Selected History Topics For

CTL201

Selected History Topics for

Primary Social Studies Teaching

Oral History Assignment

Growing Up in Chinatown in the 1950s

Name: Phua Ying-li

Matric No: 037045K08/S8411465J

Tutor: Mr Clement Liew

Growing up in Chinatown in the 1950s

Exploring the childhood days in the past is an interesting topic to venture into as the living in the past is definitely different from the present days. One has to agree that our childhood days are one of the best periods of our lives. The interview is done with my mother who was born in the early 1950s and lived in Chinatown since she was born. She has vivid and endearing memories of her childhood which she often shares with me in amusing anecdotes.

Our family gatherings with my maternal extended family is often filled with laughter as my mother and her siblings will reminisce about their mischievous deeds and fond memories of their childhood days in Chinatown. The whole family will often banter in fluent Cantonese sprinkled with Chinese and Singlish which displays the strong ties and unity which will be highly likely lost in the future generations. The lovely tone and intonation of the Cantonese dialect never fails to amaze me with the beautiful sounds.

It’s a shame that the Government has discouraged the use of dialect in Singapore otherwise I might be speaking it fluently like my mother and grandparents. But nevertheless, I am thankful for the chance to appreciate the essence of the language which has not been infiltrated by other languages and made me feel closer to my mother and grandparents as it builds a sense of identity.

The focus of this history essay will be on the living conditions and the celebration of festivals in Chinatown in the 1950s. There will be an exploration of the food and the games and pastimes of children in the past. There will also be a personal insight into the secret societies of the past which is different from stereotypical view of them.

The Living Conditions

During the 1950s, Singapore was still searching for her identity and developing roots in the political aspect. Thus, housing apartments was something unknown at that time. My mother and her family stayed in the shophouses located in Chinatown at 48A Pagoda Street. These shophouses has been through gentrification and are now used mostly for businesses. In fact, the shophouse that they used to lived in has been converted to the Chinatown Heritage Centre which depicted the lifestyle of the people living in Chinatown in the past.[1] The shophouses were often not higher than 3 stories high and had double functionality as shops and residences. The shop below my mother’s residence was a tailor shop. Pagoda Street was famous for its tailors and the whole street would be filled with tailors who had regular customers among the locals and also the foreigners.[2]

According to my mother, the second level used for residences are often further divided into a total of 6 smaller rooms which made up the extremely cramped conditions. My mother together with her parents and 5 siblings were cramped into a room of less than [state the area of mum’s master bedroom]. They ate, played, studied, work, slept and did practically everything in the room as the room was their living room and bedroom. The family of 8 shared a kitchen and sanitary facilities with other communes living on the same level. These communes consist of samsui women and other families of similar or larger family size. The conditions of the toilets and bathroom were left much to our imagination and my mother could only describe the conditions with one word “Disgusting!” with a queer look on her face. The answer to my mother’s phobia of dirty toilets is finally answered.

According to my mother, there were often petty quarrels about the use of the bathrooms, toilets and the kitchen. These petty quarrels were also amusing to my mother as she recalled the memories with a chuckle. The families, especially the matriarch and the samsui women will quarrel over the use of the condiments, charcoal and rice, often accusing one another of pilfering these petty items. However, due to the difficult postwar times, especially after the hardships that the older generation had gone through, it was no wonder that they may break into quarrels over the usage of the condiments which was very valuable during the war.

They slept on straw mats laid on wooden planks. My mother was bitten on the eyebrow by a rat which co-existed with the communes like a natural habitat. Rats and cockroaches ran freely around the residence due to the squalid living conditions. The overcrowded conditions within the houses with poor public hygiene and public sanitation facilities made the place a lovely habitat for the vermin to cohabit with the families.[3]

Celebration of Festivals

Chinese traditional and religious festivals were celebrated with much pomp and fanfare. There were elaborate celebrations with performances much to the delight to my mother and her siblings when she was young. One of her more vivid recollection which she often reminisce with much joy was the Hungry Ghost Festival which falls in the seventh lunar month. This festival is celebrated by making offerings to the wandering ghosts and spirits. There were spectacular processions on the streets where people, hired by rich businessmen, would throw food, tidbits and money as offerings.[4]

My mother, together with her siblings and other children from the neighborhood were very mischievous. They would picked up the money and tidbits as a form of challenge to themselves as the procession were a little dangerous as joss sticks that were lit up and burning joss paper were strewn around everywhere. My grandfather would often punish my mother and her siblings when they were caught red-handed by my grandparents. However, that did not deter them as it was a rewarding experience with the adrenaline rush and the sweets and money gathered.

