Quek Siow Kai – Ships, Shifts, Sifus & Spyros Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Quek Siow Kai relates his story as one of Singapore’s Technical Generation in the 1970s. He struggled in the Singapore Polytechnic as a Chinese-medium student, before graduating into the recession caused by the 1973-74 global oil crisis. He found a job in a textiles factory, managing an entire shift. The night shift was noisy and exhausting, and he had to wear masks for the blue dust produced when working on jeans. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/3jZTCVuRunY Part 2 | https://youtu.be/LAjeRIhP-kA 00:00 Introduction 02:59 Struggles at Singapore Polytechnic 09:15 Understanding the Lecturers 16:34 Running a Whole Shift in a Textiles Factory 22:19 Shift Work was Tough 28:14 Productivity & Profit 31:00 Jeans & Blue Dust 25:58 Low Wages Inquiry Report on the Explosion and Fire on Board S.T. Spyros, 12th October 1978. https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/book-detail?cmsuuid=119cee73-85f5-4555-997c-e73aa4b4ba31 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 me if you have questions or thoughts on Old Singapore or want to come onto the podcast: lohkahseng@chroniclesresearch.com 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