When my mother took my brother and me back to Labis in late 1952 or early 1953 from Singapore, that formally ended our family ties.
These pictures were taken in Singapore before coming back to Labis. I used the birth-certificate names (now we use different names, explained in later 'My Life in Singapore (Round two)') for my brother and me. The corresponding Chinese names with ages were also written on 2nd picture and the back of it.
The next time I saw her was in 1956 when we lived in Singapore with our step-mother. Somehow my brother received a message that she wanted to see us without the knowledge of our step-mother who would definitely be against it. After school, we walked to the New World Amusement Park (long gone now) to meet her traveling from the very southern end of Singapore.
Upon arrival, I refused to go in to see her. My brother cried (he didn’t remember) that we would have missed the chance to see her after so many years. Maybe I felt like she was a stranger to me and blamed her for leaving us. Eventually I was convinced to meet her and felt very good after that. She even prepared some gifts for us.
When I was about to wrap up this story writing, I just realized that I missed writing about my living with my Mom during the period of 1950-53 in Singapore. However, I barely remembered it. It took me quite sometime talking to my brother and researching online. I found an article written in 2022 by an author who grew up at the same place where we lived. It was an early village called Kampong Silat located in the north of Keppel Harbor (formerly New Harbor, named after Admiral Keppel who cleared the straits of pirates). See maps below.
We found the place where we lived by locating the school called Chiang Teck School and we lived next to it. Also I located “Ho Swee Hill” where biggest outbreak of fire in Singapore’s history occurred. I also found Singapore Chinatown (now a tourist destination) not too far from our home. I have fun memory on shopping with my Mom in the Pearl Market (below street scene) in night times and now I know it is called People’s Park.
Our home was considered part of Ho Swee Hill (will write more later) which was seen by the officials as “an unsanitary, congested and dangerous squatter area”, when the biggest outbreak of fire in Singapore’s history in 1961 destroyed more than 2,800 houses, leaving 16,000 people homeless. Rumors about the cause of the fire remain a sensitive topic and was never established.
In the aftermath, the government relocated victims to newly constructed flats and is considered a pivotal point in the development of public housing in Singapore’s history. It formed a backdrop of a 2002 television series Ho Swee Shan (Ho Swee Hill, Bukit Ho Swee in Malay). Here Ho means river, Swee means water and Shan means hill, but there is no river and tall hill there. In fact in Chinese, Shan can be interpreted as cemetery and there were plenty of graves around.
Recently I discovered a Singapore map (left) based on modern surveys in 1840s and it shows the development of the town and the land use in exceptional details.
Interesting is a remark on the map about Singapore at that time: “Singapore Island on which this Town is situated was taken possession by the British on the 8th of February 1819, and it then contained 100 to 200 Inhabitants who subsisted by fishing and piracy. Under British rule the Settlement rapidly rose in importance and has now become the great Emporium for European trade in the East India Archipelago.” The correct date is 6th of February.
On the map, it shows a road named Salat Road starting in downtown and running all the way to Keppel harbor (about 2 miles). In Malay, Salat, Selat or Silat means Straits and the road was so named as it led to Keppel Harbor, which was known as Silat until 1819. Even The Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan formulated in 1822 for the town of Singapore has Salat Road. The Silat village was located along the road and among cemeteries. A Chinese temple (Joss House on map) was built next to it.
From the shore of the harbor, one can see the 2 islands (shot in 1900s). The bigger one is now renamed Sentosa, a famous vacation place on which the Universal Studios is located. One can reach it via a gateway or cable car. A travelodge (I stayed there in 2023) is located next to the Mausoleum of Johor Sultan and across the biggest shopping mall in Singapore, VivoCity.
The smaller island is Brani Island and the smoke stalks show it quite industrialized in 1900s. A village with stilt houses were occupied by Orang Laut (Sea People) whom the Europeans called Celastes (Straites) which might imply Pirates.
In old time, Singapore was also called Silat-pore by Chinese and Keppel Port was called Silat Gate (Singapore gate). Telok Blangah is on the shore and was the area assigned by the British in 1823 to Temenggong Abdul Rahman who basically ceded Singapore to British. He is the grandfather of the 1st sultan of Johor, who moved his Istana to Tyersall Park (modeled in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ movie) in Singapore and later to Johor Bahru. A village is labeled on Brani island which was occupied by Orang Laut (Sea People) and the Europeans called them Celastes (Straites) which might imply Pirates.