An interesting festival celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh moon where ladies would go out to feed the birds as it was believed that the birds feeding on the food will form a bridge so that the Celestial Lovers – the Weaving Maid and the Cowherd of Chinese folklore – could meet on that one day of the year. It was a day where ladies could meet their potential suitors and people will court each other and go on dates.[5] My mother could remember the unique paper artifacts that were paraded on the streets during this special day.

Food Glorious Food

My grandfather was a welder and my grandmother together with my mother and her siblings did the occasional odd jobs of being a seamstress by mending and sewing clothes or washing and ironing of laundry. The family was not well-to-do which could be reflected in the food they eat.[6] The food that they ate which my mother told me was a thing of the past. Even my mother exclaimed that the food she ate in the past was only eaten when she was a child. In difficult times, all they could afford was tau huay which is soy bean curd without the sweet syrup. They would pour tau huay over the rice like gravy as they could not afford any other dishes. They will topped it up with dark soy sauce for the fragrance and flavored with light soy sauce for taste and that would be a satisfying meal for them

Another delicacy was pigs’ blood. One is not able to eat it in Singapore now and can be considered a rarity due to the high cholesterol levels of it. However sinful it is it was something worth savoring for. The pigs’ blood was either deep fried to perfect crisp while it was still soft and tender inside or boiled in soups for its nutrition. Pigs’ blood was easily available at a low cost and due to the lack of meat and fish which was only eaten during festive season as a treat due to the high cost of it.[7] Thus pigs’ blood was the next best alternative for nutrients and proteins.

The type of food that was eaten in the past was a good indicator of the socioeconomic situation. Although the daily food that my mother has taken was simple and rather inadequate in nutrition, one has to agree that it was unique to that period of time and clearly indicated the hard times that my mother went through with her family. But one has to agree that it is heartwarming to see the poor and young big family seek joy in the simplicity of life. It reminds one to take light of the simple joys in life that my mother and her family truly appreciate which others may often take for granted.

Gangsters - A bunch of heartless ruffians?

Typical opinions of Chinese triads were often negative. According to Chan and Tong, the organization of triad gangs was formed to overthrow the government in China. These triads soon proliferated some of the clan associations in Singapore which provide the necessary social structure for many new immigrant workers who just arrived in Singapore.[8] This was especially evident in Chinatown which was home to many Chinese immigrants. While the problem of the Chinese triads may not be as prevalent in the early 20th century, their existence still lingered on.

However, my mother told me a different and a rather endearing opinion of the gangsters. The gangsters were friendly to the children. My mother often told us how they played with the children and even though they were rather rough during play, the children enjoyed playing with them as they were kind and often hoisted the children on their shoulders for “kiddy rides”. They often gave sweets and chocolates to the children which never failed to win them over. One might argue that this might be a ploy to recruit the members as young as possible. My mother recalled that my grandfather refused to allow my uncles to play with the children downstairs as he was afraid that they would land up in bad company and joined the Chinese triads too. Perhaps the fear was well-founded.

According to my mother, the gangsters often beat up the Malays in the vicinity. However, they protected the women and children in the area too which displayed their chivalry in a different light. Bullies and gangsters from other areas would bully the vulnerable children and women especially the young women. But, the righteous gangster from Chinatown would stand up for them when the rival gangs steps into the boundaries of Chinatown and often beat them up to take revenge. One might actually dismissed the reason given by my mother and argue that it could be just another excuse by the gangsters to fight for the so-called “justified” reasons.

