Free admission. Please register at bit.ly/1N86mEM
2pm, 4 July (Sat) at National Library Building Lvl 5.

Learn how we preserve memories through the process of digitising, and collecting stories from the photo contributors, in turn allowing our project to uncover the thread that weaves the unseen fabric of themes that hold us together, as an individual and as a unit of society.

The various facades of the studio in the 1960s and 1970s. Bottom left: Firecrackers were used to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the studio.

The busiest time every year at the studio was always immediately after the Chinese New Year celebration, when an increase in photo print requests meant working into the wee hours at the photo studio for the Keuk family. After the doors closed at 9pm, Gin Bok would enter the dark room to develop films and prints. The dark room is perpetually humid. And with chemical solutions and water running continuously, Angela worried for her father’s rheumatism. His fingers were stained brown from the chemical solutions, which are mixtures of powder formula and water of right proportions. Films and prints are meticulously soaked in these solutions, before running through with clear water.

Angela remembered him to be an extremely hardworking father, who would work long hours to provide for his family of six. Despite his busy schedule, Gin Bok insisted driving the children to their school. There were times when he was delayed in the studio, which meant teary eyes for the children who had to wait patiently at the school gates for their father to fetch them.

Kuet Gin Bok in his studio (left) and repairing a studio spot light. Top right: An old envelope for the photographs.

Views of Changi Road from the studio in the 1960s.

Flooding in the studio.

Gin Bok voluntarily took photos for the neighbours and friends, including the kacang putih seller, who sells Indian snacks typically made of nuts and spices. He was well-liked by his customers due to his photography skills and eloquence, and thus the studio was the meeting point of friends and relatives.

“Life was simpler,” said Angela of the good memories growing up at the photo studio. Floods were common and water would overflow into the shop space. The family would prop the equipment up on tables and stilts to keep them dry. Together with her elder sister and two younger brothers, she remembered each day filled with tasks with for the family business, like drying the photos in a giant air dryer and cutting the photo borders away to the correct sizes. The studio closes on Fridays.

The Kuet siblings drying the prints.

Angela says of her childhood growing up with her siblings, “We were so fortunate that my father used to take us out for activities on Fridays or school holidays. We went swimming at the Changi seaside, visited and took photos at popular sites like the Queen Elizabeth Walk, Botanic Gardens, Fort Canning Hill, National Theatre,Van Kleef Aquarium, Mount Faber and Katong Park. We also visited our maternal grandmother at her coffee shop. Sometimes after the studio closed at 9pm, we would follow my father to send some photos for framing, colouring (for the black and white photos) or to send the clients’ cameras for repair.”

Top and bottom left: Changi Beach and Golden Palace Holiday Resort (金宫水上游乐场). Right: Kallang Park

Left: Ocean Park Hotel at East Coast Road. Right: Tan Kim Seng fountain at the Esplanade Park.

Queen Elizabeth Walk

Before digital ‘photoshop’, workers used sharpened lead to edit films and touch up prints using manual techniques. There were also times when newly weds would form long queues outside the photo studio for their wedding portraits to be taken. Photographs were almost always of happy occasions.

After retiring his photo studio business in 1987, Gin Bok turned to chinese calligraphy, a form of art he had been practising in the 1980s. Impressed and awed by his beautiful calligraphy, his studio clients would ask for his work, in forms of festive couplets and even writing requests.

Kuet Gin Bok, his relatives and friend visiting the Tiger Balm Gardens in 1952.

Gin Bok passed away in May 2014. He had left behind a huge collection of diaries which he had been writing continuously over his lifetime. Writings, like photographs, are moments captured of a certain past. In a way, that moment has ‘died’ because it does not belong to the present. The act of reading, or looking at these photographs however, transports the viewer back to these times which are considered important to the writer or photographer. For a moment, albeit temporarily, the viewer re-lives in that moment and he/she gained an experience and understanding why that moment in time is so important to the writer/photographer. It might take a while for Angela before she has the courage to read and re-live those diaries her father left behind. When she did, she will realise that they are reminders of how her father talks, moves and thinks. These moments are constantly living and it is an entry to his understanding of the world.

