Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. By looking at life in the urban kampongs after WWII, Loh Kah Seng unpacks the myth that they were black areas. While there were poor housing, insanitation and secret societies, the kampongs were legitimate communities. There were many efforts towards self-help and gotong royong: celebrations of Chinese festivals, tontines and voluntary fire-fighting squads. Though jobs were few, kampong dwellers generally worked hard and sent their children to school, so they might find a way to a better future.
00:00 Introduction
01:36 Urban Kampongs as Black Areas
02:21 A Children’s World
08:08 Housing & Living Conditions
11:23 Battle for Space
16:22 Living with Pigs and the Dead
19:00 Samseng & Pai Kia
20:46 Wa m chai
22:17 The Kampong Economy
25:32 Kampongs as Communities
28:30 Education & Progressive Kampongs
29:49 Further Research
31:10 Outro
My book, Squatters to Citizens:
https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/squatters-into-citizens
Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. This is Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian, and I talk about my research on the little histories of the Lion City.
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