Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. By looking at life in the urban kampongs after WWII, Loh Kah Seng unpacks the myth that they were black areas. While there were poor housing, insanitation and secret societies, the kampongs were legitimate communities. There were many efforts towards self-help and gotong royong: celebrations of Chinese festivals, tontines and voluntary fire-fighting squads. Though jobs were few, kampong dwellers generally worked hard and sent their children to school, so they might find a way to a better future.

00:00 Introduction

01:36 Urban Kampongs as Black Areas

02:21 A Children’s World

08:08 Housing & Living Conditions

11:23 Battle for Space

16:22 Living with Pigs and the Dead

19:00 Samseng & Pai Kia

20:46 Wa m chai

22:17 The Kampong Economy

25:32 Kampongs as Communities

28:30 Education & Progressive Kampongs

29:49 Further Research

31:10 Outro

My book, Squatters to Citizens:

https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/squatters-into-citizens

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. This is Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian, and I talk about my research on the little histories of the Lion City.

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