Remembering Gedung Kuning

Gedung Kuning today, home to restaurant

Located at the nexus of a cultural enclave within the Kampong Glam area, Gedung Kuning stands regal, its yellow walls setting it apart from its neighbours. Today it may house a well-known eating place called Tepak Sireh (the name for the traditional metal containers used in storing betel leaves), but there’s a lot more to Gedung Kuning than meets the eye. For Hidayah Amin – whose great-grandfather Haji Yusoff first owned the house – Gedung Kuning is part of her identity.

“There is a Malay saying ‘Tanah tumpah darah’, which literally translates as ‘the place where blood was shed at birth’,” she said to Singapore by way of explaining her bond with the house of her birth. “My mother ‘shed blood’ in Gedung Kuning in giving birth to me. In that, I forged a close bond with the Yellow Mansion, my ‘birth soil’.”

In 1999, when Hidayah was 27, the house was reclaimed by the government as part of a cultural project in the area. The act triggered dormant memories in Hidayah and a keen sense that she was losing something precious. Hidayah’s grandmother used to tell stories from her childhood and of Hidayah’s great-grandparents. Then, Hidayah couldn’t fully understand why it was important to know about her heritage. When Gedung Kuning was acquired, it struck her that a part of her family’s history was gone, “taken away” and she felt “lost”. Moved by this, she started to record the rich history of the house, launching her website (www.gedungkuning.com) in 2004. This year, she will be publishing a collection of 27 historical narratives with the Singapore Heritage Society, entitled Gedung Kuning, Memories of a Malay Childhood (see below for an excerpt).

“Nenek (grandmother) told me a neighbour dropped by Gedung Kuning one day. He mustered the courage to ask Haji Yusoff to open the locked room. He wanted to see this hantu (ghost) from Java. As Haji Yusoff opened the room, he urged the neighbour to be quick. He must lock the door quickly lest the dust from outside settled on the neatly stacked velvet cloth that was exported from Germany. Yes, this was the ‘ghost’ that made Haji Yusoff rich – the rolls of beautiful velvet Haji Yusoff used to sew his songkoks!”

 Excerpt from Gedung Kuning, Memories of a Malay Childhood.

In the book, Hidayah retells family tales and memories of her great-grandfather, Haji Yusoff, whom history records as a pioneering Malay merchant. He sold tali pinggang (belts) and songkok (traditional Malay caps), hence his nickname Haji Yusoff ‘Tali Pinggang’ – ‘Haji Yusoff the Belt Merchant’. The merchant invested his profits in real estate, buying houses and lands in various parts of Singapore and Malaysia, including rubber, coconut and oil palm plantations in both countries. But his prized possession was Gedung Kuning, purchased in 1912, which became home to his descendants.

“Gedung Kuning was our paradise,” said Hidayah. Most members of her maternal side of the family were born and raised in the Yellow Mansion. There, they were taught religious and moral values, welcomed the poor who came to ask for alms and honoured the legacy of their ancestors for four generations.

It was a simple but contented life for Hidayah and her extended family. “When I reminisce about Gedung Kuning, it is the faces of various people I once knew that comes to mind,” she said, “The smiles and laughter of the family, the simple games played with my cousins under the rambutan tree, the occasional trips to the open field nearby to watch the wayang Cina (Chinese opera) during the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival, joyous family gatherings, running up and down the steep wooden stairs, and playing a simple game of hide and seek around the house.”

Diners at Tepak Sireh today may admire the Anglo-Regency architecture of Gedung Kuning, but for Hidayah and her family, Gedung Kuning – the memory, if not the place – remains a potent symbol. Her book is a way to revisit and capture those childhood memories and history, which for the young woman, represents the essence of identity and home.