A repository of Singapore stories

Dear reader,

These stories were gathered for an oral history project by a group of Secondary Two Express students in 2006. They were tasked with interviewing a relative and gathering responses. Students typed their projects in word documents and printed them for grading. The students were given two grades; one for English and another for history. This was a cross-curriculum project. At the end of the day, they also had a story of a family member for posterity (future generations).

If you would like to have the set of questions used by the students to conduct the interview, it is found in the first entry to this blog. Go ahead and interview your own parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle and discover your own roots!

I think that stories from the past help us appreciate the good life we have now and also show us the choices and decisions our forefathers made have an impact on us now.

For former KR students of the 2E class of 2008 who want their biographies, I have the soft copies of most of your biographies (unless you did not save the final copy for some reason). If you would like them, you can email me at karina.heng@gmail.com. If you would like the biography to be placed on this blog, please get permission from the person you interviewed and then email me. I have only uploaded the ones whose consent forms I had received in 2006 who agreed to have their stories uploaded.

I am grateful that technology allows this type of sharing on this platform.

SG50 is in 2015, I cannot think of a better way to celebrate than to tell these stories of ordinary Singaporeans who have lived their lives here on this little red dot. So we will not forget.

Happy Birthday, Singapore!

From a daughter of Singapore.

From Kuala Lumpur to a kampung in Singapore (2E6 Shi Jie's grandmother)

Interviewer

1. Name: Sie Shi Jie
2. Date of Interview: 16/7/06

I interviewed my grandmother, Mdm Ho Chow Har, who survived World War II and is now living a comfortable life in Singapore, at the age of eighty. She is now a Christian and goes to church every Sunday.

My grandmother was the eldest among the nine siblings in her family.

Some names of her siblings and their birthday:

2^nd Sister: Ho Kum Yoke (F) 27^th December 1928

3^rd Brother: Ho Han Lum (M) 27^th December 1929

6^th Sister: Ho Kum Chuong (F) 16^th Jun 1933.

9^th Sister: Ho Kum Sim (F) 2^nd Oct 1948

My grandmother was born in Malaysia and spent half of her life living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My grandfather met my grandmother through an arranged marriage by their parents. She came over to Singapore after the 1969 Racial Riots, and obtained her Singapore Citizenship soon after.

My grandmother completed six years of primary school, at a Chinese school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In those days, students would often be caned by the teachers or principals for not doing homework and the parents would never complain. Some of the school activities were harmonica lessons, choir and table tennis.

Being the eldest child in the family, my grandmother not only helped out in the family’s housework, took care of her younger siblings, but she also helped to earn some money by selling home-cooked food in the neighborhood. She was an obedient, helpful and well-brought up girl.

A Hard Life (2E5 Jolene's Maternal Grandmother)

      My grandma is 72 years old this year. She was born on 6^th March 1934.

She was born in Malacca. She had 10 siblings. Here is the list of my grandma and her 

siblings:  

Sim Kay Swee, which is my grandma, 

Sim Kay Leng, 

Sim Bee Kong, 

Sim Kay Long, 

Sim Bee Tiong, 

Sim Bee Seng, 

Tay Kay Keng, 

Tay Bee Wan, 

Tay Kay Suan, 

Tay Bee Sam and 

Tay Kay Peng. 

Tay Bee Wan died at a very young age due to a high fever which was not curable in 

those days. 

        As my grandma was the eldest child in the family, she did most of the housework

and helped her mother to look after her younger siblings. Every day, when she came

back from school, the first thing she did was to hug her siblings. She doted on them

most. My  great-grandpa was a principal and my great-grandma was a housewife.

          Grandma was not the playful kind. She did not play games. There wasn't any 

television set during that time, so great-grandpa would bring them to the whole family 

to a nearby street to watch puppet shows at night.

         The happy childhood had soon turned into a nightmare for grandma. The

day when the family was having reunion dinner, they heard the sound of

bombs dropping from the planes. On February 15^th 1942, the Japanese

invaded Singapore. Grandma was only 8 years old yet she had to face such

crisis.

              Every day they would hear screaming and shouting in the streets.

Grandma and her sisters cut their hair, dressed up like boys and put black

soot on their beautiful faces in order to be taken for boys.

              As a principal, great-grandpa would punish his students. Before the

war, there was a boy in his school who was very rebellious and notorious, and

was a big bully. Great-grandpa would always lecture him. Who realised that he

would be a collaborator of the Japanese soldiers. He gave  great-grandpa's details to 

the Japanese soldiers and made up stories that great-grandpa was anti-Japanese. The 

Japanese soldiers captured great-grandpa and took him away. He was never seen after 

that. He was probably killed. Grandma lost her father when she was 9.

Climbing Trees and 5-cent Meals (2E5 Wei Siong's Mother)

                                       

            My name is Lim Wei Siong and my class is 2E5. I interviewed my mother about her past and her childhood days. My mother’s name is Ong Yew Bee. She was born in 10/9/1962. My mother has 5 older brothers, 3 older sisters and 2 younger brothers.

