Being in Singapore’s Chinatown can provide you with two completely different impressions, depending on the era you come from. This could mean it’s interesting or boring.
For Yip Yew Chong, a street artist who grew up in Chinatown during Singapore’s first many years, the world is way larger and far has modified, so he showed us what he knows and loves about old Chinatown, which is attempting to discover the true treasures of the world.
Here are some real treasures in Singapore’s Chinatown that that you must know to find:
SZEWKA SQUARE
Plac Szewskich is a spot where you suffer as your worn-out shoes and other footwear are resurrected due to the strict glances, terse exchanges of words and rough behavior of older uncles.
Once you exit Chinatown MRT Exit C, you’ll be able to pass the cobblers towards the OG department store in People’s Park, People’s Park Complex or People’s Park Food Centre, where the favored Ri Ri Hong mala Xiang Guo stall is situated.
Mr Yip remembers the time before the MRT station was built, when there have been many homemade stalls with rubber soles and cans of glue all around the square. “You cannot see a scene like this anywhere in Singapore,” he said. “They are all old people who have been doing this job here for many decades.” There are fewer shoemakers nowadays, but those that are still here have made this room their second home.
HAI SENG PORCELAIN
Hai Seng Porcelain is tucked behind the Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple on Sago Road. This inconspicuous household goods store has been around because the Nineteen Seventies. It was originally a food market, but within the Eighties its owner decided to move household goods, including picket clogs, enameled home goods and more.
Hai Seng is a real treasure familiar to many city dwellers, situated just just a few streets away from Chinatown’s more iconic locations and residential to several home chefs searching for authentic, old-school cookware.
Chinatown is not just the neighborhood where Mr. Yip grew up; this area has turn into his canvas where he stores his memories. Looking around Chinatown at his many iconic murals, it’s hard to consider that he never received any formal training in painting. His favorite song known as My Chinatown Home and you could find it at 30 Smith Street. It shows his old house on Sago Street, where he stayed for over 14 years until it was demolished.
24TH FLOOR IN CHINATOWN COMPLEX
Mr Yip’s family moved to an apartment above the Chinatown Complex Food Center after his house on Sago Lane was demolished, where they’d unobstructed sea views. On clear days, they may also see Malaysia’s neighbors on the horizon. From this vantage point, he also witnessed the event of Chinatown and the encompassing central business district.
For example, he built One Raffles Place from scratch. He said: “I remember waking up early within the morning, eating breakfast within the front room, and each day I saw the constructing getting taller and taller.” For him, the stunning view of Chinatown is today an emblem of Singapore’s development and prosperity.
DUXTON PARK PLAIN
The tranquil stretch of green that’s Duxton Plain Park sits behind Keong Saik Lane’s row of stylish shops, pubs, boutique hotels and Michelin restaurants.
Source: Channel News Asia, The Travelearn
