Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Joel Chandran, who is retired, recalls the sheer feeling of joy growing up in Old Sembawang in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He lived with his family in a kampong house at Jalan Sembawang Kechil. He frequently sneaked into the nearby Naval Base, which felt like a totally different country. His friends were Chinese, Malays and Indians – they were all colour-blind. YouTu...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. ‘We are the bodoh ones’, some of the struggling children of Bukit Ho Swee told Anne Lim Siew Kim in the early ‘80s. In this podcast, we discuss education and self-help among low-income families. Anne Lim Siew Kim was the assistant project coordinator at Nazareth Centre in Bukit Ho Swee in the early 1980s, a generation after the great fire in 1961. She tried...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Anne Lim Siew Kim was the assistant project coordinator at Nazareth Centre in Bukit Ho Swee in the early 1980s, a generation after the great fire in 1961. She tried to help the at-risk children there, even as some of them tried to climb through the window and disrupt the class. She wrote about her experience in a book, Face to Face: The Street Children of Bu...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Koh Boon Long continues his memory stroll along the hills and farms of Jurong Road. Teaching at a modest school like Jalan Lama profoundly shaped his thinking on streaming and education in Singapore. He is also writing his memoir, which will be published in 2025. Koh Boon Long is a retired educator, with more than 50 years of experience in teaching, leading...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. ‘The Salt of the Earth’, as Koh Boon Long calls his former students at Jalan Lama Secondary School in rural Jurong. He remembers Jurong Road as a young trainee teacher in 1968-1971, before the region was transformed by the industrialisation programme. Koh Boon Long is a retired educator, with more than 50 years of experience in teaching, leading and consulti...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. C. Kunalan, one of the all-time greats in Singapore athletics, talks about running the mile in his schooldays. This changed when coach Tan Eng Yoon spotted him playing as a winger in a football team. Kunalan tells us why he decided to train for the sprints under Tan and how he got his first pair of spikes. He then takes us to his first major race – at the 19...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Retired publisher Fong Hoe Fang relives the idealism and sense of social justice that led him to form Pioneers Club with his friends during his secondary school days, and to publish Breakthrough magazine at the University of Singapore. Between the late 1960s and early 1980s, there was still space for such student and youth activism in Singapore. YouTube | ht...

Charles Ngui, 71, talks about growing up at 105 Clementi Road and the elephants of Kampong Gajah nearby. Further north was the famous Beauty World Market. Ahead in time were the development of Old Clementi and Charles' efforts to find closure with it. Charles was one of the young officers who joined the early Economic Development Board. He has a deep working knowledge of the tool and die indus...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. As an ‘involuntary migrant’, Syamala Senan joined the Sree Narayana Mission in Singapore and became part of the local Malayalee community. She compares her generation of migrants from Kerala to the new citizens who have arrived in Singapore in recent decades. Today, she is, in her own words, half Singaporean, half Indian – and happy.

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Syamala Senan was an ‘involuntary migrant’ from Kerala, joining her husband in Singapore in an arranged marriage in 1979. She talks about her struggles to adapt to a foreign land, find a job, connect with the Malayalee community, and raise her children. Today, she is, in her own words, half Singaporean, half Indian and happy.

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. C. Kunalan remembers running in the 1970 Commonwealth and Asian Games with a bone spur in his foot. He quit that year, only to return three years later at the SEAP Games hosted by Singapore, where he anchored the last leg of the 4x400m relay in a controversial race against the Malaysian team. Kunalan also recalls when U.K. Shyam broke his 33-year-old nationa...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Wan Chan Peew reflects on the steep learning curve for his and his father’s generation when the British pulled out of Singapore in the late ‘60s. Employees of the newly formed Sembawang Shipyard received something new and wondrous called bonuses, but there were also the 1968 Employment Act and the enforcing of labour discipline.

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Peter Chua remembers the stressful times accompanying Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and translating for him when he visited West Germany. He reflects on the failure of Rollei and working with Germans. He also pays tribute to his wife Stephanie Kong, who was with him in Frankfurt.

欢迎来到旧新加坡记事录。何乃强医生就读于养正小学。他说的华语有时非常有趣。 应为用了翻译的广东话。由于因为大马路快要消失，他写了一本关于牛车水的新书。他记得在书城 (Bras Basah Complex) 看书和牛车水的美食。他分享如何保护牛车水的历史与文化。 Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Dr Ho Nai Kiong studied at Yangzheng Primary School. His Mandarin was amusing at times because he used words translated fr...

欢迎来到旧新加坡记事录。何乃强医生的童年大部分时间是在桥南路 251 号的一间骑楼里度过的。他告诉我他的父母如何来到新加坡，以及他的父亲如何在战争期间被日本军殴打。他回忆桥南路的金铺，以及过去人们购买黄金的原因。其中一间金铺是安昌珠宝，由他的父亲于 1936 年创立。 Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Dr Ho Nai Kiong spent much of his childhood in a shophouse at 251 South Bridge Road. He tells me how h...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Mary Abishagam, Vijayan Nambiar and Alfred Dass all lived near the Naval Base Hospital with their families. They take us back in time to what was a child’s paradise – the hospital quarters they lived in, the friends they made, the games they played, the fruit trees and chickens, and the fear of the morgue.

鄧亚银1933 年出生于四角亭的一个贫困家庭。她记得九岁时就开始工作，经历了日本占领，战后做分类橡胶板的工，然后结婚并生了两个儿子。虽然生活很困难，但她总是乐于工作，对人友善。她每周五天到日托中心活动，生活非常充实。 Tan Ah Ngan was born to a poor family in Si Kah Teng in 1933. She remembers working when she was nine, living through the Japanese Occupation and sorting rubber sheets after the war, befor...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Charles Ngui answers my questions: does Clementi have a heritage trail? Were there villages serving the British in Old Clementi Road? He tells of the levelling of the hills as development arrived in the ‘70s and a little-known story of how Ngee Ann Kongsi played a proactive role in property development. Charles Ngui was one of the young officers who joined t...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Charles Ngui peels away the veil of rural Old Clementi Road to reveal its forgotten farms, dogs (wild and trained), wells, and hills, as well as the presence of British civilians and soldiers at Sussex Estate and several military facilities. Charles Ngui was one of the young officers who joined the early Economic Development Board. He has a deep working know...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. As former Director of the EDB Centre in Frankfurt, Peter Chua talks about Singapore’s efforts to woo the famed West German camera-maker Rollei in 1970, beating off competition from Taiwan. He is fluent in German and admits, ‘I am half-German’.

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. James Kwok has fond memories of studying in the historic Victoria School@Tyrwhitt Road in the 1960s. There was the culture shock coming from Rayman School, the imposing buildings, strict teachers, good teachers, teachers they bullied, and studying in a boys’ school.

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, a people’s historian and I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city. Alex Tan Tiong Hee takes us back to colonial-era Orchard Road in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Some landmarks are still around today though physically changed, like C.K. Tang. Others have vanished: Tropicana (with its topless dancing) and t...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Wan Chan Peew’s father came from Hong Kong to become a fitter in the naval dockyard, as was his brothers, while he did payroll in the Finance Department. Peew talks about growing up along Kowloon Road in the Naval Base and how it was like working for the British Navy.

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, a people’s historian and I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city. Wan Chan Peew’s father came from Hong Kong to become a fitter in the naval dockyard, as was his brothers, while he did payroll in the Finance Department. Peew talks about growing up along Kowloon Road in the Naval Base and how it...