Chronicles Research & Education

The spine of my book, Shopkeepers of Chinatown, is my interviews with 26 small businesses. Some of them are familiar while others are more niched. We may have spoken to the 老板 in the shop, for they were often there.

Many of the shopkeepers are fortunate to enter the 2020s. A few sadly folded while I was doing the research or are facing a bleak future (rents, manpower, competition, succession are common difficulties).

It was heartening some have recently been recognised as heritage businesses. A few are a hundred years old - Pek Sin Choon was founded in 1925 and Spring Court in 1929. Others appeared at the tail end of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

I was too late to interview shopkeepers who were long gone from Chinatown.

Why study shopkeepers and not big businesses? One reason is they have their own history of struggle and growth, of good years and bad times.

Chinatown would also have been a lesser place without them. Our memories are filled with images of small shops and stalls and the goods and services they sold.

This is also true of the old kampongs and HDB estates, for shopkeepers were (and are) everywhere. May they continue to grow and prosper.

白新春茶庄 Pek Sin Choon Pte Ltd
Tai Chong Kok 大中国
基记面家.Ji Ji Noodles- Since 1965
Spring Court 詠春园
Tong Heng
Lim Chee Guan
Sia Huat
Sin Hin Chuan Kee Pte. Ltd.
Pearl's Optical Co. Pte Ltd
Chinese Cultural Shop By ENG TIANG HUAT 翁展發
Ren Ren Desserts
Chop Wah On
On Cheong Jewellery
Nam's Supplies
西天园佛铺 / Say Tian Hng Buddha Shop
Teck Soon Medical Hall 德信药行
Thye Shan Medical Hall Singapore 泰山药行
Best Classic Corner

Sorry to see the passing of sports writer Jeffrey Low. I was hoping to speak to him about our old footballers, especially those from Pulau Brani.

Brani, like several other offshore islands, had an illustrious footballing past, partly due to the football pitch and playing with British teams. There were at least two football clubs, Pulau Brani United and Darul Bahar Football Club. The islanders probably played as much football as they swam and fished.

Two footballers in particular, Mohamed Noor Kassim (Mat Noor) and Arshad Khamis, were from Brani. There were many more.

Mat Noor: 'Only 1.52 m tall, he learned to outjump taller players by training in the sea off Pulau Brani. “I was short, and I had to find a way to outjump my opponents. Hours of jumping up and down on the shore did the trick,” he said.

Forgotten Heroes of the Malaya Cup (1921–1941) We remember some legendary players of the interwar years who left an indelible mark on the local football scene.

John Ng turns 80 today. He was a policeman in the Naval Base and then in Sembawang Shipyard after the British left; his mother was also a searcher in the Naval Base. He tells me stories of the old Medical quarters where he lived, the creative ways he and his friends learned to make money as kids, the endemic gambling inside the base, and the secret garden behind his house.

Spotify | https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/loh-ks/episodes/John--Crispian-Ng--Naval-Base-Stories--Other-Shenanigans-Part-1--Chronicles-of-Old-Singapore-e3lor0b

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxu6AG0EujE

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, the people’s historian, and I document people’s memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

John & Crispian Ng – Naval Base Stories & Other Shenanigans Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. John Ng turns 80 today. He ...

So much of the historic Singapore Naval Base has been lost so ChanPeew Wan takes us on a walkthrough to document its old places and activities. We started with the gates, then the roads where Asians like him lived, and the docks and other places of work inside the naval dockyard.

Spotify | https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/loh-ks/episodes/Wan-Chan-Peew--H-M--Naval-Base-Walkthrough-Part-1--Chronicles-of-Old-Singapore-e3llp1k

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY4-YQ-sUfk

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, the people’s historian, and I document people’s memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

Wan Chan Peew – H.M. Naval Base Walkthrough Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. So much of the historic Sin...

Good news! Shopkeepers of Chinatown can be pre-ordered at 城市書房 City Book Room. The order will be fulfilled after the middle of July after which normal orders can be made. Or you can drop in their store at Joo Chiat.

Will update with more bookstores.

[Pre-order] Shopkeepers of Chinatown / Loh Kah Seng, Stephen Dobbs The book will be available after mid of July! Within this book are stories of shopkeepers, stallholders and other small businesses rarely featured in the Singapore Story. Though they never became well-known like the towkays, they were the backbone of the economy and community. A great variety of lit...

Yes Teochew is a heritage language but also a time and a place. Listen to Jeff Eng recall the Teochew Chinatown of old from River Valley to the Ellenborough Market. In 1938, his grandfather Eng Tiang Huat founded Chinese Cultural Shop By ENG TIANG HUAT 翁展發, selling traditional furniture, embroidery and spears. The Engs lived upstairs till they were rehoused in the 1980s to make way for the CTE.

https://youtu.be/DwigZDNKhLM

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, the people’s historian, and I document people’s memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

Jeffrey Eng – Teochew Chinatown, Merchant Rd & Eng Tiang Huat Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Jeffrey Eng is the 3rd gene...

In Part 2, Woon Yew Thong remembers old Jurong Road before it was urbanised and leaving the Jurong Crescent Road quarters in 1974. He left behind his Reader’s Digest collection and a warm community of neighbours and friends. In recent years, he found many of them on social media while documenting memories of the Jurong Radio Transmitting Station on his website.

Spotify | https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/loh-ks/episodes/Woon-Yew-Thong--Jurong-Crescent-Road--Nanyang-University-Part-2--Chronicles-of-Old-Singapore-e3lge9l

YouTube | https://youtu.be/GVbfvy0vxR0

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, the people’s historian, and I document people’s memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

Not Fallout but Pulau Brani 1960s. Love this photo which shows Singapore and Brani on the cusp of urbanisation and industrialisation so well. The boys of Brani were already 'armed' with goggles and speargun.

In 1980, Arthur Soon (last photo) married his sweetheart See Serina Bkt. Both were from Brani. He was from a group of Chinese boys who fished and dived around the island. Like other islanders, he was resettled into a HDB flat.

With his love of diving, he became one of our pioneer commercial divers, working, fishing on diving on oil rigs in Indonesia, Middle East and all over the world. Few of us know this story. Very thankful he shared it.

Reynold Godwin Pereira talks football history from his book, Uncle Choo: Singapore's Greatest Football Coach. He traces the remarkable career of Uncle Choo Seng Quee as player and coach of Singapore and Malaya. We cover the popularity of football from the British colonial days through the Japanese Occupation to the pitches of Farrer Park after the war.

Spotify | https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/loh-ks/episodes/Rey-Pereira--Uncle-Choo--Coach-of-Singapore-Part-1--Chronicles-of-Old-Singapore-e3lc65l

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzRBQns4gFg

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, the people’s historian, and I document people’s memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

Rey Pereira – Uncle Choo, Coach of Singapore Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Rey Pereira talks football ...

In the final part of our podcast, LTC (Retd) Mejar Singh Gill gives his thoughts on several questions: how have SAF and SAFTI evolved over the years, is Singapore prepared for war, is the soldier still important in the high-tech 21st century, should women serve, how has the SAF served as a global peacekeeper, and how have regulars contributed to Singapore?

Spotify | https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/loh-ks/episodes/Mejar-Singh-Gill--Soldiering-in-the-Early-SAF-Part-3--Chronicles-of-Old-Singapore-e3l5cnd

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oapXReFCjfA

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, the people’s historian, and I document people’s memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

Mejar Singh Gill – Soldiering in the Early SAF Part 3 | Chronicles of Old Singapore Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. In the final part of our po...