In modern times, major parts of Salat road was renamed to become Neil, Bukit Merah and Kampong Bahru roads (see maps). What remained is Silat road and is very short. Jalan Bukit Merah is now a major road.
I used some old and Google maps to locate my Mom’s old home which was at the right side of Chiang Teck School (left picture). I found its original location and labeled the original landmarks (various temples) on a Google picture with an old school image inserted.
I also found the rail corridor (left picture & above 1846 map) which runs from the south to the north into Johor. It was owned by Malaysian government but reverted back to Singapore in 2011. A royal mosque and mausoleum are owned by the State of Johor for the Sultan of Johor is about 1 1/2 mile in the southwest (on map).
Many years later, my mother had moved out of Silat village and we went to visit her living on the 3rd floor of a government flat (left 1st picture) during our vacation trip. This time she prepared some durians which were not quite our kids’ taste. It had a big storm on that day and the whole sky went dark.
In my memory, she was a very nice person who talked softly whereas some other mothers liked to yell at kids. She could read and write Chinese, and my father only knew how to write his Chinese name. I just wondered where she went to school if she grew up at 5 miles out of town.
She took some very early age studio pictures for herself (with some friends, left 2nd pictures). Some pictures were marked “13 or 15 year old”. It seems like that she was brought up in a quite well-to-do family. When I visited from US, she passed some old pictures to me in Singapore and also gave me some information about her birth parents. I had requested a local professor in Johor specialized in local history to help finding her birth parents.
My brother remembers how our Mom left us at Labis in late 1952 or early 1953 and I don’t remember. We went to the railway station to send her off. I only have a very vague memory of her during my childhood in Labis before leaving for Singapore and it includes the time when I was hospitalized in Segamat for some kind of kidney illness.
I remember it well because a nurse yelled at me when I wandered away from my bed. Same illness appeared when I was with my step-Mom in Singapore. The doctor’s advice was not to exercise too much. Now I am totally well.
In 2010, a person living in Singapore communicated to me when I talked about my father on our hometown website in Xinyi, China. Internet friends there had helped me to find my relatives in China and later I found out whereabouts of my grandmother who went back to China. That person told me that his mother knew about my early family life at Labis.
He wrote, “…your uncle has contributed to it as he was the one who told your mom to leave Labis and go Singapore, telling her that your dad is unlikely to be released and the British government may even arrest her. Fearing for her and children safety, she left for Singapore…. your mom was a real beauty, gentle and nice lady…”. My uncle was probably my grandfather’s nephew from China and grew up with my Mom as siblings in Labis.
In 2011, my internet friend and his Mom took us to visit Labis and identified a shophouse on Jalan Pasar as my childhood house (left 1st picture). I don’t believe I ever lived there but at the 5-mile house with my Grandma. Maybe that is the reason I did not leave for Singapore with my Mon at the beginning.
Recently (Dec.2023), I obtained a 1969 old picture (left 2nd picture), which was provided by a local resident of Labis, showing the flooding of Jalan Pasar. Surprisingly, the open walled market was still there and now it was torn down. My brother identified the 2nd floor on the last shophouse next to the market was the place where he and my mother and younger brother lived before they ran away to Singapore.
In 2011, when my internet friend and his Mom took us to visit Labis (described in previous chapters), I saw Jalan Pasar, Labis River and the Chinese school again. Something special is what they took us to go to Labis village to visit my uncle’s old home and his surviving second wife who was already very old (left pictures). She was very poor and passed away now. My brother said that he had lived in our uncle’s old house before moving to downtown Labis and he is not sure this is the one. In 2007 and 2010, her home was severely flooded (reported on newspapers) since her house is at the lowest location in the city.
I don’t know how long my uncle’s family have lived and my mother had ever visited here. My uncle’s first wife (picture on wall) and some cousins had moved to Singapore and got together with my Mom sometimes. Also his second wife’s daughter (in picture) was living here. My internet friend’s Mom (in picture) seemed knowing them very well.
Since my uncle (picture on wall) was more like my Grandma’s adopted son, I just wonder why she didn’t go to join him after she was forced out from the 5-mile house. During my 2010 trip to my father’s hometown in China, my newly acquainted cousin told me that she was taken care by a member of my uncle’s original family living in China (see later writeup).
Ironically, 2 weeks before our visit, this area had the worst flood in years. When we arrived, I did not feel any trace of flood except my aunt had said that the recent flood had wiped out most family documents. I found pictures online showing the flood was very severe in downtown area which is formed by the L-shaped streets, namely Jalan Tennang and Jalan Pasar (below pictures).
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