Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Jamari Ahmari recalls taking the initiative to learn from his instructors at Sembawang Shipyard. He graduated top of his class and became an estimator, contributing to the shipyard’s commercial growth. Once, though, he ran afoul of the company’s strict ‘no long hair’ policy. He married Jamidah from Jalan Pasir Ria, ran an engineering consultancy for two year...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Charles Ngui remembers the 'espionage' in industrial services in the 1970s. The EDB's Light Industries Services made prototypes and did reverse engineering for its clients. Singapore did not need money to industrialise, but industrial expertise. He later joined the National Engineering Services, a government-owned company, as a marketing officer....

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Veteran editor P.N. Balji traces his memories to the Naval Base and specifically Delhi Road where his family lived. His younger brother was Sivaji, former national coach of Singapore football. Balji tells the story of his father Poravankara Narayanan Nair as a stowaway from Kerala and how he dropped his caste name ‘Nair’ in Singapore. Poravankara Narayanan w...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Pamela Sandanasamy relates how the British military withdrawal in the late 1960s and 1970s divided her paternal and maternal relatives, taking them away from Singapore to Britain, India and Malaysia. We also discuss how the Sembawang community, including working adults in the 20s to 40s, can do to celebrate their lives in and around the Naval Base. Part 1 |...

欢迎来到旧新加坡记事录。黄信勇医师讲述了他的父母从广东移民到波东巴西，成为菜农。他回忆起五岁时就在农场工作，以及水灾经常冲毁家中菜地的情景。性格内向的他起初并不了解华校的学生运动，也不了解正在动员波东巴西农民的乡村住民联合会。 Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Physician Wong San Yong relates how his parents migrated from Guangdong to become vegetable farmers in Potong Pasir. He talks about w...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Leng Ng Tai talks about his ongoing efforts to document the stories of ex-engineering apprentices like him for the Founders’ Memorial as well as those of other older Singaporeans who contributed to the development of Singapore. And along with other members of the Old Engineering Apprentices Association, he is mentoring engineering students from the Singapore...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Jamidah Surbardy remembers fondly her childhood and community in Pasir Ria and Pasir Panjang. Three things marked the changes that eventually took her away from Pasir Panjang – getting married at the age of 21, working in the crystals factory of Australian firm Hy-Q International and relocating to HDB flats after the landlord sold the land. Part 1 | https://...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Charles Ngui talks about the work of the Light Industries Services, in creating prototypes for local and foreign companies and doing reverse engineering with these clients. He also recounts the efforts of the National Engineering Services, a government-owned company where he was a marketing officer, and why it eventually failed. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/6-u...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Gloria Kwok recounts her special relationship with her grandmother Sum Yin Yong in the later years till she passed away. If Sago Lane played a key role as a community hospice for the people of Chinatown during the colonial period, Gloria is proud that her grandmother worked for many years in one of the death houses on the street. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/PS...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. In Part 2, I assess the most intriguing part of Albert Winsemius’ work in Singapore, which never made it to his United Nations report. Privately to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, he urged that political action must precede economic reforms if industrialisation were to succeed. First, the statue of Raffles must not be removed. Second, the government must elimin...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Marc Sebastian Rerceretnam continues on the history of the Roman Catholic community in colonial Singapore. The Chinese converts rejected cultural norms such as wearing the pigtail while a mix of religious, cultural and economic factors led to the 1851 riots against the Catholics. But what continues to be relevant for Singapore today is how the Roman Catholic...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Jamari Ahmari talks about two halves of his roots. His parents were Boyanese. His father lived in a pondok (a community shelter for Boyanese migrants) at Upper Dickson Road before marrying his mother, who came to Singapore from Muar. He worked as a chauffeur for Soon Peng Yam and lived in the servants’ quarters at 19 Gilstead Road. Jamari attended Monks Hill...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Soh Weelian recalls the ponds, shops and hawker food of Kampong Potong Pasir, including having a delicious plate of char kway teow by a pond, the kindergarten he attended and a frightening flood in 1978. Interestingly, Weelian seems to be more nostalgic about the brief kampong life he experienced than his parents – a sign that documenting and conserving the...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Veteran marine engineer Kan Seng Chut reflects on how ex-apprentices like him from the Old Engineering Apprentices Association can inspire tomorrow’s young engineers to sail. He relates two stories where his personal experience helped him solve complicated engineering problems. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/0uBWysUostU Part 2 | https://youtu.be/dDXJqIZEsnU Part...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Albert Winsemius was Singapore’s most successful foreign expert, advising the government on economic policy for twenty years. I look at his first contribution to Singapore in 1960-61, explaining why he succeeded when so many experts failed. His main then was to convince the government that Singapore could pivot from entrepot trade to secondary industry again...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Pamela Sandanasamy comes onto the podcast as our youngest guest yet and with a strong love for conserving the past. She takes us through numerous old photos of the Naval Base where her father Sandanasamy – an avid photographer – studied, lived and worked. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/IV5Z1_YmBK4 Part 2 | https://youtu.be/tInleB6qsl0 00:00 Introduction 05:33 Con...

