book also examines other groups of people who resided in the area, such as the other Chinese dialect groups, Malays, Indians, Eurasians, and Catholic missionaries like the Gabrielite Brothers. The stories of prominent non-Teochew personalities who lived in Aukang, like Robert Yeo, EW Barker, and Percival Aroozoo, are also covered in this book. And the book even covers Japanese sex workers, spies, and soldiers… well, at least, their remains in Aukang.
While it is as comprehensive as I can make it, the book will not cover everything and does not aim to do so, because north-east Singapore has such a long, complex, and rich history.
Moreover, the history of any place or community in Singapore is not a complete canvas hiding in the dark waiting for light to be shone upon it, but in a constant process of being uncovered, discovered, and rediscovered.
I hope that the history and stories which I have uncovered, discovered, and rediscovered can help to give a sketch of what my father’s kampung was like before, and after, he was born.
If this book inspires more people to find out about the history of places and spaces in Singapore, and the stories of those who have come before us, all the better. And if it can provoke broader reflection, dialogue, or discussion, I would be delighted.
Endnotes
1 Augustine Low, “Kangkar, once noted for fresh fish and Teochews”, in The Straits Times, 30 September 1986, p. 16.
2 Chua Seng Chew, Report on the Census of Population 1957, (Singapore: Lim Bian Han, Government Printer, Singapore, 1964), p. 146.
3 Proportions paint a more accurate picture than absolute sizes. This is because while there were more than 140,000 Teochews in the City of Singapore, there were more than 700,000 Chinese of many dialect groups residing in the area. In contrast, only about 165,000 Chinese resided in Serangoon.
4 Report on the Census of the Straits Settlements, cited in Tan Gia Lim, An Introduction to the Culture and History of the Teochews in Singapore, (Singapore: World Scientific, 2018), p. 50.
5 Bryan Goh, “The Catholic-Teochew Rhythm: Communal Identity in Hougang, 1945–1981”, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Vol. 33, No. 1, March 2018, p. 228.
6 Robert Yeo, Routes: A Singaporean Memoir 1940–75 (Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014), p. 40.
7 Ibid., pp. 39–40.
8 Leong Ching, “Chua Kee Teang: Possibilities in Thorny Problems”, in The Story of Singapore Teochews (Singapore: Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan, 2018), pp. 28–30.
9 Tan Kog Enn, “Ng Hoy Keng: Driving Ambition”, in The Story of Singapore Teochews (Singapore: Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan, 2018), pp. 80–83.
10 Choo Woon Hock, “Koh Yang Kee: From Truck Driver to Logistics Leader”, ibid., pp. 122–123.
Chapter 2
Where was Aukang?
Hougang, as we know it today, is huge. In 2018, it was Singapore’s largest public housing estate based on land area, with an estimated 179,500 Housing & Development Board (HDB) residents and with HDB managing more than 54,000 flats.1 Based on 2017 data, Hougang was more than 1,300 hectares (roughly over 1,300 football fields in size), while Woodlands was the second largest at 1,260 hectares and Tampines was the third largest at 1,200 hectares.
Some readers may think that Hougang and Aukang are the same place. When I first started on this project, I thought that way too. And in a sense the term “Aukang” is the Teochew version of “Hougang”, the Romanised version of the same name in Mandarin. Aukang in Teochew means “back harbour”. The opposite harbour—the one at the front—referred to Keppel Harbour in Singapore’s south.2
So surely, my father’s kampung of Aukang was just Hougang—back then. All that was needed was to trace Hougang’s history.
However, my father corrected my initial view.
He said, “Geographically, these two may not be exactly the same area, since parts of Aukang then are not considered parts of Hougang now.”
“Huh?” I said, confused.
“For example, Kangkar—a fishing village—was part of Aukang, but is not part of Hougang today. Parts of Kangkar are now Sengkang.
“Basically, what constitutes the actual location or area of Aukang itself can be quite controversial. It can vary according to the person you ask.”
According to my father: “Aukang refers to the stretch of Upper Serangoon, from the fifth milestone intersection of Upper Paya Lebar and Upper Serangoon Road up to the seventh milestone, called Kangkar. It also includes Punggol, the whole of Punggol.
“There are also some people, like your mother, who believe that Aukang was even bigger, beginning from the third milestone, Wan Tho Avenue. But I don’t necessarily hold that view. So, some think the place is bigger, while others think the place is smaller.”
An artist’s impression of historical Aukang circa 1950s.
Incidentally, milestones during my father’s time—literally large stones placed at intervals from each other—were used to mark or indicate important places by how far they were relative to the General Post Office (GPO) at Fullerton Building. This is where Fullerton Hotel is located today.3 For example, the fifth milestone was nearer to the GPO compared to the sixth milestone. Eventually, as rural villages disappeared and Singapore developed a more comprehensive address system, milestones gradually disappeared from everyday use.
My father continued, “However, things get more complicated. In the 1950s and 1960s, the political constituency was even called Punggol, instead of Hougang. In the 1955 State Assembly elections, the electoral division called Punggol-Tampines also covered Aukang, then part of Punggol.”
Incidentally, Teochew Goh Chew Chua, one of the three successful PAP candidates in the 1955 State Assembly elections—the other two being Lee Kuan Yew and Lim Chin Siong—lived in Aukang.4 In 1955, Goh contested in the Punggol-Tampines division, which included Aukang. While more than 29,000 lived in Punggol-Tampines, only about 6,600 were electors, of which 4,500 were Chinese. Goh was later re-elected in Tampines constituency in 1959 and appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister. He passed away in 1971.
My father continued, “In other words, what was named Punggol constituency really referred to what are Hougang and Punggol today, so in the same speech, in one moment, the Member of Parliament could be referring to one part of Punggol—that is to say, the Hougang part—and in the very next moment, referring to Punggol proper. So, in a certain peculiar sense, even ‘Punggol’ sometimes really means ‘Aukang’.
“In fact, in the Legislative Assembly General Election of 1959, a distant relative of ours, Tay Keng Hock, or Hock Ku (Uncle Hock in Teochew),
