why such a myth is necessary is not for us to discuss now. Rather my next few postings will talk of the Singapore of the fifties and sixties and what life meant then.

What Historians Say of the Chinese Middle School Riots

I am not a historian so believe it best to give a summary of the 1956 Chinese Middle School Riots that provide the context for my post.

Before that, I must add that my purpose is not to write history but to provide through this blog a sense of the lived experience of a number of events as they occur in Singapore and Malaya. My intention is to focus on the "then" and not the "now" of Singapore and to try to get as close to the experiences of what it then was to a child and a young man growing up during that period. I really will have little to say of the present except when this lends itself as a contrast to past events.

So back to 1956. In that year Lim Yew Hock took over as the Chief Minister of Singapore from David Marshall and promptly moved against the various unions and organizations that were felt to be communist. Soon after taking office Lim Yew Hock deregistered and banned the Singapore Women's Association and the China Musical Gong Society arguing that these were communist front organizations. Early in October 1956, he also dissolved the Singapore Chinese Middle School Students' Union (the SCMSSU).

In response the students organized a sit in at Chung Cheng High School and the Chinese High School. When two weeks past with the students determined to carry on, the government issued an ultimatum on the 24 of October demanding the students disband and end their protests. Soon after demonstrations and riots broke out. On the 26 of October 1956, the students marched out of their school grounds intending to make their way to the Hokien Huay Kuan (the Hokien Clan association) in Telok Ayer Street to petition their grievances and force the issue.






The Hokien Huay Kuan was the association of the largest Chinese dialect group in Singapore. Its Chairman included Tan Kah Kee and Tan Lark Sye. In 1915 the association had registered its name as the Thian Hock Keng Hokkien Huay Kuan but in 1929 it was renamed Hokkien Huay Kuan.

The Hokkien Huay Kuan was housed at the Thian Hock Keng Temple in Telok Ayer street until 1919 when it moved to Hua Yi Xuan — one of the wings of the Temple. In 1955 the association moved to a new six-storey building across from the temple. This building has since been demolished and rebuilt as and in 2003 the building was as an eight-storey office complex.

However on that fateful day - the 26 of October 1956 - the students were determined to march to the Hokien Huay Kuan and present their protest petition to the committee. The police were equally determined not to allow them through and set up road blocks.



It was this march and demonstration that led to the shooting I witnessed. I was then a child and that shooting made a deep impression upon me. In particular I remembered how later that evening when all the noise had subsided and the street was quiet for the approaching night a monk from the house temple in front of which the boy had been shot came out with a pain and a brush valiantly attempting to clean away the blood.

That scene has always struck me as a parable for human folly and mortality. In a subsequent posting I would post some photographs of Amoy Street that even if taken recently would give a picture of where the boy was actually shot.

A Killing in Singapore

I have a little story to tell of Singapore. Not of the present day Singapore with its skyscrapers, multimillion bungalows by the sea and rush to put up iconic buildings. The Singapore I write about is of the past, well not exactly that far past but let us say 50 years. a nice round number that is half a century. In some places that would hardly qualify as old but in Singapore 50 years is more than a half a life time away.

A friend told me that living in Singapore is like being on a treadmill. You have no control over the machine because some external intelligence is in control of the speed. Once you are on it, you keep on running and running. Many fall by the wayside, flung off by a speed they can't manage, others choose to get off, while still others have no choice but to run on and on until they drop from exhaustion.

Well that is Singapore of the now. But I write of more leisurely times, of life in the 40s, 50s and 60s. In particular I write of the streets where I live. The first is Amoy Street.




That day the excitement almost carnival like was palpable in Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street. You could feel it in the air with people hurrying around purposefully, carts being pushed across the road and at one end of Amoy Street just before the road intersects with Upper Cross street and the slip road that connects to Telok Ayer Street two or three lorries were parked across the road.

Away from that intersection you could not hear anything distinct. Shouts, hoorays and the occasional running of people rushing to where the lorries were parked were about all you could hear. There were other lorries parked along the road because Amoy Street in those days had a number of warehouses or "go downs" as these were called. One lorry parked three quarters up the road away provided an ideal lookout for a number of people, some of whom climbed on top of the lorry to get a better look. Some waved handkerchiefs and pieces of cloth, which had been perhaps used to protect themselves from the tear gas at the intersection.

People climbed and jostle for space on top of the lorry. Then there was a "bang" which was amplified by the narrow street. The sound hung in the air almost as if it had a life of its own. A young boy, hardly more than a teenager, laid on the road bathed in blood. The crowd looked on with shock then confusion and finally seemed to awoke to what had happened. They clustered round the body, picked it up and disappeared into one of the houses. Others scurried back from the Telok Ayer Steert junction jumped over the low back wall of the Thian Hock Kheng Temple and disappeared.

The road never fully cleared. It was not as if the road suddenly became deserted. There were still people walking along the road except that they walked silently as if in they did not want to disturb the dead or be part of the tragedy.

This was October 1956 and the incident I described took place during the Chinese Middle School Riot in Singapore. It would be one of the most serious riots in Singapore. In a subsequent blog I will provide some some day photographs showing the place where the shooting happened.