Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Jack Humphrey was an American geographer who conducted a study of Kampong Potong Pasir in the late 1970s with his Singaporean students. He talks about its layout, origins and multiracial population. He found that unlike what people had told him, Potong Pasir was not a bad slum, but a safe and friendly community. It was also being demolished but people were determined to stay.

00:00 Introduction

04:19 Coming to Malaya & Singapore

11:17 Fieldwork in Potong Pasir

20:10 Map of Potong Pasir

29:25 Misconceptions

37:27 Potong Pasir’s Origins

44:07 Ethnic Groups

51:36 Houses & Structures

In his research, Jack conducted a preliminary survey of Kampong Potong Pasir before it was demolished. The report has not been published though Jack hopes to do so. His students from the NUS Department of Geography conducted research on Potong Pasir for their Honours theses:

• Lee, Hoong Cheng. Kampong Potong Pasir: A Survey of its Existing Economic Activities 1979.

• Lee, Lye Hoon. Resettlement of the Potong Pasir Community: A Study of Attitudes and Destinations. 1979.

• Heng, San-san. Mental Mapping of Potong Pasir. 1977.

• Jebamoney, Ebenezer. The Use of Space in Potong Pasir: Two Micro-studies. 1976.

I am Dr Loh Kah Seng, the people’s historian. In Chronicles of Old Singapore, I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

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