One of my favourite pastimes as a child was watching Cantonese opera. I am a great fan of Yam Kim Fai, Fung Bo Bo

I worked in C.K. Tang from 1956 till my retirement in 2008. It was the only job I had.

I have quite a lot of things I’ve kept over the years. Some were passed down by my mother. One of my favourite pastimes as a child was watching Cantonese opera. I am a great fan of Yam Kim Fai, Fung Bo Bo- here are the flyers for their performances. I kept all of them in the box. These are the Chinese opera newspapers. I spent my pocket money, and later when I was working, my salary on the newspapers and movie magazines. Every year, I would eagerly wait for the opera troupes from Hong Kong to come to Singapore. I watched many of them and collected the photos of the opera stars too. It’s kept in a few envelopes. I have a photo of Queen Elizabeth’s II coronation celebration in Singapore. There was a procession and the buildings and streets were lit up. They also built these arches over the street. It was very beautiful at night. I think this was in 1953. Yes, I even wrote it down behind [Jessie turned the photo over].

Here is a box containing folded paper cups I made during my spare time. I used old magazines to make them and used them during meal times or to keep small items. You know how to make? Let me show you how to fold them. [starts to demonstrate with a piece of paper]. I also make paper cranes and kept them in a container. [brings out the container and pours the paper cranes onto the coffee-table].