The shop of ‘New City Photo Studio’ is currently an eatery specialising in black chicken tonic soup, owned by an old neighbour who knew the Kuet family for a long time while working nearby the shop as a stall assistant. Angela’s daughter is now a photographer, whose interest started after receiving her grandfather’s Leica camera on one of her birthdays.

2012 photo taken at the site of the former studio, showing Mr. Kuet and his wife together with the owner of the current shop.

All photo credits to Angela Kuet and Kuet Gin Bok.
Written and edited by Tan Wei Keong

Photo credit: Jasmine Tan

Aside from the slow boat ride entering the Dragon’s Mouth through a 60-metre long trail to visit the dioramas of the “Ten Courts of Hell”, there was also a rollercoaster-flume ride that could possibly be the most adrenaline-pumping ride of that time. Visitors would sit in a flume that meanders past “mountains” and through “rivers”, climaxing at a huge drop at the end where the flume finally splashes into a pool of water. What’s also unforgettable is the amphitheater which hosts regular performances of mystical Chinese legends adapted into English. “The play was about mother-earth and her children of the different elements. They tried to find harmony with each other for peace in the universe,” the four-year-old me noted in my journal. I could still remember running down the theatre stairs, trying to steal a touch of the performers’ costume.

Photo credit: Rohani Bte Din

Still vivid in my mind was also the long queue for visitors to have their photographs taken dressed in fancy ancient Chinese costumes. I pestered my mother to let me have a photo taken in a princess costume. My frugal mother found two-dollars too costly during that time, and a staged photograph was too impractical for keep-sake. “It would be better if we took the photographs ourselves,” she responded. I agreed and left Haw Par Villa more than satisfied. Who knew more than twenty-four years later, my mother’s words proved right! As we took out photographs from my family photo album for Singapore Snaps, wonderful memories of my childhood came pouring back.

Photo credit: Wong Meng

Like a wild card, the Singapore Snaps team had found hundreds of photographs that other families took at Haw Par Villa over the years. Seeing how this collection of photographs document and depict the park through time, these photographs are definitely one of the best tokens from the theme park in its heyday.

Photo credit: Tharani S

Though its dioramas portray mainly Chinese legends and folklore relating to Confucian values, Singaporeans from different heritages visited Haw Par Villa. It was a place for families and friends to gather and spend quality time with each other. There is no doubt Haw Par Villa captured our imaginations, and is a surrealistic yet fantastical escape from the city life.

Photo credit: Adrian Phoon

Despite all the past celebratory moments Singaporeans had partaken at Haw Par Villa, this iconic attraction today, has been forgotten and even misunderstood. “Haw Par Villa, Singapore: the theme park made in hell” titles an article on “The Guardian”, a British newspaper. It highlights the bizarre and gruesomeness of the subjects depicted by the dioramas. A lot of which, are taken out of context. In reference to the sculpture where a young lady is breast-feeding an elderly, through unknowing eyes it might look shockingly pornographic. But what was meant to be conveyed through this act is filial piety. In medicine scarcity situations, breast milk has nutrients which strengthen the immune system, and for the young to provide this to the elderly is a commendable act of filial piety. Of course, filial piety means different matters in this day and age, and between the Eastern and Western cultures. But what needs to be highlighted is that these images sit in large and complex discourse of Chinese, or even more specifically diasporic Chinese, beliefs. Beyond being artefacts to gawk at, Haw Par Villa is an expression of a desire to impart values.

Photo credit: Stephanie Chan

In the personal histories of its creators Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, Haw Par Villa is also a manifestation of love and brotherhood. It is apt that the park’s program is currently under the custody of Latent Spaces, a contemporary art group fronted by twin brothers, Chun Kai Qun and Chun Kai Feng. Can Haw Par Villa continue to give new meaning to Singaporeans and its visitors beyond its histories? Rejuvenating it as another theme park will seem challenging, Art will perhaps be its future.

