Dying Trade Culture Shock

Chinese Opera was part of my life growing up in those early years where we will tag along my late mother to visit street wayang show during any Taoist temple celebration and also the 7th-month Hungry Ghost Festival. Lau Sai Tho Guan is one of the leading Teochew Opera beside, Sin Yong Hua and Lau Chit Ki Hiang the later was based in my neighbour Joo Chiat. There are also the Hokkien Opera such as Sin Sai Hong, Sin Kee Ling which are the well-known opera troupe. Before the Hokkien Opera start, they will have a segment of Getai show about for half an hour, I think this is where our modern getai show got it started. Next on my list is the underdog favourite the puppet show together with the strings puppet. They required a smaller stage compared to the wayang stage nowadays we rarely see one of these.

Gone from Chinatown

The first to go is the Pearl Centre together with Yangtze theatre at the corner of Pearl Hill Terrace and Eu Tong Sen Street due to the construction of MRT Station and just behind in Outram Park along Pearl Bank Road stood the iconic horseshoe shape condominium known as Pearl Bank, the fate of the site is in question but definitely, the condominium will be replaced by another one identical one.

Street Name of the Past

Cross Street is one of the oldest streets in Singapore which start from  Robinson Road, Raffles Place down passed Telok Ayer Street, Amoy Street, China Street so on and so forth. the different ethnic group had their own interpretation by calling them Hoi San Kai, Hai Sun Koi, Kiat Leng Kia Koi which most of us have forgotten about it. Right at the corner of Cross Street and South Bridge Road stood a very popular shophouse which house the famous Crane Shoe Store sadly they are not there anymore and turning it into another hotel,  and further down the road are the most famous of it all (Yeow Kai Min) Soy Sauce Chicken Noodle and a famous restaurant called Spring Court and the newly renovated Budget Hotel 81 Chinatown. After that, there is the Chin Swee Estate with a Tim-sum treat restaurant Red Star.

Disappearing Building and Landmark

High rise flat only starts to emerge from the 1950s, Upper Pickering Street Flats was many of them built by SIT (Singapore Improvement Trust) and the flats later know as suicide flats cause many of them choose to end their life there, sadly by 2005 the blocks of flats were demolished and it being replaced by Hotel development for the Park Hotel Collection.

On the other hand, the Ellenborough Market was established during the 1800s, known as Pasar Baru or New Market and the Teochew community called them Teochew Market it also faced with the fate of being demolished and in its place with a Hotel too and a shopping mall and residences called The Central Singapore in downtown Clarke Quay. 

Speaker Corner

Speakers' Corner is an area located within Hong Lim Park where citizen and permanent resident of Singapore may demonstrate, hold exhibitions, performances and speak freely on topics with compulsory registration on the government website. Besides we have Hong Lim Complex and Hong Lim Market and Food Centre while the Upper Pickering Street Flats had been demolished and the site is allocated for Hotel Development.

The Old Thong Chai Medical Institution is found opposite Hong Lim Park it was constructed in 1892 and known locally as Tong Chay Ee and in 2017 the building is gazetted as a national monument. During the 1990s saw the building becoming a Night Club and later a number of restaurants and in 2000 the building was under new management as a restaurant and closed down due the Sars outbreak, the building is now owned by Forever Living Products. 

New Bridge Road/Eu Tong Sen Street

Chinatown Point is a mixed development consisting of a shopping mall and 25 storey office tower first opened in 1993 it is famous for countless of curio shops, pawnshop, jewellery shop. It was relaunch in 2012 under new management, a new 1000 sqft library was on the 4th floor which focuses mainly on Chinese culture and history and is privately funded and Singapore first public library staffed almost completely by volunteers.  

Further down the road is the Furama City Centre Hotel located in the heart of Chinatown and within the Central Business District.

 

The Great Southern Hotel

It was built in 1927 and consider the tallest building in the whole of Chinatown and it is known at the Great Southern Hotel (Nam Tin Building) translate as Southern Heaven. In 1993 it was sold to a  Hongkong multi-national corporation and turned into a flagship departmental store called Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium the rest is history. The next building on my list is People's Park Centre is a mixed-use Strata Titled development consisting of residential units, Offices, Shops especially travel agencies and F&B Outlet.