I watched a play by TeaterEkamatra yesterday titled ‘National Memory Project’. The story centers around a civil servant tasked with extracting memories from a man awaiting execution. As the country is slowly flattened to make way for a perfect future, the government crafts an AI programme to learn from its past. 

One of the most poignant dialogues in the play: “Because everything’s disappearing, Ma. The farms, the kampongs, the old neighbourhoods. Even the languages are going. Every time someone dies, we lose another dialect. Every time a building falls, we lose another story.” – TeaterEkamatra

In a bid to preserve these homegrown spaces we’ve learnt to love, here are some memories of my time as a millennial living in Teck Whye. 

“Lane ah Lane”

The first instance of the negative association to Teck Whye was when I was in secondary school. I remember telling my classmate that I’ve lived in the neighbourhood for close to 10 years at that point, only to be met with, “Wah, gangster ah. Lane ah lane!” In fact, up to this day, that’s still the go-to reply for most. 

Playground Time

Growing up, I never understood why my parents decided to move from Yew Tee to Teck Whye. It wasn’t exactly a cool neighbourhood like Tiong Bahru, it didn’t have the amenities like Jurong East, and there wasn’t even a swing at the playground.

My scheduled playground time was always at 5pm. The sessions of colour catching, ice catching, hopscotch and just running around the playground with my neighbours made me forget that I was sooo far away (only 2-3km) from my school mates. There was just some magical thing about being at the playground at that age – the feeling of freedom, the innocent friendships and connections made through a simple game.

A Community Performance 

I recall being obsessed with ‘The Pearl Princess’ or 還珠格格 on Ch8 when I was in primary school. My neighbour and I would put up dance performances and skits at the lift landing, forcing our family members to sit through 10-minutes of pure torture just for a round of applause at the end. I wish we filmed it. 

Straight Connection into Town

SMRT’s 190 has connected me to the rest of Singapore for years. My first job, my favourite job, and the last job that I had were all along the 190’s route into Kampong Bahru. A daily routine – seeing sleepy faces on the bus as we passed under the eco-link@BKE. 

… 

Sure, we might not be the most exciting neighbourhood in Singapore. But we sure as hell have some magic in us. 

#neighbourssayhello