Going back to my roots: Geylang Serai Limited Edition.
- khai
- Sep 29, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 30, 2019
As I was drafting my proposal write-up for my PDL late last year, something struck a chord with me. I asked myself. "Do I really know my roots well?" Am I aware of the history surrounding my ethnicity as well as its importance to my children and students in the long run? Sadly the answer was an immediate 'No'.
We are all engrossed with our own lives juggling between work and family while learning to strike a delicate balance between both. With globalization, the desire to travel and see the world increases, sometimes we totally forgot that Singapore has a lot to offer as well.
Thus the proposal for my 10 weeks leave not only revolved around my culinary classes, it also focuses on the different cultural groups in Singapore and the impact of multiculturalism on Singapore's identity as a whole.
Coincidentally 2019 was the year we celebrated Singapore's Bicentennial. Yippee!!! Most of the learning objectives I crafted coincided with the history revolving around Singapore's 200th anniversary after the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles.
As mentioned on their website, 2019 could be the time we explore how our past has formed us, discover what this means for our future and find our way for the future to come. Hmmm to deep for me to digest. Oh well!
With all this in mind, I began my first heritage trail of 'Geylang Serai'. Why is Geylang Serai so dear and close to my heart? Firstly my late father mentioned on a number of occasions that Geylang Serai used to be his childhood playground, a place where he lived sometime ago and had fond memories of. Secondly my son spent 10 of his formative years going to a religious school (primary and secondary) near the Wak Tanjong Mosque. As such it was apt enough for me to kick start my learning journey with Geylang Serai.
The surrounding buildings in the Geylang Serai area back then was a far cry from the ones that you see today. With so many modern shopping malls, condominiums and tall buildings popping up near the Geylang Serai market area, we tend to forget that this place is the cultural hub for everything and anything Malay.
The old Geylang Serai market was dark, dingy and smelly. But it brought about a lot of fond memories to those who have been there before. The Geylang Serai Market had a rich history dating back all the way to the pre-World War II days as written in the following article by National Heritage Board.
You may read the article here : https://roots.sg/learn/stories/Hawker-Centres/Geylang-Serai-Market-Food-Centre
To maintain the cultural identity and history of Geylang Serai Market, the old building which was torn down in 2006 and the new one rebuilt in 2009 was shaped like a Malay Kampong House. The original intent of rebuilding the Geylang Serai market was to make it more attractive and accessible to tourists.
Located next to the Geylang Serai Market is Wisma Geylang Serai which was officially launched in January 2019. It is built on the site of the former Malay Village that closed its doors in 2011. The Malay Village was first erected to preserve and raise awareness of Malay Heritage by showcasing the lifestyle of Malays before the 1960's. After its closure, the Wisma Geylang Serai was commisioned to replace it.
Wisma Geylang Serai is a multi development agency that celebrates the heritage of Geylang Serai communities while encouraging social interactions and community bonding among people of different ages and races. It is focused on promoting Malay Heritage and Culture in a modern context.
While visiting Wisma Geylang Serai, I dropped by 'Geylang Serai Heritage Gallery' to view the exhibits available there and learn a little bit about the rich culture and traditions of the Malay Community. The Gallery is opened to all daily from 9am to 10pm.
The Geylang Serai Heritage Gallery showcases the history of the area and traces its growth from an outlying settler community in the 19th century to the suburban residential and business precinct it is today.
So what did I learn there??
The term 'Geylang' is derived from Geylang River and some of the earliest spellings of 'Geylang' found in early 19th century Dutch and British Maps were 'Gellang' and 'Gelang'. These spellings indicate that Geylang River was likely named after a specific tribe of the orang laut who settled along the river banks and originally hailed from islands in the Riau archipelago. The current spelling of 'Geylang' was formalised only in the 1930's when the colonial government started using the spelling in survey maps.
'Serai' on the other hand refers to the lemongrass and citronella plants cultivated in late 19th century in a plantation called Perseverance estate. This plantation was located between Paya lebar Road and Jalan Eunos, and for a time, was only accessible by Geylang Road. As a result of the plantation's success between the 1860's and 1890's, the area became closely associated with lemongrass and citronella.
Between the 1920's and 1930's, rising rentals and cost of living in Singapore Town area led to people settling in other parts of the island, including Geylang Serai. The growing population resulted in the provision of public amenities to meet the needs of its residents. These public amenities included a new road parallel to Geylang Road called Sims Avenue. In 1929, a fire station was built at the junction of Paya lebar road and Sims Avenue. The Paya Lebar fire station ceased operations in 2002 and is now a conserved building and leased out as a commercial and industrial office complex. In 1934, Geylang Serai was described in a newspaper report as a 'very thickly populated village'.
(Source of info: National Heritage Board)
Some of the artefacts on display at Geylang Serai Heritage Gallery are as shown below:
1. Traditional Kampung games.
Back in those days, games were more creative and came about from pure imagination using items lying around the house.