Written by Samantha Tio
Edited by Tan Wei Keong

Top picture: Young boys in a sampan at the heart of Geylang River. Photo credit: National Archives of Singapore. Source: Lee Kee Hwee

Durian shop in the 1980s. Photo credit: National Archives of Singapore

Possibly the most exotic eats you would ever find in Singapore are concentrated in Geylang – from the semi-outdoor durian shops touting an array of durian varieties enough to satisfy an connoisseur to other mojo-boosting dishes such as frog porridge and turtle soup. Aside from outlandish dishes, you can also find the best of Singapore’s hawker classics: wonton mee, beef kway teow, nasi padang, tze char (home-style chinese dishes), nasi biryani, traditional desserts and dim sum served 24-hours, round the clock. It is not surprising as well, away from all the humidity and grease of the hawker establishments in Geylang there are also several air-conditioned, barrister level, hipster joints that have been mushrooming all over Singapore over the past years.

Food and gluttonous thoughts aside, vice is also rampant in Geylang. Regularly found on the newspapers are news of police raids for contraband cigarettes, illegal gambling, drug trafficking and unlicensed street walking. Surely, in a city with a squeaky clean image like Singapore’s there is somewhere you would find the underbelly of our straight-laced society. “Cleaning up” always seems to be the order of the day, but lost is the very soul (though darkened) of Geylang, just like the Bugis Street in its former days, to our values-promulgating state, should the prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers all ran away.

So how would a family-friendly project like Singapore Snaps find its fit in Geylang?

The neighbourhood of Geyalang Serai had kampong squatters located side by side HDB Flats before the 1990s. Photo credit: National Archives of Singapore

Along the northern side of the MRT train tracks that connects Kallang, Aljunied and Paya Lebar, nestles a charming neighbourhood. You can find the regular civic amenities such as the Geylang East Library, where the SG Snaps booth was based, Geylang East Swimming Complex and Geylang Polyclinic, as well multiple schools in the area. The public library, though the lowest in human traffic compared to the ones at Toa Payoh and Redhill, where our collection booths were previously based, is endearingly quaint. We really like the “Green Reading Space” on the second floor where visitors can lie on a synthetic turf in air-conditioned comfort under a glittery LED-lit ceiling. Not forgetting the conducive activity room on first floor where there is a painted life-size mural of famous fairy tales. This dainty neighbourhood is a huge contrast to its other half across the train tracks, as day to night. The SG Snaps team was so fascinated with these almost schizophrenic characteristics of Geylang that we had to look at the kind of photographs that we would find there.

On the origins of the district’s name, one could never be too clear. There are writings that say that the name “Geylang” is a mutation of the Malay word “kilang” which means “mill” or “factory”. This could refer to the mills of the coconut plantations in the area, which were operated by some of the Orang Laut who resettled from the mouth of the Singapore River to live along the banks of the Geylang River in the 1840s. In a map of Singapore from 1849, there were also mentions of a small island named “Pulo Gelang”, which disappeared with the land-fills and reclamation of the Kallang Basin.

Singaporeans are also familiar with the famous Malay folk song that begins with the line “Gelang si paku Gelang”. Its lyrics sounds like it is referring to the area of Geylang. However, it is a traditional Malay song in the Malay literary format called “Pantun”, and “Gelang” in the song actually refers to the creepers or wild plants growing in Singapore. For the longest of times, I had always been singing “Geylang sepatu (shoes) Geylang”, thinking that the song was talking about shoes bought from the district.

Sundries shop in a long Geylang Road in the 1980s. Photo credit: National Archives of Singapore

Geylang is also rich in history. Following the Orang Lauts are the new migrants from the late 19th Century. While speaking with a contributor from the neighbourhood, we discovered that Geylang supported many new factories and micro-businesses of the immigrant population during the early 20th Century. She told us how she had grown up in one of the shophouses, where her family operated a motor repair shop at the ground level. Many industries were found in Geylang and its population grew from the influx of immigrants that overflowed from the city center during that era. This influx also results in the present distinct shophouses found along Geylang that were used by clan associations as points of contact for new migrants. These clan associations helped to integrate the newcomers into the local custom and culture.

