Chinatown
Polished and primed for visitors and lined
with stores selling same-same souvenirs,
at irst glance Singapore’s Chinatown is a
meticulously restored part of town, if lacking
a little character. However, it deserves a closer
look. While the tourist district around Kreta
Ayer Road is Chinatown’s most popular spot,
Telok Ayer Street, across South Bridge Road,
is one of the city’s best dining and nightlife
areas for locals and visitors alike. Home
to a string of fashionable rootop bars and
Michelin-starred restaurants, a worthwhile
stop-of here is My Awesome Cafe, for its
health-conscious tonics and meals.
Where Kreta Ayer is home to a landmark
mosque and Hindu temple, Telok Ayer hosts
Thian Hock Keng Temple, Singapore’s oldest
Chinese place of worship where those who
survived the journey from China would give
thanks. Originally located on the shore, the
waterline is now obscured by two dozen
skyscrapers on reclaimed land. Located
on the temple’s back wall is a 144t mural,
commissioned by the Hokkien society that
depicts the shoreline as it was when Han
Chinese migrants irst made the journey
here. It was created by Yip Yew Chong,
whose proliic street art provides a nostalgic
window to the local neighbourhood that
existed before vast swathes of shophouses
in Kreta Ayer were given a makeover in the
1980s. Despite only painting since 2015, his
work is so abundant that an entire wall is
dedicated to him in the highly recommended
Chinese Heritage Centre.
“Chinatown in the 1970s when I grew up
wasn’t like this at all.” says Chong. “It was
quite dilapidated, the houses were more
run-down, not so colourful, and they were all
occupied by local residents.”
As we move through the neighbourhood
(avoiding the path of Instagrammers, who
repeatedly shoo us out of shot), Chong
points out the people in his murals;
the neighbourhood sweet seller, his
grandmother sewing, the local letter writer.
Chong is keen to point out that
Chinatown, despite its reputation as tourist
centre, is worth visiting. He pauses to point
out a store selling paper eigies of clothes,
jewellery and even mobile phones that are
burned during the Taoist Buddhist Hungry
Ghost Festival, held on the seventh month
of the Chinese calendar. Further along,
we pass a traditional Chinese medicine
store where an assortment of ingredients
are stacked on the footpath, then a bakery
selling mooncakes made to the same recipe
for decades — albeit now from a shiny,
refurbished shopfront. “There are still
pockets of authenticity,” smiles Chong.FROM LEFT: The famous
green and yellow
facade of the People’s
Park Complex in
Chinatown dominates
the streetscape; interior
of My Awesome Café,
a former shophouse
in Chinatown; buying
garlands at a stall on
Buffalo Road in Little
India; Bukit Timah
Railway Bridge
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on Temple Street in
Chinatown take in a
mural of a Chinese opera
by artist Yip Yew Chong62 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel
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