Koh Boon Long – Old Bukit Timah, Kampong Chantek & 1950s Politics | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Koh Boon Long takes us back to the entire stretch of the Bukit Timah Road in the 1950s – the Sime Darby servants’ quarters where his family lived, Kampong Chantek (Bahru) to the north, the Duchess Road School which he attended, and the floodwaters he and his friends splashed around in. This was notwithstanding the politics of the decade – though his parents worked for the British, they gave food to support the workers on strike in Bukit Timah. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/v1QivF5C-y4 Part 2 | https://youtu.be/2Ci3b7Lac2k 00:00 Introduction 03:10 The Old Bukit Timah Road 11:17 Kampong Chantek 23:41 Kampong Chantek Bahru 27:31 Living at the Sime Darby Servants’ Quarters 36:37 Sympathy for Workers & Strikes 42:56 Duchess Road School 49:48 Race Course Village 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