Chinatown may be known as a popular tourist enclave, but radio host, deejay and author Chris Ho – also known as X’Ho – remembers its streets quite differently. (more…)
My Singapore
X’Ho’s Childhood Confessions
April 1, 2010
Chris Ho, Singapore rebel and self-professed ‘professional griper’ shares his fondest childhood memories and favourite spots in Singapore – from the forgotten opium dens of Chinatown to a boisterous guesthouse on Nassim Road. BY SHAUN SIOW
My Singapore
Remembering Gedung Kuning
October 1, 2009
In 1972, when most babies were born in hospitals, Hidayah Amin was born within Gedung Kuning (“Yellow Mansion”), and there began an inextricable bond with the home of her ancestors. BY LIM SAY LIANG
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.
My Singapore
Monsoon Memories
July 1, 2009
Snake charmers, magicians, markets teeming with life and the rich smell of spices. Like a page out of Arabian Nights, Briton Derek Tait remembers Singapore in the 60s as a lush and exotic place. So rich was this childhood experience, that Derek wrote three books on his – and others’ – memories of young Singapore. BY LIM SAY LIANG
“Those were the days” are not nearly enough words to describe the strong nostalgia that British author and photographer Derek Tait feels for Singapore. Derek got his first whiff of Singapore in 1965 when his father was seconded to KD Malaya within the Naval Base at Sembawang. They lived just across the causeway at Johor Bahru at a place called Century Gardens. The experience was an assault on his three-year-old senses.
Young as he was (and perhaps precisely because of that), Derek, now 47, recalls his experiences in vaudeville detail: hundreds of sampans (flat-bottomed wooden boats) with fruits and fish, snake charmers, street magicians and “endless shops”. “There would also be lots of hot food prepared in front of you,” he told Singapore. “The smell, and it wasn’t really unpleasant, is a smell I’ve never smelled since! Singapore then had a smell of its own and was a very busy place.