However, one must not forget that the gangsters did leave an endearing impression on the children on those days as not ruffians but just rough burly friendly giants. Perhaps one can see that beyond their hard and cold exterior lies a heart of gold and righteousness which could only seek solace in the comfort of the joy of the children due to the hard life that they lead. As Chan and Tong suggested the existence of the secret societies highlighted a major with the early Singapore society which still exist even to the present day: the lack of integration of the migrant workers into the main social structures.[9]

Childhood Memories

One cannot deny that the play time of a child is most interesting and lovely period of our lives. My mother shared with me the games that they played were similar to what children are playing nowadays. However, they could not afford to buy any toys so most of their toys were handmade by remnants of cloth or materials. They would play with gorli and chapteh which were marbles and shuttlecock made of chicken feather picked from the market attached to a rubber or cardboard base. The girls would also make five-stones which were tokens made of cloth filled with sand. They also did interesting origami which they would use as masak-masak which means make-believe toys.

The whole family especially the children looked forward to the evenings, where my grandfather would switch on the receiver and listen to Rediffusion which was a broadcasting station. They broadcasted ‘dramatised stories’ and Cantonese songs which the whole family enjoyed. My mother especially enjoyed the story-telling which was done impressively by outstanding broadcasters who retold the story with much vigour and enthusiasm which brought the stories to life as though it was vividly performed in front of them.[10] This simple yet effective form of entertainment brought the whole family together and liberated the imagination of my mother and her siblings by challenging their young intriguing minds. This is something that modern technology has taken out the joy from today’s children.

My mother always relate to me these stories with light in her eyes which could be filled with joy and nostalgia with a glint of sadness in her eyes as she recalled the hard but truly memorable days. Being able to know the childhood days of my mother has made history books come alive as one is able to understand on a more personal level which adds a more vivid dimension into history. One is also intrigued by the ending quotes of my mother as she shares her words of wisdom on children compared to the past.

“Kids were much simpler then and I liked it very much…Although kids now lead a better life but they are not as happy as we are in the past. We do not have computers then but we have our own games and our own fun and joy. We maybe poor; but we were never calculative and we tend to share things without anyone asking. Families were also much more close-knitted and we definitely don’t take things for granted. We don’t have a lot of things that’s why we treasure things more.”

Jessie Kong

References:

Lowe-Ismail, G., 1998. Chinatown Memories. Singapore. The Singapore Heritage Society.

Chan, K. B. and Tong, C. K., 2003. Past Times: A Social History of Singapore.Singapore: Times Centre.

The Singapore Heritage Society, 2003. Chinatown Heritage Centre. Retrieved on 1 October 2004 from

I give permission for this work to be digitally stored and made available by NIE for educational and research purposes.

Date : 21 Oct 2004 Signature : ______

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Interview Transcript for Growing up in Chinatown in the 1950s

Name of Interviewee: Jessie Kong

Occupation: Housewife

Age: 53 years [8 August 1951]

Family Background: Born into a family for 6 children as the 3rd eldest in the family with 3 other sisters and 2 brothers. Currently, a mother of 2 daughters

Venue: In the comfort of the living room of our home located in

Edgedale Plains in Punggol over dinner.

Mummy, can you tell me more about your family?

I have 5 other siblings with 2 elder sisters, 1 younger sister and another 2 younger brothers. My father has passed away a few years back and my mother is now staying with my younger brother. My father used to work as a welder when I was young. My mother was a seamstress who mended and sew clothes for others. We also washed and ironed laundry for other people to earn extra cash to cope with living expenses.

Where did you live when you were a child?

I used to live in Chinatown, in a shophouse above a tailor shop located on 48A Pagoda Street.

How was the living conditions back then?

It was very cramped staying in the room. The whole family of 8 stayed in the same room. The size of the room is slightly bigger than the usual master bedroom of a HDB flat.

We slept on the wooden planks. There lots of cockroaches and rats. I was bitten on my left eyebrow as you can see. These insects were rather scary as the cockroaches fly and you can see rats scurrying across the ground. But we were not afraid as we were all used to it.