Guli or Goli: is a game played with marbles. Made of either glass, clay, limestone, or plastic, the marbles are used to hit another players’ marbles in an attempt to claim them.
Batu Seremban or Serembat: is a game that is played with five stones. Seremban refers to the West coast of Malaysia where the game was brought to Singapore from, whereas on the East coast of Malaysia, the game is known as Batu Serembat. In the past, players used to substitute today’s pyramid-shaped cloth bags of sand or rice with actual stones or seeds.
The game of five stones is believed to have originated in Ancient Asia, during the Siege of Troy in 1184 BC. Played sitting down, the game that involves a complete set of eight steps, has been said to improve eye sight, memory, and concentration.
Kuti-Kuti: is a traditional children’s game in which two opposing players take turns to deftly flip colourful plastic tokens on top of those of their opponent. If a player’s token lands on top of an opponent’s token, the player then claims the opponent’s token as his own. Requiring skill and accuracy, the game was popular among children in Singapore in the mid-twentieth century, but has declined in popularity with the advent of electronic games in more recent decades.
Lastik: is normally a small hand-powered projectile toy. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame held in the non dominant hand, with two natural rubber band strips attached to the uprights. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket that holds the projectile. The dominant hand grasps the pocket and draws it back to the desired extent to provide power for the projectile—up to a full span of the arm with sufficiently long bands.
Gasing: spinning tops are toys that are designed to spin rapidly on the ground while precisely balanced on its tip. Traditional tops used to be made from wood or a hard fruit, iron and lead, and could be set in motion by winding a string around its axis and quickly pulling it. Today’s tops are made of plastic and don’t require a string to unwind it fast enough to send it spinning: a simple flick of your wrist and your gasing is off.
The type of games involving the top are usually ones that test the endurance of the top to keep on spinning – in a sort of ‘spinning contest’ or the ability of the top to strike another top in a ‘striking match’.
Congkak: The word ‘Congkak’ is synonymous with traditional Malay games: often times when Malay games are mentioned, this game is one of the first to be brought up. Congkak can be considered the chess equivalent of Malay games, in the way that it requires players to think moves ahead and strategize. Incidentally, the word ‘congkak’ is also believed to have originated from the old Malay language to mean ‘mental calculation’. The word also refers to the cowrie shells used in the game.
Congkak boards are boat-shaped blocks, generally made of mahogany or teak and they sometimes sport majestic carvings of snakes or birds at either ends. Other than cowrie shells, marbles, saga seeds, or tamarind seeds are used to plug the 7 circular holes.
(Source of info: National Heritage Board)
2. Traditional cooking utensils used to prepare Malay dishes and cookies.
As a food and nutrition teacher, I was keen to learn about the different traditional cookware used in those days. Lo and behold, I found some quirky kitchen utensils used to prepare some common kuih-kuih.
As shown from the photo above, the steamer back then looked like a rocket. With time, it slowly evolved to the three tiered steamer (that we came to know of) before finally it evolved into a steamer that now comes attached with an electric plug designed with convenience in mind. Such an evolution for the humble steamer a common household item which is often taken for granted.
As you can see from the various photos above, some of the kuih-kuih that we see today had a humble beginning and was prepared using simple kitchen cookware as well as utensils.
In keeping up with the trend of fusion food, some of these traditional kuih-kuih was given a breath of fresh air with the addition of modern ingredients such as love letters filled with chocolate/peanut butter filling, chocolate rice kuih bahulu or chendol incorporated into cakes or sweet desserts such as ice cream.
These kuih-kuih continued to evolve in order to keep up with the changing taste of the modern society. In doing so, they will not be forgotten or end up as a dying trade (sadly some traditional kuihs are no longer available today as not many people know how to prepare it anymore). Thus they remain a favourable treat amongst youngsters today.
3. Traditional Serving ware.
In addition to the cooking utensils, I got a glimpse of the different ceramic plates or serving ware used by Malay families back in those days. The designs on the plates or serving ware were intricate and beautifully crafted. Each individual ceramic pieces were hand painted and imported from overseas. This goes to show how the Malay families valued their guests and ensured that food was served appropriately on beautifully designed crockery.
All in all, I was pretty impressed with the array of information available at the Geylang Serai Heritage Gallery. I did accumulate a number of new knowledge during the time spent there. There are of course other exhibits over at the gallery. However I only captured those that I find relevant to my subject in question which is 'Food and Culture'.
Most importantly, I learnt that the kampung spirit was very strong in those days where people come together to celebrate and bond over community activities. Ahh those were the days where everyone knows each other by name as well as their family members.
I end of my post with the following quote: "A people without knowledge of their past, origin and culture is like a tree with no roots." It is good to have a little knowledge of our past as it forms our identity in the present as well as in the future.
Till my next post then. Hope you had a good read!
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