Kenry Peh – Pek Sin Choon & Nanyang Tea Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Kenry Peh is the proprietor of the hundred-year old heritage tea merchant Pek Sin Choon. A professed tea man, he talks about how his great grandmother Bai-Zhuang Dan Niang & her son Pek Kim Aw migrated from Anxi, Fujian to the Nanyang. They set up a tea shop at George Street in 1925 before moving to other streets of Chinatown. Blending different varieties of tea, he explains, was part of their business survival strategy since the early days. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/7KXYK-tv3F0 Part 2 | https://youtu.be/jAuAKCI2M2I Part 3 | https://youtu.be/IlasREq_Mrk 00:00 Introduction 00:39 One Hundred Years of Pek Sin Choon 07:19 Bai-Zhuang Dan Niang & Pek Kim Aw 13:44 Small Family Business 21:10 George Street 25:03 New Market Road 27:35 Tew Chew Street 30:03 The Tea Merchants Association 36:01 Blending Tea as Survival Strategy 45:27 Sharing Tea with Arts & Community Groups 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