What was it like when you were a child? What were your favourite games and food? Where were your favourite haunts? What do you remember most of your childhood?

The History Workroom is working on a book on the history of children and childhood in Singapore. If you like to share your stories with us, please contact us. We’d love to hear from you!

The Singapore Memory Project (SMP) is a whole-of-nation collaborative initiative facilitated by the National Library Board to build a national digital collection of knowledge assets about Singapore so as to ensure that the Singapore story is continuously discovered, collected, preserved & promoted.

NLB will be conducting repeat workshops will happen on 26 June & 3 July for those who have not joined.

Do you remember the games that you used to play during your childhood days? Did you grow up playing chapteh or five stones with your friends or did you belong to the generation that played portable electronic games like tetris/brick game? Are you starting to notice the sights that are beginning to disappear in Singapore and reminisce the days when your family used to enjoy a family outing at Elizabeth Walk to dine at the famous Satay Club? Does your granny often tell you stories of the adversities that they faced during the war time and the days when tapioca was a staple food?

Do you already know or have heard of such stories and would like to do your part in preserving such memories for our future generation? As part of the Singapore Memory Project, we invite you to join us as we nurture you as memory agents – story writers of history, based on real life stories and adventures! For a start, you don’t need to be a writer. You won’t be writing essay long stories. Let us teach you the proper writing techniques and ways to source for your own incredible stories. All you need is a genuine interest in people and Singapore’s future in the making!

Suitable for 16 years old and above.

Please email your interest to Nurulhuda_SUBAHAN@nlb.gov.sg with the subject header: “Memory Agents” before 23 June. Do include your personal details including:

• full name
• contact details (email address and mobile number)
• indicate if you’re a student or a working adult interested to contribute to the preservation of Singapore memories

Up to a few years ago, “memories” were considered a thing of the private realm. Even though there had been a popular history movement in the UK and US for about 20 years or more, it never really took off in Soutehast Asia. For much of this part of the world, history is one with a capital letter H.

How things have changed. Now, “memories” is all the rage. Stories now have a part to play in history. But if these “memories” or their narratives of it still follow the framework of “Great men’s history”, then it is merely adding spice to what is already known and repeated.

One can only hope that these stories told humanises the society, not reinforcing the convenient structures.

STRAITS TIMES
Apr 11, 2010

Wanted: Your memories of S’pore
National Library Board hopes to collect 5 million memories to mark the nation’s 50th birthday in 2015

By Huang Lijie

What do you give Singapore for its 50th birthday?

Singaporeans may want to consider offering their memories of life on the island.

The National Library Board aims to collect five million memories to commemorate the occasion in 2015.

The project, Singapore Memory, was announced in Parliament recently. Mr Gene Tan, the project’s programme director, said libraries, heritage agencies and research institutions will team up to ‘collect, preserve and provide access’ to these memories – which may be captured in print, audio and video. He said the project, to be launched later this year, aims to ’strengthen a shared sense of identity and heritage’.

The Oral History Centre, a department under the National Archives, has been documenting the past since it was established in 1979.

Its five full-time oral historians conduct interviews with people about their life experiences. They have logged almost 17,100 hours of interviews with 3,500 people in English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese dialects.

‘We want to trace not only the major political milestones but also the cultural and social aspects such as family history, traditions and values,’ said Ms Julia Chee, the centre’s deputy director.

Recent interviewees include Mr Samuel Lee, Singapore’s first test-tube baby, and Madam Goh Siew Geok, TAS Theatre Company’s founder, who shared her views on developments in the Chinese opera scene in Singapore.

Retiree Lai Thiam Hock, 78, contacted the centre recently after a friend encouraged him to record his World War II experiences. He recalled his family’s near escapes from death during the Japanese Occupation.

‘It was painful at times to relive those bitter memories, but I want to let the younger generation know what life was like then and how fortunate they are,’ he said.

The interviews, lasting about two hours each, may take place over one or more sessions, depending on the interviewee’s availability and the breadth to be covered. The recordings are done in digital format.

Interviewees may opt to release the recordings immediately or embargo them for a period. They are also given a copy of the recording.

The recordings are available for free at the National Archives or online at www.a2o.com.sg. In the last year, 16,901 oral history discs were consulted at the Archives while 474,480 discs were accessed online.

As for the authenticity of the accounts, Ms Chee said checks are done during the interviews. The accounts may also be cross-checked against other sources.

‘Oral history’s strength lies in its ability to cover a dimension that documents and facts and figures cannot capture – the feelings, emotions and reflections expressed via recounting,’ she said.

lijie@sph.com.sg

Those who wish to share their oral history may contact Ms Julia Chee of the Oral History Centre on 6332-7944, or e-mail julia_chee@nhb.gov.sg

Malaysia’s The Star reported that the country’s The Information Communication and Culture Ministry has proposed to designate a day as Tunku Abdul Rahman Day to commemorate the life and works of Malaysia’s first prime minister.

To remember and not forget is part and parcel of any community’s efforts in ensuring its continuity in times of change. Everyone wants to remember the good things, the good people – or to want to be remembered well. But to remember is also a double-edged sword – it does not merely bring the “good” memories to the fore. Take for instance, Racial Harmony Day (or any of its equivalent in the world). While it is a day to remember and celebrate harmonious living among different groups of people, it is also a stark reminder of the discords and hostility. To commemorate the life of a person is also to remember (from other points of view) his/her foes, enemies and perhaps the not-so-good things of the person.

Regardless of which, remember begets other remembering, which can only be for the better of the historians.