欢迎来到旧新加坡记事录。郭绍愷讲述了新加坡工艺学院中文协会的成立过程，以及其成员在 60 年代和 70 年代对社会问题的浓厚兴趣。 Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Quek Siow Kai recounts how the Singapore Polytechnic Chinese Language Society was set up and how its members were keenly interested in social issues in the 1960s and 1970s. 第一集 Part 1 | https://youtu.be/R3bFzaTkeX0 第二集 Part 2 | htt...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Upon graduation, Leng Ng Tai relates his working experience for two major employers in Singapore: at the Motor Vehicle Workshop with its fleet of 800 in the Naval Base, and after the British withdrawal in the late 1960s, the oil multinational Shell, Singapore’s first pioneer status company on Pulau Bukom. Among his 51 successful years with Shell, he was a sa...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Tong Siew Yin takes us back to old shops, businesses and hawkers of Orchard Road in the 1950s and 1960s before the shopping malls arrived. Ep1 | https://youtu.be/YD_B87867Gc Ep2 | https://youtu.be/fihcnpDpgkk 00:00 Emerald Hill 05:28 Somerset Staff Quarters 10:27 Hawkers at Emerald Hill 15:30 Fosters & Magnolia Snack Bar 17:13 Cold Storage 22:22 Tailors...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Gloria Kwok spent several years during her primary school holidays living with her grandmother Sum Yin Yong at Sago Lane in Chinatown in the 1960s. This was the infamous street of the dead, which the Cantonese called ‘sei yan kai’. As Gloria recalls, her grandmother worked as a caretaker in the death house called Fook Sau and both of them lived on the second...

欢迎来到旧新加坡记事录。何乃强医生回忆起日治时期家人逃往波东巴西，并藏匿贵重物品，以及他的学业如何受到影响。他谈到战争给新加坡带来的三个教训。 Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Dr Ho Nai Kiong recalls fleeing to Potong Pasir with his family during the Japanese Occupation, hiding their valuables and how his studies were affected. He talks about the three lessons of the war for Singapore. 第一...

欢迎来到旧新加坡记事录。何乃强医生讲述，日本轰炸新加坡时，第一枚炸弹落在牛车水。他讨论了肃清行动以及牛车水新加坡的一些个人叙述。 Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Dr Ho Nai Kiong relates that when the Japanese bombed Singapore, the first bomb fell in Chinatown. He discusses the Sook Ching operation and several personal accounts of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. 第一集 Ep1 | https://yo...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Stephen Dobbs and I trace the redevelopment of the river for tourism and entertainment in the early 1990s. We reflect on the efforts to conserve the rich heritage of the river. Although the façade of the old shophouses was retained, the lightermen, and the pre-existing socio-economic life generally, were removed from the river, creating a very different comm...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Historian Marc Rerceretnam relates how he uncovered an unknown history of intermarriages in colonial Singapore in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These took place among the Roman Catholics, who were made up of diverse subgroups of Peranakans, Teochews and Eurasians who had converted to the religion. Many of them had revolted against the powerful kongsi (c...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Jamidah Surbardy grew up at 26 Jalan Pasir Ria in the heart of the kampongs of Pasir Panjang. She recounts the carefree lives of the residents and children and the schools she attended (Labrador Primary and Pasir Panjang Secondary). Pasir Panjang is better known as a major battleground during the Japanese invasion but less remembered for its numerous village...