Hidayah Amin – Old Kampong Glam & Gedung Kuning Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Hidayah Amin talks about growing up in Gedung Kuning, the Yellow Mansion. This was part of historic Kampong Glam, which was home to a cosmopolitan community of Malay traders and hawkers. Hidayah’s great grandfather was Haji Yusoff, a pioneering businessman who created the original haj belt. This debunks the myth that the Malays were a backward people. But the community began to disperse in the ‘70s and ‘80s as Singapore developed. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/jBpt6Rfy6O4 Part 2 | https://youtu.be/kmMOieN3rtw Part 3 | https://youtu.be/SDb-NsnZ79o 00:00 Introduction 04:55 Haji Yusoff 09:38 Gedung Kuning, the Yellow Mansion 18:15 Malays as Cosmopolitan Traders 27:53 My Childhood 31:05 Kampong Glam & the Haj 39:02 Kampong Glam in the ‘70s and ‘80s Hidayah’s books are available at Helang Books: https://helangbooks.wixsite.com/hello/books Haji Yusoff Memorial Museum https://www.instagram.com/haji_yusoff_memorial_museum/ I’m Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian. I’m interested in the history of Singapore and the lives of its people. In Chronicles of Old Singapore, I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city today. We discuss three topics: 1. People and places. 2. Change and continuity. 3. The importance of heritage. As a historian, I try to stay true to the oral history method on a video format and social media platform. I let the interviewee speak, as the ‘voice of the past’ as Paul Thompson put it. No clickbait, no BS, no posturing. The aim is to canvas a wide range of voices on various aspects of Singapore history and heritage – physical, social, cultural, economic. Do like the video, share your memories below and subscribe to the channel for future episodes. Write to lohkahseng@chroniclesresearch.com if you have any of these stories to share: • Old places or kampongs. • Communities – their way of life & culture. • Childhood & schools. • Work or business. Support Chronicles of Old Singapore on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChroniclesofOldSingapore Follow the channel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551786759344 Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lks992002 Chronicles Research & Education is my research consultancy on the history of Singapore: https://www.chroniclesresearch.com/ Caveat: this is above all a podcast based on personal memory. As has been well-documented in oral history, memory is not always reliable and what is recalled here should not be taken as fact. However, as Alessandro Portelli noted, the subjectivity of oral history is also its great strength, and what is inaccurately remembered may point to how deeply meaningful the past is to people. #singaporehistory #memory #heritage #nostalgia #oralhistory #socialhistory #history #singapore