I have lived in Whampoa for around 38 years. I moved here in 1999. Before that, I was staying around Bukit MRT area with my father and mother. I lived there since I was 4 years old. I have 11 brothers and sisters. I had to help my mother take care of them, bathing…washing clothes…till my hands had blisters. So, I stopped studying after primary 4. There were some old houses there in the past. My father had a stall selling herbal soup. In the 80s, there was a TV series called Xiao Fei Yu (Small Flying Fish). They shot some scenes near my father’s stall. It’s hard work running the stall. There are many things to prepare in the morning even though the stall opened in the afternoon. We all helped out. He closed his stall in 1985 when the government moved everyone to the hawker centre. The stall was small over there and he was also getting old. After he retired, he travelled to China often. I also accompanied him to his hometown in Southern China.

My second daughter bought the wristwatch for me when she received her pay. My daughter studied computer science and she worked in the same industry after graduation. The watch is at least 23 years old. It is made in Japan and is still in very good working condition and looks new. I keep the watch in the box. It has another layer of protective sponge. I wear the watch during special occasions. My elder daughter would buy me clothes and the youngest daughter bought me an arm massager. They usually buy me something on their pay days.

After my husband passed away in 2007, I took in a mao mao (cat) from the ground floor. He is very smart. Look at the photos! (Showing the cat playing with the shoes). My daughter will comb his hair. One day, he refused to eat. We took him to the vet and he stayed there for a night. After visiting 3 vets, it was found that he had a cancerous tumor in one of his legs. He was later put to sleep by the vet. After his cremation, we spread his ashes in the sea.

I’m used to this place. If you asked me to live in Punggol, I will be lost. I will stay at home and slowly lose my mind. Here, I can go to Kwong Wai Sui to take part of the activities for seniors. I am a member there. Every year, I make a donation..$50, $100…There are exercises, and an elder care centre. It’s only a few steps from my home. You can stay there for the day, watch TV, play mahjong or chat with friends. I recall during one Mid-Autumn Festival, the MP (Member of Parliament) sang an old Cantonese song by 許冠傑 (Sam Hui Koon Kit) on stage.

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I’d like to share with you my collection of objects from my wedding dowry. They remind me of my marriage. Like this sewing machine. My mother told me she used my savings of $300 to buy the sewing machine for me. Wedding dowry was a must. My mother bought all these objects. I was only 17 years old at that time. I left school when I was 15 years old, learned how to sew at 16, and got married at 17. My mother told me not to study so much. She used the money instead for my younger brother’s education.

My mother found my future husband for me. He was born in Singapore but lost his parents when he was three years old. His uncle, who was a camera repairman, sent him to China and he grew up there. He came back to Singapore when he was around six and later learned to be a photographer. We met in the apartment that we rented from his uncle. He and his brother opened the Rainbow Studio. His work included studio shots, outdoor shootings, and for advertising. In the 80s, slides were popular. He took a lot of photos of us until his stroke in the 2000s. Nowadays you cannot see the actual photo. I don’t like that. The three rooms in my apartment are filled with photos.

I studied in a Chinese school and later transferred to an English school because we were told it was better. I used a little bit of English when I helped out in my husband’s studio. So this object [points to the ruler embedded in a pot filled with rice] was used the night before the wedding. The marriage dowry included a metal spittoon too but it became rusty after all these years. This basket was used to hold the pastries on the wedding day. There would be cakes and sweet biscuits. On the wedding day, I had to offer tea to my parents-in-law. This ritual took place in the mornings for over a month. This is the bed head lamp. It came as a pair but one was broken.

This is a dress that I wore on the shang tou [hair combing ritual] night, before my wedding day. I made it by myself. I made the dress I wore during the dinner at night too. Out of all these objects, my favorite is the wedding dress. I cannot wear this anymore. My body cannot fit into the dress now, but I could not bear to part with them. On the day of the wedding I had to wear the dress in the hot weather. It was so hectic, rushing from wedding registration to the studio. When we took the wedding photos, I could hardly smile. And I did not have money to buy a lipstick. I used a rouge paper and applied it on my lips. But for the evening dinner, my aunty helped me with my make-up.

Nowadays the younger generation will not cherish these objects. My daughter-in-law said I could donate to the government. I have already given some to my younger brother. One of my great grandsons loves to collect heritage objects. He wanted to start writing an ancestry book. He asked me about my past, my father and mother. He came every weekend to look through the old photos and took some home to keep.

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I started working in 1955. So that time we were very poor lah. I didn’t have a watch. So I saved some money…in a few months…after I have enough money to go and buy this watch.That time Rado was quite a popular brand. I think this cost about sixty dollars or what. That time sixty dollars was quite big. Because of my living environment that time, having a watch like that is a luxury. I kept it very nicely. Over the years I still keep the watch in good condition. I went to work, ah, the coffee cost ten cents. I took bus about twenty cents only. And I used the watch for maybe eight or nine years. Then I upgrade myself. Nowadays all digital. The watch is still working. It’s not the battery one. Just wind it. Not sure if I my children will want. They like those up to date kind.

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