“I’d like to share with you my collection of objects from my wedding dowry. They remind me of my marriage.”

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.