'Di Tanjong Katong'
Clarification: While we have included both versions of the song by Composer Osman Ahmad and Singaporean Malay Singer Kartina Dahari, the version below only references the song by Kartina Dahari due to the easier accessibility of romantic yearning expressed, compared to the more complex mythological and literary references in the version by Osman Ahmad.
Di Tanjong Katong, airnya biru,
Di situ tempatnya dara jelita;
Duduk sekampung, lagikan rindu,
Kononlah pula nun jauh di mata.
At Tanjong Katong, the waters are blue,
That is the place to find pretty maidens;
We live in the same village, yet I pine for you,
What more if you’re beyond my eyes’ reach.
Tanjong means cape in Malay. Katong, means tortoise, or a tree. Together Tanjong Katong is the Malay name for turtle point, the former area of Roland Braddell's house.
Tanjong Katong marked the eastern boundary of the British settlement that Raffles leased in 1819. Up to the early twentieth century, Tanjong Katong was a holiday resort area for the town's dwellers. Tanjong Katong Road was approved for construction in 1905.
Source: STOJ, 1881.5. 12:2; MC, 1905.4.7, Singapore Street names by Victor R Savage and Brenda S A Yeoh (retrieved from National Archives)
Geylang Serai was once an agricultural area known its fragrant lemon grass or Serai in Malay - grown as a cash crop by Mays who resettled from the Singapore River mouth in the 1840s.
The word 'Geylang' is from the word killing which means factory. The distortion of 'k' to 'g' gave Geylang its name.
Kalau tidak kelapa puan,
Tidak puan kelapa bali;
Harap hanya pada tuan,
Kalau tak tuan siapa lagi?
If I can’t have the young coconut,
Then give me the oil palm fruit;
I can only put my hopes in you,
If not you then who else can it be?
Interestingly, Tanjong Katong Complex is located outside the Tanjong Katong area which houses Katong Shopping Centre, Tanjong Katong Girls' School and Red House Bakery.
Katong as a cultural area was defined in terms of its association with the Peranakans and Eurasians, while Tanjong Katong Complex was absorbed by Geylang Serai— an area associated with the Malays due to its high proportion of Malay residents in the 1970s ie. 50,000 people on 640 acres of urban land.
Sources: Portraits of Places, Edited by Brenda S.A. Yeoh and Lily Kong
The heart of Geylang Serai, A Commemorative Book by Kampong Ubi Citizens' Consultative Committee (both retrieved from National Archives)
In the 1960s, the Government embarked on a nation-wide policy to provide public housing. This included developing and reassigning HDB flats in Geylang Serai, to give the previously lower-income area a better mix of residents.
Key in the Geylang Serai project was the "Kampung Showpiece". Here, Tanjong Katong Complex was outlined along with Sims Avenue, which was to be the new site of a 'kampung' showcasing Malay culture— the presently demolished Malay Village.
Source: National Archives, Singapore. (1996). Geylang Serai: Down memory lane: Kenangan abadi. Singapore: Heinemann Asia
Kiri jalan kanan pun jalan,
Di tengah pohon melati;
Kirim jangan pesan pun jangan,
Kalaulah rindu datang sendiri.
Walk on the left and the right as well,
In the middle, a jasmine shrub;
Don’t send me letters or messages,
If you miss me then send your self to me.
The construction of Tanjong Katong Complex began around the 1980s, as part of the $10m 'kampung' project to revamp Geylang Serai. It was the brainchild of Malay-Muslim ministers such as former minister Mr Othman Wok and former MP Mr Zulkifii Mohammed.
However, the $10m 'kampung' project was not without its controversy. The new look Geylang Serai involved demolishing several blocks of Geylang Serai flats, which created a deep sense of impending loss given how Hari Raya activities were concentrated at the foot of these flats and their carparks, as well as the area bound by Tanjong Katong Complex.
Source: National Archives, Singapore. (1996). Geylang Serai: Down memory lane: Kenangan abadi. Singapore: Heinemann Asia, Rahil Ismail. Southeast Asian Culture and Heritage in a Globalising World: Diverging Identities in a Dynamic Region, 2016.
According to oral interviews, long-term shopowners (over 30 years) mentioned that the first shops at Tanjong Katong Complex were owned by the Chinese. The incorporation of newer Malay boutiques in the last 10-20 years can be attributed to the government's uplift scheme which gave job priority to Malay families who made way for redevelopment.
Putik pauh delima batu,
Genggam di dalam tangan;
Tuan jauh berbatu-batu,
Hilang dipandang di hati jangan.
The Malaysian mango bud, the pomegranate,
Grasp them tightly in your hand;
You are miles and miles away,
Your eyes may lose me but not your heart.
In 2011, The Geylang Serai Malay Village was demolished to make way for a new building with communal functions such as elder-care facilities and multi-purpose halls.
The Malay Village was originally built by the Singapore government to preserve Malay cultural heritage. The one-hectare site was originally set aside to showcase a replica of a Malay kampong (village) and to promote traditional Malay handicraft and cultural activities.
Source:
https://stateofbuildings.sg/places/geylang-serai-malay-village
National Archives, Singapore, Geylang Serai : down memory lane : kenangan abadi, Singapore : Heinemann Asia, 1986
In 2008, the government announced that Tanjong Katong Complex will be demolished to give way to a new development. However, when its lease expired in 2011, the Singapore Land Authority granted the complex another lease extension of 10 years, allowing Malay trades to remain in this culturally rich area.
Many older generation shop-owners expressed a deep attachment to the mall, where it reified the Malay community and Kampung life.
Source: Berita Harian, May 22, 2013, http://news.asiaone.com/print/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20130522-424528.html
"Although it will doubtless scandalise Malay cultural purists to suggest it, surely Malay culture, at least as it has evolved over the last century, is the ultimate peranakan culture."
Source: Kahn Joel S. Other Malays, Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Malay World. ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series pp. 170 (Retrieved from the National Archives)
In our interviews conducted with Shop Owners, we set out to prove this hypothesis— to find out how many of the shop keepers/shop owners were Peranakan or at least had strong instances of hybrid heritage. From interviews with over 50 shops, we managed to establish strong ties to Malay or Chinese heritage, albeit strictly divided along racial lines.
While Kahn argues that most Malays would bear markers of peranakan culture as there is no guarantee of cultural purity, most shopkeepers and shopowners identified themselves along the racial binaries of Chinese or Malay, pointing to a hardened racial divide even as the mall caters to a markedly Malay community.
In connoting hybridity and cultural flux, Tanjong Katong Complex can be read as a peranakan space, as Kahn suggests.
Yet, shop keepers and shop owners tend to stick to the idea of Malay-ness as a permanent, fixed identity, with many stressing the need to continue Malay heritage through their trades.
Malay shopkeepers were often relatives, if not of same race as shop owners. Chinese shop keepers/owners displayed an equal exclusiveness, in stressing the "them" vs "us" dichotomy when referring to the largely Malay clientele.
While there was wide interaction across races in terms of shops and customers, exclusionary sensibilities was common among the older generation Chinese shop owners and the younger Malay female shop keepers; where interaction occurred, it was largely for economic purposes rather than cultural significance.
