Eddie Chan Fook Pong - Chinatown Unspoken: The Untold Story of War, Vice and Glory in One of Singapore’s Most Notorious Districts

Praise for Chinatown Unspoken

This is a most authentic description of the sight, sound and smell of the old Chinatown. I can feel the pulses as it reminds me of the days past. I used to live at 9 Kreta Ayer Road, just five units away from Chan Fook Pongs. Our friendship began from the early 1950s and this bond is now over 70 years old. He was always the more adventurous one, roaming the streets and befriending both the good and the bad.

Our childhood escapades took a breather when he graduated as an architect and went on to build one of the largest architecture firms in Singapore. We still keep in touch and I am glad that he has now decided to share his inner childhood thoughts with all Singaporeans: A life of fear and hunger endured during the Japanese Occupation; economic struggles during the formative years of Singapores independence; successful retirement despite the vicissitudes of life. His personal experiences recounted in this book makes it a notable read.

Reading Fook Pongs book made me recollect some of the near-forgotten joy and sadness I experienced together with him and other friends. When we learnt to ride on rented bicycles and crashed into the dirty drains, we carried on in spite of the bloodied legs, finally returning home to furtively apply iodine to the nasty wounds, hoping our mothers would not notice. To find an open space to fly our own handmade kites, we risked life and limbs to climb up to the flat rooftops of the SIT housing blocks via the chimney stack. We witnessed gang fights in the narrow alleys and read about the death of the gang members in the newspaper the next day. We ate late night snacks of fishball noodles and fresh cockles while sitting on wooden stools next to the smelly drains, just a few streets from Death Street.

Thank you Fook Pong for this brief nostalgia for the intangible past.

Lam Lychow

Former Director of Engineering,

Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS)

Environment frames character. There were kampong boys and town boys, and amongst the town boys, there were the upstairs boys and the downstairs boys.

Upstairs boys were more studious, under their mothers watchful eyes. They became professionals and bureaucrats. They were more likely to write, but few did.

Downstairs boys became gangsters, businessmen and politicians in those days. Therefore, I never expected downstairs boy, Chan Fook Pong, a true blue Chinatown kid, to write a book. It was a total surprise and learning experience for me to read Fook Pongs cry from the heart, the story of his lost world.

Preserving buildings without knowledge of the sweat and smell of life lived real and rough is just faade treatment. Fook Pongs story gives it substance. His becoming an architect and a jazz musician is not such a strange twist once I understood from reading his account of his early years.

I also learnt how his talent and intelligence, stirred up in grimy reality, can emerge, given the suffering patience of his mother, which made him turn the vital corner in his life to become the success that he is.

This book is a must read.

Tay Kheng Soon

Adj. Professor, Architecture, NUS

Copyright 2020 Eddie Chan Fook Pong

All illustrations and paintings Eddie Chan Fook Pong. Painting on book cover: The Lost Soul.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Candid Creation Publishing books are available through most major bookstores in Singapore. For bulk order of our books at special quantity discounts, please email us at .

CHINATOWN UNSPOKEN

The Untold Story Of War, Vice And Glory In One Of Singapores Most Notorious Districts

Author : Eddie Chan Fook Pong

Publisher : Phoon Kok Hwa

Editor : Zoe Toh

Cover design : Eddie Chan Fook Pong

Layout : Eda Miskom

Published by : Candid Creation Publishing LLP

167 Jalan Bukit Merah

#05-12 Connection One Tower 4

Singapore 150167

Website : www.candidcreation.com

Facebook : www.facebook.com/CandidCreationPublishing

Email :

ISBN : 978-981-14-5770-8

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data

Name(s): Chan, Eddie Fook Pong.

Title: Chinatown unspoken : the untold story of war, vice and glory in one of Singapores most notorious districts / Eddie Chan Fook Pong. Description: Singapore : Candid Creation Publishing, [2020]

Identifier(s): OCN 1165620601 | ISBN 978-981-14-5770-8 (paperback) Subject(s): LCSH: Chinatown (Singapore)--History--20th century. | Chinatown (Singapore)--Social conditions--20th century. | Social problems--Singapore--20th century.

Classification: DDC 959.57--dc23

To my mother,
a woman of substance.

I know you!

Those were the first words Fook Pong said to me some time in October of 1958 when I was sitting alone, feeling a bit lost during one of my early days at the Singapore Polytechnic. That was the defining moment of our friendship.

I believe it was our common background that gravitated us towards each other, although I was no longer living in Chinatown at that time. I was born at 36-R Kreta Ayer Road and moved to 31-A Keong Saik Road when I was two. I lived there till I was 17. I was living on the second level of a row of three-storey houses, with multiple families on each floor. My mother was a very strict woman and I was not allowed to go downstairs to play on the street. She made it a point to get to know my friends and their parents, and my teachers too. I ended up not being able to keep anything from her. Although I knew many children in the neighbourhood, I never played with them. My mother encouraged me to join the scout movement and I made a number of good friends there.

Fook Pong was living on Kreta Ayer Road when I was living on Keong Saik Road, which was only a two to three minutes walk away, but we did not get to know each other. Both of us were in the scout movement, but we never met. We were in the same school (Beatty Secondary School), but I was two years ahead of him. I was a school prefect and I believe that was how he got to know me.

I finished school in 1955 and moved on trying to find a place in the sun. My parents could not afford to sponsor me for an overseas education and I was not interested in the courses offered locally. The starting of the architectural course at the Singapore Polytechnic gave me the opportunity to follow my dream and changed my life forever for the better.

The three words Fook Pong said to me marked the start of our enduring friendship. We respected each other. We also had a common goal in taking full advantage of what the polytechnic had to offer us and honouring our parents for their faith in our efforts in achieving success. Unlike some of the students in our class, Fook Pong and I were not overly hardworking. He is intelligent and has many talents which I admire. His company has always been a joy to me and I am sure to many others too.

Soon after graduation, I joined the Planning Department of the Ministry of National Development (MND) and was away in New Zealand for two years to get my qualification in Town Planning. During my five years at the Planning Department as an Architect-Planner in the Development Control Division, I seldom socialise with Fook Pong or any of my friends who were in the private sector for it was not prudent to do so. In any case, most of us were busy with work and families. On the completion of my five-year bond with the government, I joined the United Overseas Bank as Head of the Property Division. I had a great time and wonderful experience working with a group of very well-trained and qualified people. After working there for nine years, I decided to migrate to Canada in 1979.