Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. School memories are important, especially with many schools relocated, demolished, merged, or renamed. That's why there are so many alumni groups on Facebook. Charles Ngui talks about struggling to find his old school mates and why school memories matter, many years after leaving Dunearn Technical. Charles Ngui was one of the young officers who joined th...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. In Episode 2 of DSTS, Charles Ngui recalls his love for the metal workshops: his teachers, the machines, the screaming in class, safety and danger, and the intricacies and secrets of the technical trade. Charles Ngui was one of the young officers who joined the early Economic Development Board. He has a deep working knowledge of the tool and die industry, an...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Charles Ngui was in the pioneer batch of DSTS students in 1964. His father was a progress planner at the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME) at Ayer Rajah Camp. He was a big influence on Charles’ early love for technical work. 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. Sarafian Salleh aka Tuah Bugis talks about his interest in Malay graves and cemeteries, as well as the story of his father behind his photography. He also gives a sneak peek into his forthcoming book later this year, Lost Palaces of Singapore. Sarafian Salleh is an engineer by trade, an author, a blogger, a social media creator, and a licensed tour guide. He...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Sarafian Salleh aka Tuah Bugis retraces how he stumbled upon his Bugis heritage, the Bugis in Singapore history, and the importance of genealogy, oral history and memory. Sarafian Salleh is an engineer by trade, an author, a blogger, a social media creator, and a licensed tour guide. He is the face of the history of the Bugis community in Singapore, having r...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Bhing Navato has been a domestic worker in Singapore for 28 years. Here, she talks about her pride in her work, her grown up ‘babies’, and writing poetry during the pandemic. Singapore is beautiful, she says, partly because migrant workers have helped build it. If you’d like to purchase Bhing Navato’s canvas bags, drop me an email: lohkahseng@chroniclesresea...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Bhing Navato has been a domestic worker in Singapore for 28 years. She remembers her first day in Singapore, arriving from Rizal in the Philippines in 1995. She counts the number of children she has helped bring up – 23 in all – and relates the challenges of being a domestic worker. If you’d like to purchase Bhing Navato’s canvas bags, drop me an email: lohk...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Alex Tan Tiong Hee takes a walk further down Old Orchard Road towards present-day Centrepoint and Dhoby Ghaut. We pass by Cold Storage with Magnolia Snack Bar inside. There was an open-air, night-time hawker area opposite Cold Storage and more hawkers (now forgotten) at Koek Road. The first major change to Orchard Road was the building of Lucky Plaza. YouTub...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Chinatown Boy Victor Yue and I discuss how heritage efforts in Chinatown ought to bring the community, business and research together. YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ChroniclesOldSG Spotify | https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/61551786759344/ Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/ChroniclesofOldSingapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Victor Yue, aka Chinatown Boy, talks about his love and photography of Chinatown: its rich, diverse cultures, and old temples and businesses. He thinks a ‘human library’ would be useful to capture the memories of Chinatown and convey its heritage to young people. YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ChroniclesOldSG Spotify | https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Victor Yue is the ‘Chinatown Boy’. He recounts growing up in Craig Road and sorting coffee beans in a godown, before his family moved to Cantonment Road. YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ChroniclesOldSG Spotify | https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/61551786759344/ Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/Chroniclesof...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Normah Dobbs tells us why it was interesting to work in the hotel and service industry. She married Stephen Dobbs after meeting him at Raffles Hotel and moved to Perth in the late 1970s. YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ChroniclesOldSG Spotify | https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/61551786759344/ Patreon | htt...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Normah Dobbs, born in 1955, recalls growing up in a family of 11 in government quarters in Jalan Afifi. Her first job was making buttons in a factory, operating a blade that would sometimes hit her nail. YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ChroniclesOldSG Spotify | https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/615517867593...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Koh Boon Long remembers the many initiatives of 1997: TSLN (Thinking Schools, Learning Nation), NE (National Education), IT (Information Technology), TLLM (Teaching Less, Learn More), and school clusters. He also offers his views on key issues in Singapore education: the Cambridge exams, shadow education/private tuition, and the overuse of education to achie...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Koh Boon Long takes a critical look at Religious Knowledge in Singapore schools in the 1980s. He also recalls how the creation of the Normal (Technical) stream in 1994 further hurt students and teachers, including his wife. He had tried to argue for smaller classes for Normal stream students. Koh Boon Long is a retired educator, with more than 50 years of ex...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Koh Boon Long discusses the streaming policy in 1980 and its drastic effects on students, teachers and society. He explains why it endured for so long as a ‘sacred cow’, which only began to be questioned in the 2000s. He also considers if the introduction of Subject-Based Banding in 2024 will improve teachers’ work-life balance. Koh Boon Long is a retired ed...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Koh Boon Long notes that education changed greatly after Singapore became an independent nation in 1965. The teachers then were ‘chalkboard-facing’ while students were more innocent. As a PE teacher, it is important to encourage learning outside the classroom through camps and excursions. In the 1980s, teaching changed again, partly due to developments in Si...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. James Kwok remembers his mother, Wong Siew Aye, a former member of the People’s Action Party and Barisan Sosialis, one of the original ‘Women in White’. YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ChroniclesOldSG Spotify | https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/61551786759344/ Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/ChroniclesofO...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. James Kwok had a ringside view of Singapore politics in the ‘50s and ‘60s, as his mother was with the People’s Action Party and later, the Barisan Sosialis. He relates the many memorable and often funny stories that seemed bewildering to a kid. YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ChroniclesOldSG Spotify | https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks Faceboo...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. James Seah and his family lived in a kampong house at 21A Beo Lane before the fateful day on 25 May 1961 when the greatest fire in Singapore history occurred. After the fire, they moved into a 1-room emergency flat in Jalan Bukit Ho Swee, built by the HDB. They had to share toilets with the neighbours, but the threat of fire, at least, was gone. James starte...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Alex Tan Tiong Hee remembers the marketing campaigns of the soft drinks and sings a few jingles. Singapore became increasingly Westernised in the ‘70s and ‘80s, even among the older generation. At the end of the interview, I ask Alex to choose between the competing brands of soft drinks in the past. Alex is a good friend from our Singapore Heritage Society d...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Alex Tan Tiong Hee talks the cola wars – Coca Cola vs. Pepsi Cola (he is a Coke guy). He recalls the myriad brands of aerated drinks in Singapore (many now defunct) and their bottlers – Green Spot, Red Lion, RC Cola, F&N, Amoy Canning, Yeo Hiap Seng etc. Together, we map a fast-moving business and cultural landscape as Singapore became middle-class and W...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Alex Tan Tiong Hee takes a stroll back in time along Old East Coast and tells us how it was like to live along the seafront. He stumbles across Marine Parade, Katong and idyllic Kampong Amber, before the Great Reclamation in the 1960s changed the shoreline forever. Alex is a good friend from our Singapore Heritage Society days. He is a trustee of the Lim Boo...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. In our concluding segment on Chinatown, Alex Tan Tiong Hee highlights its food culture, the exotic animals sold there and the decline of hawker food. He tells us what his parents felt about conserved Chinatown and what he hopes to achieve by conducting walking tours there. Alex is a good friend from our Singapore Heritage Society days. He is a trustee of the...

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Alex Tan Tiong Hee recalls memorable events and going-ons in Old Chinatown: the second day of the 1964 race riots, his favourite lor mee stall, and travelling by trishaws and pirate taxis. We end with thoughts on how to rediscover the Chinatown of old. Alex is a good friend from our Singapore Heritage Society days. He is a trustee of the Lim Boon Keng Settle...