A child growing up in a shophouse along Geylang Road where the living quarters were at the second floor and the workshops were on the ground level. Photo credit: Gaan Ho Mui

Today, Geylang continues to be a reflection of our rapid demographic changes in Singapore. Geylang now plays host to many foreign workers and new migrants not minding the area’s reputation, but seeking affordability in rental prices and accessibility to the city center.

Written by Samantha Tio
Edited by Tan Wei Keong

Top photo: After a day of play, Meng Wong captured the delight of friends sharing hot satay right off the charcoal grill, and ketupat (hanging on the horizontal pole), both signature Malay food in Singapore. Photo: Meng Wong

Be it an excursion with primary classmates or family weekend outing, a good number of us would have spent some warm, sunny afternoons by the beach with friends or families. Along the East Coast and Changi beaches, families can be seen swimming, cycling, picnicking and cooking by the barbecue pits. Photographs are usually used to capture good fun times. Many of our contributors’ photos depict the activities enjoyed in the 60s and 70s, like having a dip in the warm water, enjoying the home-made food and playing along the shore. These are actually not far from what modern Singapore families enjoy till this day as well.

Swimming in the Sea. Photo: Ng Wee Jian

A group of youths paddling their canoes and learning team work in the process. Photo: Soh Khim Choo

Big Splash! Photo Credit: Lim Poh Kwan (left), Sarah Wong Bee Lian (right)

Have you ever glide down a long water slide, almost flying horizontally and ending in a big splash in the pool at the bottom? Some of you might remember the huge and colourful slide at Big Splash. The waterpark was built in 1976 and had a 7-storeys water slide consisting 5 separate lanes of different heights. That slide was even visible to drivers along the East Coast Park highway. The owners had revamped Big Splash a number of times, and the slides had ceased operations. Today, Big Splash has transformed into a lifestyle hub, which hosts family-friendly activities and houses several food establishments and shops, continuing to bring families together.

Black Swans at Singapore Botanic Gardens. Photo Credit: Anne Phua Geok Neo (left) Pearl Pang (right)

One of the popular spots that appeared in many of the photos contributed at SG Snaps was the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the oldest tropical botanical garden in the Straits Settlement. Families were seen enjoying the serene views, strolling along the lake and feeding the swans. The Swan Lake was given its name because of the swans inhabiting the lake, with the first pair of beautiful mute swans imported from Amsterdam. The photos above shows a black swan (Cygnus atratus). This lake is considered to be the oldest ornamental water feature in Singapore, constructed in 1866. Early this year, in February 2014, the Singapore Botanic Gardens submitted a nomination dossier to the UNESCO World Heritage Board, in hope of receiving Singapore’s first UESCO world heritage site. The decision could be announced in June 2015. It will, perhaps, be an acknowledgement of our rich heritage, a gift of nature, during the nation’s 50^th anniversary as Singapore comes of age.

Curious faces peering into the net for the day’s catch. Photo: Loo Kin Meng

Kelongs, shown in the above photo, are a romantic reminder of Singapore’s beginning as a fishing village. Kelongs are wooden platforms built with nibong palms, primarily for fishing purposes although bigger structures serve as houses for families. With a net secured in the centre of the platform, batches of fish would be caught simply by raising the net. Families could enjoy a hearty seafood meal for a weekend dinner. You could even stay overnight at a kelong, fishing with your own fishing line, and sleeping under the stars! During the late 2000s, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) led a reformation to increase the supply of fish for local consumption in the local fish farming industry. Well-educated and young urbanites were drawn to life by the sea. They redeveloped some of the remaining kelongs into fish farms with new knowledge and skills from the AVA. Some of the new kelong owners happily re-named themselves as aqua entrepreneurs and fulfilled their dreams to live by the sea.