            My mother’s father’s name is Ong Kim Seng. His occupation is a driver. My mother’s mother’s name is Neo Ah Tang. She is a housewife. They lived at 675, Yio Chu Kang Road 10 M/S Singapore. All my mother’s brothers and sisters lived together. My grandmother had many children to take care of and much housework to do. So she gave tasks to my mother’s older brothers and sisters to help with her housework so she would not be so tired. My mother also helped in the housework, such as mopping and sweeping the floor. The older brothers and sisters had to help grandmother look after the younger brothers.

             Mother would spent most of her time collecting bookmarks. She even bought a big album to keep her collection. She has collected many different types of bookmarks. This is one of her hobbies. Other hobbies she had was spinning tops, playing five stones and marbles. My grandfather liked to plant fruit trees in his garden. My mother’s favorite tree was my grandfather’s rambutan tree. She liked to climb up the tree to pluck the fruit and eat. Rambutan was her favourite fruit. My grandfather also planted other fruit trees like durian, jackfruit and coconut trees. Mother never went on holidays because my grandfather and grandmother were too busy, especially my grandmother, as she had to do the housework.

   

A Simple but Carefree Life (2E5 Junwei's Mother)

Interviewer:  Goh Jun Wei

Interviewee:  Teo Bee Leh, My Mother

My mother, a housewife was born and brought up in a kampong in a wooden house near a cemetery. At that time she was the second child in the family. She and her elder brother were both born and grew up in the same kampong. Although her father, a bus driver then had to work very hard to feed the family including his mother, her grandmother who was living with the family, they led a simple but carefree life.

Two of my grandfather brothers' families were living just next door. My mother and her elder brother and used to play hide-and-seek, marbles and flew kites at an open space near the cemetery where my grandmother and all my mother's aunties would gather and chitchat while feeding their children during meal times.

As a child, my mother could recall that my grandmother would need to go to the nearby well to fetch water for the family to do the cooking and washing. Water was not so easily accessible. My grandfather would wait for my grandmother returning from work at the main road when darkness fell as their house was very near the cemetery.  

A Comfortable Life (2E5 Ivy's Father)

Interviewer: Ivy Teo
Date of interview: 17 July 2006
Location of interview: Home

I interviewed my dad, Teo Teau Hoe. He is now living in Blk 12, Holland

Avenue S’pore 272012. He was born on 29th August 1962 in

Singapore. My dad comes from a Chinese-speaking family that was

quite rich. His family was quite big. His mother had a total of 10

children, including him. He has 9 siblings, 3 sisters and 6 brothers.

He is the sixth son in the family line. Currently he has 8 siblings

now because his third brother died when he was three. The names

of his siblings in ascescending order are : 

Teo Teau shui[1st], 

Teo Tiew Lai[2nd], 

Teo Siew Chun [1st aunt],

Teo Siew Mei [2nd aunt],

Teo Teau Kun[4th],

Teo Tiew Huat[5th],

my dad, Teo Teau Hoe[6th],

Teo Teau Long[7th] 

and Teo Siew Yan [3rd aunt] who is the youngest in the family. 

His mother had two miscarriages, one was boy and the other was a girl. His mother is Chua 

Kheok and his father is Teo Hock Soon. They stayed in a two-storey bungalow for more than 10

years that is situated at Holland village. Now at Holland village, it's no longer a

residence now. My grandparents rent it. It’s now a Mexican restaurant called  ‘Cha Cha

Cha’. During that time my grandma was a housewife and my grandpa worked in

his family’s company. My great-grandfather used to own a printing company

but after my grandpa passed away, the company was sold. 

From a Humble Start (2E5 Shilei's Maternal Aunt)

Interviewer: NG SHI LEI

Date: 15 JULY 2006

Place: MY AUNT”S HOUSE

          I have chosen to interview my aunt, SEH POH TIN. Now she is staying

with 2 of her sisters and mother at Blk 608, Jurong West .She was

born on 31^st August 1964 in Kandang Kerbau hospital to a big family of nine 

siblings: 5 sisters and 4 brothers. Her sisters’ names are POH CHOO, POH SEOH, POH

SIU, POH GEOK and POH CHENG. Her brothers’ names are CHWEE BOCK, BENG    

GEE, BENG HOCK and BENG KIAT. She is the youngest in the family. Her

mother’s name is TAN AH SUAN and father’s name was SEAH CHAN. Her father

has passed away and her mother staying with her. Her mother is retired as my aunt is 

working to support her. My aunt always quarrels with her mother for example when 

she insists my grandmother eat more. But she doesn’t want to eat and is very skinny.

            In her childhood days, games such as five stones, zero-point (a skipping game 

with threaded rubber bands used as a jump rope), marbles, kuti-kuti, capteh (keeping 

a feathered toy in the air with series of kicks), gasing (wooden tops), 

hop-scotch and sepak takraw (foot version of volleyball played with a rattan ball) were 

being played between her siblings and her during their free time. Although the 

youngest, she has the greatest responsibility in helping out in the family.She would 

help in making noodles, pouring the oil, washing the rice and doing some housework.

She would also help to carry the groceries when her mother went to the

market. She loved to help to kill the chickens that her family had owned.