Jason Boh – Hainanese of the Naval Base & Sembawang Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Jason Boh grew up in a Hainanese family residing in the Medical quarters of the Naval Base. His father was a fitter in the dockyard and his mother a domestic servant for British families. It was a vibrant, diverse world from ‘Medical’ and the Canberra Asian quarters to the Sembawang Village also called the 14th Mile. Jason’s brother left for Portsmouth when the British forces pulled out, while young Jason played football with Indian boys and picked up Tamil. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/09uy8ANKTjA Part 2 | https://youtu.be/8qVvwKbAiCg 00:00 Introduction 01:28 The Medical Quarters 11:15 Father, a Fitter 14:00 Brother Migrated to UK 19:21 Mother, a Domestic Servant 26:33 How Parents Met 30:50 14th Mile Then & Now 39:12 Nelson Bar 43:36 Indian Friends & Speaking Tamil 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 of Old Singapore is also the name of 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