Colourful paddle boats dotting the Singapore River. Photo: Mdm Lim Pho Kwaun

The river brings life. Sir Stamford Raffles established Singapore as the first free port in the region, allowing free passage of ships through the Strait of Singapore, thus attracting trade activities between India and China, and the British. Businesses developed around the quay in 1823 and subsequent developments continued up-river along the banks of Clarke Quay, Robertson Quay, and further upstream. Around the 1970s, the river was carrying the debris of the increasing settlers who were living around the water, as well as from businesses and developments around it. Pollution levels could be detected by the whiff of the nose! The government conducted extensive cleaning to restore life to the waters. By the 1980s, the old quayside commercial enterprises gave way to recreational activities such as popular al fresco dining and “live music” entertainment. Merging in the scenery of the trading boats of the past, happy paddlers could be seen riding in the colourful paddle boats along the waters teeming with life.

We have captured snapshots of life by the water. Hopefully, it will refresh your memories like the way water refreshes your body on a typical hot and sunny day. When was the last time you played by the water?

Written by Gracie Teo

Edited by Tan Wei Keong

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_148_2005-02-02.html?s=Singapore%20River
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/botanic-gardens-submits-bid-become-first-singapore-unesco-world-herita
http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.sg/2008/11/city-bred-singapore-entrepreneurs.html

Close to 6 years ago, Wei Keong’s mother had passed away of ovarian cancer and related complications. I remember the time when we were still in university, Wei Keong once told me over recess that his mother was battling the disease, and she was in the final stages of her life. Though I definitely knew that it was a very difficult time for him and his family, Wei Keong never looked the least battered. He is a fighter in my eyes, with a perpetual sunshine shining from a darkened heart. In front of his mother’s plaque we sat, looking through two old photo albums which he had brought along with him. In it were images of his mum in her youth, taken during outings with her friends, as well as couple portraits of her with Wei Keong’s father.

“I really like this photo, they look very happy,” said Wei Keong while looking at the photo of his parents on a holiday. Photo: Tan Wei Keong

He talked about how the albums are emblems of life – his mother’s devoted life for him and his two siblings, who would take them out from the drawers occasionally. Looking at the photographs would make them feel nostalgic.

Wei Keong inherited his mother’s smile. Here, she is posing with a friend for a photo by the sundial at the Botanical Gardens. Photo: Tan Wei Keong

Wei Keong always felt that his mother from the old photographs is different from the one who brought him up. “It (The old photographs) creates a very different impression (of her) from the time she was bringing me up, and when she taught me things. I see a very different personality (in her),” said Wei Keong. He explained that his mother looked a lot stronger, and with ambition in the photographs, just like the way he feels he is now.

“Just seeing the pictures, she looked like she was ready to take on the world and accomplish a lot of things in the future,” he said.

By the fountain at the Botanical Gardens – a rare stand-alone portrait of Wei Keong’s mother.

On the topic of expressing love, Wei Keong shared with me how he learned that it is important not to restrain those feelings, unlike the distant propriety he feels in a traditional Chinese family. “What I learned, when taking care of my mother when she was sick, and after she had passed away, was to say things which are on your mind right there and then, be it ‘Thank you’ or ‘I love you’. I don’t believe in forever. Tomorrow might never come.”

Of all mother’s day presents, Wei Keong remembers a purposeful trip to the market after school when he was seven. He pointed to a single red rose at a makeshift flower stall and bought it home. “My mother was doing the family’s laundry in the toilet, scrubbing shirts against a washing board. I stood outside the toilet, rose in hand, and stretched it out to her,” Wei Keong recalled. His mother is pleasantly surprised. She came out from the toilet, and wiped off the suds from her shrivelled hands on her baggy shirt, before taking the red rose. “I don’t remember her saying anything. But the rose stayed for a long time on the refrigerator, and she told a lot of people about the rose.”

As the sun was setting, Wei Keong and I took our leave from the columbarium. We walked pensively for a long time, from the columbarium down the expressway under the roar of the traffic. Continuing our conversation on the photographs, he confessed that he seemed to only learn more about his mother after her death. It was from these photographs that painted a complete image of her from a time before his birth. Now, these images continue to resonate in his life beyond hers.

Wei Keong. Photo: SG Snaps

Can photographs be a meeting point for two people who will never see each other again to continue to love each other? Remembering the gaze in Wei Keong’s eyes when he was looking at the photographs of his mother, I certainly think so.

Written by Samantha Tio